On Jun 2, 8:23*am, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
wrote:
Sal M. Onella said the following on 6/1/2011 10:37 PM:

snip

How much power are you putting out?

How well do you hear the repeater; are there times when it fades below
squelch while you're listening to other people?



My TM-721A is putting out 35 watts. *At least that is the spec. *The
repeater is always scratchy and barely readable. *I've only had one time
when it even showed up on the S meter. *That was low clouds so I assume
it was cloud bounce.

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan


You indicated that you're working other repeaters with ease. Blaming
the trees sounds right.

I think a 2m beam is the way to go. I've used one at Field Day for
ten or so years from south of San Diego and easily worked 100 miles
into Los Angeles, simplex, obviously. The improvement in performance
is dramatic with 15 dBi gain, compared to approx 2 dBi gain of an end-
fed dipole, your j-pole. My two beams were less than 50 dollars
apiece at ham swap meets. Mount with elements vertical.

I just did an experiment and, as I expected, a 10 dB increase in
signal strength took me from unreadable to Q5 copy with tolerable
background hiss. (I used switchable attenuators to set up the signal
test conditions and a distant repeater as the test signal.)

If the repeater is no worse than "barely readable," 10 dB should fix
you up.

By the way, the gain effect is not so great that you'd lose the other
repeaters, unless one just happened to hit a deep null by bad luck.

"Sal"

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan said the following on 5/22/2011 11:04 AM:
I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

I purchased a 10 element 2m Yagi and installed it today. I can now hit
the repeater in question full quieting. The other benefit is I can hit
the one other repeater that I could not even hear before. I am quite
happy now. :-) Now I don't have to cut down any more trees, other than
those I am selling.

Thanks for all the input from everyone. Problem is solved!

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here"

On 6/17/2011 8:03 PM, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan wrote:
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan said the following on 5/22/2011 11:04 AM:
I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

I purchased a 10 element 2m Yagi and installed it today. I can now hit
the repeater in question full quieting. The other benefit is I can hit
the one other repeater that I could not even hear before. I am quite
happy now. :-) Now I don't have to cut down any more trees, other than
those I am selling.

Thanks for all the input from everyone. Problem is solved!


Glad to hear it, Kirk. Good work on your part.

73,
John - KD5YI

On 18 jun, 03:03, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
wrote:
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan said the following on 5/22/2011 11:04 AM:

I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

I purchased a 10 element 2m Yagi and installed it today. *I can now hit
the repeater in question full quieting. *The other benefit is I can hit
the one other repeater that I could not even hear before. *I am quite
happy now. *:-) *Now I don't have to cut down any more trees, other than
those I am selling.

Thanks for all the input from everyone. *Problem is solved!

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here"

Hello Kirk,

Thanks for the feedback on the outcome of your experiments, and to
hear that there is no problem anymore.

Wim
PA3DJS
www.tetech.nl