Friday, April 3, 2015

147.39 Repeater update.......

Another Yaesu System Fusion update from Pat, WN8Z:

Late this morning I slipped the 147.39 DR-1X repeater back in the rack at the tower site near Fulton. I have decided to do all the "upgrades" in steps. Presently the repeater is in the auto mode. digital in = digital out & FM in = FM out and is in place without any external controllers. In the very near future I will, as time permits, connect the Arcom RC-210 external controller and echolink controller back into the system which can only be used in the FM analog mode. Digital transmissions are handled by the internal controller and all gps positioning and data services will remain available as they are now.
It is not possible to set a mixed mode (digital/fm in = fm out) once an external controller is added into the mix. Echolink has had a lot of usage on this repeater and I hope to continue offering the service. For this reason I decided to go ahead and bring it onboard in the Fusion repeater and operate in the current configuration. I also anticipate supporting APRS (all Fusion radios are APRS capable) sometime late spring by adding an APRS gate to extend this service to the northern area. An antenna upgrade is also planned in the near future.

Analog users should enable full ctcss on their radios if you do not want to hear the digital madness - if your radio allows BCLO ( busy channel lock out) you might want to enable it on your memory channel. If a digital conversation is in use and you desire to see who or what is going on, wait for the digital signal to quit (there is no hang time in digital mode) and transmit your callsign. If the digital users have configured their radio properly (AMS - automatic mode selection) their radio will immediately switch to analog FM and the conversation can continue.

Digital is new to our part of the state and we all have a learning curve to deal with. I ask that all users be courteous and patient with each other. Feel free to experiment and use the system.
Digital users: Set you radios in AMS - Group mode is not allowed at this time without prior approval
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Feel free to leave a comment, suggestion, or question here or I can be contacted on email at wn8z at arrl dot net.

de Wn8z

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