Thank You, Kevin!

From “The Radio Amateur’s code,”  written by Paul Segal, W9EEA, in 1928…

 

The Radio Amateur is:

FRIENDLY...slow and patient operating when requested; friendly advice and counsel to the beginner; kindly assistance, cooperation and consideration for the interests of others. These are the hallmarks of the amateur spirit.

As many of you know, I did not take the 146.73 repeater to English Mountain a couple of weeks ago when I installed the antenna.  At the last minute, I discovered that the duplexer was not performing up to par.  Since I could take the repeater to the mountain a lot easier than I could take the antenna, I went ahead and installed the antenna and line so as to be ready for the repeater to return home.  My access to the repeater site is very limited, and I wanted to make sure everything was ready when I actually put the repeater on the air.

Meanwhile, I asked Kevin, W4KEV, if he would help me with the duplexer. I already knew that Kevin was very talented at tuning duplexers, as he re-tuned a duplexer that I bought for 146.625 that arrived out-of-tune.  Note to self:  beware of promises made on ebay! 

I called Kevin and asked him if he would be willing to help, and he readily agreed. I took the duplexer to his home.  Kevin researched the origin of the duplexer, which we both knew was home built but never knew by what guidelines it was built. We found it on the “repeater builders’ webpage, which is a great resource for repeater owners and trustees.  Kevin also ascertained that the inter-cavity cables were the wrong length, and the output harness was wrong as well. Thankfully, Kevin had more time than I did to test various cable lengths with his sweep generator. If you don’t know what a sweep generator is…well…lets say I was drooling when I saw his.  It generates a “sweep” of RF on a given range of frequencies at a given level.  This allows you to tune filter cavities, duplexers, and any other frequency-sensitive devices with ease and accuracy.  It is very difficult to tune a pass-reject device such as a duplexer without one of these pieces of test equipment.  

After several attempts to get back together with Kevin and test the cables that Josh (KI4WWY) and I had built, we finally met at his home again on Thursday.  Kevin had already connected the inter-cavity cables and was awaiting the output harness cables that I needed to cut to length to finish the tune-up. Kevin took several hours out of his evening time and tuned the duplexer and a filter cavity I am placing on the receive side to allow me to operate the repeater with a receive preamp.  While the duplexer is not perfect, it is a far cry better than it was before.  I left Kevin’s late that evening and took the duplexer back to my shop and restored 146.73 to its temporary service.  It is performing much better, and is ready for its English Mountain trip.  It’s on the air again at my shop if you want to try it out. 

Kevin owns the 145.23, 145.37, and 442.500 repeaters.  He willingly gave his time to help another Amateur repeater owner.  I am very grateful for his time and talents.  I have obviously dealt with duplexers since my repeaters went on the air, but I have never been able to tune them locally.  So, that’s the reason for the quote from the Radio Amateurs code listed above.  If you talk to him on the air, tell him “Thank You.”  This is what all ham radio operators should be willing to do.

 

I hope to make it to English Mountain this coming week.  Stay tuned!