The Generac automatic backup generator system had failed at a client’s transmitter site. It would not fire up and transfer to backup power if the AC mains failed. I diagnosed it down to the 12 VDC transfer control relay, which I replaced. When I left the site, the system was back to operating exactly as […]
Much to the surprise of many, the paging industry is alive, well, and still quite popular. To wit, I finished building, wiring, and aligning this Quintron system over the course of the past few days, which will be installed in the place of an existing system. The existing system is working, but it has been […]
The Gold Hill, AL 442.175(+) KK4ICE DMR Repeater went back online a little around sunrise on Saturday, June 9th, 2018. Following replacement of the burned-out MOSFET power amplifier chip, the repeater was reinstalled with an external power amplifier connected in order to decrease the load on (and the heat inside) the DR-1X repeater’s transmitter radio. […]
A set of Motorola T-1504A duplexer cavities arrived yesterday for repairs, overhaul, tuning, and testing. I managed to get them turned around in less than 24 hours. They will be on their way back to California tomorrow. The owner of this set sent them to me because they would not tune. On opening and […]
The 444.100(+) WA4QHN Salem, AL repeater recently started developing serious sensitivity problems, so the owner and I pulled it out of service and brought it here to my QTH so that I could troubleshoot the repeater and duplexers and get it back in shape. As soon as I hooked the repeater up here in the […]
KE4COL’s 145.230 MHz Gold Hill, AL 2-Meter Mastr II repeater developed some issues a while back, and I finally got around to putting it in the rack and troubleshooting it today. He’s been running his Fusion repeater as a backup during that time, but we’ve all been looking forward to getting the Mastr II back […]
As part of an ongoing discussion with a fellow ham up in New York, I thought I’d share a little virtual tour of my soldering/desoldering and SMD rework center. This setup is the result of equipment put together over the course of 36 years. There are still two more pieces of equipment I wish to […]
I managed to finish the refurbishing of the last two cavities on that set of Motorola T-1504 UHF BP/BR duplexers yesterday. These are headed to a new home on a repeater down in Florida. They’re working great, doing just over 102 dB of isolation per branch, and only 1.1 dB of insertion loss per branch. […]
I finally got around to testing this Helper Instruments PS 250 Power Supply which was among some items given to me by a client. With the power supply set for 5 Volts DC output, the ripple was outrageous. Helper Instruments sold out to Zetron Corporation many moons ago, and this power supply hasn’t been in […]
A friend brought a Kenwood IF-232C Serial Port Interface to me a while back asking for a little assistance with repairing it. He had replaced multiple components in it but it still wasn’t working properly. When hooked up to a Kenwood TS-850 radio and a computer, the computer could not communicate with the radio or […]