224.800 Repeater Issue & Temporary PL Out

Our SEMARA 224.800 repeater is desensing, meaning that the transmitter is getting back into the receiver.  This has been happening for a while now, but it appears to have gotten worse.  Jeff-N1ZZN will come down in the future with a spectrum analyzer and service monitor to verify what the issue is.  There is a known problem with the Hi Pro R1 repeater we have where the transmitter becomes unstable, drifts and transmits spurs, which might be at least part of the issue.  The problem is that Maggiore Electronic Lab who manufactured the repeater went out of business a few months ago.

In any case, to stop the repeater from causing a constant feedback loop, I temporarily changed the outgoing PL to 88.5 Hz.  To access the repeater, you will still continue to use 67.0 Hz.  The 88.5 Hz is only for the DECODE function on your radio or if you want to program it into your scanner for monitoring only.  Temporarily, it may be harder for weaker signals to hold the repeater due to the desensing.  More details will be provided in the future once we are able to check what the actual issue is.

Thanks,

Richard J. Cabral, W1RJC
SEMARA Repeater Committee