Hi, I have read the large majority of messages on here and the Repeater builders site, and I am still lost. This is the first time I have worked with a repeater in my 30 year ham career and am learning something new everyday..
We installed a GE Mastr II running into pre-amp, a BandPass and then a 6 can duplexer. The antenna is Hustler G7-144 and 1/2in hardline up 65 feet. The duplexer was set up with service monitor at the test site prior to installing it here. When I go above 10 watts out all we hear from the users is a lot noise and very little voice. As the power goes higher (when radio heats up) the noise gets so bad that we can not make out a thing the people are saying. The SWR between the radio and the duplexer is 1.1 at 5 w and 1.15 at 7.5 watts. Of course as we go up in power to 20 watts out we have 1.3 SWR. On the antenna side of the duplexer the SWR goes up to 1.4 at 20 watts and 1.2 at 7 watts and very little at 5watts (meter hardly moves). I am thinking it is either the hardline or connectors and/or antenna. The antenna and hardline are used. The connectors despite being new are very hard to put on. The guy that installed them even had to use pliers on the tower to attach the connector up there and I have to use pliers to get it tight on the duplexer. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Thanks and 73 John, W3ML
