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MTR2000's drop PL intermittently then lock to CSQ

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:36 am
by wb4wxd
We have two different public service agencies with hi-band MTR2000 repeaters. One has started to intermittently switch to csq, thus causing users to have problems with skip interference. The only way to restore pl is to cycle power on the unit and then it will work fine for several days that then fail again.
The other is having the opposite problem. It locks up and refuses to repeat after a few days. The only way to "unlock it" is to cycle power.
Has anyone else seen these problems? I am trying to recreate them on the bench and will let them cook for a few days.

Any comments and/or help gratefully accepted.

Jeff Montgomey

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:36 pm
by Dan562
To accelerate either intermittent failure use a Ungar or equivakent heat gun and aim the hot air flow towards the Station Control Module as it's the brains of the MTR2000.

An alternative idea would be to take your Service Monitor and inject 100uV RF Signal into the receiver and Function Tones like 2050 Hz which is normally "PL Disable" on the Wire Line and see if the station reverts to the Carrier Squelch mode.

I wonder if either or both MTR2000s have Wildcards in the upper most card cage slots?

I've also heard that the MTR2000s Power Supplies have a very high failure rate which could be pulling down one or more DC voltages within the stations.

Dan

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:23 pm
by kcbooboo
Wasn't there another long thread about a similar problem, maybe on a different platform, that ended up being related to tones coming in over the air or wireline that had to be disabled? I couldn't find it; probably used the wrong keywords.

Bob M.

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 5:20 pm
by fineshot1
Bob - I think that thread was for the SpectraTac receivers or something similar.

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:18 pm
by arlojanis
I had a MTR that voices would activate the repeater knock-down function and it would stop repeating. I deleted that function.

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:55 am
by Lake Effect
I had two Msf5000 repeaters with similar intermittent problem. The codeplug had Standby set in the control tones and about once a month the station would dummy up. The first couple trips to the site I did a reset & test with nothing found. Then I came upon the idea of voice falsing. Took the Standby function out and no problem in the last 5 years. I suppose the MTR could be having this happen with Knockdown and Monitor functions. Might be worth taking those functions out and see if problem continues.

L.E.

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:33 am
by xmo
This thread received some replies that drifted toward a new topic. I split that to a new thread so this topic doesn't get lost in the traffic.