WL7CVV
REPEATER
HOW
TO SET IT UP - THE HARD WAY
Frequency is 147.900 Rx, 147.300 Tx, standard +600 split. No tone access required.
The WL7CVV Repeater is a Yaesu VXR-7000 with a Zetron World Patch, which are both on a large battery backup. The duplexers are Telewave TPRD-1454, 4-cavity. It utilizes a dual antenna system to ensure that there is not even the slightest de-sense for maximum range performance.
PROGRAMMING THE VXR-7000
To program this radio, you need a Vertex VPL-1 programming cable set. It comes with the CE27 MS-DOS programming software. In case you don't know and are wondering (I did, at first); NO, it is not just a 'cable'... there is a little pc board inside the DB9 hood that adapts the RS-232 to the special signaling required by the radio. I won't be going into detail about that here.
We
had a comedy of errors with this aspect; starting with one of the
club members (who works on radios for a living), could not get
the CE27 software to work; then when he gave it all back, he
accidentally gave us an ICOM programming cable. Having never seen
the cable, and in that there were no labels of any kind, I was
none the wiser.
I had a great deal of difficulty with the CE27 software. It would not run in the slowest computer I had (a 600mhz Dell laptop) running under Windows 98. I even tried booting it into DOS mode, and that didn't work either. DOS mode with SLOWDOS didn't work either. However, a freind of mine was cleaning out his storage shed and found an old 386/25 laptop with a monochrome screen and was going to toss it into the trash... He gave it to me, and I loaded it up with the CE27 software, at which time it appeared that the software was working, but didn't like the cable.
After an exhausting search of the internet, I did find some pinouts of various cables, and made the discovery that I had the wrong cable.
OK,
finally got my hands on the right cable; plugged it into the old
386/25, and began the struggle with the software itself. Some
oddities of the software are that if you just run the program
without the 'dash options', you will not be able to modify some
of the options (like the callsign). Also, without the 'dash
options' the software will not allow programming a frequency
below 150mhz. The HELP (-h) for the run-time options is minimal
at best but mostly useless. The 'dash option' for this 'enable'
is -d. If you are running it in monochrome (like the little pc I
had), you have to change this to '-d -b', or the screen will be
very difficult to interpret.
Well, I got the radio programmed up, but that old 'beater' laptop bothered me for some time, and I was concerned that if it died, we would no longer be able to program the repeater. I did some tests with a breakout box comparing the rs-232 signals from the pc that worked to the the ones that did not. The big difference that I noticed was that if you plugged into a new operating system, the handshaking signals were way different than in the old beater pc.
Then I tested Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, running MS-DOS 5, on my 2.8ghz Dell pentium laptop, using a USB (IO GEAR) serial adapter; loaded up the CE27 software, and it worked.
So remember: the CE27 software will not run 'native' in a computer newer than DOS 5. Purchase Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, load it with MS-DOS 5, and run the CE27 software from a batch file with 'CE27B -d' as the only line in it. Connect up to the VXR-7000 with the VPL-1 cable, and you're in business. I also recommend that you put a cable label on the VPL-1 in case some fool runs across it and thinks it's something else.
Note: Virtual PC will only run in Win2k or XP. I was successful with XP home, even though the program gave me several pop-ups during installation that it wanted XP Pro or Win2k.
ZETRON WORLD PATCH CABLE AND SETUP
Next chore: hook up the Zetron World Patch and make it work. First problem was that the repeater manual says that pin 12 of the ACC connector (PTT) only works in BASE mode. Ok, well then I thought I would try the LINE JACK... well, dogoneit, the book says I can't use the LINE IN accept in BASE mode. Of course, what I want is REPEATER MODE.
Out came
the breakout box and test leads again... after some testing with
the breakout box, I found that the BOOK LIED about the ACC PTT.
It turns out that the PTT on the ACC jack works when the REMOTE
BUTTON on the front of the repeater is pushed in when you are in
REPEATER mode.
A nice feature of this setup is that we can power the patch right off the repeater ACC jack (no wall wart needed), and this means that it remains active when the repeater is on backup battery power.
Ok; it works. I was surprised that the patch came up and was almost perfect levels on both TX and RX right out of the box. Programming can be done from the DTMF pad on your radio (if you know the access code). You will have to set the patch to 'half-duplex', as it comes out of the box in 'simplex vox mode'. You might want to set up some other codes and options; but we didn't need the toll-restrict for the phone line since it is a toll-restricted line anyway; and for now we sorta want it to be available to all Amateurs (due to the restricted range of our local cell phone network).
My only gripe with the Zetron patch is the use of Molex pin connectors. Some of the cabling from the repeater to the patch has to be shielded, and it's a challenge to connect shielded audio cables to a Molex connector. I would have prefered a DB-25; that way I could dress up the finished connectors with a nice hood and strain relief.
I later discovered that the patch was generating a good amount of VHF RFI that was causing some problems. To solve this, I installed some clip-on ferrite beads to the patch cable and the repeater power cables (I knew I was saving those for something!). The ferrite beads cut this down to almost nothing, and there has not been a problem with patch RFI since.
Next problem: The available phone line for it's primary hookup was in use for DSL and the modem was on the opposite side of the structure from the outside interface box. To get the patch hooked in requires a new run to the box from the other direction. There was no way to come from the filter at the back of the modem. I got my hands on another DSL filter and was going to put that in the outside box where the new line cuts out toward the patch. Darn filter with all the plugs and adapters needed won't fit in the box. The answer to this is to request a new NIB ('Network Interface Box' - don't you just love acronyms?) from the phone company. They apparently have versions of their NIB with built in DSL filters where the DSL modem hooks up in one spot, and regular phones hook up on others. It also turns out this is their equipment, and the change-out will be free. Hmmmm; right in our budget!
*** MORE TO COME - When I get it typed up ***
