Flex 6400 10 meter FM repeater operation ...

Gary L. Robinson

I received a call from a friend tonight saying he was having problems with setting up his 6400 to work on 10 meters FM mode for repeater operation. 

I can NOT hear or hit any 10 meter repeaters from this location with my current antennas.  But, I started setting my 6400 up to transmit on a standard 10 meter repeater frequency.  I was transmitting into a dummy load just to ascertain that it would work as far as getting output.

It did get output on transmit - though I did not have a second rig to listen to myself and see if it was modulated properly.  The Monitor button did not seem to work for FM.  I believe that my previous 6300 was also not able to utilize the Monitor button functionality.

Also ... My transmitted signal was 100khz down from my receive frequency (-0.1mhz).  It is supposed to be there since I set it up for that.  But visually it seems different than I remember from how the 6300 looked.

I don't have any way at the moment to actually hear my real transmitted signal to tell if it is really working.

Has anyone who  has actually tried the 6400 on 10 meter FM repeater operation confirm that it works?

---Gary WB8ROL

Wayne

You could setup 1 slice for xmt via the xvtr out preferrably into a 2w dummy load and another slice for rcv on your main ant. Then mute the slice that ur using for xmt and listen on headphones to the rcv slice and when u xmt it will be like 10mw max out the xvtr port on the freq setup u have then use the headphones listening on the rcv slice to determine the freq and offset of your transmission. I belive this is with fdx set there is a you tube video on setting up your mic equalizer settings while listening to what your actual transmission sounds like.

Gary L. Robinson

If no one knows if 10mtr FM repeater operation is really working I will attempt FDX.  I'm just a little wary of screwing up with FDX hihi.  Thanks for the info Wayne.  Especially about a YouTube video.

---Gary WB8ROL

Wayne

I just used it to adjust my transmit equalizer settings works great has a very small delay but nothing I couldnt get used to. Had to pause due to storm now. I used 9db and 28.400 Mhz at 25% power which was about 1mw and used my outside antenna and turned the scu preamp gain to -8 db just to be safe but really didnt need to worked great.

Gary L. Robinson

The FDX mode seems to work well for SSB - setup via the YouTube video.  However, it does NOT seem to work on FM or AM.   Either the FDX feature does NOT work on FM or AM -- or the rig is not working on FM and AM. 

Steve K9ZW

Take care trying to use FDX to hear your own signal. This is read the manual and do the math territory. “FDX: As part of our effort to enhance the FLEX-6000 for contest operation, a full duplex (FDX) mode of operation is now supported. Full Duplex will allow you to transmit and receive at the same time, but there are limitations. The limitations include the possibility of an SCU overload condition that depends on the signal entering into the SCU, signal path isolation inside the radio and additional RF gain provided by the RF preamps. To operate in FDX mode, you will need a dedicated receiving antenna and the Slice receiver must be on a different frequency from the transmitter. Please refer to the SmartSDR for Windows Software User's Guide for detailed instructions on how to operate in FDX mode and how to calculate if your transmitted signal will overload the SCU before operating in FDX mode.” Perhaps you could get a another ham nearby to “play repeater” and listen to each other? 73 Steve K9ZW

Wayne

Gary let me see what I can do I have an Icom R20 I can use to listen to my transmission with. I will set it up as you have posted and give it a try shortly on Am and Fm and report back.

Wayne

Gary I learned a lot today FM does work havent talked to a repeater but heard it on my r20. The offset is based on Megahertz so for 10m the offset to enter is 0.1 and the dial freq on the 6400m was 29.660.000 and I heard my transmission into my dummy load at 29.560.000 on the icom r20. Sounded great!

Hope this helps I have made noted in my user manual later today I will try to hit the local 10m repeater.

Wayne

Gart I was able to verify I could hit the repeater with the ctcss trigger tone of 192.8 and although the band conditions did not give enough reception for audio I did see the repeaters kerchunk response in the panadapters spike. So it does work.

Gary L. Robinson

Thanks Wayne!  Really appreciate it a lot.  I could tell I was getting output power BUT the panadapter representation of the waveform in FM mode did not show any signs of modulation.  But since you heard your own transmission and later could key up a repeater that needed a CTCSS tone that means it is working.

Thanks again Wayne!

---Gary WB8ROL