Our club president Marty (VE7XX) reported on the evening of Sept 12th that the repeater was back online and might be repaired, but still needs additional testing to confirm. Our usual repeater-tech Nick is still convalescing, so Marty and Wayne (VE7WS) worked on it today and changed the feedline, tuned the duplexer and changed the antenna.
The repeater was connected this evening (Sept 12) to the Saskatchewan net to test the repairs however the scratchiness problem recurred. The scratchiness is heard only at the start of use, and after a short time it disappears, as though something “warms up” and self-corrects.
Additional testing will be required to adequately diagnose the problem. Having eliminated many possibilities, Marty pondered whether the power supply is the problem.
IMPORTANT: If using the UHF repeater to tune in the Insomniac Net or other nets, and the problem recurs, DON’T disconnect the repeater. Doing so last night caused a number of interference problems on the net. If the problem occurs, simply let the repeater time-out on its own, which will usually occur around 35 minutes. This should avoid the interference problem.
Additional updates will be posted as the repeater work occurs.
<<< UPDATE 2018-09-13:
Marty and Wayne worked on the repeater again today, including disassembling and performing maintenance on the duplexer. The problem still persists and additional work will be continuing in the coming week to diagnose and repair the issue. >>>>