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Message |
    
Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 1090
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 10:05 pm: | 
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Ok anyone running a cushcraft ringo on 10 or 6 ? Ive used the rangers now im going to a ringo on 6. anyone using one and any ideas? |
6MRepeaterOp (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 11:48 pm: |
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Well, there is/there will be RF currents on the supporting structure the antenna is mounted to; this is a condition of operation of the 'Ringo' design!
What this means is - possible RFI to consumer devices or, as we have seen with 6 Meter repeaters mounted at residences - 'intermod' with so-called solid-state fluororescent lamps and some computer operated devices/games and toys ...
We have successfully added ground radials *below* the ringo 'ring' and improved this condition (reduced/eliminated RF below the ring this way. The ground radials act as a 'choke' to RF currents that would otherwise flow below the ring on the support mast).
THis is all gained from experience, BTW, not from guessing, hypothesizing or simply 'thinking' about cures to actual problems that cropped up when we buily, installed and have operated a number of six meter repeaters ... |
Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 1355
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 8:02 am: |
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Hummmmm
A call to cushcraft was a wast of time but what you said makes sence. My last 6 meter repeater ( WR4ANA ) 1974-1980 we used 2 mosly DI-6's and they had radles and were nicely decoupled from the mounting mast. This ringo replaced a skylab cut to 52.525 that took a direct lighting hit ( POOF ) As for RFI in 40 years on 6 meters iv'e only had a few problems and they were strictly the fault of the audio device. So far so good its working just fine. |
6MRepeaterOp (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 10:20 pm: |
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The *biggest* problem with the Ringo is - there isn't really a defined 'radiation' or 'active' area where radiation takes place; besides the 1/2 Lamda (wavelength) section *above* the ring, there is the full length of the mast it's mounted to whish will serve to 'radiate' owing to the RF currents flowing on it as well.
This can translate to some situations where the Ringo doesn't seem to 'work' or talk very well - and it has to be on account of a 'skewed' beam pattern or 'lobes' both above and below the horizon (in an 'EL' or Elevation cut) ... this is usually seen much more pronnounced with a 2 M (Two Meter / 146 MHz) Ringo rather than a 6 or 10 M Ringo - usually, the mounting height (and hence mast length) of a 6 M or 10 M Ringo in terms of wavelength at the frequency of operation is small; with 2 Meters, it begins to become appreciable, hence, lobing (think "mutli-wavelength antenna").
All in all though, a Ringo is a good, cheap, reliable, DC-grounded design - that can be improved upon ... through the use of ground (or RF 'choke') radials below the ring ...
The RFI aspect I mention was *more* bothersome in RF getting into digital devices, mixing with whatever clock rates were present during memory fetches, peripheral I/O, etc. - and this 'mix' appearing back on the repeater's input frequency (been there, seen this, time and time again here at the lab!) I've also had probs with those energy efficient fluorescent lamps doing the same thing - until I put ferrite beads inside the lamp - and placed ground radials under the Ringo!
(BTW - I'm the guy who came up with the 6M Heliax duplexer design if you've seen that thing.) |
Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 1356
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 12:45 am: |
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Well a radiator with no decoupling bothers me but so far even at 100 watts its not showing any signs of TVI. I havent had toe time to buy a set of beads and depouple the coax or add a radial system. My repeater used a 6 helical resonator duplxer...... 3 TX with receive notch ...... 3 RX with transmit notch. It worked well and using 2 antennas @ 50 foot and 45 foot apart there was no desence. On 2 meters ( MURS ) i have a ringo ranger 2 it works just fine now it IS decoupled from the mast. Next step is to get a horzontal antenna back up ...... without the wife knowing! |
Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 1358
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 2:39 pm: |
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MORE GAIN #'s
http://www.csvhfs.org/ant/CSANT03.HTML |
