As you know by now, all 900 radios are designed for 2.5 KHz maximum deviation. Motorola introduced something called "HEARCLEAR", or on some radios, it was called "COMPANDERING" or "ADAPTIVE SPLATTER CONTROL". It was designed to expand the dynamic range of the narrow modulation, but most repeater operators do not like the sound of it and disable it. Unfortunately, with it turned off, the mic gain on most Motorola radios is very low! You have to "eat" the microphone and talk loud to get full deviation out of the radio! If there were a way to enable the HEARCLEAR on TX and disable it on RX, it may sound OK as it simply sounds like a "speech processor", and some "quiet talking" people could use it!
The entire NC9RS system is set up for 3 KHz maximum deviation. That's 2.5 KHz of audio and 500 Hz of PL tone. This works well and has no distortion, so if you have access to a good service monitor, set your radio up for 3 KHz peak deviation with PL.
The NC9RS repeaters outside of the Sacramento repeater use a scanning receiver for the "dual" input frequencies and take an extra half of a second to lock on to your signal and bring up the rest of the system, so when on a repeater, be sure to give about a second after keying the mic for the entire system to come up before talking, otherwise, your first word will always get cut off.
If you have a 900 repeater or system and would be interested in linking it into the NC9RS system, our rules are simple. No other bands on the system! (link freq's are the exception) Just 900. We have nothing against the other bands or the people that use them, just trying to promote 900 only. If you are interested and your system has a good shot to the Sierra's East of Pollock Pines, CA, email me for the link frequency so you can listen for it and see if you can get into it easily. It only requires a "Half Duplex" 420 radio to get to it. Later on, there may be other "HUB's" available for access into the system, but for now, that is it.
We are now on Echolink, so if you want to link into it that way, there must be no detectable "tail" from the system on the other end. The NC9RS end will have no tail, courtesy tones or ID's feeding back into Echolink either. Access to Echolink is restricted, so if you would like to be on the "list" email us and let us know!
Beeps Boops and Honks!
When using the system, wait for the "boop beep" after someone is done transmitting before you key up! Otherwise, this can cause a problem with the link and you won't be heard! There is now a THIRD beep after the "boop beep". This is the link tone and is very high pitch. We call it the "NASA Beep" as it sounds like the old "Roger Beeb" used by NASA in the early days of space travel. If you don't hear it after unkeying, you are not keying the link or the link is offline.(Does NOT apply to Echolink repeaters in Bishop and Ridgecrest)
If the person you are talking to is on a different repeater than the one you are on, there is NO "boop beep", only a single high pitch "NASA" beep. This signifies that the person you're talking to is on another repeater in the system. (Does NOT apply to Echolink repeater in Bishop)
Most of the sites have backup battery power, and if the normal "BOOP BEEP" changes to a long single tone, it usually means the power is out and the site is running on battery. This does not apply to the Corning machine since it is solar.
When someone is coming in via Echolink, there will be a single courtesy tone, lower in freq. than the "NASA Beep", from the Echolink side and the repeater's tail will be very short.(Does NOT apply to Echolink repeater in Bishop )
The current Bishop repeater is not functioning correctly and is causing a couple extra beeps on the system. This will be corrected before it goes up to it's permanent location. If you are on the Bishop repeater, these extra beeps will not be heard. It only has a single beep regardless of where the audio is coming from.
