PMR Bridge at Crookwell

[Bigfella237]

Has anyone else noticed that the PMR Bridge at Crookwell seems to be playing up the last few days?

Watching D107 (which is patched with a heap of other talkgroups) and this PMR Bridge (RID 2007637) seems to key up every time another radio or console finishes talking?

It only started on the afternoon of the 13th (last Thursday) and it's clocked up a few thousand hits since then, no audio, just a PTT logged on the GRN.

Andrew

[ivahri]

Andrew, there is no bridge at Crookwell... it is at Boorowa. I've seen this happen before & it isn't caused by the bridge. Most likely there is a link generating a tail (tx staying up a bit too long) which causes the link radio that the bridge is connected to to transmit. The techs will be pleased when I let them know... sounds like a classic "week before a major holiday" type of fault.

Cheers

Richard

[Bigfella237]

Ah okay, I've only heard Crookwell (Station 271) come up on it the few times I noticed it with voice traffic, guess they must have been out of town to the west toward Boorowa when they lost GRN coverage?

Just so long as somebody confirms the correct location as relates to the radio ID before they leave, I'd hate to send someone on a wild goose chase!

Thanks again Richard,

Andrew

[ivahri]

Hi Andrew,

Well if it is a GRN bridge radio on that talkgroup then it can only be at Mt Canemumbola... there are three sites linked through there- Canemumbola, Mt Darling, and Redgrounds. That means 271 could have been in Crookwell- but the link radio is in Boorowa. But I seriously doubt that the radio is the problem... a link radio can only tx if something tells it to- it shouldn't be transmitting on incoming traffic off the GRN unless the outbound link is telling it to transmit. It is probably nothing more than a slow mute or tx. The gear is getting old- will be gone in 12-18 months.

Cheers,

Richard

[Longreach]

Hi all, Im seeing the same problem here in Goulburn, it seems to be there as the last transmitter is de keying. I just seems to hold the channel open just a second longer. I noticed it about last thursday morning.
cheers all
Matt

[Bigfella237]

I'm guessing this must actually be causing some real issues on D107?

I heard the dispatcher at Sydney Comms comment yesterday that "...we have a five second delay before we can reply as this radio system is so good", unless that's normal?

Andrew

[Bigfella237]

Damn that's what I call good service!

This problem appears to have stopped abruptly just over two hours ago, I'll keep an eye on it as it's been a little quiet on the airwaves since then but so far so good!

Andrew

[Scotty]

For the last couple of weeks there has been an almost constant carrier dropped every 10-20 seconds on D107. Only noticed because the scanner continued to stop on the talkgroup time and time again when there was no conversation. Don't know if it is still occurring or if it is related to the other issue discussed.

[Bigfella237]

18 hours on and I haven't seen this PMR Bridge come up once, looks like it's all good now?

Also, that 5 second delay before the consoles were able to reply disappeared immediately once that problem was fixed too.

Andrew

[ivahri]

Well the problem was definitely still there until about 3PM this afternoon because the tech at Canemumbola (Boorowa) rang me for advice. The fault was exactly what I predicted- a slow link receiver mute at Mt Darling. This was fixed by programming a 300msec "no CTCSS tail" on the link transmitter at Canemumbola... that ensured that the slow receiver could not hold the link transmitter at Darling up long enough for it to be rebroadcast back to Boorowa & the GRN. Old age... gets to radios just like us ol' radio techs!

Cheers,


Richard