I got in the truck yesterday and heard a couple of the local hams on one of the analog repeaters talking about testing the Yaesu System Fusion repeater we have access to.  This piqued my interest as there is virtually no activity on that digital repeater.  

I listened for a bit and followed them through each of the tests just to see if I could hear them without interrupting their conversation.  The results were rather sad IMHO in regards to voice quality.  Luckily one of the operators had a good idea about testing simplex digital voice.  They also decided to activate APRS at the same time.  While one was making changes to his settings I called the other using digital.  He was very surprised that I was on digital and could not figure out how I was listening in at first.  I told him that I had been listening in all along and just followed as they changed frequencies.  

While testing the simplex digital the other ham came back and realized using APRS he could see that we were each about 8 miles apart.  I know I was not in direct line of site given my location while driving before I stopped.  The quality was much better than I had expected given that distance.  It was actually much better than using the repeater for some reason.  We think something is out of tune or a setting is incorrect.   We will be working to get that fixed.  

We all 3 now know we need to reread the digital portion of our manuals so that we can experiment further with it.  I want to experiment with the data features and also try out the FT1D HT to see how it works out.  

I know some of you guys have been using digital for years so this is nothing new for you.  But this was pretty cool for the 3 of us in our area to finally try it out.  Another new and interesting piece of the hobby to play around with.

 


If their duplexer is not tuned right or theres some problems with their gear, that might be doing it.  The FUSION repeaters are pretty stupid proof.  It really wont let you screw it up unless you put the wrong input/output frequencies in.




I've had a FUSION repeater for a bit now, and its interesting to experiment with . Which is the point of HAM radio.


 

Looking forward to the FT2D.