Are you (Retrans) experienced?

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:06:41 -0400

At Annual Training this year, we had a mission to support by setting out an administrative Retrans station. I sent the team out after PCCs and PCIs; they had everything they were going to need.

An hour after they were on site, the Retrans wasn't up. I got a call and we went through some basics on the phone. Eventually I asked for a photo of the setup which you can see in this post.

As soon as I saw the pic, I knew what was wrong. Can you spot what I saw?

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 22 at 2014 2:02 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:02:50 -0400

Although I'm not a Signal soldier, per se (I went to AIT in Ft. Gordon as a 35R back in the '80's; I've worked on civilian repeaters), but should the antenna cable, with the yellow label, be connected to the bottom radio?

Just my two cents.

Response by SFC James Barnes made Oct 23 at 2014 3:05 PM

SFC James Barnes — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 15:05:43 -0400

You means besides the fact it looks like it's not in rxmt?

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 23 at 2014 3:20 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 15:20:17 -0400

Dogbone on backwards?

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 23 at 2014 3:35 PM

1LT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 15:35:26 -0400

1SG Private RallyPoint Member. I may not know much about these newer generation fancy radios . . . but it seems to me the RF cables run too close to each other . . . wonder whether there is a chance for some kind of unpleasant feedback . . . or interference . . . between lo / hi signal levels? I also wonder whether that big honking metal locking bar might cause some ground loop issues. Also, hard to tell, but the switch on the antenna coupler / impedance matcher on the left appears to be midway between two positions . . . maybe it needs to be set on receive or transmit or bypass? Warmest Regards, Sandy

Response by Cpl Ray Fernandez made Oct 23 at 2014 8:24 PM

Cpl Ray Fernandez — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:24:47 -0400

Retrans cable is upside down/backwards, the cable is designed to connect in a specific manner and that cable should not have the curve obscuring the keypad. I've been out almost 13 years and can still set up and troubleshoot a radio in my sleep if I needed to.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made May 6 at 2019 11:36 AM

1LT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 06 May 2019 11:36:28 -0400

I understand this is a very old thread and I may not get a response to this, but we had some trouble setting up a retrans recently and was looking for some tips. The end result was Radio B was able to hear radio A, but all radio A could hear from radio B was the keying of the handset.

Using your photo as a reference point, we had 1 OE254 going into where you have the antenna going in on the top radio and we also had the second OE254 going into the same spot on the bottom radio, nothing going into the power amp. Oddly enough, we had to use adapters to accomplish this, yet the OE254s would go into J1 and J2 on the power amp no problem.

We were doing SC to SC and had a 10 MHz frequency offset

I didn't think to check the orientation of the dog bone but will definitely be checking that out.

Did we have our OE254 antennas plugged in correctly?