Physical Radio Systems of the WVRA 

last update 01/07/2008

145.370 repeater

NAC 135

PL 114.8 (2A)

Dual Mode Quantar with a stripped PL tone on hang time.

Handy for those with remote links

Overview

To create a ham type reverse burst [AKA Chicken burst] - i.e. hang time with no PL you can do this without any external logic.  Normally you'd tie the outgoing PL tone/encoder to the COR.  Or like on a Maxtrac you can inhibit the out going tone through programming one of the external logic pins.  On a Quantar you can do this with a wildcard function.

The WildCard option is only available if a Wireline module is present.

Simply create a wildcard action table which uses one of the receiver.
"states" such as "RPTR QUAL MET" or "RX CAR DET" and the "actions" "TX PL DISABLE" and "TX PL ENABLE" for the inactive and active conditions

This works well.   Not so well if you try to enable the  Analog/Digital mixed mode.  Once you program the Quantar as Astro CAI for digital it looks for a daughter board on the wireline card that supports Astro communications.  If you have the wireline card w/o the astro add on then the wireline card will light up and go into fail mode.  Thusly the wildcard functions will not work without the daughter board.

This is because the wireline card is typically used to interface to a remote Analog comtegra console or the like.  The Quantar without an Astro Modem, V.24 daughter board, or external Digital Interface Unit does not do A/D conversion..

If for some reason you need this functionality, there is hefty price tag:

Item Number.  TLN3265A FRU ASTRO MODEM $1096.00 EA (The most straightforward way to link to Quantars that aren't at the same site.)
For about half that, you can go with a V.24 card.  (This card is meant for linking two Quantars within 50 feet of each other)

The V.24 connections are 9.6 kbps full-duplex synchronous data, meaning there's a clock signal that needs to go across the link with the data.   Either method isn't intended for linking over a WAN like the internet.  The inherit delays & network jitter from the various switches and routers on the internet will likely cause significant breaks in the audio streams 

Keep in mind that both of these options are for interfacing to a leased T1 telephone circuit.  However, you can always go from v.24 or v.35 to IP using PackeTUBE.  made by  http://www.engageinc.com/applications/pbx_iptube.

References: Astro modem card.jpg

Work-Around

If all you need is the PL-stripped off from your hang time while in the analog mode, here is a work around courtesy of Mark, N9MEA.  It gives you PL-strip in analog mode only.  It will not effect the digital mode at all.  You  don't need the wireline module or daughter board.

To get the PL strip to work, you must have the phone patch turned on.  Without the MRTI (phone patch) enabled in the software, the PL strip won’t work.   You may want to put the toggle switch in so that you can disable the circuit from killing the PL for testing and in case sometime in the future you want the PL on during the hang time.

The mosfet in the schematic is a digi-key part number IRFD120PBF-ND.  You'll find that the pins from the Maxtrac/Radius 16 pin connectors fit the pins on connector 31 (power and ground) very well.  The purple wire for the receive indicate is wired right to the + side of the RX1 Active LED on the station control card.  You'll have to remove a little bit of the plastic lens that surrounds the LEDS to fit the wire in to the LED.  

This is a great work around as most hams won't need the A/D modem or even the wireline board, nor can they see spending the money for them

This circuit only strips the PL on analog hang time.  It does not affect the NAC code on the ASTRO transmissions at all.   Confirmed to work with software version 14.02.01.