Hi.

I'm telling this story about what happened today to hopefully prevent you
cross band repeat users from doing what I did.

It was about 1:00 p.m.  I had a doctor's appointment to go to.  At the last
minute I decided to put the TS-2000 into cross band repeat mode.  For those
unfamiliar with what this mode is, it lets you receive on a band and
retransmits what the radio picks up on another band.  In my case I was cross
banding between 2 meters and 440 Mhz.  When it works right, you can, for
example, have an HT which transmits a few watts on one band, the cross band
radio receives the HT signal and rebroadcasts it on another band, either
using more power, or using an antenna that is in a good location.  When
you're done transmitting with the HT, the cross band radio picks up what's
on the other band and rebroadcasts it back to you, so the HT can receive the
signal.  I know this is the long way around telling you what cross band
repeat does, but I wanted to explain what happens.

Here's what I wanted to do.  I have a 2 meter repeater that I like to use.
I can't reach it well where I live with my HT, so I use my handy dandy
TS-2000 in cross band repeat mode to reach it.  I have a 440 frequency in
the 2000 set up to use this great mode.  I've used it before, and it works
quite well.  I can walk to the shopping center a quarter mile away and reach
my 2000, which in turn reaches the repeater.  That is in theory how things
should work.

Now let me tell you what happened today.  As I said, I had a doctor's
appointment.  At the last minute I decided to put the 2000 in cross band
repeat mode.  I thought I had everything set correctly.  The trouble began
when I got into my Mom's car.  I tried to bring up the 2 meter repeater with
my HT on 440.  I couldn't.  Something was definitely wrong.  I didn't know
what happened until a little after 5:00 p.m., when I got home.  I had a very
warm 2000.  The reason it was so warm was it wasn't on the frequencies I
thought it should be, at least one of them.  Here's a word of advice.  Don't
cross band repeat two repeaters.  Do you know what happens if you do?  The
radio receives the signal from one repeater and transmits that signal to the
other repeater.  When the repeater being received quits transmitting, the
other repeater is picked up, and it is retransmitted to the first repeater.
When that repeater is done transmitting, the first repeater is picked up,
and it is transmitted to the second repeater.  Basicly, you have repeater
ping pong going on.  For about three and a half hours I had hams in
Lexington and surrounding areas looking for the troublemaker.  Someone
finally guessed I was the station causing the problem, and I received a
phone call.  I wasn't home to get it, so things had to wait until I got home
and turned off the cross band feature.  I immediately got on the two
repeaters I linked together and let folks know who caused the excitement.

There are three valuable things I can think of.  As the subject of this note
says, the TS-2000 has good finals in it.  I wasn't transmitting at full
power, only 25 watts on each band.  The radio was hot, but still working.
Secondly, as my Father says, "If you're going to do something, make sure
it's a quality job."  I can definitely say I did that quite well.  Lastly,
the repeaters I linked together work well under heavy keying.

I know this note is long, and some of it is redundant.  I wanted to share
this with all of you so you don't do what I did, and I got a good chuckle
out of the incident.  I apologized to all out there for my error, and
there's no hard feelings.  The only bad thing I may have to suffer is being
forced to drink ice tea.  YUCK!!!

73
Kevin Minor
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