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SFARC Club Repeater Status Report, November
2002
Article by Jimm White, K5RWS |
Repeater Status Report
Technical Committee
November 14, 2002
Well, winter has set in and so, with the exception of the
hospital site, what we got done this abbreviated summer is
all that will be done until the spring thaw. Our summer was
shortened due to the fires in the forests, which resulted
in the forests being closed very nearly half the summer. None
the less, we were able to accomplish quit a bit. John and
Allen made it up to Tesuque several times and feel they have
isolated the interference issue with the 146.820. Now what's
left is to implement the cure. This will likely require moving
the tone board in the VHF repeater and getting a very good
tune-up on the cavities. The combination of these two things
should make the VHF repeater easier to access and use.
The VHF repeater is still linkable to the UHF, 442.825, repeater
also on Tesuque. This UHF repeater has required little to
no maintenance and seems to be chugging along just fine. There
is a lot to be said for setting up a repeater right from the
start and John did an excellent job of it.
The repeater at Elk Mountain, 147.300, is another example
of doing it right. Since the overall upgrade, which was done
in October of '98, this repeater has continued to give excellent
service. Because it was upgraded with an RLC-1 controller
we were able to do some linking with it this summer. More
on that in a minute. On our first trip to Elk we found the
old solar panel had been destroyed, but it looked weather
related and not vandalism related. There are two other panels,
which seem to be doing yeomen service and no other issues
were found. All antennas and coax are intact and except for
the door being forced open and a fire extinguisher being discharged
in the radio room there is nothing to report. This repeater
is solar powered with two 70 watt panels and two complete
sets of batteries to power the repeater, the link radio and
the APRS node. We have only suffered one repeater failure
due to battery discharge this past year. That was three days
ago after a long period of low light conditions and extended
use. It was back on the air by 09:00 that day. Just a note,
please keep in mind this is a solar powered repeater so use
the repeater with that in mind.
I mentioned linking on the Elk repeater. John and I worked
up the equipment and antennas a few months ago and set up
a link to the Tesuque UHF repeater. This link currently is
in the evaluation and test mode and is available for RACES,
ARES, SAR and EOC use only at this time. As we get more comfortable
with this that status may change.
The repeater at St. Vincent Hospital, 147.200, has seen very
little use, a situation that frankly we just don't understand.
It has excellent coverage in the Santa Fe area and works very
well overall. At this time it doesn't require a tone, although
recent interference with this repeater may require that to
change, and is easily usable from most area in Santa Fe with
a hand held. The site at SVH is a very good site and will
be the site that will have a permanent autopatch when we are
done with the linking. Our plan with this repeater is to make
it linkable with the UHF repeater on Tesuque just like Elk
is currently. That will give easy access for RACES, ARES,
SAR and EOC teams from inside SVH to all repeaters in the
system. All this will require a major overhaul of the SVH
repeater and controller to allow the addition of a UHF link
radio. That will be a good winter project since SVH is accessible
year around.
As you all know, both Tesuque and Elk mountain repeater sites
support APRS nodes. These nodes will remain as they are giving
great service for APRS as some of you already experience regularly.
What we will be doing with these two sites after the first
thaw is to add packet again. There has been a resurgence of
activity in that area especially in support of emergency services.
This system will compliment the existing voice repeater systems
very well in allowing long pieces of traffic such as long
lists and rosters to be delivered over packet and freeing
up the voice repeaters. In the end there will be packet nodes
at all three SFARC repeater sites, Tesuque, Elk and SVH with
a packet bulletin board at State EOC. Again, the site at SVH
will be done this winter so look for packet on 145.010 at
SVH soon. The node name will be the one that will eventually
to Tesuque so it is "TES". Give it a try soon.
Did I miss anything? Well if so let me hear from you at k5rws@arrl.net
or on 442-825 with your comments and questions.
Let me hear you on the repeaters, especially on the Tuesday
nite net !!!
73 de Jimm K5RWS
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