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Callsigns? See first post in the thread...

Now about that 250W VHF machine... What for? That much power would melt the front end FET's for miles around :mrgreen: The remote running 5W is full scale here and I don't have a direct path to the mountain :shock: That much power on that hill is simply unnecessary unless you are trying to modify the weather :mrgreen: 25W was enough to work 2 meter repeaters in Oregon... reliably.

If anyone remembers the "good old days" of the WR7JM 146.700 machine and its totally awesome coverage, well, that box only ran at around 25W...

More update (and for people not wishing to read the first post in this thread :oops:

224.08 K5IN Capitol is back up after controller mods which allow a semi-frequency agile 222 radio to provide backup linking and auxiliary operation along with its fixed frequency 440 link radio, providing a workaround in case of a link failure elsewhere in the system.

224.58 K5IN Buck
444.950 K5IN Buck
and its two meter frequency/offset/tone agile remote base have worked flawlessly since our last trip up...

224.78 N7IPB repeater has received its pre-winter maintenance and works as well as expected. The link to Buck has experienced temporary propagation-related issues, not completely resolved with a more powerful link radio and better directional antenna. We are still collectively scratching our heads over that one, it may be fresnel zone issues and reflections from nearby, taller mountains making what should be a "slam dunk" LOS path difficult when the wind shear and temperature inversions get going...

One should make note that Buck covers Bellingham much better than Lyman!

So dig out and dust of that 222 gear and get it installed...

Eric
KB7DQH

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.

Thanks the 4.28 kinda threw me... :?

Anytime Brian (K5IN) and Eric (W2ZT) get together It makes my head spin...

They are both great guys, but their machines are so intertwined, and they link, and unlink stuff so much on a weekend night that I cant keep up :mrgreen:

Anyway, the radio is out... Antenna is up. Im going start programming...

Should be on the air in the next couple of hours :twisted:

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Respond on Tac 3

well- my point is that a frequency agile basestation on a commercial site isn't WWCIC standards compliant. And the R56 guys would dink it also... Have you looked at the output locally to see what kind of harmonics it generates?

Truth is there will soon be a VHF station up there and although it wont be a quarter kilowatt, its not only gonna be 25 watts either.


Sorry for the rant but I spend way too much time chasing down interference...

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"A well regulated breakfast, being necessary to the healthy start of the day, the right of the people to keep and eat food shall not be infringed."

Hmmm... WWCIC... I have heard of an organization of commercial site owners who engage in some sort of cooperative "interference resolution"... Same gang???
Years ago I stumbled on their website and looked at who was "in charge" and for the most part they were hams who owned commercial sites, and most of the sites I have visited owned by these same individuals kind of fall, in terms of "vertical real estate" into the "low-rent" category and were (and are) far from capable of providing
"R56" compliance :shock: And the "hamshack" (as there are no longer commercial equipments installed in the building) up on Buck falls into that category I am afraid... That being said, I made the effort to provide grounding for the coax shields at the building entry and installed a #6 stranded bonding wire from Brian's cabinet, through the floor and to the nearest thing resembling a "ground" I could find...

As far as the "remote base" goes, it is seldom used and for the most part just "sits there"... Oddly enough, the only harmful interference experienced by it are from Echolink nodes up in Canada :mrgreen: Granted, there is some "popcorn" interference to the UHF input but that is experienced by all UHF repeaters in the Puget Sound area to one degree or another... notably listening in the 446 Mhz region... Likely some form of "government radar"... No, I wouldn't think of doing something like a VHF frequency-agile remote on Cougar Mountain, for example... the noise floor in the 2 meter ham band makes operating something like that an impossibility. Been at Ratelco Site Three with
a 2 meter mobile and full scale RF on the idiotmeter and couldn't hear anything more than a quarter mile away because of the wideband noise and desense. (Talk about "electrosmog" :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Even Capitol Peak is a much friendlier RF environment :mrgreen:



Any idea as to the frequency (or frequencies) of the new "VHF" device? Curiosity more than anything else...

Eric
KB7DQH

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.

The WWCIC standards have been adopted by the DNR for any install on their land, their building or not... most public safety related sites and the FCC here likes to see it adhered to also...

The site (other building) has commercial gear and the antenna's are on plane with the "ham shack". So the potential to interfere with them exists. American Tower wont care that its winter if they ask everyone to go up there and figure it out.

Im unsure if the forest service has the same requirements as the DNR but American Tower does do site inspections.

Im picky but Im paid to be that way... :mrgreen:

Go read all the links about site survival on Pete's site... http://k7pp.5u.com/ Your popup blocker will be tested!

http://wwcic.org/wwcic_es.html

R56 would be a pipe dream there now- at either building.

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"A well regulated breakfast, being necessary to the healthy start of the day, the right of the people to keep and eat food shall not be infringed."

Wait until the widespread use of "smart" radio technology... That will be a real "game changer"... as the "best practices" suggested by WWCIC (and yes that is the organization I looked at a few years ago) might have to be adjusted to deal with "fixed installations" capable of showing up on most any convenient frequency or frequency pair at the whim of a microprocessor :shock:

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.