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Yesterday was "install day" for the K5IN 224.58(103.5)/441.95(97.4)/2meter remote base gizmo, up on Buck Mountain....

Box is a few feet from the 444.300 machine...

The 2 meter remote base uses the old 6.700 repeater antenna!)

The UHF "repeater" is NOT designed as a "wide coverage handheld access" machine!!!!!!! Therefore it will not "cover" as well as 444.3...
Its "purpose" in life is to provide for control and linking primarily but as it is a "full duplex" device what it hears it will repeat as well as transfer to the other devices.

224.58 uses a 4 bay Comprod antenna with the center of its "main lobe" aimed towards Seattle. I was "drive-testing" home from the site and couldn't find any place along the route (including Downtown Gorst)
where I couldn't hear it with less than "full quieting" from the RX, and 5W feeding a 5/8 wave whip was enough to make me solid copy the whole way.


As soon as N7IPB can get up to Lyman Mt. and make some changes and repairs to that machine (224.78, linked to K5IN's 224.28 on Capitol Peak) then the handheld user of the 222 Mhz band, by programming all three repeater pairs into one's radio should give "FULL" coverage service over most of the population of Western Washington :mrgreen:

Give it a whirl...
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.

Twas up there today... Nice to see the building getting occupied again... The 6 meter stuff is coming out however...

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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."

Had I known that earlier I would have laid hands upon the cans... but seeing as that all was still connected to its radios I had to assume it was "active"...

Did you notice the "landscaping" along the road???

That was the project the day BEFORE installing the repeater...



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.

Yep but it just grows back... You know how many times over the years Ive helped clear that road?? What Id like to see is the commercial owner get up there and do a little maintenance. Nice job though!!

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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."

The birds have made rather a mess in the attic :bowrofl:

Was talking to K7ND about that site during the ARRL UHF contest that same weekend and that hill has quite the VHF contesting history, at least until the gate got installed :cry:

First time it was used was in 1972... the participants vehicles were towed up the "rockslide" with a 1-ton 4X4... Site was powered by a propane thermoelectric generator then.

If one looks carefully there is a chunk of the original propane line visible in the road surface about halfway up the hill from the hairpin.

Yes it will grow back but it will be a few years before it gets as bad as it was before I started on it... I tried my darndest to get at anything that might eventually grow to block the road. I imagine being able to actually see the road and what is adjacent to it has to increase the safety of anyone running a motor vehicle up there... and for awhile at least save the paint :mrgreen:

The repeater system is exceeding expectations as to its performance and with a few more "tweaks" should be even better...

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.

I REALLY need to spend some time on that side of the mountains...

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Interoperability is an attitude, not a technology.

We'll be doing a work party in the southwest corner of the state on Sept. 3rd... In case ya want to help. :mrgreen:

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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."

You don't want to do that.

Trust me.

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

But its so tranquil over here! :mrgreen:

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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."

If your on quaaludes! :wink:

For the most part the system is fully functional... The Capitol Peak frequency got moved to 224.08 (PL 103.5) to cure a mathematical issue with the second harmonic of the repeater output trashing the receiver of the 441.950 link radio... There are still some controller issues to be resolved at Capitol to obtain the desired functionality at that site, but for now the intended basic functionality should hold through the winter...

Audio levels have been rebalanced, and both antennas changed at Buck to higher-gain devices and relocated to prevent mutual interference from a new, high-powered UHF machine installed but not commissioned yet (WB0CZA, originally on Tiger someplace) The older, noisy duplexer has been changed to one that doesn't have a flaky notch cavity in the RX side so that issue has been resolved also. The results of these changes have so far increased coverage of the 222 machine as well as the 441.950 device, which saw the biggest improvement.

The 224.78 machine at Lyman now has its 441.950 link radio installed but a better antenna is on its way up there for that frequency... as the gain and location of the current link radio antenna occasionally causes fade margin issues with the linking repeater on Buck... despite switching to a far-higher gain antenna at Buck. A suitable higher-gain Yagi and a more powerful link radio are scheduled for installation on Lyman...

What this all means is that the three 224 Mhz machines (.08, 58, 78...) are effectively linked together (unless the 2 meter "agile" remote base is connected to 224.58) and all function properly as of this writing, with the exception of "weird weather" which can occasionally degrade the path between Lyman and Buck...

If you got 222 Mhz FM gear, please give the system a whirl...
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.

I'll let PSE in Kittitas County know.

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Interoperability is an attitude, not a technology.

And Im up here right now adding a couple more antenna's for Bryon's system... Any interest in an internet connection up here??

By the way Eric.... My quarter kilowatt VHF machine Im planning wont hurt your frequency agile vhf basestation will it?? :twisted:

:D

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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."

Sorry about the quality but its a camera phone...

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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."

Oh-Man...

Now I have to dig out my DR-235, and hook it up again.

It used to be that the W2ZT machine on Haystack was about the only game in town.

What are the calls on these machines so I can program them all in one shot?

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Respond on Tac 3