TMF wrote:
Have you tried the 146.900 lately Brad? Seems it may have been relocated and returned to service. I can bring it up with my handheld from the eastside (tone of 103.5) with a strong return. It locked up my radio last Sunday with a dead carrier and some audible tones when I left to head for LFP. It was real strong from Issy to north of Bellevue where I quit listening to it and changed to simplex. Jim said it locked up his radio just out of Bellingham. I may be wrong but, I don't believe Beacon Hill has the elevation nor is the geography between Issy and there conducive to that good of a path.
The 146.900 / 224.680 / 443.550 system is still at VA.
Recent upgrades have boosted TX power on all bands.
The system is currently being expanded to multiple counties, linked through the 224.680 repeater at VA.
Currently we have:
440.550 (103.5) at St. Peters in Olympia
443.675 (103.5) at Tacoma General in - Tacoma
444.825 (103.5) at NW Hospital in Northgate
Soon we will have a site up north near Skagit County.
A few of these sites are still being worked on, however you should see all of these UHF remote sites linked full time.
The
Western Washington Medical Services Team has been funding the expansion of this system, however the primary site at the VA is still coordinated to W7SRZ and still is the Select Radio Zone.
Auto patch is down and has been for some time, although there have been some rumblings of the occasional benefits of reimplementing one.
Interested in being a control / system operator? Please PM me.
There are many of you who listen to the system, and some caught the "lockup" last week before the tech crew did. A simple over the air reset resolved the problem.
We are retrofitting new controllers sytem wide, including replacing the RLC-3 that currently runs the VA site. We are using the
Arcom RC810 controller system wide.
One final note for you 220 fans. Currently the 224.680 is running 100.0 hz CTCSS. This will likely be changed back to 103.5 when all sites are up on the new controllers. For now you will need 100.0 for 224.680.