Sept 15, 2010 Maint. Trip

[N7YO]

George AA7GS and myself made the trek up to the repeater site to try to figure out why it was off the air. What we found was the 220 Mhz control which controls the AC power to the DC power supply for the repeater had the power switched off. While I was able to toggle this onsite, it was repeatedly tried from off site by others and didn't respond. I removed the 220 control, rewired the surge suppressor and left it inline. I feel this is a redundancy that is not needed, and creates another place for failure. Time will tell, and really we had no other choice. I could not get the link radio to function, the receiver worked however no transmit. The controller would not answer back in response to commands, so I did an initialization/reset of the controller. I then reprogrammed as necessary with the new callsign W7SWT and checked. The controller responds to commands now however the UHF link radio does not function, no receiver ether. I believed this to be an issue with the controller however was unable to prove that theory, we could have a radio problem. We installed a new Hustler Spirit Antenna on the repeater. Reports say signal strength has increased and the repeater is working nicely. I will play with the controls to see if we can get the UHF to come back to life.

Plans are for new radios and controller in the spring time, well maybe later depending on snow.

The APRS system had a different outcome, there was no cabling for the radio to TNC interface so that was left unfinished.

[KE7BIN]

Jim it looks like a new set up in the Building would be the best thing over all. I'm sure lots of folks want to thank both You and George for your Day spent up there!