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| Tuesday, March 28 | | · | Spring Update: Round #1 a Success! |
| Tuesday, March 14 | | · | $$$ That Time Of Year :) $$$ |
| Sunday, February 12 | | · | Spring Is On The Way! |
| · | Echolink Upgrade |
| Saturday, February 04 | | · | Southern Maine's Newest Resident Super Ham! |
| Monday, November 14 | | · | New repeater code card |
| · | Quick update... |
| · | Couldn't resist! |
| Friday, November 04 | | · | Interference Identified!!! |
| Monday, October 31 | | · | ''...and the verdict is...'' |
| Friday, October 28 | | · | ''...is that a carrier I hear?'' |
| Monday, October 24 | | · | Keep your fingers crossed! |
| Friday, October 14 | | · | Help is on the way! |
| Friday, September 30 | | · | Ok, equipment failures suck! |
| Saturday, September 03 | | · | Gas prices like the Energizer Bunny! |
| · | We're back...again! |
| Thursday, September 01 | | · | ''Now what the #*&%...?'' |
| Tuesday, July 19 | | · | Chuck-isms |
| Thursday, July 14 | | · | ''...Houston, we have a problem.'' |
| · | W1CKD Welcomes EchoTime |
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Ossipee GMRS Web Link
Check out the GMRS repeater co-located with W1CKD by clicking here! |
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 | New W1CKD Mobile Website and RSS Feed |
 Since we are in the age of mobile phones and RSS news readers, I have created a mobile version of the website that can be viewed on wap-enabled mobile phone browsers and a RSS feed that can be viewed on a RSS news reader from any platform.
The mobile W1CKD website can be viewed at: http://mobile.w1ckd.com
The RSS feed can be had at: http://www.w1ckd.com/backend.php
Both of these services will give you the news content of the front page. Other services like the forums and photo gallery can still only be accessed by using your computer. That may change in the future.
Enjoy!
73 de Keith - N1FTE
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Posted by n1fte on Wednesday, September 10 @ 12:15:20 EDT (312 reads)
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| Ok...so it's been a while... |
Yes, this page hasn't been updated in a long time. A lot has happened since our last update so I'll briefly touch on the most important changes:
First, the website moved to a new server a few months ago. Within the last few days, I have gone through and cleaned up all the mess that was left by hackers and spammers. I installed the latest version of the web site software to help keep those a**holes out!
Since the last update, the 6 meter link is no more. All of the 6 meter equipment has been taken off the hill and new VHF equipment went in its place....yes...a 2 meter repeater!
147.270 is the latest addition to W1CKD. The repeater went on the air in early June 2008 and is full-time linked to the UHF repeater. Currently, the 2 meter machine has about the same footprint as the UHF repeater plus 25% - 30%. We are still working out some minor bugs but hope to have the repeater up to par before the snow flies.
Well...that's it for right now. There will be more to come, so come back often..and...as always...
Stay tuned!
73 de Keith - N1FTE
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Posted by n1fte on Thursday, September 04 @ 19:10:57 EDT (246 reads)
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| Summer Happenings |
 With the arrival of summer there are a couple of items to mention.
First, a new 100% duty cycle 100 watt PA for the repeater was purchased. It should be here within a week and installed within the next two weeks.
Second, for the summer months we can look forward to sporadic broadband interference consisting of a modulated 60 Hz hum present on the repeater input frequency. This hum is most likely generated by a mast mount TV amplifier for an RV. This interference is extremely wide (taking up to 2 MHz of bandwidth) and is constantly on the move up and down the band. The theory is that the interference moves as the temperature changes but we do not know for sure. The interference was DF'ed at one point, but due to the nature of the signal, it is extremely difficult to get a fix. At this point we believe it to be in northern York County. This interference is also affecting other UHF repeaters in the area (public safety).
Since this interference is present without a PL tone, you will only notice it when someone tries to use the repeater. They will sound like someone is keying up with them and may sound squirrelly during a transmission. The best way to know for sure that the interference is present is to turn the PL tone for the repeater off (refer to the codes section of the web page) and listen for the hum. If you do turn the PL off to listen, please don't forget to turn it back on once you have ID'ed the interference.
As always, stay tuned!
73 de Keith - N1FTE
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Posted by n1fte on Wednesday, June 28 @ 13:52:42 EDT (677 reads)
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| Spring Update: Round #3 a Success! |
Another successful trip to the hill was completed Saturday (April 22nd, 2006)!
Thanks this time to Jeff - N1SNR, the following items were completed in this trip:
6 meter radio and antenna: Antenna analysis of the 6 meter Ringo showed that the antenna is tuned properly. VSWR was flat on 52.540 MHz. The crystals for transmit and receive all needed fine tuning, but were not very far off. It was noted that the receiver works very well in the 52 MHz range but is a little numb in the 53 MHz range. Output power of the 6 meter radio was found to be 118 watts.
Control link radio: Power output of 26 watts was noted. Link radio yagi has a flat VSWR. Transmit frequency was found to be off by 350 Hz and was corrected. The receiver was not checked due to a technical problem but has been working just fine.
Repeater receiver and exciter: The repeater receiver was checked and found to have a sensitivity of 0.39uV without the preamp (GE specs show a sensitivity of around 0.35uV). A fine tuning of the receiver components was attempted to increase the sensitivity but was unsuccessful. The sensitivity of the receiver with the preamp added in line was 0.14uV. The transmitter was found to be off frequency by 1 KHz. This was corrected and the transmitter is back on frequency. The main repeater antenna has a VSWR of approx 1.5:1 with a measured power output of 98 watts.
Duplexers: It was noted that approx 1dB of transmitter desense was present in the repeater receiver so a fine tuning of the cans was in order. After the fine tuning was complete, no desense was found and a slight increase in measured repeater power out was noted.
Additional EQ work was done on the audio of the 6 meter radio and the control link radio.
More improvements are on the way including the addition of a folded 6 meter dipole on the tower with new feedline and the addition of a link to the 53.05 machine in Litchfield.
Stay tuned!
73 de Keith - N1FTE
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Posted by n1fte on Saturday, April 22 @ 20:33:06 EDT (662 reads)
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| Spring Update: Round #2 a Success! |
Another successful trip to the hill was completed Monday (April 3rd, 2006)!
Thanks in part to your donations, the following items were completed in this trip:
Muffin fans were added to the PA fins to aid in cooling.
The EQ was hooked up to the transmit audio of both the 6 meter remote base radio and the control link radio. Audio was then manipulated to fix the "tinny" sound.
The control link radio was moved off of the main repeater power supply and on to the 6 meter remote base radio power supply to allow the main power supply more headroom.
A problem with the 6 meter remote base radio was discovered and fixed. The problem occured when the radio was selected on the 53.37 repeater the receiver was not passing the audio from the 37 repeater to our controller. The fix was a loose control wire from the controller to the 6 meter radio.
The receiver preamp was checked and found to be operating properly.
A check of the transmitter, receiver and duplexer with a service monitor is on the radar screen for the near future.
More visits are forthcoming...as always, stay tuned!
73 de Keith - N1FTE
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Posted by n1fte on Tuesday, April 04 @ 15:06:49 EDT (696 reads)
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Please consider a donation!
If you would like to help support the W1CKD repeater (and we need serious support!), please feel free to make a monetary donation via Paypal.
It's not required, but your kind donation will help fund Echolink, repeater maintenance and future upgrades (maybe an electric shock treatment or two).
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