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| Sunday, February 12 | | · | Spring Is On The Way! |
| Monday, November 14 | | · | 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 | | · | We're back...again! |
| Thursday, September 01 | | · | ''Now what the #*&%...?'' |
| Tuesday, July 19 | | · | Chuck-isms |
| Thursday, July 14 | | · | ''...Houston, we have a problem.'' |
| Saturday, July 09 | | · | W1CKD Back On The Air!!! |
| Wednesday, December 08 | | · | Radio Direction Finding Comes To PRG |
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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 (1003 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 (1005 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 (1019 reads)
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| Spring Update: Round #1 a Success! |
Another successful trip to the hill was completed Monday (March 27th, 2006)!
Thanks in part to your donations, the following items were completed in this trip:
A new 100 watt GE MASTR II UHF PA was added to the repeater. This brings the power output feeding the antenna to 115 watts with a new EIRP of 450 watts!
A Diawa cross needle power / SWR meter was added to the repeater antenna coax.
A Motorola Micor power supply was added to the rack to power the 6 meter GE MASTR II radio allowing us to increase the output power on 6 meters from 25 watts to 100 watts.
The primary repeater output audio was increased.
A EQ was placed in the rack to fix the 6 meter radio transmit audio "tinny" problem. It will be hooked up and tested on a future visit.
More visits are forthcoming...as always, stay tuned!
73 de Keith - N1FTE
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Posted by n1fte on Tuesday, March 28 @ 09:48:02 EST (1751 reads)
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| $$$ That Time Of Year :) $$$ |
Ok, ok! I know this keeps coming up, but there are some serious upgrades scheduled for the repeater and I need all the help I can get.
The article Spring Is On The Way! below will give the specifics of the plan. I have already received the new PA and just ordered other parts that we will need to pull this off. The preliminary total is in excess of $500.00 and I only have $25.00 saved in the repeater savings account so that means I have spent my own cash to make up the difference.
Yeah, yeah, I know I own the machine and it is my responsibility to finance it as well, but I would GREATLY appreciate any and all monetary donations (if you use the machine or might use it in the future, please consider donating). To make it very easy to donate hard earned money from your bank account, I am putting a copy of the donations link below.
For those who feel more comfortable sending a check or money order, please make such instruments payable to me using my QRZ.com address.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration! :)
73 de Keith - N1FTE
P.S. I do intend on having a open house of sorts sometime in May or early June to finish the upgrade process and to invite users to a BYOF (bring your own food) picnic at the repeater site. More info to follow.
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Posted by n1fte on Tuesday, March 14 @ 10:14:34 EST (1657 reads)
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| Donate | |
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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