Monday, August 07, 2006
On Sunday, Joe, KR0MAG;
Dave, N0KM; and Dave, WA6IFI traveled to Fremont Peak (Salida) and installed
a new Kenwood TKR 750 repeater for the 145.295 system.
In addition, a new controller (RLC1 Plus) was installed to replace the RC-85
controller. The .295 repeater is now up and operational. This
repeater will now be much more reliable and is not susceptible to the
interference from the APRS system near by. The system is now ready to be
put on the VHF link as soon as the Badger mountain site is updated, probably
later this summer.
We also traveled to the
The board thanks Dave,
Dave, and Joe for their hard work and time donation.
Be sure to use the .295
repeater (use a 107.2 Hz tone) whenever you are in the
We
had a great trip to three mountain top sites this weekend.
Thanks to all who helped out. Here
a summary of the trip:
Saturday
(Fremont Peak/Methodist Mtn)
Workers:
Joe Southworth, KRØMAG
Kit Haskins,
KAØWUC
Ken Rice,
WD6DQL
Tallie
Marshall, KCØTVH
Dave
Marshall, NUØN
Dave Sloan, NØEOP
Dave Novotny, WA6IFI
W
Sunday
(
Workers
Joe Southworth, KRØMAG
Al Glock, KCØPRM
Ernie Glock, KC
Aaron Glock, KC
Tallie Marshall, KC
Dave Kucera, KC
Dave Marshall, NU
Dave Sloan, N
Dave Novotny, WA6IFI
We
checked out the SWR on all the antennas and all were good.
We then checked out the system and found that the there was no audio path
from Cheyenne Mtn to Deer and from Deer to Methodist.
We also discovered that the link radio to Methodist was only putting out
80 mw. It was decided to return the
entire
As
you can see, we had a great turn out of both young and "seasoned"
hams. There was also a good turn out
of "Daves." Lots of work
need to be done between now and the time the mountains get closed due to snow.
We will let you know when we will be returning so you can help out.
Thanks so much to all those who gave a day or two of their Labor Day weekend.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Status: Tech committee report: Here is a site-by-site update of all the sites:
Cheyenne Mountain
VHF - Current - 147.345, 448.100, IRLP, and phone patch are up and operational.
Near Future - upgrade controller to LinkComm RLC-3 which will add voice response capability to the above list.
UHF - Current - 448.000 is up, operational, and linked to Deer Peak (449.625).
Near Future - upgrade controller to LinkComm RLC-2 which will add voice response capability and remote base capability. This may also involve a frequency change to 447.825 MHz.
448.000 receives lots of local interference around town from computers.
146.76 - Current - up and operational and in the near future we will be upgrade the controlled to RLC-3 on VHF machine
6 meter - Current - not up. All RF decks are completed. Final integration being done in my basement. Do we have a suitable site for the transmitter?
Deer Peak
449.625 repeater is up and operational. Antenna recently re-located on the tower which has greatly improved coverage. Near future - A visit this year is still required to replace the TNC that is used for the controller and to check the link to Fremont Peak.
Fremont Peak
VHF - 145.295 repeater is up and operational.
Need to check the feed line to the link antenna.
UHF - 449.650 repeater up and operational
Need to check the link to Deer Peak
Badger Mountain
Current - 147.360 repeater is up and operational and linked to Cheyenne Mountain
Future - Need to install RLC-4 controller and install UHF link to Fremont VHF. This will bring Fremont onto the system.
Raton Pass
VHF - 145.430 repeater is down. VHF transmitter needs to be replaced.
UHF - 449.600 repeater is up and operational. Temporarily linked to Cheyenne Mountain VHF until Raton VHF transmitter is replaced. Then will be linked to Cheyenne UHF.
I think this takes care of all the updates.
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Thanks to the generous help of Mark Young, KC0RIA of
Montrose, we were able to replace a failed link radio on the Salida site and now
bring the 449.650 Salida repeater back on the system.
Although the road to the site is closed to snow, we were able to make the
repair because Mark owns a helicopter. On
Sunday, Mark flew Dave, WA6IFI, to the site in his Enstrom 280fx helicopter.
Mark also installed a new APRS relay station (METHOD) on the site.
The work was done in a little over an hour.
CMRG wants to thank Mark for his great help and
generosity.
Dave Novotny, WA6IFI
More good news. On
Saturday, the 145.295 (-) repeater was turned on. The repeater is located on Fremont Peak, 5 miles south of
Salida, CO. So far, coverage is
pretty spectacular. We don’t know
the exact coverage limits yet, but mobiles are able to access the repeater along
Hwy 285 north out of Salida to Buena Vista, Hwy 24 over Trout Creek Pass,
through Wilkerson Pass to Divide. To
the South, Hwy 285 to at least Del Norte. It
can be accessed from select locations in Colorado Springs and we’ve even heard
from the guys in VAIL from their remote base on top of Vail Mountain.
Right now, the repeater is open access, but will use
107.2 Hz tone when conditions warrant. May
as well program that tone into memory with the repeater frequency.
Eventually, this repeater will be tied into the CMRG VHF system.
Many thanks to Dave Newmeyer, N0KM; Ed Nichols, KC0PZE;
and Dave Novotny, WA6IFI for braving road up Fremont Peak (yes there is snow on
the road) and installing the repeater. We
will have pictures on the website later this week.
Give the NEW 145.295 a try!!!
The .345 receiver is much more sensitive and the transmitter is more powerful. Coverage is now good (with a mobile) up to south Denver. Another excellent report was received from a 300mW hand held in Pueblo. The Controller is currently a temporary replacement for the final controller. With the controller now on the mountain, the autopatch is now operational.
JC will be sending out new autopatch instructions and autodial lists, as these have changed due to the new controller. Also, pay special attention regarding 911 access. It, too, has changed slightly. After the repeater system was installed, we discovered that the link between Cheyenne Mountain and Badger (147.36) was down. A quick trip to the link site was made and we found the receiver for Cheyenne Mountain had failed. That is being repaired and the link should be back on the air shortly.
The IRLP is targeted to be installed on May 10 and operational shortly after that. The following hams contributed a substantial part of their Sunday to make this happen.
They are:
Cliff, N0ZUQ Perry, N0WMZ
Jeff, K0RM (nice to have our ARRL Section Manager helping out!)
Harry, N0SFP JC, KC7GOL
Kit, KA0WUC
Dave, WA6IFI
Give the "new" .345 a try. It is really running great!
Well, it is going to happen!!! The technical committee (and anyone else who has time to help) is planning to install the VHF and UHF repeaters on the Raton Pass site this Saturday, July 19. The repeater system will be a VHF repeater on 145.43 (107.2 Hz PL) linked to the .345 and the .360 repeaters and a UHF repeater on 449.600 linked to the UHF system. IF all goes well, both systems should be up and working by Saturday evening. If anyone wants to help out, you are invited to come down. The road should be passable with a 2WD truck. The dirt road is only a couple miles at the most. We plan to leave Colorado Springs about 7:30 or so. If you want to meet us in Raton, we will meet at the top of Raton Pass (I-25 south). Take the exit that is right at the Colorado/New Mexico boarder. There is a parking area just off to the right, near the NM port of entry. We will be monitoring 146.580 simplex. If you are planning on going, please respond to this email so we can plan for you. You should bring your own food, drink, and lots of water. There is a possibility we will need a truck to haul the repeater from COS to the site. If you can help out, please let me know also. Thanks to all for your support.
The Raton Pass Repeater is up and operational. YEAAAAA!
On Saturday July 19, 2003, Cliff, N0ZUQ; Perry, N0WMZ; Harry, N0SFP; George, AL7BX from Trinidad; Laurie Phillips, owner of KCRT (our host), and Dave, WA6IFI installed the Raton Pass repeater system. It was a very long day. We got to the mountain top about 11:45am. We set to work immediately to confirm the location of the tower and equipment. We decided to move the location from the main building to the generator room because antennas around the main buiding generally get destroyed by ice falling off the 200 foot tower right next to it. The generator room is "upwind" from the tower and doesn't get hit as much. We designed a tower mount, assembled the tower, and raised the tower against the building just as lightning, thunder, and rain hit. We waited out the rain for about 90 minutes. After the "rain delay," we started putting five antennas on the tower, running the feedline, and putting the cable entry system on the building so we could get the cables inside the building. Harry was the designed tower climber and spend several hours on the tower hanging antennas and coax. It was probably 10:30pm or so by the time all the cables installed. Next we ran the cables to the equipment rack and turned on the system. Both repeater systems came to life and all looked good. We cleaned up and started down the mountain just before midnight. On the drive back home, we discovered that the VHF system doesn't have the range it should while the UHF system works really well. Harry and Cliff had a QSO on the UHF system while both were on the south side of Colorado Springs! We have some work to to to identify the cause of the VHF problem. Thanks to George, Harry, Cliff, Perry, and Dave for the LONG day and the hard work. We were able to get everything installed and running in 12 hours. I'll post some pictures on the PHOTOS section of the CMRG YahooGroups site.
Thanks to all The Tech Committee
On Tuesday, September 2, John Sanders, AB5ZR; Mark Hiles, KC0MJP; both from Trinidad, and Dave Novotny, WA6IFI worked on the Raton Pass site. We completed many tasks that we couldn't do when the system was installed. All the coax cables are grounded. We also changed the 2M repeater antenna to a 2 bay dipole. We discovered the 2 Meter repeater had very low output power. We traced the problem back to the transmitter and discovered a blown capacitor in the PA. We brought the radio back to Colorado Springs for service. The link for the UHF repeater is very noisy and still requires some more attention. Until the 2 meter repeater is repaired, the Raton UHF repeater will be connected to the VHF system. Thanks to John and Mark for the great work.
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JC Gainer