The latest for your reading pleasure.
Repeater Status Report 20210202
The latest report for your reading pleasure.
Repeater Status Report 20210112
Herewith the latest!
Repeater Status Report 20210106
Well, it’s the start of a new year and here’s wishing all a prosperous, healthy and safe year ahead. We shall no longer talk about the year just past, that has no name. 🙂
For your reading pleasure, the latest status report is now available, first of 2021.
Maintenance Bottelary 20201229
Jan ZS1VDV and Melissa ZS1MEL went to investigate the DMR repeater outage.
The repeater was rebooted and updated. A future upgrade of the operating system on the repeater will be required, but this will first need to be tested before hand.
The fan on the Allstar link radio was realigned and secured.
The building was fumigated for insects.
Maintenance Hawequa 20201223
Fitting 6m (51.550) simplex link to existing repeater system.
Sometime back it was decided that it will be a worthwhile experiment to fit a 6m simplex link to the existing VHF/UHF repeater system on Hawekwa, above Paarl.
The intention is for local stations to experience some 6m activity but also for distance stations to make use of specific propagation methods to access the VHF/UHF repeater system in Cape Town.
Previously the radio was programmed and the necessary cables made up and installed on site by Jan ZS1VDV.
The missing part was a proper 6m antenna.
On Wednesday 23 December David ZS1DDK, Mike ZS1TAF and Rassie ZS1YT left home at about 5h30 to do the necessary installation of the antenna.
Arrived on site at 7h20. Outside temperature 11°C and completely over cast. (At the foot of the mountain it was 23°C with some clouds.)
David did some homework by installing supports to the antenna as the site is well known for wind speeds of up to 150km/h
Whilst Mike and David installed the antenna Rassie got the SWR meter and cables out for the testing of the antenna.
The SWR checked at 1,2:1 and on the air tests followed. A number of stations called in on either the 145.650 repeater or the 51.550 simplex link and in both directions the 6m link was operating well.
The party left at about 9h30 and returned home.
Thank you to the following people for sponsoring MONEY, TIME and KNOWLEDGE:
6m Radio Members of Boland ARK
6m S/S folded dipole antenna and brackets: David ZS1DDK
Setting up of radio and linking cables: Jan ZS1VDV
Climbing the tower in wet conditions: Mike ZS1TAF
Travelling: ZS1DDK, ZS1TAF, ZS1YT.
Repeater Status Report 20201202
Yup, a day late, but it’s not a dollar short. Enjoy.
Repeater Status Report 20201117
Good evening! The latest status report, for your reading pleasure, is available here.
Maintenance George 20201104
The UHF link radio at George was damaged during a lightning storm.
This resulted in the UHF radio keying up the 145.700 repeater continuously. For sometime this radio was switched off.
Chris ZS2AAW, who has lots of experience with the Storno radios, suggested that an op-amp in the linking interface be replaced.
On Wednesday Francois ZS1Q and Daan ZS1DBJ from George visited the high site and replaced the op-amp. Tests were confirmed afterwards and the George to Cape Town link responded positive.
The standby battery water is also regularly topped up by Francois.
Thanks to Francois and Daan for walking the extra mile to keep the western Cape Repeaters in proper shape.
Maintenance Klipkop Riversdale 20201028
During June and July reports were received that the linked system from Riversdale –Danabaai-George were only operating in the East to West direction but not West to East.
Mike ZS1TAF did some tests during August and Rassie ZS1YT also followed up with some tests when mobile in the area.
It was concluded that the Storno UHF link radio from Riversdale to Danabaai had no audio when in TX.
Rassie contacted Chris Scarr ZS2AAW in PE and he confirmed that this issue is as a result of a blown capacitor on the TX board.
A trip to site to replace the cap was the only solution.
Wednesday 28 /10 at 4h30 Mike ZS1TAF left home to David ZS1DDK. At 5h00 they left to pick-up Rassie ZS1YT and hit the road to Klipkop.
The trio left the Strand at 5h45.
Arrived on site at 9h00.
Whilst David replaced the blown capacitor, Mike climbed the tower and checked the 3 antennas and their connections. Some cable ties were added where needed.
Rassie only went along to show the route and open and close all the gates on the dirt road!
A test was done to Trevor ZS1TR and the report was that the link radio was working fine but the deviation was a bit low. With telephone assistance form Chris Scarr the deviation was corrected as best as possible.
At 11h30 work was completed and the group returned to Cape Town.
Distance travelled +- 600 km.
