Monthly Archives: Mar 2016

Status Report 2016-03-29

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Evening, all!

Well, it’s a bit later than evening and I’ll blame that on the Easter weekend making tonight feel like a Monday night. It’s also two weeks since the last report, for which I must apologize – a bit of a spell last Tuesday had me overnighting with a bunch of nurses and paying for my sins on the treadmill-of-doom the next day. Suffice it to say that the party must once again be postponed 🙂

Rassie ZS1YT visited the Hanskop site this morning and replaced a dead power supply unit. Both the
145.600MHz and 434.600MHz repeaters are active on this PSU.

So, here’s the latest report for your enjoyment. 🙂

WCRWG_Status_Report_20160329

Status Report 2016-03-15

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Yup, it’s a Tuesday again and that means another status report for your collection. Quite a bit on the updates front and some reformatting and… well, take a look 🙂

Maintenance reports will be made available on the WCRWG website going forward. The link to the
website is on the last page of this report.

The 434.625MHz repeater on Kanonkop has been reported down.

A Webb HD400 UHF dipole was donated by Pierre Tromp ZS1HF.

The Treasurer of the WCRWG reports the following cash donation summary, in no particular order:
• 9 individuals – R4874
• Hamnet W/Cape – R5000
• BARK – R5000
• Rally Communications – R1960
• Highsite travel donations (14) – R5484

The WCRWG reiterates its thanks to these contributors as well as all those who have donated
antennas, coaxial cable, connectors and other items.

WCRWG_Status_Report_20160315a

Maintenance Hanskop 2016-03-13

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On Sunday 2016-03-13, ZS1V and ZS1TAF went to Hanskop to further troubleshoot the Jonaskop link problem. It was 5 degrees, windy and raining, limitting the amount of work that could be done outdoors. Nonetheless, several tests were done with a handheld 70cm beam and a handheld radio. Some re-orientation of the Jonaskop link antenna was also tried.

The functioning of the link controller itself was also verified as correct.

The Jonaskop link radio was removed for bench testing. The SWR of the link antenna was found to be unnacceptably high at the link transmit frequency and will be replaced on a subsequent trip.

Status Report 2016-03-08

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Hi, folks!

Well, well, well… what a week it’s been! Plenty of work done on the high sites and a bumper crop of donations. Plus a really spiffy website just jam-packed with information! All the delectable details attached, with a slight wrinkle… you’ll see 🙂

There has been a lot of maintenance on Hawequas and Hanskop this past week; full details are available on the WCRWG website – see the link at the end of the report. Full details/reports of each maintenance event are on the website, including photographs.

WCRWG_Status_Report_20160308

Maintenance Hanskop 2016-03-06

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ZS1DDK and ZS1AN started at around 05:00 from Bellville.

Picked up ZS1VDV at around 06:00 in Stellenbosch.

Got they key from ZS1YT at 06:30.

Arrived on site 08:30. Did a bit of 4×4 in the mist.

  • Checked the SWR of the VHF repeater(1.7)
  • Dismantled the full rack.
  • Built in a UPS.
  • Installed duplexer and bandpass filter (had to tune the band pass filter).
  • Installed VHF, UHF repeaters and link radio.
  • Installed a 50A power supply.
  • Installed UHF duplexer.
  • Installed link controller.

 

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We struggled with local interference on site on the UHF and VHF repeaters. The VHF repeater squelch was closed to 0.37uV. (works now for about 99% of the problem). For the UHF repeater we had to switch on CTCSS.

The UHF link to Jonaskop is not operational, but the problem is suspected to be a misalignment on Jonaskop side (did recheck the alignment of the yagi on Hanskop side).

Hanskop tower 2016-03-06

Had a quick bite to eat in Grabouw.

Back in Stellenbosch at around 17:00.

Back home in Bellville around 17:45.

Maintenance Hawequa 2016-03-05

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ZS1V and ZS1VDV responded to investigate the UHF repeater outage.

Left Somerset Wes at around 21:15,

On site it was found that the main switch again failed. The switch was bypassed for now.

Higher rated and better quality switches must be sourced.

Arrived home around 00:20.

Status Report 2016-03-01

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First of March and we get a status report! Quite a bit of activity this past week as you’ll see from the attached. Enjoy! 🙂

1. Jan ZS1VDV went to the Hawequas site to repair a crimp connection in the power box on 25/02.
2. Francois ZS1FAS, Henk and Marc (callsigns not supplied) went to Hawequas site on 27/02 and performed maintenance on the cabletray stays (rust removal/prevention), hut and external power box.

WCRWG_Status_Report_20160301

Maintenance Hawequa 2016-03-01

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Jan ZS1VDV and Paul ZS1V went up. Left Stellenbosch around 17:20.

When on site we found that a switch was faulty(intermittend). It was swopped out.

Power usage

All links:
TX 11.8A
RX 1.2A

Repeater
TX 4A (PSU), 2A when on backup.
RX 0.5A

UHF Link
TX 3A
RX 0.6A

4M Link
TX 3A
RX 0.3A

In Stellenbosch around 19:30.