Heya, folks!
There’s certainly been plenty of activity the past few days. Maintenance/installations happening around George, donations… loads of things going on! Juicy tidbits in the report, as usual – enjoy! 🙂
George & Dana Bay Installations
On Friday 8 April a team from the Western Cape Repeater Working Group consisting of Johann ZS1JM, Jan ZS1VDV, Paul ZS1V, David ZS1DDK, Mike ZS1TAF and Rassie ZS1YT left from Cape Town and headed to Mossel Bay to meet up with a team coming from the Eastern Cape consisting of Chris ZS2AAW and Trevor ZS2AE. The mission they had chosen to accept was to recommission the George 145.700 repeater and to reroute the 70cm link that had previously gone from Riversdale to George along a new path via Dana Bay, home of the local 145.600 repeater.
The teams were met at the Dana Bay repeater site at 8am by 145.600 repeater custodian Beat ZS1HB at 8am on Saturday morning where everybody proceeded to get stuck in. Corroded u-bolts and nuts were overcome to remove three antennas, which were replaced with a single, dual band high gain antenna. The old RG213 and LMR400 feedlines were removed and replaced by a 20m length of EC4-50 half inch heliax.
Getting ready. Â From left: Johann ZS1JM & Mike ZS1TAF
The 2m duplexer was given some fine-tuning to reduce the insertion loss and improve the rejection. A new 70cm repeater was installed to handle the linking between the Riversdale 145.650, George 145.700 and Brenton-on-sea 145.675 repeaters. In the future the local Dana Bay 145.600 repeater may also be linked into the system.
Fine-tuning. From left: Beat ZS1HB, Jan ZS1VDV, Chris ZS2AAW & Trevor ZS2AE
Antenna going up. Rassie ZS1YT and Mike ZS1TAF on top of the water tower
Jan ZS1VDV, Johann ZS1JM, Paul ZS1V and David ZS1DDK fitting feedline connectors
Dana Bay job done. Dual band antenna visible at the top right. Chris, Jan and Trevor in picture.
Receive path after fine-tuning
Transmit path after fine-tuning
By 10.30am the teams had completed the work, cleaned up and packed up. After being treated to some of Beat ZS1HB’s fabulous Swiss cheese and onion pie and some cold refreshments, the teams headed 60km up the road to the George repeater site.
At George, the teams were met by Francois ZS1Q and Peter ZS1PHD. A 2m antenna, a directional 70cm link antenna and two EC4-50 half inch heliax feeders were installed. The 2m repeater and 70cm link were also installed and connected to the battery bank. The repeater and link were fine-tuned for deviation and talk through levels and stations from Cape Town and the Overberg were soon heard propagating through the link system via the Villiersdorp 145.675, Riversdale 145.650 and newly installed Dana Bay 438.725 repeaters.
Mike ZS1TAF fitting the antenna & Paul ZS1V fixing the clamps and feedline.
Mike ZS1TAF sealing the antenna connections & Paul ZS1V fixing the clamps and feedline. Â Johan ZS1JM and Francois ZS1Q assisting.
VHF duplexer with circulator, 2m repeater & 70cm link
The tower at George showing the 70cm corner reflector linking to Dana Bay and the 2m collinear for 145.700
The work was completed at around 3.30pm on Saturday and the teams retired to their respective accommodations. On Sunday morning the Western Cape team headed to the Riversdale 145.650 repeater site with the intention of re-aligning the link antenna that had previously linked Riversdale to George, to point to Dana Bay. The Eastern Cape team headed to the Brenton-on-sea site to assess the work to be done there as the next site along the link system needing recommissioning.
At Riversdale, the antenna alignments were checked and the connections to the feedlines re-sealed. The 70cm link to Dana Bay was adjusted as it was slightly off frequency. In the process, the teams also communicated via the links, proving the intended link path from Brenton-on-sea to Dana Bay is also good.
Rear from left: David ZS1DDK, Paul ZS1V, Jan ZS1VDV, Chris ZS2AAW, Rassie ZS1YT, Trevor ZS2AE. Front from left: Mike ZS1TAF, Johann ZS1JM
Photo credits: David ZS1DDK
Mike ZS1TAF resealing the Riversdale to Villiersdorp link antenna connection.
Jan ZS1VDV getting the Riversdale to Dana Bay link radio back on frequency. Johann ZS1JM and David ZS1DDK in picture.
We would like to thank the numerous donations from individuals and clubs, some of them from outside the service area of these repeaters, that made this effort possible.
-.-. .-..
Status Report 2016-04-05
Hi, folks!
Late this evening but I thought I’d give my inbox a bit of a chance to come up with something. Nothing received so this week’s report is much the same as last. Still, good to keep the collection up to date 🙂
Status Report 2016-03-29
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. 🙂
Status Report 2016-03-15
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.
Maintenance Hanskop 2016-03-13
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.
Maintenance Jonaskop 2016-03-09
ZS1TAF went to Jonaskop.
He realigned the Hanskop link antenna but was not successful in re-establishing the link.
On the next attempt, it would be best to have people on both Jonaskop and Hanskop side.
Status Report 2016-03-08
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.
Maintenance Hanskop 2016-03-06
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.
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).
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
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.