A new UHF repeater will be going up on HooDoo on the frequency of 444.550+ PL100 Saturday. Black Rock will be joining us on the 5th of September and Elk Butte will be linked in soon with Emita
Unfortunately we are having issues with the link receiver. So, temporarily I have it running on a full duplex link at my house then over to Blossom. It might stay that way through winter till I can fix it.
After 2 days of diagnosing the link in between Blossom and Hoodoo I cam to the conclusion we have an on frequency interference issue and it is no fault of the equipment. The beam we have up there is picking up the interference so I had to use the UHF repeaters vertical antenna which is lower gain to keep things working. Unfortunately, it has temporarily disabled the Priest Lake link. Our hops are to make it back up this weekend to get a different antenna up there.
Today I am going up to Hoodoo to figure out why the controller is not accepting commands and to repair why the link is only working in one direction on UHF. Tomorrow we are moving the antenna to a new location. The land owner have us space on our own tower. This should improve performance substantial and cut down on interference.
Hoodoo has a new controller which has been installed. The VHF repeater is working along with a new Motorola CDM1550 link radio. Audio levels dialed in amazingly. The UHF repeater went to Blossom temporarily until the finals get fixed.
We had 2 issues with the Hoodoo repeater. The 2 meter antenna was destroyed in one of our storms. This is what happens to non-commercial gear on top of mountains. Luckily enough I had an extra commercial antenna and hardline coax to spare (regular cost $1200) (NIRG donated). It is about 1/2 the gain but will hold up to just about any weather condition. The UHF machine lost it's final amplifier. Unfortunately, the Kenwood line of repeaters have week finales and can only be run at 50% power when in continuous duty. I replaced the repeater and will repair the finial amplifier. Which brings us to the next subject.
Because we can only run this style repeater at 50% power (25 Watts) I made the decision to add an amplifier to the repeater. Keep in mind you loose about 30% of your power through the duplexers. So 25 watts is really only about 18 watts to the antenna. Since we have had to use a smaller more durable antenna with less gain it was going to be hard to have the same coverage without increasing the power which was under powered from the beginning. I purchased a 100 watt continuous duty amp and running it at only 80 Watts on the VHF machine. This makes the output of the duplexer 50 Watts to the antenna. I think this will satisfy the coverage appropriately and last for many years without worry. The cost of this amp was $400. Unfortunately, we have now gone over budget this year without any other repairs or upgrades to other sites. Any additional donations are much appreciated. 100% of all donations go directly to maintaining and improving the repeaters on the North Idaho Repeater Group system.
I'm not familiar with the RD60. The repeater itself does not go down too 4w. The lowest it will go is 25w which is what makes it hard to find an amplifier for these Kenwood units. For repeater use the amplifier also needs to be rated at 100% duty cycle. Which means it has larger heat sinks and transistors. I'm always open for ideas.
@KB6UMY the input can be T-padded for what ever power level you have ... do you know what power the exciter is? Or at least what the drive level is to the finals?
The module im trying to refer to is similar to a RD60H1317M1A that I built into a VHF linear.
(PS ... im in the middle of modifying the thing again -- can't pass 440mhz through it when a low pass filter sits in line the VHF Rx/Tx path )
Goose Peak will be getting a new link radio on Sunday.
Our repeater antenna is on the post to the right of the tower. The Sheriff said he wants it moved to the new tower.
Hoodoo upgrade was postponed to hopefully this weekend.
Unfortunately we are having issues with the link receiver. So, temporarily I have it running on a full duplex link at my house then over to Blossom. It might stay that way through winter till I can fix it.
After 2 days of diagnosing the link in between Blossom and Hoodoo I cam to the conclusion we have an on frequency interference issue and it is no fault of the equipment. The beam we have up there is picking up the interference so I had to use the UHF repeaters vertical antenna which is lower gain to keep things working. Unfortunately, it has temporarily disabled the Priest Lake link. Our hops are to make it back up this weekend to get a different antenna up there.
Today I am going up to Hoodoo to figure out why the controller is not accepting commands and to repair why the link is only working in one direction on UHF. Tomorrow we are moving the antenna to a new location. The land owner have us space on our own tower. This should improve performance substantial and cut down on interference.
Hoodoo has a new controller which has been installed. The VHF repeater is working along with a new Motorola CDM1550 link radio. Audio levels dialed in amazingly. The UHF repeater went to Blossom temporarily until the finals get fixed.
What happened to hoodoo , it's back up feb4-ish ....
We had 2 issues with the Hoodoo repeater. The 2 meter antenna was destroyed in one of our storms. This is what happens to non-commercial gear on top of mountains. Luckily enough I had an extra commercial antenna and hardline coax to spare (regular cost $1200) (NIRG donated). It is about 1/2 the gain but will hold up to just about any weather condition. The UHF machine lost it's final amplifier. Unfortunately, the Kenwood line of repeaters have week finales and can only be run at 50% power when in continuous duty. I replaced the repeater and will repair the finial amplifier. Which brings us to the next subject.
Because we can only run this style repeater at 50% power (25 Watts) I made the decision to add an amplifier to the repeater. Keep in mind you loose about 30% of your power through the duplexers. So 25 watts is really only about 18 watts to the antenna. Since we have had to use a smaller more durable antenna with less gain it was going to be hard to have the same coverage without increasing the power which was under powered from the beginning. I purchased a 100 watt continuous duty amp and running it at only 80 Watts on the VHF machine. This makes the output of the duplexer 50 Watts to the antenna. I think this will satisfy the coverage appropriately and last for many years without worry. The cost of this amp was $400. Unfortunately, we have now gone over budget this year without any other repairs or upgrades to other sites. Any additional donations are much appreciated. 100% of all donations go directly to maintaining and improving the repeaters on the North Idaho Repeater Group system.
How about using a RD60(60w) module for 440mhz ... 4w in / 60w
I'm not familiar with the RD60. The repeater itself does not go down too 4w. The lowest it will go is 25w which is what makes it hard to find an amplifier for these Kenwood units. For repeater use the amplifier also needs to be rated at 100% duty cycle. Which means it has larger heat sinks and transistors. I'm always open for ideas.
@KB6UMY the input can be T-padded for what ever power level you have ... do you know what power the exciter is? Or at least what the drive level is to the finals?
The module im trying to refer to is similar to a RD60H1317M1A that I built into a VHF linear.
(PS ... im in the middle of modifying the thing again -- can't pass 440mhz through it when a low pass filter sits in line the VHF Rx/Tx path )
Opsss ... memory is broken ... RA, not RD60
We officially have the new commercial grade hustler antenna up on Hoodoo.
Pictures of the new Antenna