Loose notes 10/18/14

Just a few short items worthy of mention, but not enough to justify a separate post:

• I'm not sure what's going on with the new HandiHam 444.925+ (114.8 PL) repeater, which is ostensibly in Chaska. Over the past two weeks, it's become difficult for me to reach and its signal is much weaker. Maybe it's finally been moved to its intended home at the Bloomington airport, or it might just be "struggling". 
• The Gopher Radio Club's APRS gateway (W0YC-10) is back on the air and looks to be stable! It's now contributing to the local VHF propagation reporting, which is nice because it has such a high antenna. Others, such as KD0KYA, K0JDD, KC0VRV, and N0FKB really stepped up to the plate and filled in the gap while W0YC-10 was down. Thanks to Ryan for replacing the router and network interface, which also restored EchoLink on the UHF 444.425 repeater. 
• Rumour has it that KA0KMJ (John) has picked up a Yaesu Fusion C4FM repeater and plans to put it on the air. I'd guess that it will be operating on UHF, and probably connected to the internet through Yaesu's WIRES protocol at some point. EDIT: John seems annoyed that I was unaware of this development, and has 'pointed out' that the System Fusion repeater has operational for a week -- or, as he put it, "a WEEK!". 
• K0LAV (Paul) has obtained a VHF DMR repeater and is looking to put it on the air! That would be the second DMR repeater in MN, and one of the few on the two-metre band in the country. Since all of the VHF frequency pairs are taken in the metro area, he'd have to operate on the SNP (Shared Non-Protected) slot, which could create problems with other analogue machines on the SNP frequency. Hopefully, the MRC (MN Repeater Council) will sort this all out at their meeting today. 
• Thinking about setting up a hobby repeater to tinker around with? That's great! But you need to get it co-ordinated with the MRC instead of operating on simplex channels. You can set it up on the SNP channel with a minimum of paperwork -- much less than you would need for a non-SNP repeater -- and make it official and legal pretty easily. Just contact someone at the MRC and ask about setting up an SNP machine.