From here in Plymouth I've been able to "ker-chunk" it with an HT/stock duck indoors, and it comes back with an S9 signal. Listening on my TH-9000, I've verified that it is actually transmitting audio (and not just noise, as it was previously). Of course, with even 10W into a three-element Yagi, the TH-9000 reaches the .660 easily. The signal is full-scale and very quiet. The 224.660 is no longer linked to the UHF 444.750+, though, so there still isn't any cross-band action for 1.25M. One surprising thing about the "new" 224.660 is that it is has an EchoLink node (node 263469) ... and it actually works! So you don't even need to have a 1.25M rig to reach across the metro with this repeater.
Even the Arden Hills 223.940- (PL 100.0) machine seems to be more reliable these days. Once KG0BP (Chris) gets the link to the HandiHam network restored, those with 1.25M rigs will no longer be isolated.
The other 1.25M repeaters
The other 1.25M repeater that N0FKM runs -- the 224.880- (no PL) in Maplewood -- has been unreachable for a while now. But that repeater had low coverage and nobody using it anyway. Maybe it was cannibalised to restore the .660 machine, but I don't know.
Still no word on what is going to happen with the 224.940- (PL 100.0) machine in New Brighton. It works fairly well, but has low coverage operating out of a garage. The last that I heard N0YNT (Matt) and N0TYE (Paul) were looking for a better site, and struggling with that effort.
The 224.100- (no tone) repeater that K0LAV runs out of White Bear Lake is claimed to be up, but I can't reach it at all. I think that there's a plan to cross-band link this repeater to two metres, and then to the SuperLink at some point.
The 223.900- (PL 100.0) machine operating out of KE0NA's (Dave) home in NE Minneapolis is still in testing, and is currently down. There was talk of moving it to the University and possibly running a three-band link with it, but no word on that effort.
The TCRC's 224.540- (PL 100.0) remains down, and will probably stay that way throughout the winter, at least.
N0FKM's 224.500- (PL 114.8) machine is listed as "on-air", but I'm unable to reach it nor hear any ID.
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The 223.900 (PL 100 Hz) repeater is back on the air. I replaced the external power supply with an internal one with better noise filtering. Todd (KD0TLS) and I did some testing and the hum appears to be gone now. I am ordering a GaAsFET pre-amp (20 dB) and PAD (8 dB) to put on the receiver to improve the signal to noise ratio. Dave (KE0NA)
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