Loose Notes 3/1/15

As usual, there are a few things going on deserving of mention. 

• One of the big APRS gateways in town has been missing from the VHF propagation maps for a few days now. N0AGI had some brief down time for a software update, but when it returned to service it was no longer showing up on the propagation maps. This is lousy for the local area, as it deprives metro hams of VHF data. A tweet to the operator of the great propagation site, NG0E (Jon), resolved things quickly.

  

  N0AGI gateway is back on the map

• Rumours are that N0BVE (Don) has plans for a UHF C4FM (System Fusion) repeater on the 444.100+ pair. With the TCFMC's "dot one" going off air for weeks now, it may be that Don has made some kind of arrangement with the (financially-struggling) club that the frequency pair is currently allocated to. No word on the site, potential linking arrangements, or target dates for the new repeater. This could be exciting. EDIT: On-air conversations have clarified things a bit. Don has simply changed the frequency of the C4FM .925 over to the 444.100+ pair, in a gracious effort to help out the TCFMC. At the moment, there is no 442.925+ repeater in operation -- either linked to HandiHam or stand-alone. No word on how long this arrangement will be maintained.

• The 1.25M 223.900- (PL 100.0) "Aggrandizer" repeater has it's new 80W PA installed, and a replacement TH-9000D for the exciter is on its way. KE0NA (Dave) put his own mobile rig into the mix as a temporary exciter for testing purposes. Yesterday (2/28) Dave and I made some tests, but the results weren't that great. Using my exterior ground-plane, the repeater came back as only S3 or S4 with a lot of noise. Switching to my Yagi brought it up to S6 or S7, but doing that before we were using a PA gave me a full-scale signal. Dave checked the output power with his Bird metre, and confirmed 80W going to the antenna. Nothing has really changed on my end, but I'll go over my entire setup today with a fine-tooth comb. I confirmed that I can easily reach other repeaters on the band, though. If you have a 1.25M rig, maybe give the .900 a listen and provide us with some independent data. In the interim, Dave added an LED light bar to the repeater: 

  

  The Aggrandizer is all lit up

• I've been informed that K0LAV (Paul) now has his 147.390+ (94.8 PL) repeater in low-power testing. I'm not able to reach it, so I can't confirm this.

• N0AGI (Nagi) has  new YouTube videos up documenting the setup of his new 442.175+ (100.0 PL) System Fusion repeater. As usual, he goes into painstaking detail, and includes the setup of his WIRES-X node.