Results of Repeater Work Day
Good Sunday all. I hope everybody is having a great weekend. Yesterday, Luci, KD5RIF, Caralyn, KE5YWN, Jimmy, KD5QHH, Hurshel, WB5MEX, Harvey, WB5MCT, and Bryan, KG5AUZ worked on the CCARC repeater. Ever since moving the repeater to the new location, we have been having issues with it. We have tried several times to correct the issue by fixing various things that we thought were the problem. Many times, we did end up fixing a problem but not the problem. Yesterday, however, we drug out the test equipment and started at the bottom and worked our way up. We tested jumpers, connectors, wire, feed line and finally the antenna. After bringing down the antenna and breaking it down, we found a very bad connection inside the antenna. Once it was back on the tower, we went from 40 watts forward and 20 watts back, to 45 watts forward and about 4 watts back. As people left, we carried on conversations on the repeater to see if we had made any improvements. I think we have finally, knock on wood, found our issue. Dave, NV5C, for the first time in a very long time was able to get into the repeater, from Cuero, full quieting. Bryan, was able to get into it from half way between Meyersville and Mission Valley, full quieting, on his mobile, and could bump it with his HT. But, to me, what was the most impressive was Harvey who was mobile and talked all the way home to Victoria until he got to DeTar North. It has been a very long time since anybody has been able to talk mobile that far on the repeater. I am hoping and praying that finally we have found all the issues and can move on to our next project. The next project seems to be a linked system of club repeaters. The first step in this system is to link the 146.640 repeater in Yorktown to one of the VARC repeaters in Victoria, 443.800. The CCARC repeater provides good coverage for the Southern part of DeWitt county and provides fair coverage for the central part of DeWitt county as well as coverage for the areas of Karnes and Goliad counties that border DeWitt. The VARC 443.800 provides good coverage for Victoria county and Central DeWitt. By linking these two repeaters, it will increase the capabilities of both clubs to provide aid and health and welfare traffic for the two counties. Harvey has been in contact with the Port Lavaca radio club and has found interest there in joining one of their 2 repeaters in our system. So, I would say that this is step 2 in the system because their repeater is already up and useable. The next step would be finding a repeater location in north DeWitt county. There has also been talk of joining Goliad in the mix with a repeater that Harvey owns that is already in Goliad. Of course, this is something that will not happen overnight for several reasons. Firstly is the cost of taking on such a task. Radios and antennas cost money and none of the clubs involved are rich clubs. Secondly, it takes time. Being amateur radio operators is not our job, it is something we do because we enjoy it and like helping others. And thirdly, because building a strong back bone for a communications network can be compared to building a strong and reliable computer network. It takes time, money, equipment and a lot of testing to make sure everything is correct and works as it should. As the trustee of the CCARC repeater, I would like to personally thank everybody who has helped in making our repeater what it is. It has taken all of us to make this work and, in the future, will continue to take all of our efforts to make sure the system continues to work to the best of it’s ability. We have a fine group of people from all walks of life making our club who it is today. For those who are not yet part of our little ham community, there are many things that might interest you. For example, the SkyWarn program is used by the National Weather Service to verify information that they see on the radar. Most NWS offices have radios and amateur radio operators that can connect to amateur radio operators in the field relaying real time information regarding threatening weather patterns. For more information, visit http://skywarn.org. If you would like to contact CCARC, Here are your options. Coleto Creek Amateur Radio Club, 732 FM 884, Yorktown, TX 78164. ccarc.yorktown@yahoo.com w5dwt@arrl.net Or find our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/310257387396/