October 23, 2018 - Trip to the VE7EGO Site on the Commonage for UHF Duplexer Reinstallation
Summary:
Core technical committee members went to the VE7EGO repeater site to place the recently re-tuned UHF duplexer back into service. Yearly checks were performed on the UHF repeater setup and all is looking and sounding good.
Attendees:
Terry VE7TRZ
Jane VE7WWJ
Mike VE7KPZ
Brad VE7WBM (remote tester mobile near Kelowna)
Doug VE7VZ (remote tester from his QTH in West Kelowna)
Access:
The usual route was taken to access the VE7EGO Commonage site. The road was a good challenge. Jane very much enjoyed driving her Jeep on the access road, as did Terry in his 4Runner.
Just before heading up to the site, Mike telephoned Kevin at 250-744-0732 who is in charge of exploding/disposing of WW2 munitions still in the hillsides. Upon departure from the site, Mike texted Kevin to notify him of our departure. Kevin likes to know both the ins and outs of our visits to the site.
Tasks Undertaken:
On this visit the team re-installed the recently re-tuned UHF duplexer for the VE7EGO UHF DR-2X.
Ralph VA7NU did a fantastic job on this tune. The output from the repeater into the duplexer was noted at 15.1 watts on Terry's power meter with a VSWR of just 1.1. Aside from feedline losses and a small 0.5 dB insertion loss from the duplexer, almost all of the power is getting out.
We will still continue to run this repeater at half output power to ensure we're well within the unit's advertised duty cycle.
With the repeater on medium power, Mike was able to do an initial test with Brad who was mobile in his car (FTM-400XDR) somewhere around Kelowna, as well as Doug who was at his QTH in West Kelowna. This is impressive range for UHF, and better than we had observed before.
Next Steps:
We will continue to test the UHF VE7EGO on Wednesday, October 24 in changing weather conditions (yes, we expect rain) to see if UHF propagation stays the same. And then in the evening the plan is to move the WiresX node back onto the UHF repeater frequencies, freeing up the VHF repeater for local voice traffic in both analog FM as well as C4FM digital.
FYI and 73,
Mike VE7KPZ
NORAC Vice President 2018/2019
Above we see the rack in the shack - to the left the IRLP node 1050 computer, then up the rack the UHF DR-2X, the keyboard for the IRLP computer, the UHF duplexer, the VHF DR-2X, the IRLP monitor and behind it the IRLP node radio and power supply, behind the rack the VHF duplexer and on the back wall cabling and lightning arrestors.
Above we see the readout from Terry's power/VSWR/frequency meter on a medium power output test of the UHF DR-2X into the duplexer, feedline and antenna. In the background Terry packs up his other test gear and tools.