Summary:
Technical team members went to the VE7EGO site to do the following:
- squelch setting change on the VHF DR-2X repeater
- power cycle the DR-2X repeaters
- general pre-winter checks
Attendees:
VE7WWJ Jane
VE7KPZ Mike
Access:
The usual route was taken to access the VE7EGO Commonage site. Jane and Mike travelled up and down from the site in the Unimog. Lots of livestock were observed on the access along with three mule deer.
Just before heading in to the VE7EGO site, Mike phoned Kevin at 250-744-0732. Kevin 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.
Actions Taken:
Mike opened up the VE7EGO shack and went straight to the VHF DR-2X repeater. He adjusted the squelch setting to one level below the middle.
Mike power cycled both DR-2X repeaters. After powering up, Mike confirmed the new squelch setting for the VHF repeater was indeed saved.
Mike performed a scan of the VHF antenna and then the RX and TX sides of the duplexer with his RigExpert AA-230 Zoom analyzer. He noticed that the RX side of the duplexer appeared to be slightly off. This may explain why this repeater is a little bit deaf to weak signals - desense due to a little bit more TX coming into the RX than expected. The antenna, however, scanned low SWR across the entire HAM VHF band frequency range (<1.16:1).
Mike then did an additional check of the VHF TX with his Surecom SW-102 bridge. SWR on the TX side is low (1.18:1) with TX power at medium.
Lastly, Mike checked the UHF TX with his Surecom SW-102 bridge. SWR on the TX side also low (1.07:1) with TX power at medium.
Mike re-activated the VHF repeater and the proceeded to test it and the UHF repeater locally via the radio in the Unimog - all ok.
While in the shack, Mike noticed that the wired internet connection was again working. We do still plan to move the shack over to HAMwan for internet, but this is great to see for the meantime.
A visual inspection of the shack roof, tower, antennas and feed lines showed nothing abnormal.
Next Steps:
If the weather holds over the next couple of weeks Mike will likely swap in a substitute duplexer for the VHF repeater, however, a day after leaving the 788 meter elevation site, snow fell. We may have to live with a bit of RX desense on the VHF repeater if the site in now inaccessible until spring.
FYI,
Mike VE7KPZ
NORAC Vice-President 2017-2021, Technical Committee Lead 2020-2021