Crawford Co. Repeater Coaliltion W8DZN Repeater System

10/25/2019

At this time I am in the hospital and things are not working that great. With that in mind I am in the process of switching and lining up new owners for the repeater. It is with great regret and sadness that I must do this. I am hoping that if something happens to me that they will apply for a club call sign for the repeater and keep my call sign on the air in memory of me.

05/16/2019

WOW! I am in shock! I have been in Amateur Radio hobby since 1991 and into repeaters since 1993. My whole hobby I have lived, breathed repeaters! I heard a rumor and have since confirmed it to be true that a retired, supposedly RF Professional has recommended removing some existing repeaters hard-line and to be replaced with LMR400 coax for 300’ run! His only excuse is the coax is old. It has not been tested to determine its condition! This person is a complete fool. I never thought to much of him, but I know for a fact he is a complete dunce cap, corner dweller!
1. You never use any mixed shielding coax in repeater service!
2. The loss rate of LMR400 is tremendously high for VHF let alone UHF service. 18 Watts out would only be 2.7 Watts at the top. Totally unacceptable. Also remember that the loss is a both ways and signal received would be reduced dramatically as well.
My repeater site, 2meter repeater suffers from noise issues. These issues are beyond my control and I have used the best coaxes, connectors I could buy!

I cannot wait to hear all the complaining and frustrations these repeaters will be experiencing in the future. I am grabbing the Pop Corn and a soda for the fun to begin!

05/08/2019

Waiting for 110W Mobile amp to arrive. Repairing VHF Repeater Amp that failed. Looks like minor mods required!

04/24/2019

Now why in the heck did the Weather Radio stop working? Dang Electronics will be the death of me yet!

04/24/2019

Repeater Server OS lost its license. (Licensing Server Not Found) UGH! Bought new License from MS. Working & legal again!

12/17/2018

Strange that my last post has disappeared from the page, but the Image with it has not!

12/03/2018

A couple of possible ideas for the Repeater System. I am still considering removing them from the air and scraping them out. I am also looking at continuing moving and pushing to try and fix the VHF noise issue. Here are a couple of ideas. I am looking for everyone's opinion on this matter.

11/25/2018

I had a long chat with a Ham friend about the repeaters. I get so discouraged concerning them and their future. First, I have invested a large about of money into them. Money that I could have created a very nice Ham Shack here at home. The sad part is they just sit there running 24/7 and never seem to get used. It has been at least three weeks since I can remember the last QSO that had taken place on it. I needed to visit the site and perform some needed maintenance. Replacing the UPS batteries. Install the Battery Backup Cutoff switch which has been there for 1 ½ years waiting for installation. I can never seem to get any help and my health has really hampered what I can do anymore. Adding the Weather Watch and Warn announcements to the UHF Repeater as well. The need to split the RX from the site for noise testing. I tried many times to go to the site and work, but I was unable to get into the building because of stuff stored in it.

What to do? Keep them and scrap them out and sell the parts off on eBay? I should be able to get at least $2000 for the pieces.

08/02/2018

Since the first time we installed the Repeaters at Country Star at Bucyrus in 2003 we had a noise issue and the PL Tone was changed from 71.9Hz to 88.5Hz. It was a test to see if the noise was possibly the 71.9Hz Tone. Well it was not, but we left it at 88.5Hz because a few HAMs had commercial Radios that required costly reprogramming. Well they have since passed away or no longer are active HAMs. I am seriously considering changing the 88.5Hz to a different one. I am getting what appears to be possible interference from another repeaters. Maybe it is just someone keying the repeater to see if it still works without IDing.

Also still fighting with RX noise (De-sense) where the Transmitter gets into the RX. I or we have preformed some tests and it appears the problem is in fact the Grain Leg at the site acting as a great antenna driving the RF back into the RX! The only solutions I have come up with is to either find a new “Tower” site or split the site by moving the RX to another site. I cannot get any help in finding site to split and install the RX. I have grown very frustrated. I still want to try splitting the site, but I am being forced into looking for a new “Tower” site…
The Drama continues!

07/25/2018

The W8DZN VHF Repeater System Weather Feature.
The W8DZN VHF Repeater has a special feature that most other repeater do not have. And that is The NWS Weather Radio notifications using SAME Weather message decoding. You can find more information here: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/

Now before I continue I must tell you that I love gadgets, bells and whistles! I love having control remotely mostly because of my physical abilities limiting my site access and other reasons as well. This is a blessing and a cuss at so many levels. You will just have to trust me on that.

Back to the Weather feature. There are times that there will be too many Warning or Watches for the Decoder to handle. I mean the system has a hard time determining which notification has ended and which is active. Most of the time this not a big issue, but then again… Well you can understand. Enter the gadgets, bells and whistles.

Here is one of those gadgets. It is the HMI Control Panel I recently added the ability to activate the Weather Warn/Watch Message if needed. The Panel also monitors besides the Weather Radio the Repeater Cooling Fans with Optional Overrides if needed.

07/07/2018

Well I lost the PLC at the repeater site that controlled many of the automated functions of the repeaters. I had to replace it with one that I had not replaced the relays yet. My fingers are crossed that it works okay for now. It has only been at least ten years since I bought the relays. I guess I am a little lazy. What do you think. Anyway, it appears the Power Supply board or the Processor board had failed. I repaired the failed unit this afternoon with the spare parts I have collected over the years. When they would fail at work, they were just tossed in the trash. I would drag a few home with plans on repairing as many as possible. (Who said that all hoarding was all bad?) Not working quite as I had planned.

06/12/2018

It has been sometime since I have posted here. The latest status of the repeaters is nothing much has changed or happened of late. The 2M still suffers from noise issues if the power is turned up too high on the power AMP. It is currently running at about 30W without much issue. I have been doing a lot of research concerning the noise issues. By all indicating factors the problem is in the grain leg. The rust that has formed between all the joints acts as millions of Diodes and that in turn makes the grain leg act as a giant passive antenna. The action causes the RF transmitted signal to get into repeater receiver and is causing de-sense. This problem can be traced back to the time when the repeaters were installed at Sunrise in Bucyrus. The issues were not as severe there, but the noise went away for about 6 months when the new grain leg was installed. As the vibration of operating caused paint failure and rust to develop the noise issues started to return. This is one reason why commercial towers are bond welded at the joints. This eliminates the rust interactions at the joints. The only real solution is to split the site and move the receiver away from the transmitter. I have suggested a couple of receiving sites to look at, but I have been met with resistance or no help in fixing this problem.
With events of the past and the knowledge I have gained I am considering a complete reevaluation of the current repeaters. No matter what the future holds I do know one thing for sure. The repeaters will never be installed on another grain leg site! I will scrap them out and sell off the parts first!!!
We either find a split site soon or I will start once again to find a new home for them. We in the Amateur Radio Community need a well working repeater system and not a system that is constancy plagued with problems. There is no reason for this to be the case.

05/31/2018

Legendary rock guitarist Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, of the Eagles is featured in a just-released set of ARRL audio and video public service announcements promoting Amateur Radio. ARRL will provide the 30- and 60-second PSAs to Public Information

05/30/2018

http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_great_things.html

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05/30/2018

https://elginradio.wordpress.com/2012/01/