Your editor apologizes for the lack of updates. The NORMAN digi remains off the air. During this hiatus, the Technical Committee is taking the opportunity to clean and test the equipment. The digi will be off the air for some time, for reasons explained at the last club meeting.
The antenna/feedline replacement project is proceeding. We expect to have both the VHF and UHF antennas and their associated feedlines replaced before storm season peaks. A new link to the Stadium Remote will also be installed. This job will not be cheap, but we expect the upgrades to last for the next 20 years, weather permitting.
On a recent visit, settings were tweaked on the repeater in an attempt to prevent unannounced repeater time-outs.
2013-02-24
2012-01-31
Interference Mitigation on 06
As many members know, there has been an intermittent interference issue affecting the VHF repeater.
What the committee believes is happening is that two signals are mixing with the product of the two showing up at the link receiver. This is why members hear the Stadium courtesy tone after the repeater drops.
One of the two signals mixing is SCARS' own UHF system; the other is unknown.
The receiver for the link to the Stadium Remote is protected by a CTCSS tone. Unfortunately, until recently that tone was the same as the tone for the UHF system (141.3 Hz). Since the new UHF repeater transmits a tone (the old one only required a tone for access), the mixing product was being passed to the controller and repeated on VHF just as if someone was using the Stadium Remote.
Members of your Technical Committee recently visited both the Main repeater site and the Remote receiver site to change that tone.
Remember, changing the CTCSS tone at both ends of the link only mitigate the interference issue; the interference was not eliminated. Since the mixing product is still present at the link receiver, it is possible that members will hear the interfering signal while the
Stadium Remote is in use.
Note: This tone change was done "behind the scenes" - no user changes are needed!
What the committee believes is happening is that two signals are mixing with the product of the two showing up at the link receiver. This is why members hear the Stadium courtesy tone after the repeater drops.
One of the two signals mixing is SCARS' own UHF system; the other is unknown.
The receiver for the link to the Stadium Remote is protected by a CTCSS tone. Unfortunately, until recently that tone was the same as the tone for the UHF system (141.3 Hz). Since the new UHF repeater transmits a tone (the old one only required a tone for access), the mixing product was being passed to the controller and repeated on VHF just as if someone was using the Stadium Remote.
Members of your Technical Committee recently visited both the Main repeater site and the Remote receiver site to change that tone.
Remember, changing the CTCSS tone at both ends of the link only mitigate the interference issue; the interference was not eliminated. Since the mixing product is still present at the link receiver, it is possible that members will hear the interfering signal while the
Stadium Remote is in use.
Note: This tone change was done "behind the scenes" - no user changes are needed!
2011-11-14
Another 06 update
A representative of the Technical Committee visited the main repeater site on Friday, 11/11. The repeater controller was re-initialized using special software from the vendor then had the firmware and our configuration reloaded. As of this writing, all seems well.
The recorded announcements were not reloaded due to a "connector failure" (as in the TechComm rep did not have the correct adapter!) so those will be added back at a later date.
The TechComm is still very interested in user reports especially if the repeater is heard to reset itself. When the controller resets, it announces that it is an RC-210, reads its firmware version, then tells the world that it is "ready".
Again, the committee wishes to thank the membership for its patience!
The recorded announcements were not reloaded due to a "connector failure" (as in the TechComm rep did not have the correct adapter!) so those will be added back at a later date.
The TechComm is still very interested in user reports especially if the repeater is heard to reset itself. When the controller resets, it announces that it is an RC-210, reads its firmware version, then tells the world that it is "ready".
Again, the committee wishes to thank the membership for its patience!
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