W8ECG Repeater in Fostoria. MI 443.450
What's been happening by date: 2005 entries
11-15-2005 - The Henry amp is on line and amping, made some program changes to the CAT and cataloged items for insurance update.
10-19-2005 - Added 2 inputs from weather receiver to controller to change courtesy tone to detect if receiver is active with an alert.
09-26-2005 - We finished the setup and controller programming Friday and put the new repeater at the site that evening, sounds good and coverage seems to be good. Equipment list has been revised below.
09-22-2005 - Weather station has arrived. we have it interfaced, CAT programming is coming along nicely, I spoke of CAT's short comings before I knew what I was doing, now I really am satisfied with the programming and the support I am receiving. It has some great features.
09-20-2005 - Peet Bros weather station should be in this week and we hope to have it interfaced and the new repeater at the site by the week end.
09-10-2005 - Not to sell CAT short on the last post, there are some great features we are discovering like multiple configurations, you can have completely different ID's message's or anything else for different times, like night time, holidays or Skywarn to name a few. Also there is a great group of fellow hams out there using the CAT willing to give good advice.
09-02-2005 - I am surprised to find the CAT1000 does not have a CTCSS decoder, also no control logic out to ports on port replicator, a simple LED for power is an option, the computer interface seems like an after thought, compared to others I've used. I suppose there will be more later as I discover things.
08-31-2005 - CAT1000 arrived Tuesday, Joe and I are making interface cables from the controller and port replicator to the KW repeater, Jim if you had the equipment we have at work would you make better cables?
08-25-2005 - I always thought if I had the chance to try another controller I would, I got the chance and I did... Waiting on the arrival of the CAT1000B.
08-23-2005 - Monies are coming in from insurance, deciding on whether to stay with vendor "P" and putting up with the lack of people skills or jumping ship.
08-19-2005 - Waiting on the insurance...
08-02-2005 - Waiting on the insurance...
07-18-2005 - Waiting on the insurance...
06-10-2005 - Everything else is meaningless after a lightning storm comes through and takes out everything in your repeater building, thank God for insurance.
06-07-2005 - Don(N8NJE) responded with frequencies that can be used in a cross band link, here is that email.
06-01-2005 - I got an email from Don(N8NJE), he is an ARRL official observer coordinator, in his email he asked that I call him which I did, he and I had a good conversation, he was under the impression that the unauthorized link was going on for some time, I told him it was linked for maybe 3 or 4 days at most, they will monitor the frequency, (I guess simplex 145.550 and the repeater 443.450), he said that this particular frequency 145.550 is off limits for repeater re-transmissions, but there are frequencies where it is OK by the rules to do what was done, I asked if he would send me the rules that stated where it is allowed and he said he would. If someone has a need to link to this area and it can be done lawfully I will gladly work with them. Hello Come In...
05-30-2005 - Installed an air conditioner in the ECG building today, my thoughts are that it will at least keep the building temps down around 80 on the very hot days.
05-27-2005 - Worked with Jim(KB8ZUZ) and Jeff(KB8SWR) installing the new RC210 controller as a replacement for the RC110, this was a interesting 6 hours in the 775 building on a Friday night. Tower Picture
05-28-2005- I was contacted via email and told somebody set up a cross band repeater and is cross banding 145.550 to my repeater 443.450, I never had any prior knowledge of this operation until I was contacted by Paul (KC8PNN), I responded that I had not endorsed or authorized this link but these fellow hams somehow believe it is my responsibility to contact Mike and ask him to shut it down, as far as I'm concerned my repeater is not violating any rules, this issue is beyond my control since I have no ideal where the link is. email
04-18-2005 - Links. links, and more links, I guess that's what we do when we get bored, we will soon be linked back to Warren, we are now linked from the 775, we are capable of linking out to Sandusky or Flint, we will be linked again soon back to Bad Axe. Understand?
04-13-2005 - 443.775 is running, linked to 443.450 just because we can, 775 has a 6 meter remote which will be working soon, WIRES node 1194 is back on 443.450. Emergency power is non existent on both so there may be outages (so what). Long Live Ham Radio...
04-04-2005 - I just got back from a 2 week holiday in the south, I called many times on 6 different repeaters in 2 states, I got one response from one person in one state and only after I called many times and really tried to drag somebody out, I monitored and called on 146.52 most of the way through 5 states and never heard anyone, I used the Disney repeater all day for 2 days and heard only one other person besides my party - what does this say to me (it's a cell phone world now) but I am a true believer that this cell type communication is venerable to disaster and will not support emergency communications, so keep those repeaters operational.
03-09-2005 - Was at the other site last night, James Jackson and I found out why the repeater was not functioning at full capacity, replaced a jumper and adjusted squelch. Sometimes it's just good fun to play with repeaters... 443.775
03-08-2005 - Repeater was down, a walk in the snow to the site showed that the big UPS was not working, probably time for new batteries, that's not going to happen for a while, if ever. I plugged the power supply directly into the AC circuit and now we can hear all the power outages.
01-04-2005 - Happy New Year to all, Sunday Jeff/KB8SWR offered to climb the Bigtube tower and install a UHF repeater antenna for us, it was not the best weather for a climb but he did it and did a great job, Thanks Jeff. The repeater was installed on Monday and seems to be working pretty good, the freq is 443.775+, no PL, operating as the KB8ZUZ repeater.
Site Topo's Imlay City, North Branch, Lapeer, Tawas, Flint, Saginaw, Caro and Bad Axe.