146.835 Repeater Maintenance and Changelog
7/9/2011
Made trip to site (Erik WB0NIU; Lance KB0YJU and Syed AC0VA) to investigate reception / signal strength issues. Measured SWR at the hard line and found it to be high. Measured SWR at the transmitter. When re-installing feedline to the transmitter, observed that the N connector might have been cross-threaded, as it seems to be very easy to thread the connector incorrectly, but it then becomes very difficult to continue threading. Observed SWR to the hard line to be greater than 10. Subsequent observation of operation shows repeater range to be usable to La Crosse.
Changed the indicator for the W0NE-8 telemetry station at that site to be an antenna instead of a car.
11/27/2010
Made trip to site (Erik WB0NIU; Len KC0RSX; Syed KD0KTB) and installed transmitter, receiver, control receiver, new controller, and APRS tranceiver. Left Jim, KB0THN's, telemetry system in place. Powered up OK, but received reports that tranmit signal strength seemed weak. Confirmed the report but could not quickly identify the cause while at the site. Various reports verified low signal strength. Receive is ok, but also seems to not be as sensitive as it should be.
Controls, APRS telemetry (W0NE-8), and programming seemed to be fully functional.
Placed a plastic cover over the top of the equipment rack inside the shack to protect against a known roof leak until further repairs could be performed on the roof.
Re-connected the heliax feed line to the lightning arrestor without intervention for water previously found in the feedline-to-arrestor connector.
Estimated feedline length to be somewhat less than 120 feet: 10 feet inside shack; 10 feet shack to tower; antenna base is 100 feet up tower (five tower sections). The feedline from the shack hits the tower about eight feet up from the tower base, hence total length in use is closer to 112-114 feet.
11/26/2010
Equipment checked out, programmed, and ready to return to the site tomorrow.
New controller includes a 20W heater set at about 32 Deg F. On the bench, it gave about 26 degree rise in the interior temperature.
The controller also has a Byonics TT4, which is set up to broadcast the battery voltage, controller interior temperature, and 3 other signals on APRS. This will broadcast a beacon about every 15 minutes, and a telemetry message, also about every 15 minutes, but slightly different, so they will not always be in sync. The path is wide1-1, so the W0NE node will repeat it, which will allow it to make an iGate.
The beacon will send the battery voltage and box temperature in English.
The telemetry includes additional information. Example:
T#003,142,068,251,255,247,00000000
In this message,
T#003 is the serial number of the telemetry message.
The next 5 are analog values decoded in the table below.
The 8 following zeros are not used.
Analog values:
Note: Values from 0 to about 15 represent a digital 0, about 240 to 255 represent a digital 1.
Chan Name Values 1 Battery Voltage 10ths of volts 2 Temperature Degrees F - this is the temperature inside the controller, near the heater. 3 Bat Critical low 1 = not critical low, 0 = critical low, below about 11V. Site alarm triggered. 4 AC power status 1 = AC power on, 0 = AC power off. 5 Battery low 1 = battery ok, 0 = battery low, below about 12V.
Tail Messages
The tail message indicates the power status:
Upward sequence of 4 tones: All is well.
Downward sequence of same 4 tones: AC Power is off.
4 tone warble: Battery is low.
Longer warble: Battery is critically low. This is sent every minute and must be manually reset by a control operator.
Len, KC0RSX, had been to the repeater site about the 1st of November to retrieve the link receiver. While there he checked the lightning arrestor-to-heliax connection for water. When the heliax was removed, the input coax connector on the arrestor had a significant amount of water in it--estimated at 6-8 eyedropper drops. Most of the water was wicked out with paper available and the heliex was left disconnected.
8/5/2010
KB0THN has been too busy to complete the project. Erik, WB0NIU to continue. Erik laid out an interface PC board.
Clare, K0NY, visited the site to retrieve the radios. He found water in the transmitter. This appeared to have come from a hole in the roof. The building owner was notified, along with our offer to help with the repair.
Fall 2009
Controller was found to be damaged beyond repair by moisture. It did not appear that it was water that leaked in, so it is most likely condensation. A new NHRC-5 was purchased. KB0THN obtained a new RF tight box and will mount the new controller in it. We are also required by the WI Repeater Coordinator to make the repeater 131.8 CTCSS access. Jim obtained a decoder.
7/5/2009
Jim, KB0THN and Clare K0NY removed the existing controller from the repeater beause the repeater was alternating between transmitting and then going off the air with no outside input. The controller is in the hands of EriK, WB0NIU, for diagnosis and repair.
4/4/2009
Jim, KB0THN, Clare, K0NY, Len, KC0RSX, went to the site to put it back on line. The ligntning addester was reinstalled and feedline connected. No obvious draining of water from the feedline was observed. The battery was reconnected and the repeater was checked for
correct operation. Jim installed a temporary telemetry channel on 2.4 GHz that is sending ambient temperature measurements. Jim climbed half way up the tower and discovered the hardline had been crushed under an antenna clamp. Tentative conclusion is that the hardline will have to be replaced. Other repairs to the feedline jacket seemed to be OK.
2/14/2009
Russ, N0QK, and Len, KC0RSX, visited the site to diagnose a low audio issue which had been observed for several weeks. Ice was found in the N connector between the antenna and the PolyPhaser lightning arrester. The PolyPhaser was removed from the site for cleaning and drying. The feed line was examined to the top of the tower. No apparent breaks in the feed line jacket were found. The previously repaired area about 25 feet from the base of the tower was examined and re-repaired and one small indentation in the jacket higher up the tower was treated with liquid electrical tape. The feed line connection to the antenna appeared to be OK. The ultimate source of moisture in the feed line was NOT identified.
The feed line from the base of the antenna into the shack and to the floor of the shack was stretched out in a continual downward slope to let moisture drain out of the feed line through the disconnected N connector if possible. The site was left inoperable, with the PolyPhaser removed (Len has it). The Iota power supply is unplugged and both fuses removed from the battery. During the visit, the conduit in the shack carrying 120 volts AC (to light fixture) came loose from the ceiling--drywall screws pulled loose.
Next visit: Re-install PolyPhaser, re-route feed line to provide proper drip loop at shack entrance (outside and inside?), re-wrap previously repaired feed line section with double-sided splice tape and coat splice with liquid electrical tape. Investigate further for source of moisture in feed line. Re-connect conduit to ceiling (will need a stepping stool and 3-4 drywall fasteners--recommend "butterfly" type). Clamps for the conduit are usable. Power up system and test.
9/17/2008
Lance and Erik reinstalled the equipment and the repeater is back on the air.
The problem was that the load on the audio output from the NHRC-5 is just slightly heavier than the other controllers, but the way the circuit was set up in the receiver, that also changed the squelch setting. So Erik modified the circuit by inserting a buffer amp (a spare section of an LM324 that was already in the receiver) to drive the output. Erik and Len checked the levels and programming, and then Erik and Lance installed it.
08/24/2008
Len, KC0RSX, Tom, W0MK, and Erik, WB0NIU, made a trip to the site with the intention of installing the NHRC-5 controller. We also had the 440 Mhz control receiver with us, to re-install after being tuned.
We were NOT successful, because when we plugged the Micor RX into the new controller, the squelch output seemed to go crazy. It should normally be low (0V) when there is no signal, and high (5V) when there is. With the RX disconnected from the controller, the COR (squelch) signal was low, and the input on the controller was low. As soon as we plugged it in, though, it immediately went to 5V. If we just connected the COR without the audio, then it worked fine. We also tried a 1.5K pull-down resistor, but found that the 5V output was quite low impedance. The Hamtronix receiver, however, worked fine.
Rather than trying to fiddle with just the parts, we brought both the controller and the Micor receiver down to put together on the bench to see what's going on. So, the repeater is down.
07/30/2008
A repair trip was made to the repeater site by KB0YJU, N0JP and WB0EUU. A replacement pair of 6 V batteries and a charger were installed. The batteries were of the same type that were in service. The charger was the unit that was replaced by the Iota.
After installation, the repeater worked and the power meter indicated that the battery charger was operating and the replacement batteries where charging.
In this configuration, the repeater is powered by a pair of 6 volt, 200 AH batteries, which are maintained by a battery charger. The charger is not designed to run the repeater directly. It requires the batteries to filter out the charger noise and provide clean power to the repeater. The charger should be hooked directly to the batteries to provide the best filtering. The existing controller does not indicate a failure of commercial power. The power lead from the Iota charger is not used in this configuration. The wire was covered with wire nuts and taped so as to be available then the Iota is replaced.
07/28/2008
The repeater has been down for the past week. It was observed to have a very poor output signal, and then no response at all indicative of the battery voltage going low due to power supply failure. Recently an electrically intense thunderstorm went through the area, which potentially caused power loss at the site, as power went out 3 times at morning in Winona. KB0YJU and K0NY made a trip to the site to determine the source of failure and perform simple repairs or damage triage. The breaker to the equipment rack was thrown, resetting it did not restore repeater operation. The repeater is down due to the failure of the power supply. The power supply and batteries have been removed from the site. The batteries will also be tested and determined if replacement is required. Replacement of the power supply is required (it may be under warranty). Lance, KB0YJU.
03/21/2008
On 3/8, the repeater went down completely. Today, Lance, KB0YJU, and Erik, WB0NIU, hiked in to investigate. We found that the IOTA had inadvertently been left unplugged by the last crew after they checked the batteries. The (2) 6V batteries were at about 4.0 volts each. After charging for 15 minutes, they had come up to 5.0 and 5.3v with the charger off, and 6.32 and 6.73 with the charger on.
The system ran for 11 days on battery power.
We also checked for and did not find any evidence of water in the feedline.
Erik, WB0NIU
03/17/2008
The audio was poor at times and some motorboating at the ends of
transmissions. Suspected water in feedline. Action is required.
03/08/2008
The transmitter was repaired by Erik, WB0NIU. Traces on a circuit board were damaged by bug excrement. The damaged traces were bypassed by installing jumper wires. The control of the cooling fans was modified by Erik and Jim, KB0THN. The fans are now controlled by a PIC microprocessor and will only turn on when needed.
Len, KC0RSX, and Clare, K0NY, installed the repaired transmitter at the site. It was found that 12 VDC was not being supplied to the receiver. The circuit breaker had failed. The receiver was hooked to an alternate terminal that is in parallel to the transmitter. The repeater system appears to be working properly.
Len and Clare checked the control receiver and it was receiving properly. They also check the voltage output of the Iota at 13 VDC (with an analog meter) and the batteries at 12.5 VDC.
