On November 26th updates, changes, and repairs were made to the W8WKY Repeater System. A main goal of SARA is to always have a top-tier repeater system made possible by our dues-paying members.
147.39 2M
The Allstar/HamVOIP Pi-based repeater controller was replaced with an SCom 7330 controller. This controller gives the system greater resiliency as the entire system is hardware – no software or volatile media. The following are the user experience changes hams will encounter:
- Anti-kerchunking is now enabled on the controller. Anti-kerchunking is a keyup delay timer to prevent needless transmission of the repeater. Some hams feel the need to quick-key the repeater to “hear if it’s still there”. This gets very annoying and happens to 147.39 quite frequently. If the repeater is completely idle for 5 minutes, the next transmission will require a 1 second transmission before any audio will begin to be transmitted. If the repeater has been idle for a period of time, make sure you key your mic for a full second before speaking.
- The courtesy tone has been changed to a shorter and more pleasing tone. The courtesy tone is now only 120ms long and is a C4 (523 Hz) note. In addition, an unkey pre-tone delay has been added before the courtesy tone in order to help train people to not quick-key.
- The standard ID message has been standardized on a single generated voice saying only “W8WKY” for efficiency and talk-over.
- A friendly ID message has been standardized on a single generated voice saying “W8WKY Repeater PL 114.8”.
- The timeout timer is now 4 minutes and will unlock after 15 seconds of idle receive path time.
- The transmission tail has been changed such that the CTCSS tone will drop before the carrier to eliminate any noise pre-carrier drop when using “Tone Squelch” on your radio. It is recommended that all users update their radio memory slot and/or configuration to use tone squelch with 147.39. The tone out is the same as the tone in – 114.8 Hz.
- The audio levels have all been balanced (with continuing tweaking expected) so that local RF audio, telemetry audio, and network audio (Allstar, Echolink) are all at a consistent level across the system.
- Amateur Radio Newsline is not currently setup to play before the nets until some interplay with the S7330 timeout timers and the Allstar node can be resolved and tested. ARN can always be streamed online.
The following repairs / side-effects were also executed:
- With the installation of the new controller, the “electronic hiss” noise in the background of the transmitted audio has been eliminated.
- The Bridgecom BCR-50V was inspected for a failing fan that was generating a terrible physical noise. It was discovered that the fan itself was not failing but the case of the BCR-50V was bulging inward and pressing on the fan blades that cool the transmit radio. Some washers were installed to create a stand-off, the noise was eliminated, and the fan is now operating and cooling properly!
- As a side-effect of the above, this also eliminated the second noise in the background of the transmitted audio. From time to time it was possible to hear what sounded like an engine revving up in the background. When the above fan was fixed, that noise was eliminated as well. The theory is that the drag on the fan physically was creating some sort of resistance or other reactance back into the transmitter control board (the fan is TX-controlled) that was adding noise to the audio.
442.275 70cm
After inspection of the system to determine why 442.275 would appear to be “desensed” quite frequently, it was discovered the power to the UHF pre-amplifier wasn’t working properly. A fuse was added to the system and the system was thoroughly tested while causing 147.390 to transmit at full power simultaneously. No desense was observed in the tests. It’s quite amazing that 275 was working at all with the pre-amplifier out of commission.
With the “desense” issue resolved, the Crescend P10 amplifier was re-installed. With the amplifier back inline, 442.275’s pre-duplexer transmit power is back to 100W (up from 20W).
148 MHz Interference
It also appears that the interference has gone away sometime around November 22nd. Marty N8XPK has been in contact with the City of Wadsworth about the noise appearing to come from one of the watertowers along 261 / Akron Rd. in Wadsworth and they were testing their systems for the noise. The Tech Committee is continuing to monitor the situation closely.