[K4RY] Meeting Tomorrow, 12:30pm Broun Conference Room

[John Klingelhoeffer]

Good evening, Mike;


The current 440 repeater is a Yaesu VXR-5000 with an Arcom commercial programmable controller that has been quite 'tightly' integrated.  That is, the normal repeater controller that comes inside the Yaesu repeater has been bypassed with hardwired connections to the external controller.  A while back, the documentation that had gone missing over the years on the commercial hardware suite comprising the repeater was collected and a replacement copy of software to program the controller was kindly supplied by Arcom.  Adding to problems for maintenance, documentation for this integration has not stayed with the Clubs several moves. This makes it very difficult to maintain without significant investment in time and effort.   


Other than updating the configuration of the controller (such as resetting the real time clock and the like), there is little to do to improve on the functionality of the Arcom controller, which is quite capable.  Similarly, other than a somewhat low power output, the Yaesu Vertex repeater seems to be fairly solid in un-shielded areas on campus.  


My opinion (not to be confused with the Club's response to this offer) is that little utility would be gained from the effort of changing out the 440 repeater *in its current location*.  The location on top of Haley Center with its limited height above average terrain is severely limiting to any VHF repeater, and even more so for a UHF repeater.  This location covers the campus very, very well, but as I understand it was never intended to be a 'wide area repeater'.  With the paucity of activity on both of the repeaters in the past couple of years, I'm not sure what an additional UHF campus coverage repeater would do for the members.  


However, that said, it would be hard to turn down such a generous offer, especially IF it could simply be retuned and used with its own internal controller, rather than the hard to maintain lash-up on the current 440 repeater.  There is little or no use for the tremendous functionality in the Arcom controller for basic communications.  This, and perhaps increased transmitter power, would make an easier to maintain repeater with better on-campus building penetration.  


I hope you and the Club can discuss this more to see what mutual benefit can be gained.


73


John...
WB4LNM


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Watkins <WATKIJM at auburn.edu>
To: John Klingelhoeffer <wb4lnm at aol.com>; antiquekid3 <antiquekid3 at gmail.com>; K4RY <K4RY at eng.auburn.edu>
Sent: Tue, Feb 28, 2012 8:42 am
Subject: RE: [K4RY] Meeting Tomorrow, 12:30pm Broun Conference Room



Hey folks,
 
What model is your 444.800 Machine?  I will have a GE Master II Station Repeater
coming available soon and I wondered if you guys would be interested in upgrading
your 70cm repeater if you didn’t have a GE Master II Repeater already. I am taking
the current GE Master II from the Airport and replacing it with a GE Master III repeater.
We can then reallocate this GE Master II for use for your club. OIT would still own
the repeater but we can’t use it for commercial communications past Jan 1st, 2013
because of the FCC’s new narrow-banding mandate deadline.
 
Let me know if you are interested.
 
Respectfully,
Mike
WX4AL
 
u_k4ry.html

 
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