[K4RY] AUARC repeater linking

Wed Nov 19 16:30:58 CST 2014

Hi All;

The ACC RC-96 certainly has the ability to cross-link to another repeater.  It is a matter of wiring up the 'remote' station to the DIN connector on the back of the '96 chassis, and then enabling it in the firmware, and of course, setting the audio levels.  It uses an Intel 8085AH processor, but has no serial port to 'talk' with the controller.  My understanding from asking persons close to the developer was that they expected people to always be remote to the repeater site and not change much at a time, so DTMF was the most reliable way to do that (this was in the early 1980's remember).

I'm not as sure about the Vertex repeater.  This is the one that has the external Pacific Research Solutions (PRS) controller tied into it I believe, rather than its internal controller.  
When I came back to the AU area after 2008 or so, I contacted PRS and they very kindly sent documentation on their controller, which the Club had lost through its several moves around campus.  While the fellow was friendly at that time, I certainly got the idea that he did not consider amateur radio to be a growth area for his business, so I guess I would not try and bother him except as a last resort.  Those documents and I think a CD were turned over to Dr. Hung for safekeeping.  I'd found the documentation for the Vertex as well, and Dr. Hung should have that, too.  The PRS unit is a complex but very capable controller.  I am not aware of the modules or options it may or may not have because I didn't delve into at that time (everything was working - why cause problems!!). 

I will say it is an ambitious project to tie them together, especially with getting up to speed on both controllers functionality, since they are significantly different.  The PRS unit is programmed through an RS-232C port (remember those?), while the ACC is all DTMF (Touch-tone).  It is not possible (unless someone writes some code to control a DTMF encoder / decoder) to know all of the settings for the ACC unit without individually going through each one and listening for the setting response (in Morse code, by the way).  It might be possible to do something in Ham Radio Deluxe since it does some combination of CW and DTMF, but I have never tried that.  

About 15 years ago, I'd heard of a PC interface being built for the ACC controller, but it was a proprietary product at that time, and as far as I know, no longer exists.  The ACC controllers, although on many hundreds of repeaters around the country, reduce significantly in population every year due to lightning strikes and just plain age, so it is significantly more cost effective for either amateur or commercial land mobile radio organizations to look at a new controller than to try and band aid an old one (yes, Kyle, Mr. Antique Computer, I hear you objecting!).  I am surprised the one on top of Haley Center has survived this long without repair.  The real-time clock settings for the year announcement expired long ago.  No one expected these units to be working into the 2000's when they were built in the 1980's.  

73

John...
WB4LNM

-----Original Message-----
From: Zebediah Whitehead <whitezw at auburn.edu>
To: Auburn University Amateur Radio Club <k4ry at mailman.eng.auburn.edu>
Sent: Wed, Nov 19, 2014 3:24 pm
Subject: Re: [K4RY] Meeting Minutes for the 18th

One other option that might take a little more work would be to link the 2m to the 70cm repeater or vice versa…  Both repeaters have controllers that are capable of linking.  So, would just be a matter of experimenting with the controller to get it to link.  Then you could have a general Net on Sunday that would be available on 70cm or 2m.

Hopefully someone else with first hand experience with our old repeaters/controller will chime in.
INFO
70cm ->http://wiki.eng.auburn.edu/k4ry/doku.php?id=wiki:uhf_repeater_-_vertex_ri-310e
2m->http://wiki.eng.auburn.edu/k4ry/doku.php?id=wiki:vhf_repeater_conntroller_-_acc_rc-96

Thanks,
-zeb

From: k4ry-bounces at mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:k4ry-bounces at mailman.eng.auburn.edu]On Behalf Of SueAnne Griffith
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 3:06 PM
To: Auburn University Amateur Radio Club
Subject: Re: [K4RY] Meeting Minutes for the 18th

Bad wording on my part. My understanding was that it's based on the date of the Sunday. So if the date of the Sunday is the 23rd, we're doing 70cm. The next Sunday is the 30th, which is an even number, so 2m.
SueAnne

On Nov 19, 2014 2:57 PM, Kyle Owen <kylevowen at gmail.com> wrote:

One clarification: did we say that odd numbered dates (as in November 23rd) would be on the 70cm repeater, or odd numbered Sundays (in which case this Sunday would be the 4th Sunday of the month)? 

73,

Kyle

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 10:04 PM, SueAnne Griffith <sng0005 at tigermail.auburn.edu> wrote:

Good evening,

Meeting minutes from tonight are attached! Make sure to note the change in plans for the nets.  Also, there will be no meeting next week due to Thanksgiving Break.  We'll be back in action with a special call starting 4 December, though, so join us as W4E (War4Eagle) for that weekend on through the end of finals!  Nothing like getting on the air to relax during exam week. :)

See you after the break,
SueAnne Griffith

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