November 18, 2008 - Great news for the W6HRO repeater system! We worked all day today on the antenna system, and I am pleased to report that the 2-meter repeater is in fantastic shape! To make a long story short, we have gone to a dual antenna system. We were able to get quite a bit of both horizontal and vertical separation, and as a result the desensing problem has been eliminated and the repeater is back up to its full 30w of output power. Initial tests proved that the repeater is usable within at least a 10 mile radius of the store, and I look forward to posting more results as reports come in. Please use the repeaters! They are here and available for everyone.
Additionally, the W6HRO B 70cm machine will now be connected to the REF001C reflector during store hours. Previously, the 2-meter machine had been connected to reflector. The decision has been made to leave the 2-meter machine open and available for general use, and the 70cm machine will carry the more specialized programming such as reflectors and newsline broadcasts. Of course, you may still use the 70cm machine as needed, and the ability to control the connection to the reflectors is open to all users
November 1, 2008 - Have you tried to use the W6HRO C 2-meter repeater lately? Not having much luck? Well, we have found the answer to the problem. Our cavities, which were so graciously donated to use for use on our D-Star repeater, just will not tune where we need them. First of all, they appear to be 1 MHz minimum split cavities, and of course we need 600 kHz! Secondly, they will not tune down low enough; we have the plunger all the way down on the RX cavities and it is not low enough. Therefore, we are looking for help in the way of acquiring some 2-meter cavities that will work for us. Being that this is a low-level repeater site (the store!) and we do not need to worry about notching adjacent transmitters, we merely need something that will give us the requisite 85 dB separation between our TX and RX frequencies. If you can help us find some very low cost cavities to purchase, or if you are interested in donating to the HRO D-Star repeater system, please contact Phil, AD6NH at the store or use ad6nh (at) arrl.net. In the meantime, the repeater output has been reduced to 3W in order to try to facilitate local communications without desense! Thank you for your understanding and consideration.