Issue
Number Two
Sunday, August 27,
2006
Brian NØLCL is very busy with work and
was not available to visit the site. I was also gone for 6
months on a Pacific trip returning in June. On Thursday August
1Øth Brian-NØLCL met me at the Humboldt site. With his
service monitor he soon determined we had a strong signal right
on the input of the UHF receiver. After some trial and
error we determined it was an oscillating 45Ø
pre-amp in the UHF receiver. I secured a ARR 45Ø
pre-amp from AAØF and went back on Friday afternoon and changed
out the pre-amp in the receiver and ran a test and things were
working great into Humboldt from both Wessington Springs and
Turkey Ridge. I have learned no to celebrate prematurely on
this problem. Sure enought a check an hour or two later
showed the audio was low on the Humboldt VHF on Signals from WS
and TR so we are still not 1ØØ% but certainly progress is being
made thanks to Brian.
Subsequently there were low audio reports on Saturday night
August 12th coming from WS into Humboldt.
Today Sunday evening August 13th the audio has been good coming
into Humboldt from both WS and TR over about 1 hour of solid
useage. What I am asking is that if people from out west or
people who can get on TR
would get on so we can determine if the only problem we have left
is low audio and how often that is happening. I want to
confirm we don't have complete signal dropout like we had
before. It would appear we probably have to replace the UHF
receiver at Humboldt or find a problem along the audio
line. AGAIN being an intermitent I think we are just going
to have to substitute until it goes away.
Fourth: Howard KGØR, Don
AAØF and myself worked on the Rapid City UHF equipment a few
days ago and were successful in getting it all operational
again. However the CPU card for the controller which was
lost at WB6GHA has to be replaced so Howard KGØR is working on
that and hopefully Howard will also be able to build some
complete back up controllers. This is something we have needed
for a long time.
Fifth: A new EPROM changing the call to KDØS has been sent to
Pierre for installation along with a PAR filter to try and cut
down the paging intermod.
Sixth: There is a severe VHF antenna problem from the ice storm
last fall at Garden City so I am making arrangements to get this
problem fixed. It takes a commercial, bonded tower company
to do the work on this tower so it takes some arranging but it is
actively being pursued.
Seventh: The VHF antenna at WS is bent from the ice storm from
last fall and work is being done to secure a new replacement
Eighth: KDØS and WØRTD have been to the Reliance site and found
the building had tipped from the wind and an unstable power
supply. Eldon installed a ventilation system in the
building and they were able to get
things working better but plan a return visit.
Ninth: The VHF site at Murdo is not working well but the
UHF link is fine. KDØS and WØRTD are planning a Murdo
visit.
Ten: KDØS, WØSD and NØOII are actively working on being able
to modify commercial DB-224's to the ham band.
Summary of link status: When the problem is not occuring on UHF
receive at Humboldt the link it working from TR to Terry Peak so
in reality the link is working quite well. It should not be
to long until the UHF site is returned to Rapid City and put back
on the air then the link would work from end to end. As I said we
do have some serious VHF issues at Murdo and Garden City.
Lastly we are desperately in need of money.
As John WB6GHA always used to say ham radio ought to be free but
it just don't work that way as there are a number of things that
cost money to keep the SDLink operating. We have secured a
good deal of surplus equipment but it costs money to get this
stuff fixed, we have power/rental bills and we are going to
need some antenna's due to all the ice damage and we are in need
of heliax. The Pierre Club has contributed $2ØØ to the
SDlink, which could not come at a better time as the need for
several hundred
dollars is crucial. We have also gotten some items from
Emergency Management, which is very helpful and very much
appreciated. If clubs and individuals could make
contributions please do so. Please send the money to AAØF
or WØSD Call book address and make checks out the SD Amateur
Radio Council. They are tax deductible. You can be
assured that a lot of effort and time is being expended to
continue to improve the
operation of the SDLink. By all means get on and use the
link as that is what all this work is being done for and the
activity will be very beneficial in discovering and fixing our
remaining problems.
Thanks Ed WØSD
HUMBOLDT
SITE TO BE MOVED
We have gotten word that we need to move off the site at Humboldt as the owner wants the site removed. Thanks to LeMar Van Heuveln, W0VH of Vantek Communications we are moving to his tower that is nearby. Although the site is going to be free with no rental or power charges moves cost money. We are going to need some new antennas, lots of heliax for the antennas and a new UHF repeater since we are having issues with the present one. If you have been considering a donation to the SDLink or if not this would be a good time to consider making one.
‘The VHF antenna will be about 100 feet higher than we presently are and will be in the clear on top of the tower so the coverage will be better than the present site.
We have had to buy a new VHF antenna for
Garden City, we have to pay SF Tower (they are treating us
very well) but it still costs a lot of money to change out the
antenna. We have needed to buy a second new VHF
antenna. Even at cost thanks to Burghardts and SF Two Way
these antenna cost nearly $500.00 each. We also had to buy
a new Astron supply as we try to get sites back on battery and
will likely have to buy more as we
want to get Garden City on Batteries and Murdo on batteries.
Howard-KG0R and Don-AA0F have been doing some splendid work on
the controller situation and Howard has a couple of new CPU cards
put together which was a serious matter as the last one was not
able to be found at WB6GHA after his death. We want to also
thank Jim KD0S and Eldon W0RTD for continuing work on Reliance
and Murdo.
With the completing of the CPU card burn in of the Rapid City UHF repeater and link equipment should begin next week. Thanks to work by Don-AA0F, Howard-KG0R and myself the Rapid City equipment has been repaired and ready for the burn in test now that the CPU card is completed.
WB0MZB, W0OE and myself secured a DB-224-E partially homebrew from an old packet site west of Wessington Springs and another partially homebrew DB-224-E from the Wessington Springs site for parts to fix damaged antenna's and secured on good phasing harness for a DB-224-E, See if you can keep Saturday September 9, 16, 23 or 30th open to help with the Humboldt move. As soon as I can schedule what Saturday it will be I will announce it here.
Anyway many 100's of miles have been traveled, a great deal of money had to be spent and a good deal of work is planned and a huge number of man hours have been put in be a "FEW" people. It is hoped you could contribute and pass the word that contributions are badly needed. They can be sent to Treasure Ed Gray W0SD 43804 257th, St. Salem, SD, 57058. They are tax deductible. We want to thank the Pierre Club who voted a $200 donation on the hope that other clubs would also contribute. They said that in no way
should mean that it should be just club donations. We have to have individual donation for the SDLink to financially survive.
One more mention of the fact that we need a commercial UHF antenna for Humboldt.
Ed W0SD
Consider
Serving on the South Dakota Link Repeater Committee
This Newsletter Last Updated on: Sunday, August 27, 2006
This SD LINK SYSTEM web page is to share information about the SD LINK SYSTEM which is operated by the South Dakota Amateur Radio Council INC.(SDARC) which is a non-profit corporation under South Dakota law and has 5Ø1 (C)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service.