We are currently working on a plan to bring a 70cm repeater to Inglis. This 70cm repeater will link to the existing 2m repeater in Gulf Hammock. This will solve our poor coverage in the SW section of the county, without the expense of changing the 2m antenna, possibly lowering our current 2m coverage. Stay tuned for more information. 73.
We went live with Echolink on the 2-Meter repeater tonight about 10:00 PM. We are still working on some settings and audio levels, but at this point it is up and usable.
UPDATE! 01/05/2015 - Echolink setup has proven to be problematic, and have for the time being, been shut down. I'll keep y'all posted as we progress. The new repeater is working fantastically. We are getting lots of compliments and kudos. We are just very excited to see the usage is increasing.
We are still planning on getting the antenna replaced, and re-aligned to adjust or coverage in the Inglis-Yankeetown area. We do not yet have a scheduled date, but the antenna has been ordered, and the Levy County Emergency Management is working to co-ordinate the tower work to be in conjunction with some other tower work that needs to be done as well, for the Levy County Fire / EMS service. I am also working to get this machine up and running on EchoLink. 73 Aaron (KM4ECS) We will need some range testers with mobile 2-Meter capability when we are ready to install the new antenna. While the crew is on the tower, they are going to replace the antenna, but are also going to adjust its orientation on the tower so we can best cover Levy County. We will need several volunteers to be staged at the far reaches of the county that we can signal check with during the alignment, so we can hopefully get the best service from this new antenna. Please let me know if you would like to participate, and we will try to work out the schedule. I am not sure of when this will take place. Waiting on an answer from the Levy EOC.
OK, WOO HOO! The new 2 Meter Repeater has been installed! It is working beautifully. We have a brand new Icom Commercial Repeater, it has a 100% Duty Cycle 50 Watt PA, and is currently setup with a 3 Minute Time Out. Squelch Tail is about 2 Seconds. We may tweak on that some later. Next is the replacement antenna, and re-alignment to better cover the SW Quadrant of Levy County! I'll keep you posted. We have a "Rag Chew" net that is up on Thursdays @ 7PM, Ya'll come join us.
The replacement 2-meter repeater has arrived. We should have it programmed and up on the air within a week. The response has been great on the 2-Meter being back on the air. The coverage is fantastic, but we do have the "tower shadow" issue to the SW, but we are working on getting that resolved. Thanks goes out to the Levy County Emergency Management for sponsoring this repeater. Keep us tuned in, and an ear out for us on the air.
As mentioned in earlier post, we are working with Levy County Emergency Management to replace the 2-Meter Repeater (147.330 + w/123.0 CTCSS). We are also working on installing a new 70cm repeater at the same location. As before, we'll keep you posted.
The K4NCA 2 meter repeater has been on the air for a little over 1 week. Our performance expectations have been exceeded. We have HT coverage in about 90% of Levy County. We have HT coverage outside Levy County, to the North, Northeast, and East. We have typical mobile coverage in all of Levy County (except for some tower shadow in the SW quadrant). Mobile and Base coverage has been reported upwards of 85 miles from the tower site. We are currently working on a solution to the antenna orientation in hopes of clearing up the poor coverage to the SW. We are also working on replacing the repeater with a new Yaesu Fusion DR-1X repeater. We'll keep you posted on the results.
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AuthorAaron Mills - KM4ECS Archives
February 2017
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