I was totally wore down yesterday after the Saturday adventure. This was the return trip for the Raton Pass repeater systems installs hosted by the CMRG (Cheyenne Mountain Radio Group). I had gone down two weeks ago and helped all day with the clean up of the ‘new to them” repeater building and it was a huge mess. You can see some of it here. This trip was to move the Dstar machines and install the others in the new building with a few more “fixes” to the building. Ok as a refresher this was what was installed in the new building…
This is the most complex repeater system CMRG has ever built. When installed, the system will have:
VHF Repeater on 145.430 MHz
VHF repeater linked to Cheyenne mountain 147.345 via Allstar
UHF backup link to Cheyenne Mtn
UHF Repeater on 449.600 MHz
UHF D-STAR repeater 446.775 MHz
900 MHz P-25 repeater linked to the CO 900 system
APRS Digipeater (RATON)
LinkCommunications RLC-4 repeater controller with remote control
Triplite 2200 watt UPS with remote monitoring and external batteries
The repeater system (2 cabinets) will be installed on Raton Pass (CO/NM border) at the transmitter site of KCRT.
It was a little slower getting there as we had to load up a lot of the equipment – duplexers, cabinet, radios, power units, backups, etc. We got that all done and headed south about 8am. Of course I needed a couple of pit stops but we all got there about 10 and proceeded up the mountain…
Once on top we positioned to get stuff unloaded.
We had about the same people plus a couple and minus a couple and several bystanders as well…
Because we didn’t get the antennas up the last time that was a prime issues early to get them swapped out, changed, installed, etc. We knew the storms were to start up about 2pm so they went to work getting old broken antennas out and new ones up…
One off and one to take off yet, of course the bolts were rusted on and other small issues..
That meant a lot of up and down and study on how to swap things out… ended up taking the entire mounting structure down so we could work on it on the ground. then back up.
In the meantime several more were working on link antennas on the other end of the building.
On the opposite end of things several were working to get the Dstar cabinet out and moved to the new building.
Not all the wiring was done yet and the grounds were not linked up. I worked on some of that to ensure , at least temporary, they were as we couldn’t find the Grounding clamps for the copper wire.
The cabinets in the new building and starting to re-hookup all the things that were unhooked with some additions of course.
Both cabinets in the building but not hooked up and luckily it waited to rain and storm till now, in the back Rich is trying to get some of the Allstar links and software updated and ready for turn on.
Inside the arrestors on the copper plate and grounded below but the 900mhz antenna wasn’t working? At this point we couldn’t’ reclimb to check things out so it just remains unhooked.
The storm moved on and now we put up the block of the south door and fixed the vent above it. the one good thing about the rain and wind showed us where the leaks were and what to change… the top vent was ‘upside-down” and rain just poured in… so I took it off, put screen on the back and put it back right side up… hope that stops the rain as the cabinets were placed within a few feet of that blocked off door and that vent… once I got the door fully blocked I foam sealed all the way around it as it was old, weather rotted and didn’t pull up clean on that end with huge holes all the way around…
The guys inside continued to work on the network links and getting Dstar on, the Allstar up and other things going, and every time they tried to finish up it would quit or change…
Cabinets hooked up, working on links and cables and oops it quit again…
Well at least 95% is working like it was intended… I think. The 900mhz repeater is still off till the antenna issues are fixed and possibly some more linking fixes yet to be done but access to all the systems is up. and here is what was running when we left the site at 10pm…….
VHF Repeater on 145.430 MHz
VHF repeater linked to Cheyenne mountain 147.345 via Allstar
UHF backup link to Cheyenne Mtn
UHF Repeater on 449.600 MHz
UHF D-STAR repeater 446.775 MHz
APRS Digipeater (RATON)
LinkCommunications RLC-4 repeater controller with remote control
Triplite 2200 watt UPS with remote monitoring and external batteries
Then it was the long drive home and I got home about 1:30AM Sunday morning… totally tired… but happy I went and happy with what was accomplished. In reality it is a tremendous amount of equipment installed in such a short time.
Sure hope the guys on both sides of the pass enjoy and make use of the current equipment.
WD0AJG