After the meeting on January 13th, RCWA members installed a new Yaesu DR2X repeater on 147.090MHz. 

The repeater is replacing the Kenwood dual radio setup that was previously serving the club.

Currently, the repeater is not connected to any linked system, but plans are to investigate the possibilities of installing an external controller and echolink. The possibilities also exist to bring this repeater onto the Wires-X system if the club desires.

The antenna systems were checked and found to be in excellent RF condition with around a 99.8% match on both input and output cans. The teams decided to remove a front end filter that was installed to remove local interference to the repeater, but was determined that the overall system benefit was negated by injected losses in the connections. The team will return to the site soon to replace temporary inter-site RF cabling, clean up power cabling, and move the UHF repeater into the RCWA rack.

 

RCWA engineering teams are currently studying the need of installation a downstream second stage amplifier, and the effects the installation will have on coverage and repeater power load reductions. Signal reports from your location, especially noting any differences from previous installations, is much appreciated and can be sent to rf@rcwa.org. 

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