K7LWH Repeater Maintenance

UPDATE!!!  The team ran into a few issues during their work on Wednesday.  The work on 70-centimeters is complete, but the 2-meter radio gave them a bit of trouble.  When adjusting the TX audio levels, they couldn't get them set to the proper levels.  They ran out of time to troubleshoot the problem, so they put the original 2-meter radio back in service.  However, the audio level on that radio also now appears to be low.  We're regrouping for another attempt on Friday (9/26).

Our outstanding Repeater Team will be performing maintenance on the 2-meter and 70-centimeter repeaters this morning.  We are replacing older equipment with some new-to-us radios.  

This has been in the works for quite some time, and we are finally ready to make the swap.  The plan is to work on one band at a time, starting with the 2-meter side.  The old radio will be disabled, and the wiring switched over to the new radio. There are a few adjustments to ensure audio levels and other settings are balanced and calibrated.  Once the 2-meter work is completed, the process will be repeated for 70-centimeters.  Each band will see a 10-15 minute outage as the work is performed.  

During the maintenance, a few other settings on the repeater controller will be adjusted, like the annoyingly loud CW ID.  All work on the repeaters should be completed will in advance of the 11:00 AM  Health & Wellness net.

After this work, the 2-meter band will have about the same power as it does now.  However the big improvement will be on the 70-centimeter side where we will go from about 25 watts on the old radio to about 80 watts.  This won't necessarily improve our range, however it should improve signal quality for stations in the 70-centimeter footprint.

We will have more details about the repeater work once everything is settled in.