January 29, 2007
Just when you think things are going well....
Steve, N8XSF, reported this weekend that he and Dwight installed the rack and repeaters at the Linwood site but when they tried to get the 440 repeater back on the air with the existing feed line and antenna the signal they put out while registering 100 watts was only broadcasting to an area no further than a half mile. Additionally it could not hear beyond that distance as well. A lot of scratching of heads and a few tests bought us to the conclusion that that antenna was not connected and possibly a small dummy load was attached to the other end of the feedline. That would explain why we had a good SWR reading and was able to put 100 watt load with no fold back of power. That is unless someone can explain how this can happen.
Not wanting to risk having to climb the tower twice we decided that in addition to putting up a new 2 meter antenna we'd purchase a new 440 as well and install them both at the same time.
Still waiting to hear from the Sheriff's office on whether or not we can supply our own climber.