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N.O.R.M.A. NEWSLETTER THE NORTHERN OHIO REPEATER ASSOCIATION, INC. P.O. November, 2003 NEW MEMBERS: KC8TBD, WA8ZWO, KC8LYH,
KC8CMI, WB8AJE, W3YQX, KC8TBB, KC8VRB RENEWED MEMBER: K8LP, K8CP, K8VZX, W8WGO,
WA8GOI, W8ADV, W8VRJ, K8BXY,WB8PHH, KC8ONS, KA8LOF, KC8BFX, N8WJZ, K8OFI,
W8DLG, N8UPZ, WD8NRW, WB8ROK,
KB8TZU, KB8DX, K8FCM (FORMALLY WD8IYN), N8MZJ, WB8GED, N8GLU, AB8Z, K8SJV, KB8BLF,
W8LSQ MEMBERSHIP: by WA8TPP Welcome as a new
members, KC8TBD, WA8ZWO, K8CMI, KC8LYH,
W3YQX, KC8TBB, WB8AJE and KC8VRB. If you
hear them on say HI and welcome to the group. We want to thank all those that
financially supported our efforts on the maintenance of the Newbury and Chardon
machines. Your generous contributions
are greatly appreciated. For those of you who haven’t made a donation recently,
the date of your last contribution is on the mailing label. If I have somehow missed in mentioning
someone making a contribution I am sincerely sorry and if you let me know I’ll
put it in the next newsletter. NETS: by WA8TPP Swap-N-Shop Net, Tuesday, Handi-Ham Net, Thursday, Trivia Net, Daily, Satern Net, Tuesday, Please support all the
nets on the band as if we don’t they could disappear along with the
frequencies. Use ‘em
or loose ‘em as they say.
If there is a net you would like me to list just drop me a note via
e-mail or snail mail or call me and I’ll be glad to list it in the next
newsletter. I know there are many more
that are not listed. REPEATER OPERATION: by WA8TPP As everyone knows, the
Newbury repeater has had a problem of cutting out for no apparent reason for a
long time. The problem was difficult to
find since every time it was removed for testing, it worked just fine. It operated for extended periods on the bench
without fail and it was starting to give us fits. The last time it failed it was noted that the
repeater operated fine on battery power but when returned to line power it
failed again. With that information that
it worked OK with lover voltages, a DC switch on the transmitter board was
checked again and the resistance reading were somewhat out of
specification. It was decided to replace
the device and during the replacement a cracked resistor was noted. That was then replaced. With these replaced parts the repeater appeared
to operate OK. The repeater was returned
to the rack and when plug in and testes the final in the repeater failed. It was then noted that the line voltage was almost 130 v.a.c. Out it came again and the final was replaced
and when returned to the rack with a variac in line
to reduce the line voltage to 110 v.a.c.
it worked fine and continues to do so.
I think we got it finally. Please
keep you fingers crossed. Sometime later another
problem was encountered with coverage on the west side of the antenna. Apparently there is a problem with the
antennas on the west side of the tower.
As you may or may not know there are four (4) antennas, two (2) and the
east and two (2) on the west side. The
antennas are connected through three (3) power dividers,.
One splits the power to the east and
west sides and the other two to the upper and lower antennas on each side. So, there can be a problem with the first
power divider or the one routing the power to the upper and lower antennas on
the west side of the tower. We will
have to hire a tower climber to go up and investigate the problem by taking
various measurements and then replacing the faulty part. We do have spare power dividers but should
it be an antenna then that will present a real problem as we don’t have
replacement antennas. These antennas are
custom built and tuned for 147.015 MHz. and are not stocked. They are expensive too. Hopefully we can schedule the club sometime
during November. All depends on the
weather. WEB SITE: by WA8TPP We now have a new
website for this repeater. It is: www.normaweb.org. Please check it often for any information and
the latest newsletters. Your directors, W8NIE, Norb,
Director Emeritus W8OKE, Ed KA8YNO, Ron WA8LOB, Nick N8EQT, Ray WA8TPP, Dick Information for the
newsletter may be sent to: Dick Ingraham,
WA8TPP email:
reingraham@stratos.net phone: 440.946.4879 PS We got the antennas repaired. It was the primary power divider. Repeater now working great. |