Miscellaneous update September 26
The 444.725/52.92 repeater controller had gone stupid and forgot that it needed to send Icom CI-V format data to the 2mtr remote base. I reset this in the controller and all is well now. Hopefully 'going stupid' will not become a common occurrence.
I also changed the 'pending ID' timers so that the repeaters will ID in CW when it senses activity using the repeater. The six meter hang time was also extended a second and the 440 timeout timer was also lengthened a bit.
Today we saw a repeat of the interference problem on the link receiver from the W8TVC site. At times the interference was strong enough to capture the receiver and close the PL squelch on the signals coming in on the link. I believe this is caused by a strong shortwave broadcaster that operates on the IF of the old Motorola Motrac H series receiver. This problem had occurred in the units last use, in 1991, and it was hoped that some repairs to the receiver would have solved it. The next step in solving this issue is the use of a different receiver, which will be pursued. It'll take a month or more for a new receiver to be put in place, patience with it during the times when 'Radio Caracass' is broadcasting the 'Juan Reyes' show 'beamed to North America' is the best we can do for now, sadly.
Sadly, the '14692' remote base link to the N8JKV repeater in Lake Leelanau does NOT reach Evans repeater with it's operating on the temporary rptr antenna (Evans temporary antenna). I suspect this method of linking to the JKV repeater will continue to be inoperative even when the repeater returns to full coverage, as there is a very strong 146.910 repeater heard at the 440/6m repeater site. Good news, however, is that the 444.725 remote base transceiver for the N8JKV repeater was tested and adjusted today and should work splendidly for linking once the repeater returns to atop Evans hill.
As an adjunct to some unrelated work at the W8TVC 145.27 repeater today, it is now possible to command the W8TVC echolink node from 440/6m. The DTMF is being decoded at the W8TVC site with varying amounts of reliability. More work on this may be needed, but it's mostly where we want it to be. Additionally, adjustments were made to reduce the 'link dropout' heard on 440/6m when stations on 145.27 were either noisy or unusually loud.
Finally, the audio levels were set and adjusted at the 444.90 N7LMJ repeater and Echolink node today. All was found to be reasonably close to proper with the exception of the Echolink-to-repeater/link level, which was turned UP about 12db.
73 KF8KK