May 30, 2007

wI0OK-HD 145.36 DStar operational

Greetings!

Egads, it's been a long time since the last post.

It's been a quiet fall and winter-- not much to post as it was.

Now that 2007 is here there will be a flurry of activity, as there is much that's planned.

I am pleased to report that on the afternoon of Wednesday May 30, the wI0OK__C DStar digital voice repeater became operational on 145.36 at the Glen Arbor / Empire site.

Presently, the Icom repeater is feeding 25 watts through a six cavity duplexer and into a diplexer that combines it with the 52.92 repeater and feeds it to the six meter antenna at 330' up the tower. An ARR GasFet preamp is also in the system for added receive sensitivity.

In initial testing, the repeater seems to radiate reasonably well, even with the non-resonant antenna.

This DStar repeater will ultimately be linked (via a 'remote base' type setup on the analog system) to the 444.725 and 52.92 repeaters, but at present it is a standalone system.

Ultimately, the DStar will be capable of selectively linking with the analog, and will also be setup so that it's data channel is ported back to the Leelanau Hamgate with plans to implement a DPRS to APRS gateway and Igate (APRS node on 144.39 will likely be added to the mix too). The ultimate uses for the data channel have not been fully determined, as it would be nice to have some form of text chat integrated with the DPRS data.

More news as it comes.

73
John KF8KK