Update regarding the Special Exercise for New SA City Repeater last Tuesday - and my thanks

STXARES
1

Hello, I wanted to report back on the voice net last Tuesday night on the new City of San Antonio repeater frequency. I wanted to send this sooner, but have been going nonstop on our local projects, and took a much needed 3 day weekend in Montana with friends to relax.

I’d like to start by expressing my heartfelt thanks to allf who participated. That was the first time we tested this repeater, and with your help, we learned a lot.

(1) The footprint is fantastic. We got clear reports from Boerne and Spring Branch to Poteet and LaVernia, Balcones Heights, Schertz, Randolph AFB, North 1604 and South 1604 and several others that I was unable to capture. We will be testing West SA reach as well as additional surrounding counties, but so far we’re very happy with its potential reach.

FYI, this repeater is not really “new” it is an old MastrIII that we recovered and reinstated with a new frequency.

(2) After a great start with 5-9 reception for 20 solid minutes, we experienced intermittent IF for the remaining 35 minutes of testing. We heard mild to severe static for several minutes at a time, then suddenly everything clear again for several minutes.

Being hams, we have no shortage of theories and opinions, but we have not yet determined the root cause.

Our techs have been notified and are looking into the IF issue. I’ll report back when there is more to report.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

73

Patricia Colley KI7IEE

ARES Emergency Coordinator

Bexar County / San Antonio, TX

2

OK now. What is the frequency and pl tone?

Thanks,

Walter B Hock
KK5LO

3

I announced it in message #3267 . I guess you missed the heated discussion that ensued over a simple typo in the frequency. We caught the mistake right away, but I was at work and had to wait for a break to fix it, so I missed most of that conversation as it was happening. And that typo was sent to me by the trustee, who also has a full time job and is chronically overworked.

Everyone makes mistakes. Competency does not provide immunity.

So please let’s all remember to extend a little grace to each other.

Anyway…

The new K5EOC-S Frequency: 145.450 negative offset 600 KHz and PL Tone 103.5

Feel free to try it out and let me know how it goes. It would be helpful to hear about the reach and performance that others are experiencing. Just follow common sense in using a City/County emergency repeater, and bear in mind that our city-appointed tech has not yet had time to troubleshoot the IF issue we encountered. I’ve heard some chatter that the FM bands have been a bit wonky this past week.

Thanks again for your help and interest.