May 5, 2007 – VE7BEU reporting:
Jim ve7gof and I (ve7beu) just got back for 12 hour trip to Saltspring Island va7vic site. There was a problem with the 224 MHz link back from Saltspring Island to ve7vic on 146.84. Tested antennas, power out and sensitivity of all the repeaters = good. Problem with link was antenna position in relation to a new tower at the site. We moved the antenna about 90 degrees and cleared up the multipath distortion. Time will tell if the path is stable.
There was another problem with noise in the 146.66 receiver, checked duplexer and all connections and filters. The problem was located inside the repeater. Appears to have been the coax cable connections to the receiver. Check and tightened and problem is gone.
We even got a little time to check out two new sites at the south end of
Salltspring Island to set up the D-star digital repeaters. Look very interesting!
Will keep you posted. – 73 Al ve7beu, Technical Committee