Mountain top views and repeater replacement

[Colt45ws]

Left this morning just after 0800 with another member of our GMRS group in his Jeep to make the 2.5 hour trip up to a mountain top repeater site. The Vertex VXR 7000 we had running on GMRS 22 had developed a intermittent problem hearing and now is getting pretty close to the end of being able to get up here without snowmobiles.
Turned out to be a great day on the mountain, sunny and just a breeze to deal with, temperatures right at freezing.
I put in a Motorola MTR2000 40W repeater I had put a great deal of work into this week on short notice to get a external controller adapted to it and it works great.
We then fixed a couple of the heaters in the building, and hopefully they will keep it above freezing.
Also checked out the JD powered Kohler generator that was in the building for backup power. Would fault and shut down after only 30 seconds. Turned out pretty simple. The water level was low in the radiator and a level sensor was tripping it out. Ive been told it existed in this condition for at least the past 4 years. The confusion arose because the panel on the gen does not have a light for low water, so it lights the auxillary fault light giving you no information on what may have caused it.
Once that was rectifed it ran and even powered the building for about 30 minutes.
We had a quick BBQ lunch and chatted for a bit before heading back down about 1400. We got everything that needed looked at fixed and repaired so with any luck we wont have to break out the snowcat this winter.

 

[tcp71]

There are worse ways of spending your time. Voice or data repeater? Function?

 

[Colt45ws]

Voice. GMRS in the UHF band.

 

[CDX825]

How big of footprint does the repeater cover? I'd imagine with that kind of elevation it has to cover some serious ground!

 

[Colt45ws]

Yes, 6700ft ASL, and its going into a 7db stick on the roof of the building, tho there is a db loss or so through the isolator, another through the TX combiner as it shares it with a commercial trunking system. Probably down to 20-25w into the antenna after cabling and connector losses. Still, I can get into it with a portable inside my house 55 miles away. We can get much of central washington and even parts of Oregon.

I own a UHF Motorola Quantar I'd love to put here to do Mixed mode P25 on Amateur 70cm, and get as many people as possible with it, but there are some issues and it may or may not happen.

 

[k1xv]

I never realized that there is any significant amateur radio presence here on BITOG.

 

[Chris142]

You should change the coolant in the generator. It's due. There was a repeater on the mountain above my house but it was destroyed by vandals. Maybe there is another but out of sight?

Here I am up there around 1977.

 

[ls1mike]

The looks Rainier. I thought at first Mt. Adams. If you don't mind me asking what were you close to. I love Eastern Washington.

I find you thread interesting as I was Submarine Radioman and I am interested in RF stuff.

 

[StevieC]

Cool, thanks for sharing.

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted by ls1mike
The looks Rainier. I thought at first Mt. Adams. If you don't mind me asking what were you close to. I love Eastern Washington.

I find you thread interesting as I was Submarine Radioman and I am interested in RF stuff.


First pic is Rainier, yes. This is near to Wenatchee.

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted by Chris142
You should change the coolant in the generator. It's due.


Yes, that is something I am working on for spring, along with renting a load bank to run it up the flagpole.

 

[ls1mike]

Love it out there. I tow Blewett pass a couple of times a year. Usually headed to Lincoln Rock or Chelan.
I might retire out that way.
Did the Cascade loop by way Wenatchee in Oct.
Took I I-90 for some of it as the wife wanted to see Wild Horses Monument neat Vantage.
Here a few snaps from that trip.

 

[Colt45ws]

Time for another mountain view and radio equipment!
Well, actually this was a few weeks ago, but I just got around to posting it.
I drove down to Las Vegas to spend time with family over Christmas/New Years and on the way back I planned on making this stop. This is a short ways away from the Deadman's pass rest area off I84 in Oregon. There is a access road on the west bound rest area that goes up the mountain a bit and I believe it ends up at another exit west of the rest area, but I didnt fully explore it.
The reason I planned on making this stop was because of the GMRS repeater in the OP. I was able to access and talk on the repeater from this location, full quieting. 50W from a XTL5000 into a 5db colinear. Its about a 150 mile hit, IIRC.
It works because this spot is around 3300ft and the repeater is at 6300ft so it gets over the curvature of the earth. Pretty awesome.
Traveling west back down the mountain, I was able to pick up the ragchew on the repeater until about the base of the hill when it became really rough. As I got closer to Pendelton, the signal improved and once I got a bit past there I had good signal pretty much all the way back to I82 and into WA.

 

[53' Stude]

Colton: thanks for the info and great write up sir

Gorgeous pics btw