Report on Trip to Farnsworth Peak Saturday Nov 3rd

[John Lloyd]

All,

My son Brian, KD7BAY and myself went to Farnsworth Peak on Saturday Nov
3rd.

We found the D-Star Stack dead with no power. It turned out to be the
APC UPS had failed. We tried to remove the batteries but they had
swelled leaving them stuck inside. I could not get the UPS to run
without the batteries connected. They were shot anyway!

We unbolted the UPS from the rack and installed a plug strip to power up
all of the equipment.

Brian installed the gateway server and set it up. He had to go around
the backside of the router to find the password to set it up. He
finished that and tried to connect to the internet but found it not
working. We have an Ethernet connection now but the port needs to be
turned on at the KSL valley end. He will be working on this Monday when
he can work with them when they are in the office.

I installed the 1.2 GHz DD (Data) 1.2 GHz radio and connected the RF
port to the pass cavities. I verified the frequency programming on this
radio and also the 1.2 GHz D-Star voice radio. Everything is set up
properly so it should be working now. I did not have a 1.2 GHz ID-1 with
me so I could not check this out.

I went through the 2 Mtr and 440 D-Star radios and found the 448.075
radio working properly. I checked for desense when injecting a weak
signal into the receiver and while looking at a scope connected to the
discriminator I turned on the transmitter and saw no degradation in the
received signal. The transmitter puts out 12 watts to the antenna out of
the duplexer and isolator with under 1/4 watt reflected. This looks
pretty good. I could talk through this repeater from my handheld and it
keys up fine and repeats my transmissions. I called several times over
the air for anyone listing to respond with no response.

The 2 Mtr radio has some problems however. When testing for desense I
see about 10 to 15 DB of desense when looking at the receiver with a
scope and then turning on the transmitter. I would like to try
installing a band pass cavity between the isolator and the duplexer to
see if the added filtering in the transmitter path will reduce the
desense. I did not have a pass cavity with me at the time so this will
need to be done at a later date.

Another more serious problem exists with the 2 Mtr repeater as it does
not repeat any D-Star transmissions at all. Since the RP2C controller
does all of the repeating functions, I swapped the 448.075 port with the
145.125 port and still no 2 Mtr repeat. I swapped out the Ethernet cable
and still no repeat. It appears to be an internal problem so this will
need to be repaired. I do not have any spare parts or technical manuals
for this 2 Mtr repeater so I will need to either replace it or perhaps
send it back to Icom for repair.

We left the site for home at 5:30 PM and drove slowly down the mountain
due to the roughness of the road.

Thanks,

John Lloyd, K7JL
Brian Lloyd, KD7BAY

[John Lloyd]

All,

I tested the failed APC1500 UPS this afternoon. I removed the swelled
batteries and cleaned up the residue left in the battery tray.

I tested this UPS with a power supply across the battery input and
powered it up with AC and it appears to work ok. I made the decision to
purchase 4 each of the 12 VDC at 7 Amp hour batteries to get this
working again. These batteries are about $20.00 each.

I installed the new batteries and put it all back together and it is
working fine and charging the batteries now. I will leave it powered up
charging the batteries overnight and see how it all works tomorrow morning.

I am planning on making another trip to Farnsworth Peak tomorrow
morning, Tuesday Nov 6th, to re-install this UPS and to do some more
troubleshooting on the 2 Mtr D- Star repeater. I may be going up alone
depending upon if two others who said that they may want to go up with
me actually can.

Our Internet connection is back up and the Gateway is working now. I
will try making connection to another D-Star Gateway system tonight and
see how it works from our 448.075 repeater.

Thanks,

John Lloyd, K7JL

[Kelvin Anderson]

Great news John. 

Thanks to you and your son for your efforts. 

-Kelvin, K7KHA

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[LachacZ]

Thank you

Thanks
Joe