Prune Hill Repeater Down for Upgrades

Post date: Jul 11, 2010 9:46:20 PM

The UHF repeater operated by C.A.R.S. at the Prune Hill chapel was taken down yesterday for site maintenance and upgrades, and AD7UF traveled down there for the occasion. A humble group of five gathered starting at 9:00 AM, and started with a bit of cleaning. The covered picnic area where the equipment is located is also enjoyed by quite a few birds (they especially like nesting with the warm power supply!), and they're not the neatest creatures.... One of the CARS members donated a large aluminum utility cabinet, more than twice as big as the cabinet the repeater is currently housed in, and much of the day was spent beefing up the framing to prepare a mounting location for the new cabinet. A "corner" antenna was also added to the mast in the hope of improving our communication range to the east of Portland/Vancouver. There was at least as much talk as work going on, and a day spent visiting with other hams was refreshing, as were the delicious sandwiches provided by Kevin's XYL!

Significant progress was made, though there's still much work to do! The existing radio equipment exists of a single FM voice repeater. The plans for the site include backup power, and a couple of digital transceivers, linking to existing amateur assets in Gresham and areas as far north as Longview to The Dalles and other locations to the East. An 802.11 link will provide Internet connectivity, further enhancing traffic handling capability.

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