WA7ARC Radio Club

Installed the new digi (NPDIGI) on Friday.  Appears to be working well...

4/29/08

As some of you may have noticed, the new telemetry packages are coming on line.  Had a few problems with the auto-refresh routines in the software I was designing, but that was resolved about 20 minutes ago - we now process the data streams every minute and parse it into a usable format.  If you monitor the repeaters (146.96 or 444.375) you'll hear the telemetry routines being run during the hourly alert window.  A little more fine-tuning of the text-to-speech translator is in order, but we've managed to accomplish something pretty cool.  Each telemetry unit has sensors to read the rack temperature and supply voltage (DC).  In addition, we're measuring power output and SWR of the repeater antenna system and AC line status.  This should provide us with advance notice of potential problems, so we can respond quickly and solve the problem(s) that negatively impact the network.

Bill and I installed the new repeater rack on Nielton Point today, in preparation for the new repeater that's going onto the site, and if all holds to the plan, I'm anticipating that we'll have the 2m (146.9600- 203.5) repeater operational during this coming week.  Given some of the other plans on the table concerning telemetry routing, I opted to drop in a digipeater on the site as well.  From all appearances, the digi is operating properly and behaving itself (at this time).  As the situation evolves, the plan calls for installing the digiNed system at the location, along with a 9600 baud interface, which will have a direct internet connection as well.  This should provide us with excellent coverage along the central coast and a nice tie-in to the rest of the backbone.

Once Nielton is operational and tested, we'll revisit the Raymond site and determine whether we're going to put another digi in that location, or if the existing network will meet the needs for all concerned.