[SMCARA] K3HKI Repeater

[Frederic Clarke]

I noticed an intermittent loss of signal strength on the 64 machine last 
seek and decided to head down to Hermanville today (Saturday).  The 
trusty Bird Wattmeter wasn't showing any RF power going up the chimney, 
so I did a little snooping.  First thing I found was no 12VDC on the 
power amplifier, so all we were getting was the exciter stages blowing 
by the dead amp!

I installed the Kenwood backup repeater (25 watts output) to give me a 
chance to put the power supply on the bench to troubleshoot. First thing 
I noticed was a lot of corrosion on the 12 Volt PS fuse, as a matter of 
fact the fuse holder was half missing.  I wonder if the mouse that did 
in  our previous Motorola repeater was back!  Urine induced corrosion on 
a PC board is a killer.  We have a spare PS at K3NAL and I'll check it 
out Monday.

Long story short, we are on the backup, so the range might be a bit 
less. Also you will find no squelch tail ( aka "roger beep") and the ID 
is 20 WPM vice 12. 146.2 is still the PL. No voice announcements either.

I hope to have the MICOR back on line with 75 watts up the chimney 
before I go to the Dayton Hamvention on Wednesday.

73 de Tom/W4OKW

p.s. while working on the machine, I left the ignition on in the truck 
so I could use the 2M radio to test the repeater.  About 45 minutes 
later I went to start the truck and nada! I cleverly left the AC on and 
the battery cried "uncle" and went flat! Not bad considering that  the 
battery has been in there since DEC 09! Almost 9 years on a 5 year 
battery! OK, thanks Exide!  So I bought a new battery on the way home 
after a jump start.  (rant ON) Have you noticed how expensive batteries 
are these days?   Since the previous administration chose to close the 
last lead smelters in the US, all of our lead comes from  overseas.  So 
that 80 dollar battery five years ago is now $ 140! .22 Cal plinking 
ammo is out of sight also. We have, expensively, moved the pollution 
issue overseas and we take it in the wallet again (rant OFF)


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