New 70cm and 6m repeater equipment install

On Sunday the 2nd of November 2003 a team of Hams (Eion ZL3AG, Alastair ZL2BCR, Doug ZL2BCF, Mike ZL3TMB) set off to install the new repeater equipment and antenna at Cass Peak. The first item on the agenda was to remove the old Antenna, which Doug was quick to attack with a large pipe wrench. After removing the existing coax from the wall in the repeater room to allow some slack, the old antenna soon came free. We certainly found the fault that has caused poor performance with the repeater. As you can see from the photo’s below.

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Doug ZL2BCF removing the old antenna, The corrosion at the bottom of the old Antenna.

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Eion ZL3AG assembling the new Diamond V2000 2m,6m and 70cm antenna, Doug ZL2BCF weather proofing the coax to the pipe, notice the pink dish washing gloves to keep his hands clean.

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While Doug and Eion worked on the new antenna Alastair and Mike installed the new repeater equipment into the 19″ rack. The repeaters consist of Tait series II, one on 70cm and the second one on 6m. There was a great deal of time taken removing two old runs of RG-213 coax that were screwed to the roof with small copper bands and then painted over at some stage. To allow for the new run of RG-213 in condude to be installed.

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All done Doug ZL2BCF talking to Max ZL2AAN to get a signal report, once all the new equipment has been installed and tested. You’ll see the test set at the bottom of the photo that was used test the receiver on site to make sure all is well. The repeaters receiver was set to -121dbm. We are waiting on permission and a triplexer to enable the 6m repeater. But 438.500 is now going better than ever, with slightly more power and better receiver sensitivity.

Eion ZL3AG Standing next to the Diesel mains generator, that provides backup power to the site.

Looking at the site from outside near the main entry gate.