Update on the "Noise Problem" on UARC's 146.760 repeater

A bit of an update on the aforementioned noise problem on the 146.76 repeater's UHF link.

If you recall from a previous post (link) there was a source of noise that caused the UHF link used for Echolink and IRLP connections to "flap" - that is, if an internet connection was brought up, there would be bursts of noise that made communications rather difficult.

The site of the '76 repeater on Lake
Mountain during the summer when
there wasn't lots of snow on the
ground!

Initially, we thought that the problem had "fixed itself", but it now seems that this isn't the case and the noise will occasionally return.

We still can't get up the mountain to adjust the squelch on the UHF link receiver so we have configured the UHF link transmitter to be keyed up continuously, thus blotting out the noise source.

The side effect of this is that if an Echolink or IRLP connection is brought up, the repeater will be keyed continuously while that internet connection is active.  Rather than have the "Ker-Chunk" when one of the local users of the repeaters unkeys their transmitter, you will only hear the "Ker" part.

At some point we may add a beep to indicate to the local listeners that the local 2-meter user of the repeater has unkeyed, but that has not been done as of the time of this writing.

Hopefully, we'll soon get a chance to investigate the problem and, perhaps get atop the mountain to turn up the squelch a bit!

February UARC meeting: DX Topics!

Mark, W7HPW

One of the facets of amateur radio that sparks the imagination of many hams (and would-be hams) is DX — the chance to work foreign countries in exotic places.

Our next meeting, Thursday, February 14, will feature Mark Richardson, W7HPW, telling us about some of the facets of DX. We hope to have more details shortly, but Mark is a seasoned DXer with some serious power and antennas and can fill us in on a lot of the secrets of the DX recipe!

We hope to see you there!

The room assignment for February:

Our February meeting will be in the Warnock Engineering Building, room L105.

For those who remember when we met in what was called the “Engineering and Mines Classroom Building,” down on the bottom floor, it's on that same floor, just a little ways down the hall - and all of it is now considered part of Warnock.

Getting there from the main (east) entrance:

If you enter the Warnock building on the main floor (e.g. through the east door), you need to get to the southwest corner of the building to find the stairway and elevator that go down to the L1 level. To do this, as you enter the open area on the main floor, notice some conference rooms along the far wall of the open area, left of the main corridor. Turn left along the pathway that goes past these rooms and follow it into a hallway that soon makes a sharp right turn. Follow the hall through the right turn and continue until you find the elevator and stairs near the end of the hall. The lowest floor accessible via the elevator or the stairs is your destination. Once there, look for room 105.

When are the UARC meetings held?

UARC meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 P.M., in the Warnock Engineering Building on the University of Utah campus. See the map for information on finding the building. Rooms for the remaining Spring 2013 meetings are as follows:

February:	L105 (Three levels down from the “main” floor)
March:	2230
April:	2250

Of course, the meeting will include the “standard” meeting features:

• Availability of ARRL books from Brett, the “book lady”
• An opportunity to join UARC or renew your membership
• An opportunity to join ARRL or renew your membership
• The chance to meet face-to-face the people you talk to on the air
• The “Meeting after the meeting”: A chance to enjoy pizza or other gastronomic delights with other hams. It happens at Litza's Pizza, 716 E. 400 South.
• The “Meeting before the meeting”: A similar get-together for those who can leave work early enough to get there by 5:15 P.M. The February get-together will be at “Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill,” 255 E. 400 South in Salt Lake City.

The UARC "Ham Hotline" is back!

The Utah Amateur Radio Club
Ham Hotline:  801-583-3002

After several months of absence, the Utah Amateur Radio Club's "Ham Hotline" is back in service.

The telephone number for the hotline is 801-583-3002.

If you have a question about any upcoming UARC events, events of note sponsored by nearby (Utah) clubs, upcoming sessions for amateur radio license testing or a technical or regulatory question related to amateur radio, this is a place to start!

Currently, this telephone number is directed to Linda, N7HVF and you may get an answering machine during business hours or when she is not home.  If Linda doesn't have the answer for your question there's a good chance that she can direct you to someone who does!


Why was it offline for so long?

We're not quite sure.  Several years ago this the ham hotline was "ported" to a VOIP service to reduce the costs and this worked fine for quite a while.  Suddenly - several months ago - we got word that it no longer worked and after some digging around we discovered that the VOIP provider had inexplicably cancelled the service and returned it to the pool of available numbers.  When asked why they had done this, we could not get any sensible answer!  (Yes, we'd been paying our bill on time!)

Fortunately, the number was still available so we obtained it through a different provider and, eventually, got it back into service!

January UARC meeting: Formal Trafffic Handling differerent room!

Have you heard people on the air saying odd things like, “Please copy number 23, routine, from W7LID...” and wondered what was going on?

Well, UARC's January meeting will be a chance to learn all about it. There is a nationwide network of amateurs that operates every day of the year to relay messages (“radiograms”) from one part of the country to another.

Dick Leining, W7DML, will be telling us all about this operating activity including what form messages take, how they make their way from one place to another, and how you can participate. Traffic handling is one of the oldest activities in amateur radio. It's where the “relay” part of the American Radio Relay League name comes from.

With the new year, we're back to our regular schedule with UARC meetings on the second Thursday of the month. That puts the next meeting on Thursday, January 10, 2013.

Room Change!

The room in which we will be meeting is a little more complicated, though. It will be changing from month to month. The January meeting will be in room 2230, right above 1230 where our most recent meetings have been.

The meeting will start at the usual time - 7:30PM but you are welcome to show up earlier and meet new people as the wander in!

Of course, the meeting will include the “standard” meeting features:

• Availability of ARRL books from Brett, the “book lady”
• An opportunity to join UARC or renew your membership
• An opportunity to join ARRL or renew your membership
• The chance to meet face-to-face the people you talk to on the air
• The “Meeting after the meeting”: A chance to enjoy pizza or other gastronomic delights with other hams. It happens at Litza's Pizza, 716 E. 400 South.
• The “Meeting before the meeting”: A similar get-together for those who can leave work early enough to get there by 5:15 P.M. The January get-together will be at “The Sizzler,” 371 E. 400 South in Salt Lake City. 

See you there!

Repeaters of the Utah Amateur Radio Club

The 146.020 receive antenna at
Farnsworth Peak, west of Salt
Lake City, Utah

The Utah Amateur Radio Club supports three repeaters in the Salt Lake City area:

• 146.620 on Farnsworth Peak, about 18 miles (29km) southwest of Salt Lake City at about 9000 feet (2740 meters).
• 146.620 on Scott's Hill near Brighton Utah, about 17 miles (28km) southeast of Salt Lake City near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon at an elevation of about 10000 feet (3050 meters).
• 146.760 on Lake Mountain about 12 miles (19km) west of Orem, Utah on the west side of Utah Lake at an elevation of approximately 7600 feet (2320 meters).

 None of the above repeaters require subaudible tone for access. 

The 146.620 repeater system:

The two 146.620 repeaters operate as one repeater.  Using simulcasting transmitters allows minimal interference between the two repeaters in overlap areas and the voting receiver system automatically selects the best signal coming from the system's several receivers.  The end result is that the coverage of these two repeaters is greater than the sum of its parts!

For a typical 50 watt mobile installation, the 146.620 repeater system provides coverage west of Wendover, Nevada on Interstate 80 to a bit east of Evanston, Wyoming and a bit past the Idaho border on Interstates 15 and 84 and to approximately Santaquin, Utah to the south.  The '62 system also provides coverage in the Heber and Park city areas as well as parts of Cache and Morgan valleys - and a few other surprising, remote locations throughout northern Utah, southern Idaho, southwest Wyoming and eastern Nevada!

You may read more about the 146.620 repeater system at the 146.620 repeater system page on the Utah Amateur Radio Club web site.

The 146.760 repeater:

The 146.760 repeater covers mainly in the Utah County area (from Nephi to to Provo to Alpine) and surrounding communities as well as into the Salt Lake City are and to a lesser degree, points north into Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties.  Due to geography, there are a few places in the Salt Lake area and northwards that are "shadowed" and do not get good coverage of this repeater.

For a typical 50 watt mobile installation, coverage is possible from well south of Utah county (near Levan, Utah) along Interstate 15 to Brigham City to the north.  It also has good coverage into the southern portion of the Tooele valley as well as some areas in the west desert in Tooele and Juab counties.  Due to geography, its coverage east of the Wasatch range is a bit spotty.

The 146.760 repeater is linked to the internet via IRLP (node 3352) as well as Echolink (node #703269).

You may read more about the 146.760 repeater at the 146.760 repeater page on the Utah Amateur Radio Club web site.

For more information, be sure to visit the Utah Amateur Radio Club web site!

About the Utah Amateur Radio Club

Welcome to the Utah Amateur Radio Club blog page!

The Utah Amateur Radio Club is the oldest extant radio club in Utah and in his book 200 Meters and Down, Clinton Desoto describes a radio club in Salt Lake City as the very first organization of its kind - that was formed in 1909. and it is possible that UARC's roots go back to that organization.

However, the records extant show that the Utah Amateur Radio Club was formed under its current name in 1927 and the club still has records containing the minutes of the first meeting. UARC became affiliated with the American Radio Relay League (UARC is #1602) the following year.

The Utah Amateur Radio Club holds monthly club meetings (except in July and August), typically on the second Thursday of the month starting at 7:30 PM.  These meetings are usually held in the Warnock Engineering Building on the campus of the University of Utah.

UARC also holds an information net on Sunday evenings starting at 9 PM on the 146.620 repeater system.  This net disseminates the week's "Amateur Radio Newline" news report as well as announcements related to the Utah Amateur Radio club, license testing as well as notable events and information about other local radio clubs.  At the end of the net is a question/answer session where one may pose technical or informational questions to the host of that portion of the net.

Please visit the Utah Amateur Radio club's main web site at:  http://www.utaharc.org