[Mike, KJ6VCP]

Can anyone shed some light on the status of local repeaters?

My understanding is WA6TOW (146.925) is currently down. Also, I was barely able to check into the County OES net on KC6ULT (146.865) this week, although I previously had good access to that repeater from home.

[Peter, KI6FAO (treasurer)]

The transmitter for KC6ULT (146.865) was moved to a location near Half Moon Bay, just south of Hwy. 92 on Skyline. A receiver was left on Rolf Peak and that is now voted into the repeater. Unfortunately, that transmitter location isn’t heard well down here, except for some ridgetops. Pescadero High School, Loma Mar and La Honda Fire are not in good positions to hear the “865.”

I think that the move was prompted, in part, by problems with WA6TOW over some years’ time. WA6TOW is privately owned and OES wanted a repeater that would cover all of the County, that they could maintain.

This is an evolving situation and our problems with KC6ULT have been brought to the attention of folks who, we hope, will fix it. No definite time line at the moment, but last I heard we’re looking at 30-60 days. In the mean time there are a few locations that do have good reception which would have to be staffed if we need to reach either the CEOC or the EOC. You can find updated coverage maps on our site by clicking the Information tab above and then Repeaters in the drop down. (You’ll also find the same in the directory on the upper right of this page.)

As they say, “Stay tuned!”

[Paul, KJ6MPZ]

I know that the TOW repeater was back up Thursday afternoon, and they said that it is temporally fixed with duct tape and what not, and that they were getting the stuff for a permeant fix. I find that what ever they did, it is actually working better. During the recent storms we had our own issues, and thanks to Will we had a temp fix, but then the power went out for about 3-4 days at the voter site, and we lost the voter and the Pescadero UHF repeater. Power was not restored to those repeaters until tuesday or Wednesday. Both repeater batteries died. It is amazing how often the voter is actually used…

[Paul, KJ6MPZ]

By the way Peter, I lost John’s phone number, and the Pescadero repeater is still down….. I just do not want to arrive unannounced to his house.

[Peter, KI6FAO (treasurer)]

Our auxiliary receiver has separate batteries from the UHF repeater and was sized to operate for more than a week without PG&E. I think that our problem was that the link antenna on the Mindego Hill end was down and the replacement that Will lashed up was not quite as efficient: It worked but the signal was not as strong and was a bit noisier than it usually is. I’m not complaining! It was done on short notice in tough conditions.

The replacement came in the mail and I’ll put it up tomorrow. It’s also time to replace the batteries, so I’ll run a load test on the old ones once we pull them out, to see how well they’ve held up.

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