Annual repeater report 2013 – 2014
No major projects have been completed but an interim MM 60 service at the Emerson Street water tank in Concord has been operational for some time. The linking interface equipment has been built but not tested,and remaining necessary equipment for the permanent installation has either been ordered or is being ordered at present. Fundraising is underway with one application being processed.
Weather Sked operators
Our numbers remain very thin on the ground. Moeraki no longer has an operator as Martin Finnie has
retired and no replacement has been located. Keith and I carry the duty shifts with Rowan Leck currently the only back up as Terry Thomas has moved and currently cannot access the repeaters.
Consideration is being given to deleting the midday weather round-up and we seek member’s opinions. The current voluntary tracking of weather fronts as they move up from the south would always continue as it is one of our strongest safety measures.
Our repeater and linking sites.
Swampy summit linking site.
No work apart from routine checks by our landlord.
MM 66 on Cape Wanbrow.
No work or development on this site. It continues to appear to underperform but all on site checks
indicate all is well. It is better than it was before the analogue TV shut down, but still has to preform
with a very high level of local interference on this very busy site .
MM62 on Hautai Hill
Apart from the apparently reduced coverage from our main aerial, everything continues to test fine and works satisfactorily.
MM 64 on Hinahina Hill
No specific maintenance visits but the site has been visited and checked several times while on unrelated business and continues to work well. We have a good bench mark every morning with Mary Leask accessing it from Bluff during the morning weather roundup’s.
I note again that with the exception of the Cape Wanbrow and Swampy Summit installations, most of our aerials, aerial infrastructure and repeaters radios are now fully or near fully depreciated and over 10 years old. There is no immediate need to replace any of the equipment and we hold adequate spares but within 3 to 4 years, we will need to be budgeting for some replacement/upgrades.
Martin Balch
RepeaterTrustee
