ALERT Network Santiago Repeater ALERT Repeater Building Upgrades and Lessons Learned
ALERT Network • 65 gauges in cooperation with CVWD • 4 smart repeaters • Santiago is our busiest repeater • Transmits south to NWS and back to the base station at the office
Repeater Backbone
Shared Repeater Building • Rented space can be very expensive • Many different visitors • Have to keep equipment locked • Lucky to find FREE space • Land leases and new buildings expensive • Towers another added cost • Long term maintenance
Santiago Building • Forest Service building • 6 other government users • 60+ year old building • Updated 120’ tower (very nice) • Ice protected cable way • Building is at capacity • Lucky to find FREE space
Repeater Building
Repeater Tower
Building Agreement • Equipment in building compact • Mounted on wall • Room on tower leg facing east • Open spot on cableways • Open spot in cableport • Dedicated AC circuit • Forest service was glad to do less paperwork
2014 A Year of Good Fortune • One of the agencies decided to do some upgrades to the building • This was for their benefit, but would of course help all tenants • Was told they would be working at the site but did not know the extent
New AC Drop and Panel
New Air conditioning
The Old Saying “Never Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth”! • Unless mysteriously your ALERT gauges sporadically start going out. • I was unaware of all upgrades and changes until I visited in July • In May we lost contact with some fringe sites • Assumed it was a bad antenna since we had seen same behavior before
July Visit • Bird watt meter showed a return loss of 50% • No visible problems • Without a tower crew I couldn’t perform any more than a visual Inspection
August Visit • Tower crew $1000 • Bird watt meter still showed a return loss of 50% • Anritsu showed a short on the line • The frequency range of the antenna appeared off indicating could be bad • After removing antenna and connectors on both ends cable still showed a short
Coax Inspection
2 nd Visit Summary • No visible problems with antenna • Heliax on tower appeared to be shorted (bad) • Would require a 3 rd visit • Replacement of 8 year old 150’ of Heliax and possibly the antenna
3rd Visit • Different tower crew • Ready to replace Heliax from building to antenna on tower ($3000) • I explained I still wanted to diagnose the issue • They did a really thorough cable inspection and tracing • Then I heard it, “Hey that cable you say is yours goes to a different antenna” ?
The Problem
Moral of The Story • Even the FBI makes mistakes • Assume the unimaginable will happen • Make things fool proof • Mark ALL your cables on both sides of connectors and at terminations
Questions & Discussion Thank You
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