I have been a little delinquent in posting lately...
With the Tour De Cure event coming up - it was suggested that I attempt to assmeble a digipeater to put up. I had access to a tower location, so it was just a matter of assembling something to put up at the tower.
Established in the 1990’s at it’s current site on Worden Hill atop Bristol Mountain, the 145.11 Repeater antenna is the highest in this area @ 2325 Ft. ASL. This Finger Lakes site overlooks Monroe, Ontario, Wayne, Livingston, Yates and surrounding Western NY counties, with mobile coverage as far north as Watertown and HT coverage to the cities of Rochester, Canandaigua and more.
Recently I made a barter deal to trade one of my TK-880's for a TK-630. I was talking with a friend on the air the other day, and we were discussing remote mount kits and how people like to cut the cables short when they remove them from municipal vehicles.
I promised him, that I would take some pictures for him, of how the remote mount kit, and wiring all goes together. I figured I would post it here, as there is always the possibility that someone else needs the info too.
Here is a picture of my setup.
Radios (left to right)
So after I got my ticket, of course I immediatly went about installing my mobile dual band Icom 208h. Because I randomly toss ladders on my car, I didnt want to put my antenna on the roof, so I went about using a lip mount on the back of the hood. After getting the radio installed, I was getting a nasty interference. I tried many things, including relocating the wire, tossing a magnet mount on the roof, and even ended up drilling a hole in the roof for a permanent NMO mount.
After getting my radios set up, I started thinking about how I wanted to manage the microphones for 3-4 radios. I really like my Turner +3 Mic for talking, being that its a nice desktop Mic. I really wanted to be able to just use that on all my radios without having to move it from one to the next.
When I first got my ticket, I didnt quite have any radios set up yet. In able to attempt to participate, I was going to use Echolink. The biggest issue many people have with Echolink, is poor audio quality coming from the microphone of the computer. Most people use laptops these days, making this problem even worse.
I had wanted to get my HAM - Amateur Radio license for many years. Back in the mid 90's I used to be into CB radio, and had considered getting my HAM license at that point. I was always scared away by the code requirements.