On Friday evening, Chuck Doose – KB9UMF, Torben Lauritsen – KF9A, Bob McComb – N9MBR and myself met up at the repeater site to try and figure out what the problem was with the repeater. After doing a few tests and taking some current readings, it was decided to take the repeater off line and get it in and get it repaired. In testing it, we saw that it was was drawing more than twice the normal current so it wasn’t safe to keep it running like it was. We called Jack Albert who has worked on the repeater before, and he agreed to repair it again. Chuck took the repeater with him and plans on dropping it off today, Sunday, at Jack’s. He’s hoping Jack can fix it while he waits in which case we will have it back on Monday. In any case, we decided that since we have it all torn up, we would relocate the repeater, when ever we get it back, into the new permanent location that was offered to us. We have determined how to get the antenna line to the new location, where to put the cans, computer and monitor with the repeater. We will be working on this move starting the first thing tomorrow, Monday, and hope to have the system back up and running some time next week.
I heard a funny comment on the Joliet repeater on the way in this morning. It seems that some of you think that the repeater being down has something to do with upcoming visit by a prominent politician next week. I assure you, the repeater being down at this time has nothing what so ever to do with that upcoming visit!!! Interesting correlation though? Well that’s about it for today. Just wanted to let you know what’s going on and why the repeater is silent. Be assured, we will get it back up and running just as soon as we can and I apologize for the inconvenience. It couldn’t be helped. Please pass this information on to all that you can and I encourage you to pass this site’s address on to others who might be interested in the club and what’s going on.
73s
Tim -N9UEB