Spectacle Island Now On Air

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UPDATE:  As of 14:28 UTC the crew is on the air as W1SYE on 7.236 MHz. The crew has arrived on Spectacle Island and are setting up.  Expect them on 7.236 by 14:25 or so.  They will QSY to 14.260 around 15:30 UTC.  When officially activated this will be RI028s.

Spectacle01

John, K1JSM, at the helm (photo by Evan, K1GEA), Jim, Ka1ZOU and Pete, W1LAB on the other boat

Pretty cushy conditions for this activation!

Pretty cushy conditions for this activation!  Nice to have a dock on the island.

Crew today is:

  • John, K1JSM
  • Pete, W1LAB
  • Jim, KA1ZOU
  • Evan, K1GEA
Evan, Jim and John setting up the tent.

Evan, Jim and John setting up the tent.

Evan laying down the seawater ground connection device

Evan laying down the seawater ground connection device

Spectacle05

On The Air!!! Jim logging, and John at the mic.

Upcoming Activation: Sept 3 – Spectacle Island

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The NCRC Island Activation Team will be activating Spectacle Island in Island Park Cove, Portsmouth RI.  This is a first time activation, and in fact it hasn’t been assigned a potential island number yet (there are two other islands in that cove; Tommy and Hen that have yet to be numbered as well).

The crew should be on 7.235 MHz starting at 10 AM or possibly a bit earlier, and will shift to 14.260 after the first hour.

 

Spectacle Island

W1AAD DSTAR Repeater Back on the Air

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Another trip was made by Ted, W1GRI, and Bob, WB4SON, to the DSTAR Repeater site, to install a new UPS for the computer and various other internet devices.  The opportunity was taken to remove a bunch of extraneous extensions cords, plug strips, etc that had found their way into the mix over the years.  We also discovered the cause of the RF desk shutdown yesterday — a loose AC plug feeding the 12 VDC supply.

W1AAD is back on the air and fully operational with full internet gateway services installed.

W1AAD Antenna

W1AAD Antenna

W1AAD_Repeater1

“Back” of rack, showing Linux PC, DSTAR Controller, 2m RF Deck (Top Down)

"Front" of rack, showing the business end of everything!

“Front” of rack, showing the business end of everything!

Happy DPLUS Status Screen showing connection to REF069C and some recent users

Happy DPLUS Status Screen showing connection to REF069C and some recent users

W1AAD DSTAR Repeater Off Air Temporarilly

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The DSTAR Repeater, W1AAD, suffered a hardware failure that left the internet connection down, but the RF part working.  The internet section was repaired by John Mills, Ted Wrobel, and Bob Beatty this morning.  Unfortunately the RF side is now offline.

Ted and Bob will return to the site tomorrow, install a new UPS, and get the RF side back up and running.

Gardner Island, Officially Activated as RI016S

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As of 15:35:35 UTC, W1SYE, was ON THE AIR from Gardner Island.currently on 7.238 MHz.  By 16:25 UTC Gardner was officially qualified (31 Qs and 4 DX stations).  As of 16:31 they had moved to 20 meters, 14.266 MHz.  The band wasn’t cooperating well, and the guys went QRT around 17:50 UTC.

Today’s operators were Jim, KA1ZOU, and Pete, W1LAB (Boat Master, and Photographer).

Jim, KA1ZOU, at the operating position on Gardner Island, RI (Note Goblin in background)

Jim, KA1ZOU, at the operating position on Gardner Island, RI (Note Goblin in background)

4BTV antenna located close to shoreline. Note copper strap leading into salt water.

4BTV antenna located close to shoreline. Note copper strap leading into salt water.

As the tide went out their ground connection was gradually exposed, which may help explain why signal levels were down a couple of S units on 40m 2 hours later.

Gardner3

Things took a bit of time to setup, it was a long haul to the island, and the harbor master took exception to them being on a private island until they indicated they had permission from the owner.