So with assistance from Steve Castellano, 911 Systems Manager at DES, Bob Famiglio (K3RF), Robert G Wilson (W3BIG) and myself, Chris Kelleher (W3CTK) were able to go up to inspect the equipment and antenna running the W3AEC - DELSTAR West Digital Repeater System.
The purpose was to see what, if any, maintenance needs to be done on the system and if anything was damaged. While the 440 MHz digital voice repeater is working fine, and is tested at least monthly after our nets, the 1.2 GHz high speed data repeater has not been responding since approximate the April timeframe. Not many use this, since it requires an ICOM ID-1, IC-9700, IC-705 or similar transceiver, but obviously we would like to be able to have this available to us in case it is needed during an emergency.
We were able to power cycle the repeater controller and 3 repeaters: the 1.2 GHz digital voice, 1.2 GHz digital data and 440 MHz digital voice. The antenna connection was also examined and analyzed as well.
While there, we were also able to identify we had plenty of space for the W3AEC-10 Winlink system to be installed there, and a few antenna possibilities. Being able to have the Winlink system here in the middle of Delaware County at the height of the Fair Acres building will give us outstanding coverage of not only pretty much all of Delaware County, but much of the surrounding 5 county area as well.
I was able to take some pictures while we were there for everyone to see.
