Monthly Archives: March 2012

You can do your own coverage prediction with Google Earth!  You’ve seen the wide-area map on the previous post (see the sample for Ithaca at left – even downtown could have signal!), but if you would like to zoom in … Continue reading →

It’s time to experiment! We may be several weeks away from going on the air with the repeater, but the antenna is ready NOW, and I’d like your help to give it a test run. I’m going to host a … Continue reading →

It’s a nice antenna, but DOES IT WORK? When you have the antenna all set to go, but your radio and duplexer are still weeks or months away from being ready, you can’t resist the urge to bring in the radio … Continue reading →

You will recall from a previous post that this antenna has two separate feeds, travelling side by side down the tower and into the transmitter room. One feed is for the batwings that face N-S, the other is for the … Continue reading →

A repeater has a few basic ingredients – Antenna, duplexer, radio and controller.  Any one of those can be a challenge.  In this case, two of them turned out to be incredibly easy.  I was talking to a local two-way radio … Continue reading →

My enthusiasm for the possibility of a 6m repeater on the old channel 3 broadcast antenna started getting away from me, and I figured I’d better talk to the boss before it got too far down the tracks.  The “boss” … Continue reading →

(Important Note:  I am NOT an antenna expert.  It is very possible, even likely that I have oversimplified and made errors in the following text.  If you spot any errors or incorrect assumptions, please post a comment to let me … Continue reading →

Back in 2001, construction began on a new transmitter facility for WSTM, TV channel 3 in Syracuse, NY.  Digital TV had been mandated by the FCC, but the old analog TV tower wasn’t strong enough for the addition of a … Continue reading →

Does the world need ANOTHER repeater?  It is easy to make the case that it DOESN’T.  My radio’s memory contains dozens of local 2m and 70cm repeater frequencies.  Put it into scan mode on a typical day, and you probably won’t find … Continue reading →