WØJH Repeater Update

By the "magic of software", SARA gained an entirely "new" repeater at 3:30PM on Wednesday 6/17. The entire upgrade took less than 10 minutes.

The ICOM FR5000 repeater, which has been operating flawlessly since officially going on the air on May 10, has had the latest firmware version loaded and the latest version of the configuration software installed.

The FR5000 is "software defined". There is no hardware of any type, no pots, no filters, etc., that one can adjust or replace. Even the volume control knob, the front panel buttons and the front panel screen, have their operation defined by the configuration software.

In recent weeks the originally installed Sinclair antenna was replaced with a Hustler, after severe desense was experienced due to corona build up on the fiberglass radome of the Sinclair during a dust storm. During this antenna maintenance, the height was increased by 20 feet.

Recent operational use of the repeater during the Stillwater Marathon indicated that the expected coverage has been achieved. Mobiles using 5W are able to communicate very well from downtown Stillwater Main Street in traffic, from the river front near the bridge and from 95 North at William O' Brien State Park on down through Bayport and onwards to south of 94. Reports have come in of successful HT use from areas where HT use had not been expected. The repeater is now regularly being used again during morning and evening commutes. We have regular use from base stations in Red Wing, mobile use North East of Osceola, travelling East into Wisconsin and base station use as far as Frederic in WI north of Balsam Lake.