News and Happenings in 2000

Year 2000 saw KD5AYE BBS go in at the nodestack, the NBO nodestack finally working, PBF nodestack and BBS get installed however interference prevented it's use. ECA and NWA nodestacks were installed and awaiting 6m antennas. LIT got a frequency change and a good tuneup, as well as started sharing space with an APRS digi. The Conway nodestack got a "facelift" as a new rack mounting setup was installed along with some antenna changes. SPA got moved to a new tower by mid year, but by the end of the year that tower was crushed to the ground by an ice storm. Other projects such as SAR and SWA were started but had not made it on the air by years end. All in all, year 2000 had a lot of ups and downs, but definitely progress was made.

December 30, 2000 - Power up and down at Conway due to ice storm. -- Electicity lost to NBO, but batteries fine. NBO495 hearing again.

December ??, 2000 - SPA tower collapsed due to ice loading. Took down both packet nodes and local repeaters.

December 12, 2000 PM - HRO50 is working again; backup generator test blinked power and reset TNC.

December 12, 2000 - HRO50 is down; appears cold shut down TNC. -- CON495 has gone deaf. -- SPA50 is having trouble hearing.

November 28, 2000 - NWA TNCs fixed and mailed; bad serial comm chip in one of the TNCs.

November 24, 2000 - Trip to NWA site; tuned up radios, but problem with TNCs talking.

November 11, 2000 - Work party at Conway; installed loaner power supply and moved the nodes to a nice new rack.

November 6, 2000 - Battery at Conway found with dry cell; fumes filled trailer.

October 29, 2000 - New 6m antenna up at Conway. But still a problem with 6m transmit; only talking to LIT50 & NBO50.

October 28, 2000 - NWA495 is on the air... but with problems. Antenna favoring south, only path is NBO495 which is getting intermod.

October 27, 2000 - Connectors cleaned and tightened and cables checked at NBO site. Appears to have fixed the intermittant problem.

October 22, 2000 - NBO50 lost transmit audio; unknown as to why. Problem went intermittant over following days.

October 21, 2000 - ECA59 is on air! Two meter node up and running; 6m node is setup and waiting on an antenna.

October 15, 2000 - SPA50 is FIXED! Final audio transistors fixed in 6m radio which were damaged due to no load; now working properly.

October 14, 2000 - LIT50 is FIXED! Two capacitors were not changed out during a TNC upgrade performed before we took over the node; caused the DCD to operate improperly. Changed callsigns on the nodes, checked frequency and set deviations. LIT50 hearing NBO50 now, but still white noise on IND50's signal.

October 11, 2000 - OES18/W5ENL went down. Problem was heat related and killed the computer; another one was installed.

October 7-8, 2000 - SET and DEC meeting. Packet made a fair showing and flexibilty of our network came through. Looking forward to even better next year.

October 1, 2000 - Temporary 6m antenna up at Conway.

September 30, 2000 - NEBO is back online, but the NBO495 backup radio still has no audio at the site.

September 25, 2000 - NEA off the air. Mike found that the breakers were flipped off. Also re-chipped both nodes (new callsigns).

September 23, 2000 - CON50 will be off the air until a replacement antenna is installed. NBO50 tuned up and working much better (this later proves to fix the path to SPA50.) Definite problem with NBO495's receiver. NEBO working well, but output is only 12.5 watts.

September 22, 2000 - SPA50 has gone "deaf". I suspect that there is a problem with the 6m radio's receiver; probably a blown audio amp or bad connection.

September 18, 2000 - SPA50 on the air. Talking to NBO50 and LIT50; but doesn't hear NBO50 very well. Cannot hear or be heard by CON50.

August 26, 2000 - Problem at PBF50 is with an FM broadcast translator on 93.1 MHz. Seems to be seriously desensing the receiver and may also be bothering the 2m receive as well.

August 20, 2000 - PBF powered up and running. However PBF50 having a receive problem.

August 19, 2000 - LIT495 changed to LIT59. The old LIT01/02 duplexers were retuned to 144.39 and 145.59 for a new APRS digi as well as for the LIT 2m node.

August 18, 2000 - Tuned HRO495 to precisely 3.25 kHz deviation; that was the last detail remaining there.

August 13, 2000 - Des Arc site checked out. Still would like to find a 2m radio for the site and lightning protection.

July 16, 2000 - MON495 moved to Monette & EPROM replaced (new SSID); soon adding a 440 node to it.

July 14, 2000 - While in Hot Springs I was given a GE EXEC II fixed up from donated parts. Acquired an MFJ 1270 & a 1270B TNC and an older 2m radio with manuals and cabling. Will go towards another node in the NE Arkansas area.

July 1, 2000 - Six meter radio for PBF finished. There was a loose ground wire to the PA deck - could have caused a major short! Met Glenn N5RN in Little Rock and delivered all the PBF equipment to him.

June 26, 2000 - TNCs for SAR (Willisville) chipped, cabled and mailed.

June 15, 2000 - Spoke with members of the Four States ARC in Texarkana by phone. They are considering changing over the current TXK01/07 nodes to fall in line with the APN. We would upgrade the software to X1J4 and change the 07 node over to 147.495 MHz.

June 12, 2000 - THDS01 tower replaced and is back on the air after storms blew it over.

June 2, 2000 - HRO running again after storm knocked it off; blown fuse. Adjusted the 6m down to 70 watts and the 2m up to 10 watts. Also got the 2m squelch adjusted to stay open. SPA back on the air at it's new site, but on a temporary antenna.

May 31, 2000 - Recieved approval for NWA tower site! 2m antenna will go near the top on hardline, 6m ground plane antenna will go up about half way on RG-213.

May 19, 2000 - PBF nodestack with BBS is working on my bench.

May 17, 2000 - Garland Co ARES has received official permission to move their ham radio equipment to the city-county communications tower on West Mountain.

April 25, 2000 - NEBO/NBO495/NBO50 stack is now completely working.

April 24, 2000 - Mike KB5WBH reports that the UHF link between Blytheville and Memphis is working again.

April 9, 2000 - Packet lunch and DEC meeting at Conway. Got the CON50 antenna working. Cleaned dirty pot in the CONWAY radio and tweaked the receiver a bit; the path to NEBO appears restored but still not enough to have a reliable path to SPA. It is hoped that another 2m radio will be acquired soon to replace it.

March 31, 2000 - Went to HRO site, swapped EPROMS (new SSIDs) and checked the radios.

March 29, 2000 - On Tueday, went down to IND site to swap TNCs in an attempt to diagnose the "deafness" problem there. But I discovered the problem is an electrical buzz on KJ5SF's signal, probably coming from somewhere on the mountain.

March 14, 2000 - BAXTER site - changed EPROMS (new SSIDs) and set deviation on 6m. Adjusted the 2m frequency.

March 10, 2000 - Batesville nodesite - Repaired power supply back into service. Replaced IND495 & IND50 EPROMs (new passwords). Checked and set frequency & deviation on radios. Added 4x CD-Rom drive to the BBS computer.

CLICK HERE to go back to Packet page.