The year 2003

Much of this information was lost, as time permits I will try to put back as much as I can.

In 2003 Mother Nature damaged some of the network nodes, a number of repairs were made and everything is back in order. The W5ENL site was upgraded to a netrom node stack like we have at W5AUU, all ports are working except BLY which has a tnc problem. Thanks to all that make the network happen and maintain the current network.

August 3, 2003 - Mike KB5WBH went to Harrisburg today and climbed the tower to replace the 6m antenna. The old J-pole was at about 35 feet and he has replaced it with a Ringo at 90 feet. At first glance, the link to ASH50 appears good, but we will have to see if the path endures over varying conditions. Mike actually made two trips as a sudden thunderstorm chased him back home in the morning... thanks for hanging in there, Mike! -- HRO has been down for some time now. I have been suffering from a bad case of sciatica and am still getting over it. Sciatica is basically low back pain with a pinched nerve that causes very severe pain in the leg and in my case numbness and pain all the way into the feet. For a long while, even sitting at the computer was too excrutiatingly painful. Needless to say, a bumpy half hour ride up Boat Mtn would not be recommended! Whenever I am finally able, I plan to go see what's up with HRO, check deviation on BAX50 and then venture over to ASH to check on the reality of the NEA50 path improvements as well as check power supply.

July 16, 2003 - James KK5WM reports that he has "some hardline connectors on the way!" He then just needs to pick up a mounting bracket and make a few jumpers and work should be able to begin on the tower at ECA to rearrange things and get the 6m node on the air. Good news, James!

June 7, 2003 - David KD4NOQ went over to Forrest City to check the APRS and packet. Before the SWR on the antenna had showed high, but this time the Antenna analyzer he brought showed 1.7:1 so he hooked it up. Have to see if it is working okay.

June 4, 2003 - Tom AB5OE rode along with me today to Ash Flat to re-install ASH50. After a quick scare that turned out to be mis-set DIP switches, everything seems back to normal. There are good connects to HRO & IND. BAX50 sounds like a solid signal, but the tones are low; perhaps I need to go check it again. NEA50 is loud, but there is white noise on the signal. Mike is planning on trying a different antenna setup there, but I wonder if perhaps the deviation is set too high. Also, I noticed that the Ammeter on the Astron was not reading properly. A phone call to Astron to remind me when I got home, what it is doing indicates either a bad pass transistor or a bad meter; perhaps it did suffer some damage from the lightning hit afterall. I checked it before I left and at full load, the power supply was steady on voltage. So it couldn't be more than one transistor gone bad. It should be okay until next time I get back over there.

June 3, 2003 - Installed new NCA50 equipment including new power supply and a deep cycle battery; now waiting on antenna and lightning arrestors.

June 2, 2003 - Correctly set deviation on NCA50, ASH50 and BAX50; BAX50 back on the air, ASH50 waiting to go back.

May 27, 2003 - ASH50 had dirty deviation pot; ready to be reinstalled. - NCA50 TNC ready for service.

May 26, 2003 - Replaced MFJ lightning arrestor with Polyphaser at Ash Flat. New TNC for ASH50 showed no TX audio, so brought it home.

May 19, 2003 - HRO495 was found turned off; unknown who or why.

April 26, 2003 - TNCs swapped and TXK working on 01, but TXK07 is no more. -- LR hamfest; picked up TNC for ASH50 and some parts NCA50.

April 19, 2003 - Swapped EPROMs on NWA TNCs; callsign changed to KD5EKJ.

April 12, 2003 - SWA/SWA50 back online with a battery and charger.

April 9, 2003 - SWA nodes off the air; storm took out the power supply. TXK still having problems; next plan is trying a TNC swap.

April 3, 2003 - Spa back on the air on broken repeater antenna that shows good at packet frequency.

March 27, 2003 - New Radio Shack HTX-212 installed at IND495 to replace failing Standard radio. Antenna checks show nearly flat on 2m and 4 watts reflected for 80 watts forward on 6m.

March 26, 2003 - Ground rods installed at ASH and surge suppressor replaced. Node is back on the air.

February 1, 2003 - New Diamond antenna installed for FSM and FSM495 antenna resecured. Timing capacitors in the TNCs.

January 12, 2003 - Ice damage at the FSM site. FSM495 antenna stripped from the tower and FSM antenna hanging by a thread in addition to three holes in the roof.