Next Meeting – Saturday, April 13th 2024 – Usual Location

Glenwood Springs Library, 815 Cooper Avenue 

Time:     9:30 a.m. first arrivals and setup – Meeting starts at 10AM

The final inside meeting is Saturday, April 13 in the upstairs classroom of the Glenwood Springs Branch Library at 815 Cooper Ave.  Setup begins at 9:30 a.m. with coffee and donuts, meeting begins at 10:00 a.m. with introductions and a short general interest technical YouTube video.  Then a long-awaited presentation by Kevin KDØMA on the SCARC Allstar/Repeater Voting System.  Pictures and illustrations, questions and answers.  If you enjoy knowing how these Radios/Microwave Links/Repeaters/Allstar Nodes all work together – this presentation is for you!  Here’s some of the PowerPoint topics:

Why Receiver Voting?

Receiver voting improves in-bound repeater coverage by deploying multiple receivers across a coverage area.  Result?  You now can drive around the greater Glenwood/Aspen/Rifle geography – and NEVER have to change your VHF Radio Frequency (146.88) as you drive around in your car!  It operates as if there is only (1) Repeater servicing that combined geography.

• • Voting only sites (Iron Mtn, Snowmass, Anvil) experience little or no transmitter de-sense, therefore do not require duplexers, resulting in significantly improved in-bound receive sensitivity
  • The strongest receiver is selected (voted) every 20 milliseconds (50 times a second) and sent to the transmitters

Handoffs between sites occur transparently, even mid-conversation – this is similar to how our SmartPhones operate today while driving in your car.

• • What’s done:
  • 2020 – 2022

Build and configure Debian Linux Asterisk server twice, thanks to Pete N0ECT.

• Configure repeater AllStar nodes (RTCMs – Radio Thin Client Modules)
• New site – Iron Mtn (Glenwood Caverns)
• Build and configure 4 Hop, 5.8 GHz microwave system
• Configure private IP network using OSPF routing (Open Shortest Path First)
• 2023

Sunlight – cutover from the antiquated analog repeater links and control hardware to AllStar VoIP & microwave system – not without challenges…for KD0MA and K9MWM.

• Snowmass – remove 146.67 repeater, install 146.28 voting receiver by KD0MA and K9MWM
• Anvil Points – remove 147.15 repeater, install 146.28 voting receiver by KD0MA, K9MWM, N0DBY, KB0HP, KD0YDH and K0CL.What’s left to do:

General site cleanups, anyone can help

• Remediate observed site deficiencies (cables, grounds, etc.)
• Add an ethernet interface to the Anvil Points solar charge controller
• Facilitate internet access to the AllMon voting display screen
• Implement the network monitoring and SNMP status point system
• Link the Vail 146.61 repeater to the Glenwood system
• Upgrade and duplicate the main Linux server (single point of failure)
• Add a redundant 146.88 repeater at Sunlight (single point of failure) or
• Simulcast ??