OH, NO! 145.47 is OFF THE AIR!

OH, NO!!  145.47 is OFF THE AIR!

 

I’m afraid it’s true. The repeater gave out around 2 AM on Tuesday morning. I will be going to the mountain this weekend to try to determine what is wrong. I suspect the power amplifier (PA) has failed, but I won’t know for sure until I have inspected it personally. As always, I’m sorry that the repeater’s off. Along with 146.94, .47 is my most popular and busy repeater.  Please bear with me while I restore it to service. I have a fairly good stock of spare parts, but I may have to purcha$e $omething.  Not a good thing to have happen when ball season is over!  J

 

On a related note, a recent trip to the 146.625 repeater to fix the repeat audio problem also brought forth an ID failure. I’m not really sure why, but the ID is well over 20 years old, and I guess it was time for it to show its age. I *did* fix the audio problem, and I think you will find .625 has a nice footprint of coverage of the area. It doesn’t go north nearly as well as .47, but it is very good in town and to the west. I worked .625 fully quiet from Greeneville last week, as well. I have purchased another ID’er ($75 or so) and will install it as soon as I can. In the meantime, please ID the repeater when using .625.  For example, “This is Wx4xxx on the WB4GBI repeater (I hope wx4xxx is not reading this blog if he has that call!).” 

 

Lastly, an incident happened on .47 on Monday morning about which I am concerned. In the midst of an ongoing QSO, someone broke in with an emergency. He used the proper procedure of saying “Break” three times. A car and a tractor-trailer had collided in Wears Valley, where there is NO cellphone service in that area.  He found .47 because it was active at the time. However, he was not acknowledged immediately when he ID’ed and declared his emergency.  Folks, in the nicest way I know how to say it, THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. The conversations on the repeater MUST COME TO A STOP if someone comes on the air and identifies in a proper manner (saying “Break” or says “emergency traffic”). We must stay with them and assist until there is a conclusion, even if they are noisy or not well understandable. Under no circumstances should they be ignored or told to go somewhere else. This gentlemen’s ONLY link to the outside world was Amateur radio, specifically my repeater, and he found it because there was activity on it. Please, let’s all remember that emergencies take priority over EVERYTHING. While I absolutely do not condone the use of the word “Break” just to get into a conversation, the use of that word—especially when it is repeated three times—is tantamount to stopping everything and stating an emergency. Please use it properly, and recognize it when it is used. Our amateur radio licenses are a privilege, and we justify that privilege when we provide emergency communications when there is no alternative.

 

I will post a status report on .47 as soon as I can. Thank you all for your concern; it’s nice to know it’s missed!

 

73 de Tim WB4GBI

 

 

Tim Berry WB4GBI  (check out my website at www.wb4gbi.com)

Chief Engineer

Citadel Broadcasting of Knoxville, TN

WIVK-FM/HD1    WNOX-FM   WNML AM/FM  WNRX-FM  WOKI-FM

 

Chief Engineer

Vol Radio Network

IMG College Sports

University of Tennessee

 

"Do you really want to know what's wrong...or do you just want me to fix it?