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<p class="MsoNormal">Greetings to all. The following message is
information on the Houston Repeater site. Please review Roger's
proposal and we can discuss at our March meeting. As a club we
need to come to a resolution for this issue. I appreciate the
input from all that responded with their input over the past few
weeks. Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting at Joe's
Italian in Brenham on the 31st.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">73</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Gary - KF5ZRT<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Club Members,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We’ve received pretty good input on the
discussion about the downtown Houston repeater location (and more
is welcome). At this point I’d like to put a specific proposal
before the club that we can discuss, and hopefully vote on at the
March meeting.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To address the question Kat raised about
retaining the 146.96 Mhz frequency if we move to the new Wallis
location, I contacted our coordinator at the Texas VHF/FM
Society. The answer I received was yes – we can simply relocate
the repeater site and keep our current frequency, since it will
not interfere with any other repeater using that frequency. This
simplifies the move quite a bit, since we will be able to use the
downtown Houston ”cans” and rack at the new location.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So this is the specific proposal I’d like the
club to discuss on March 31:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><b><i>Move the
downtown Houston repeater location and related equipment to
the new Wallis site as soon as it is ready, retaining the
146.96 Mhz frequency. Replace the old Icom FR-3000 VHF analog
repeater with a DR-2X Fusion repeater. </i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I hope to achieve the following goals by making
this move:</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3
level1 lfo4"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman""> </span></span></span>Better
efficiency: repeater locations will be geographically closer
together, easily accessible and more easily monitored</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3
level1 lfo4"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman""> </span></span></span>Easier
maintenance by having standardized equipment and setup; also
remote access to diagnose and correct problems without making a
house call at the repeater site</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3
level1 lfo4"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman""> </span></span></span>An improved,
overlapping coverage area: If you can’t hit one repeater you may
be able to reach one of the others. Also, the Wallis location
should still easily reach into west and southwest Houston.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Assuming the club endorses the above, we can
then deal with secondary things like:</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1
level1 lfo3"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman""> </span></span></span>The
disposition of the downtown Houston location</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1
level1 lfo3"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman""> </span></span></span>Deciding if
we still need the Columbus site (Wallis may be able to provide
equivalent coverage in its place, but we don’t know that yet)</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1
level1 lfo3"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman""> </span></span></span>Improving
upon our setup by internet linking the repeaters for C4FM digital
communications to reduce lag, and use Wires-X for remote access
and linking an analog repeater.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1
level1 lfo3"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span
style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times
New Roman""> </span></span></span>Installing
the 146.96 repeater at a temporary location during the interim
(this will enable us to test internet linking and keep the
repeater active while we wait for Wallis to become available)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is probably one of the bigger decisions
the club has made in recent years, so comments and feedback from
all members is appreciated. Please try to make the club meeting
on March 31. Or if you can’t make it, please make your thoughts
known on the reflector.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">73,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
Roger N5RWK
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