VE7TEL Issue - Wed 12 April Net

Posted 12 April 2017

Participants in our weekly net noticed a staccato-like voice drop out issue with the VE7TEL (145.170 -600) repeater. While the issue made communications a little challenging, net control and stations persevered as ham radio operators are inclined to do.

What happened on Wednesday: Essentially a component of the controller system hung or had high CPU utilization which resulted in choppy audio processing. The TEL repeater administrator has a plan to make that component even more robust to hopefully avoid this issue in the future.

Background info: Over the past several months VE7TEL has been undergoing a behind the scenes makeover. Originally “TEL” had been a single TX/RX repeater with a traditional repeater controller, housed at Telus premises at Boundary and Kingsway in Vancouver. The repeater has always provided very good coverage of Vancouver and nearby municipalities but had weak spots of coverage further afield.

To expand coverage of VE7TEL the repeater has had a number of upgrades and most important of these was a move to an internet-linked repeater controller system that allows for the easy deployment of voted receiver nodes in areas needing improved RX coverage. At the same time a RF amplifier raised TEL’s output.

The net effect of the changes is an improvement of TEL’s reliable area of coverage over a greater percentage of Metro Vancouver and the valley.

VECTOR gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of the Telus Pioneers Amateur Radio Club (TPARC) and appreciates using VE7TEL for our net operations.