Tidewater Wireless W4VB News

June 2001

    It's been a long time since the last newsletter was published, back in 1998 or so.  There has not been a great deal of news since then, but this will serve as an update.  One significant change is that W7HJ has assumed duties as W4VB trustee.   Last summer saw a few antenna problems, however, a new Diamond X-500HNA was installed in place of the 2 meter remote base's Ringo to use as the master antenna. Everything seems to be running well now, except that the 2 meter remote is in need of an antenna.  The Sunday evening Link Net has not been held  since WA4ZUA's 145.17 repeater went off the air temporarily.  This was due to construction at the CINCLANTFLT compound that called for the removal of the tower where the system was operating.  With the loss of ZUA's RC-850 cross-link capability, the net was very limited since W4VB can only link to one other band at a time.  The Link Net may resume in the future when wider linking capability is reestablished.

    The repeater still has the capability to vote on up to eight receivers through the RVS-8, however, we are still operating with only the main receiver downtown.  One complete remote receive system is available and several additional receiver boards are on hand for possible future use as additional remote receivers.  A second 440 MHz band module was procured as well.

    A new web site for Tidewater Wireless has been established at http://www.w4vb.org and will allow news and other updates to be posted more timely.  This should be more efficient and probably will replace the mailing of newsletters.

    K4DA maintains the autopatch programming on the repeater as well as the membership roster.  For information on how to obtain the codes, speed dial programming desires, and membership e-mail k4da@hotmail.com. 

    KS4GC is the chief engineer for the repeater system.  Contact him to report any problems by e-mailing hamm.dlp@verizon.net.