Hopkinton site-2

Ch5 Hopkinton RADAR tower used as the CNHARC.org southern transmitter site
updated 4-26-2009
Hopkinton-2 51.74 is now permanently on the air.
100W out

This is linked to NH's Gunstock Mountain wide-coverage 6M system
(extends mobile-mobile coverage from Franconia Notch, NH to Cape Cod Canal)

This picture was taken at the TX antenna elevation with a telephoto lens looking east
but the view from the 125ft level of the tower is genuine.

The permanent GE MASTR-II repeater was commissioned on 10-9-2007. MMRA repeater guru, Bryan Cerqua, W1BRI (R) did the honours. On a second visit on October 28th, Lee Lemoine, N3LEE (L) helped Bryan to track down a pesky "audio crunchies" issue with the help of Lee's fancy toy from work.

The severe "audio crunchies" issue was traced to an unapproved, rusty STEEL electrical conduit clamp not physically close or even related to the W1DC system. It was replaced. Amazing!

North side looking south This is the southern fill-in TX site only. The main wide-area RX site is at nearby Honey Hill.	Low-altitude system installation crew. (L-R) George Cleveland, WA1QGU Lee Lemoine, N3LEE, Randy Krenz, N3HFK, Warren Legee, KD1BC, George Maier, W1LSB. Not in picture, Bryan Cerqua, W1BRI.
Mounting ground planes to the LB antenna. Professional labor costs provided by NSTAR. High-altitude installation by Dudley Tower. (now called DTS Communications)	Lowband and UHF antennas
Mike Keller, W1BNC (center). Without Mike's behind-the-scenes help, none of this multi-site, multi-state project could have come together! W1LSB and W1BRI replacing the TX antenna on October 28th, 2007.	George Maier, W1LSB (L) finally solved a TX antenna SWR issue with some non-standard element cutting. In fact, George replaced the entire antenna! The southern areas now have solid coverage from the Gunstock 6M system.
Using a network analyzer, Tom Cefalo, W1EX retuned the commercial PA low-pass filter to pass six-meters. The PA is now running at a cool 100 Watts. Polyphaser lightning protection. The entire facility including the exterior fences are grounded by a common grounding halo	Running at a cool 100W The room is heated and cooled by an added air filtration system. Three days of backup generator AC power is on-site as well.
Prepping the low-level 6M RX antenna.	Iwo Jima... GEMOTO-style.
Rick Zach, K1RJZ at the 125ft level	After on-site testing, W1BRI reported that we have no measurable TX-RX de-sense.
due north Mt. Wachusett is far off-screen to the left.
Looking down from the 125 foot level. With hardhats, Warren KD1BC and Lee N3LEE can be seen near the gate. Hopkinton Node from Gunstock rptr TX: 51.74 MHz PL 100.0 rptr RX: 51.24 PL 71.9 info on companion Hopkinton RX site