Update as of Saturday August 09, 2008 Click here for the official CNHARC web site

Update 7-30-2008:  All Gunstock repeater output traffic is now mimicked on 51.74 from Hopkinton, MA. A Hopkinton remote receiver on 51.24 will be installed later this summer to enable extended southern coverage down to the Cape Cod Canal. This will enable NWS Gray ME to communicate with NWS Taunton, MA as well as many other Skywarn spotters.

 

The severe storms of 2008 that damaged over 100 New Hampshire homes also caused an AC power surge that forced the repeater power supply to crowbar and shutdown as it should.  Unfortunately, this Astron RS50 power supply lacks an auto-reset to restore operation.  A Wednesday visit by N1LT, WA1ZDV and N1MAZ  reset the power supply to restore the 53.77 repeater to full operation.  There was no lightning damage. FYI:  The Astron power supply is far more energy efficient than the default GE ferro-resonant supply, hence the upgrade. The August-2 Saturday visit had the following goals all of which were fairly low on the glamour-scale: Install a grounding system into NH granite with several fanned-out ground rods Install a master grounding point for all systems to share Install a large UPS system for AC surge protection Tighten a two loose connections to eliminate the audio crunchies issue Measure TX power and VSWR at the TX out and duplexer out to establish technical benchmarks Next visit: Add a crowbar auto-reset option board to the Astron power supply Expand the grounding system hopefully CadWelded to other existing pipes. Add copper grounding strap kits to the Heliax as soon as it leaves the tower bottom Cut off any extra ground rod material that extends above the ground. With landlord permissions, integrate other on-site radios to the master grounding system after they add Polyphaser surge protectors on their coax lines and AC surge protectors to the power lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several people quickly volunteered their Saturday for this project.
Two of the four were new to CNHARC.   Jeff, N1ZZN is from Hanson, MA
but also has a cottage on Lake Winnisquam.

 

 

 

 

Jason, WA1NH (L) installs two-way radio and cellular sites for a living.
Most of his work is high on a tower but today's work is firmly on the ground.
Jason is from the seacoast area, is very active in NH-ARES and is a new CNHARC member.

 

 

 

Ground rods and solid copper ground wire.

 

 

 

 

The morning audience of a dozen grew to several hundred by mid-day.
We could access the building only between acts so some planning was needed.

 

 

 

  

The addition of a large APC UPS donated by ch5 now provides much needed AC power surge protection

 

 

 

Both Jeff and Jason install commercial transmitter sites for a living.

 

 

 

Dick  is a VERY brave man!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This location is adjacent to the building

 

 

 

Pounding 8ft copper ground rods into NH granite is an oxymoron.
The only workable solution was to fan-out several ground rods at an angle.
We will present additional options to Gunstock management but this is a very good start.

 

 

 

Many ground wires are routed underground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This solid copper plate is well insulated from the building

 

 

 

 

The audience and entertainers were asked to exit the summit and most quickly left. 
We never heard the storm warning because we were working under the building.
The lift was shut down and we were almost alone at the summit but
the lift was restarted to enable our hasty retreat. 

Irony: The National Weather Service uses this repeater site to help prepare their storm warnings.
 

 

 

 

Lets move this chair into high gear and get the heck outta here!

 

 

 

Again, a big thank you goes to Gunstock management
for their continued support !