Pikes Peak FM Association
News

Pikes Peak FM Association
Weekly Information Net every Sunday at 8:30 p.m.

  • (13-Mar-08) 145.265 Repeater returns to operations.
    From Mike KB0IAP, PPFMA Operations Manager: Thanks to the efforts of Rob N7LV, John K1ARP and Mike K0TER, the 145.265 repeater is back on the air! Its' present location is not the best and plans are ongoing to move it to a more favorable location within the next 2 months. Some additional tweaking will be made that will further improve its effectiveness. Your patience & understanding during this time of transition has been appreciated.
  • (30-Nov-2003) ATV Repeater On The Air.
    It's been a while since the equipment was moved down from the Denver area, but today the ATV repeater finally went on the air for the first time. Today KAØWUC and N7LV visited the repeater site and found the ATV transmit antenna had been blown down by the wind. After some quick jury-rigging the ATV antenna is temporarily propped up against a frame. Kit also adjusted the control radio audio to remove some distortion introduced in our previous trip, and to set the DTMF levels for proper decoding by the ATV controller. The result is all is operational. We also turned down the deviation on the voice synthesis module on the 146.97 controller. Finally, Bill Pierce KDØJU, our membership manager, has sent out the most recent, updated, new-member packet to all current members via e-mail. If you didn't get a packet, please contact Bill at kd0ju@amsat.org to update your membership information.

  • (28-Sep-2003) 1.2 GHz Repeater On The Move.
    We are in the process of moving the 1.2 GHz repeater to the UCCS site. Once it's reactivated, besides returning to open repeater status, it'll become a link system for the autopatch for the UCCS phone patch system. You may recall that the phone lines were disconnected by the university a while ago. The 1.2 GHz system seems to be the best solution we have to get those phone patches working again.

  • (23-Mar-2003) PPFMA New Mailing Address.
    Bill Pierce KDØJU is assuming control of the membership functions for the Association. Thanks to the years of work by Alfred Sontag KAØWIE over the past several years for handling the membership duties. With the changeover, we have a new mailing address, which is shown on our opening web page.

  • (09-Mar-2003) Repeater Update.
    Mike Stansberry KØTER and several members of the technical committee spend some time at the UCCS repeater site this past week to solve some noise and degradation problems. The UHF and VHF side were experiencing noise, which was determined to be coming from some corroding ground straps. The UHF side was experiencing degradation, which was coming from a defective set of duplexers. Thanks to Kit Haskins, Derek Toeppen, Bob Witte, and Dennis Major for assisting.

  • (02-Mar-2003) Annual Meeting Report.
    The 2003 annual membership meeting was held today at the Colorado Springs police station, 7850 Goddard St. New directors were elected and various reports were given regarding the state of the club.

  • (26-Jan-2003) Annual Meeting Announced.
    The 2003 annual membership meeting is scheduled for March 2, 2003, to be held at the Colorado Springs police station, 7850 Goddard St. In case of inclement weather, the rain date is March 9 at 1300. Location is not yet set, but would likely be the same place.

  • (03-Mar-2002) Board Members Elected.
    The annual membership meeting was held on March 3 at the Colorado Springs police station, 7850 Goddard St.

  • (17-Sep-2001) 146.97 Phone Patch Restored.
    The controller needed to be reprogrammed after it stopped working on 16-Sep-2001. Three PPFMA tech committee members visited the repeater site this weekend to fix the problem.

  • (12-Jul-2001) 146.97 & 448.45 Repeaters Back in Service.
    On 12 July, at about 1700, the repeater site lost power, automatically switching in the back-up batteries. When this happens, the phone patch is turned off, and a voice annunciation "Battery Power" is sent periodically. This is a signal to you to conserve battery power on the repeater by limiting your use of these two repeaters. The repeaters came up at about 2250 on 12 July and are now fully functional. But just as a reminder, when you hear the repeater is on battery power (a voice reminder on 146.97, and the CW message BAT on the 448.45), please limit your use of the repeaters to emergency traffic only. Use the lower PPFMA machines or some of the other repeaters in the area for routine and ragchewing traffic.

  • (23-May-2001) 100 Hz Tone Activated on 448.8 Transmitter.
    The 100 Hz subaudible tone (CTCSS) has been activated on the transmitter of the 448.800 repeater.

  • (14-Jan-2001) 100 Hz Tone Activated on 146.97 Transmitter.
    The 100 Hz subaudible tone (CTCSS) has been activated on the transmitter of the 146.97 repeater. If you have CTCSS tone squelch on your receiver, you can take advantage of this to reduce or eliminate interference when monitoring 146.97. Program in a 100 Hz into your radio's subaudible tone squelch and make sure your tone squelch is active. Note that if you don't have this capability, there will be no change in the way you use the 146.97 repeater.

  • (11-Sep-2000) Autopatches Awaiting Repairs.
    The 146.97 autopatch is once again operational at its new location. According to Tech Director Dave NØIPQ the patch became operational yesterday due to the efforts of both Dave and Derek Toeppen WAØZTI. The repeater has received a new autopatch controller, and the phone patch system is at a new location, no longer in the Black Forest.
    The 145.265 autopatch is currently not operational. The phone line was physically cut. The patch will not be available until UCCS makes the repairs. No time estimate is available.

  • 146.970 Noise Problem Solved.
    Thanks to the work of the technical committee, specifically Dave NØIPQ, Derek WAØZTI, Dave NØZLZ and Al N4LBL, the noise problem that has plagued the 97 machine for some time now is no longer there. A more detailed summary is forthcoming from Dave.

  • (06-May-2000) 145.355 Repeater Now Requires 100 Hz Tone.
    The NØJPX repeater in La Veta now requires a 100 Hz tone on the input to activate. This is due to a coverage overlap between Lane's machine and another 145.355 machine in eastern CO. The La Veta machine, operated by Lane Drury NØJPX also transmits a 100 Hz tone for those of you that wish to activate the tone squelch on your receiver.