Important South Saddle Outage Update

Two of our newest South Saddle Quantar repeaters (which we thought were built like heavy duty tanks) got taken out by a couple of back to back thunder and lightning storms last week.Apparently, because the two Public Safety Generators up there only saw the strikes as mere power bumps, they did not start up, leaving the single unaffected 442.325 repeater, also off the air. It took us a full day to get up to work on the system and get it running again. The 147.320 repeater itself took the brunt of the surge and literally the back mounted AC power cord was blown out of the repeaters socket.

One more issue at South Saddle

Every time we visit the site, we test the antenna system and we’ve been noticing higher and higher SWR’s on the antenna and hardline that run the 442.325 repeater. We are pretty sure that both the 20 y/o antenna and its hardline have some sort of water corrosion inside the radome and cable. So this means that the 442.325 antenna will need to be replaced as soon as possible, because it may not make it through another winter.

The cost to fix this up right is right around $1800 and the 442.325 repeater is important because it serves as a hub repeater. As we all learned with last weeks outage, we lost the ability to link into Amity, Astoria and into 040 in Portland.We have identified and made a list of important tasks we need to do to South Saddle in an effort to better 'harden' the system for your use.

This unexpected outage taught us that the two repeaters that make up our South Saddle system are in no way close to being seismically ready for a large earthquake or other natural disaster.As a group, we need to decide if we want to upgrade the two current Quantar repeaters so that they can have DC battery backup.

Unfortunately, something like 80% of all Quantars built last decade all came standard with AC power supplies, with no option for us end users to DIY a battery tie in port.

There are a few Quantar 24v DC power supplies out there, but the sellers know they are rare and coveted and they want anywhere from $500 to $950 for a single unit. The dilemma is trying to decide if we should buy used power supplies at a couple grand price tag or to start looking at buying two Motorola XPR stations (a model that comes standard with battery backup and revert system. If we did battery revert the two stations, then we also need to consider purchasing at least 8 100HR AGM batteries and chargers, plus purchase the proper battery support to withstand a quakeWhen it comes to the possibility of draining ARRG's accounts in an attempt to keep these two site up and running, as a team, we need to be smart on how we proceed.

ARRG’s hope is that through your added support, we can finish upgrading the system and the site so that both the 147.320 and 442.325 repeaters will be available to the Emergency Groups and everyone who rely on this wonderful wide-area repeater system. 

Updated Info about the recent three-day Mt. Hood Outage

During the second week of July 2019, several days of severe thunderstorms, which also produce hundreds of damaging lightning, rolled over Timberline, with reports of direct strikes hitting the lift and power lines that supply our repeaters their power. On July 18, users reported the 147.120 and 444.225 repeaters were stuck on in transmit mode, with control operators unable to control them remotely. The tech team went to the site on July 21^st and found that the master repeater controller was severely damaged and we replaced it with our only spare. The 147.120 panel antennas are also damaged and need to be replaced, as the entire vhf/uhf antenna system was a built by hand back in the mid 90’s, and it’s age is showing. The crackling noise is only on 147.120, users can use 444.225 without the noise for the time being. The 147.120 antennas are showing high SWR’s and we may have to shut off the machine until we can figure out a rescue plan.

In summary, both of these sites are very important to our community and they each support ARES D1 and Clackamas County ARES. it would be great if we could get a little extra financial help to make needed upgrades.

No matter if you are with ARES or just a casual user, please help support our efforts by providing your tax deductible donating to the Special Repeater Fund below.

You can donate any amount, you decide!

ARRG is an approved Oregon Charity and is a 501 (c)3 Public Service Team. All donations are usually tax deductible.

Click in the donate button to securely donate any amount to the ARRG Antenna fund.