[SECC] KS4Q Cluster Upgrades

[Ernie]

A lot was accomplished on Sawnee Mtn.. today!

We now have battery backup on all the TNCs and the Radios and a UPS on the
computer. While there was already an emergency generator at the site which
automatically starts a few minutes after a power failure, the power
'blinking' for a split second during a storm was enough to boot everyone
off.  I've seen this happen a few times during stormy weather.  Now it
hopefully won't happen anymore!

We also added battery backup to the 'backbone' TNCs and radio which link up
W4UCK and KS4Q.

Also, now have a 1200 bps port operating on 145.09 MHz.  This is a newer
radio on this frequency; the one we replaced was actually used by Amstrong
and De Forest.   This 1200 bps port on 145.09 MHz will not have the coverage
of the 145.01 MHz 2400 bps port because its antenna is not quite as high.
It will, however, still work very well!  Now, you can try out the cluster
even if you have just a plain 1200 bps TNC.

The connection syntax is the same as the 145.01 2400 bps port.  That is, 'c
sawnee'  Wait for the alphabet soup to come back across, then type 'c ax1
ks4q'  If Sawnee does not give you the alphabet soup, do a 'Ctrl T' then hit
enter.  Be patient with this port as it is a little slower, but it works
very well.

We also added bandpass cavities on the downlink frequency to KS4Q.   This
will keep the VHF paging transmitter Intermod from tearing us up.

Regards, Ernie KS4Q



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