January 7th the power to the repeater was cut off for four or five days. The batteries kept it working for about a day, but the repeater went down sometime Wednesday. The repeater was back up Friday evening and the nightly nets have resumed. Ken has got solar panels and we are in the process of adding more battery storage. Soon the repeater will be fully backed up by solar power and several days of battery power. Ken is also working on installing a backup repeater at a lower level. The low level repeater would be used when the repeater on the mountain is down. It would not have as much coverage but it would be more accessible and give us more options when the mountaintop repeater is not reachable.
There are some YouTube videos of repeater trips on the “GOTAhams on the Go” channel @ (380) GOTAhams OnTheGo – YouTube our latest video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANPVE6DpxtI&t=431s
The WG6OTA repeater is privately owned. The repeater owner has chosen to make the repeater available for Club activities and to offer it as an ‘open’ repeater for the use of the local ham radio community. The owner asks that the repeater is used with courtesy and that conversations remain family-friendly and avoid divisive controversy. Use of the repeater should remain in compliance with F.C.C. Part 97. In the event of any emergency communications, users should give way to the emergency traffic immediately. It is hoped that this can be a friendly and welcoming space for those new to Getting On The Air! Many of the Club’s UHF-FM activities are centered around WG6OTA. For this reason, the Club’s call sign: WG6OTA, has been assigned to the repeater by the Club Trustee with the approval of the elected officers.
The repeater is located on Sunset Ridge, due north of Claremont at an altitude of about 1 mile above sea level and provides very wide coverage of Southern California.
The WG6OTA repeater can be found at 449.160 MHz with a standard offset of minus 5 MHz and a CTCSS tone of 77.0 Hz. The repeater also broadcasts a tone at 77.0 Hz for those wishing to use tone squelch.
The road to the repeater can be challenging given weather or recent weather events and this can result in delays in maintenance.
The repeater is supported by direct user donations and volunteer effort. If you would like to contribute to this activity please contact Dave, K6EV at K6EV@ARRL.NET. If you would like to contact the repeater owner, please write to Ken, KC6WOK at KC6WOK@GMAIL.COM
