Latest SEDAN Node Progress Updates:

Here's where you'll find the latest on the FWB SEDAN Node.....~Steve> (KB4OID)

3/1/02 Everything is working and the node is programmed. We can connect to PCB in the afternoons, typically the worst time of day to make connections.

2/28/02 We installed the node system at the site. The antenna cable was found and swept prior to use with the node. Antenna looks clean, practically flat in the 2M band. We checked the power output and SWR into the antenna and all looks proper.

2/24/02 Radio system integration is completed. Will run the node here at the house until we install it at the site.

2/21/02 We received the new node radio at the club meeting. I will be building the appropriate cabling and should have it online very soon.

2/18/02 I received the new programmed node from Buck Rogers today. I have connected it to a test radio (running 10 W at ~20 ft) and I am able to connect to it. I'm still waiting on the new radio. Club meeting this Thursday, so I will get a progress report on that then.

2/07/02 Club Meeting - We briefly discuss the progress to date and I present the facts to the assembly. Since it was not a business meeting, we didn't vote on anything. It turns out, however, that Mahlon was currently in the process of purchasing the prizes to be awarded at the Hamfest. Luck would have it that one of the prizes is the very radio I had considered getting to replace the DOA IC-27H, the IC-2100H. Gabe found a clause that allows the club officers to replace existing installation equipment in an emergency, at a cost of upto $500. We asked Mahlon to add another IC-2100H to the order, so we could get a replacement radio. With the new TNC that Tom Nolan has promised us, we should be on the air by early March.

2/06/02 I have completed my initial survey of the equipment and the Radio (Icom IC-27H) is DOA. The node node controller is acting flaky with the new EPROM installed. I believe the radio is zapped from an overvoltage condition in the power supply. I measured the output of the power supply (a Lambda 15V Bench Supply) and it was at 33V DC. Way too high! I suspect a blown regulator chip in the power supply!

The good news is that Tom Nolan has volunteered to ship us a new TNC, an MFJ-1270C, preprogrammed with our call and alias FWB:W4ZBB-1.

2/05/02 Frank Butler W4RH, and I meet at the Shalimar Courthouse Annex. We investigate the comm shack and find that it's locked. We go next door to the Fleet Building and run into Bill Anderson, who works for County Radio Maintenance. He kindly let us into the comm shelter to retrieve the old FWB1 node system. The equipment was piled up in a corner and was extremly crufty in appearance. We chatted with Bill and made a halfhearted attempt to determine which antenna connection was ours. I brought the equipment to the house where I started sorting it out.

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