The 2 meter repeater is owned and operated by the Lee DeForest ARC
and is located atop the local Hemet Valley Medical Center (Hemet
Hospital). Elevation is "about 1700 ft. Power output is 10 watts to a
Diamond Colinear 2m/440 vertical antenna.
The 2 Meter repeater supports IRLP and Echo Link wih a Node of 3341
for both. The Nodes are active from 6:00 AM until 11:00 PM daily.
The following nets are open to all amateurs.
7:15 PM each Tuesday on the 2 Meter repeater.
8:00 PM each Tuesday on 3.945 MHz SSB. (Eagle Net)
8:15 PM each Tuesday on the 2 Meter repeater. "Technical Net"
Additional Information
RACES NET meets each Monday at 7:00 PM (except 2nd Monday of the
month) on the RACES repeater, 144.505 MHz, + offset of 100 Hz.
RACES Club meeting held the 2nd Monday at 7:00 PM at the Sierra Dawn
Club House #-1, corner of Camerino de Sole and San Juan drive.
RACES contact information:
Bob Farver, W6CCT
(951) 658-8837 in Hemet
See information below about the Simpson Park installation that was hit
by lightning a while back. Text and photos.
On August 26, 2003, appoximately 4:30 PM the 2 meter vertical antenna at Simpson Park took a direct lightning hit knocking the repeaters (both 2 meter and 220) off the air, along with adjacent communication services.
Arriving at the top of the "hill" this is the first thing you notice. The absence of the 18 foot Diamond dual band vertical on the right side. The 220 vertical appears not to have sustained damage, but inspection of its repeater shows damage.
A city repair crew was already on site. Although not very visible in this shot the arrow points to a blown up breaker. You will see it in the next photo.
When all the pieces of that breaker were removed, this was the resulting pile of busted and burned breaker. We assume this is the breaker that services our equipment, as well as the overhead light, which also blew out.
The arrow on the right show the damage to our insect repeller plugged into our equipment bay AC bar. It did not survive.
Our cabinet was plugged into the GFI rectacle on the left. The exploded view on the right shows the damage. The inside of the GFI was junk.
We opened the equipment cabinet and did not notice any damage at first.
#-1 is the 220 MHz repeater, which later inspection revealed a lot of damage.
#-2 is the 440 MHz control receiver.
#-3 is the S-COM 2 meter controller.
#4- is Kenwood 2 meter repeater.
#-5 is the Astron power supply.
In the bottom is the large gel cell battery, and those items on the right are the cavities for the two repeaters.
With the AC plugs removed you can see the damage to the switch on the AC bar. It will need replacing.
For earthquake protection, our cabinet is bolted to the side of some heavy duty metal shelves which are anchored to the walls of the room. We use a single 1/4-20 bolt for this, fastened hand tight. Apparently the lightning liked the metal cabinet and found its way from our equipment cabinet to the metal shelves. Our normally "hand tight" bolt and nut required a set of pliers to get apart. You'll see it shortly.
Here you see our bolt, and its evident that a lot of current went through this from the sparks around the cabinet and the bolt. The view on the left is an exploded view of the bolt, and those "slivers" of material you see around the bolt, are what's left of the fiberglass vertical. These pieces were scattered around about a 20 foot radius or more.
This is one of the 3 counterpoises on the vertical, which is charred from one end to the other, along with (in the exploded view) a bit of melted area. We found this on the ground beneath the antenna array. More slivers shown.
Inspection of the Kewood 2 meter repeater power amplifier area, indicated that the lightning got into this area and severed the foils between the sections of the low pass filter. (area in the box)
Click here to add your text.
In this close up of the damaged area you can see the foils blown apart. Its interesting to note that the chip capacitors appear to have survived this attack. Later the foils were "bridged" with wire and after total inspection of the whole repeater power was applied and the repeater came "alive" and appears to function normally. However, the receiver sensitivity has not been tested yet to detrmine if the "front end" might have been damaged, although there is no apparent arcing or damaged foils.
As long as we were up here, take a look at the Diamond Valley Lake, which from here, is slightly South West.
Looking from Simpson Park, which is about 1000 feet higher than the city below (Hemet in the foreground, San Jacinto in the upper and right section) you can spot the Hemet Medical Center (Hospital). Its easy to see why the backup repeater there functions so well.
And finally, a view back at the site. The 220 vertical is on the left of course, and Ed's truck in front. The building has public rest rooms in front, left and right, and the rear houses our repeaters as well as a storage area.
SNAKES?? Did someone say SNAKE? Yes, we were warned that they are out in good numbers this year, and many are poisonous, so "beat the bushes".
More photos and updates as time permits. Its 8-27-03 at this time.
UPDATE: 17 Oct 2003.
Insurance company has asked that the Kenwood repeater an S-COM controller be sent to the factory to determine condition. Both have reponded with "un-repairable due to lightning damage). We are awaiting a "go ahead" from the insurance company to purchase replacement items, this after a folder of documents and photos were sent to them. We anticipate about 2 months before operation takes place, and then, after we have a conference with the "City" regarding lightning protection.
The 220 machine is functional and in test at this time. "Officially" it will be operational at later time and date.
UPDATE: 25 March 2004.
Insurance has replaced the basic parts of the repeater system although additional cash outlay was needed to cover increased cost of some items. The new Kenwood 2 meter repeater and new controller are ready, but before we can install all the equipment we need to first install lightning protection panels in the building. This will take some more time and money but help safeguard the equipment inside the building. At the tower, some additional grounding is needed at the base as well, and working with the city, we will use a cherry picker to get up to the vertical, inspect it for damage and repair if needed, before installing the replacement verticals. (Diamond X700)
The 220 repeater has been repaired and is burning in awaiting the lightning protection and base grounding at the site. If you need any detailed information contact eithe Ed Kingman, KM6AY or Ron Baker, WA6AZN.
---------------Update April 2005-------------
The 220 repeater has failed recertification testing and we have discovered a broken slug in the Exciter and proceeding with repairs. If we are unable to recertify, a new unit will be purchased. Repairs ad realignment was performed and the repeater is being checked to "specs" at this time.
Due to the rains we've had and of course no access to the park due to the fire season, work was not possible to impliment the needed repairs and installation of grounding cables to the tower...etc.. With summer here we can proceed now and are hoping to be "on the air" before summer is finished.
The 2 meter controller used at the Hospital has had its IC's replaced and is functioning normally now as noted by a proper ID.
Final dispotion: The City of Hemet officially requested that the club vacate
Simpson Park entirely so operation has become permanent atop the Hospital
and some minor changes made there. The City of Hemet has since installed their own repeater primarily for RACES, including both a 2 meter and a 220 repeater. (the club no longer controls the 220 repeater) Unfortunately, the City of Hemet RACES was dissolved in the early part of 2008 and eventually a new RACES group was formed as a part of the County of Riverside RACES organization. The only equipment at Simpson Park now belongs to the City of Hemet.
N7OD
