Speaker

January 25, 2022: Jim Marr AA6QI: Taming an unruly W6MPH repeater

 
PLEASE NOTE: Because our meeting location is unavailable due to the COVID situation, this presentation will be webcast on the internet. See the IMPORTANT NOTE at the top of this page.

Any of us that use the W6MPH repeater regularly are aware that the repeater has often been misbehaving over the past couple of years, sometimes speaking when not spoken to; sometimes not listening very well; rudely adding a “sizzling” sound on top of others who are talking; misbehaving more when it’s raining; and a couple of other bad behaviors that will be discussed. Taming this misbehavior took about two years (partly/mostly because of the pandemic) and involved the combined effort of several PRC members.

This talk will discuss: the overall process for investigating this type of misbehavior; how that process was implemented; detailed description of the W6MPH repeater installation; the investigation and who contributed; how the cause of the misbehavior was found; and what was done to restore good repeater performance.

Jim Marr AA6QI has been licensed since 1965 (formerly WB6LOA), but was relatively inactive through a substantial part of his working years. He is actively enjoying the hobby again since his retirement in 2015. Jim has a BS in Engineering and Applied Sciences, and an MS in mechanical Engineering from Caltech. He spent seven years with the U.S. Navy operating submarine nuclear propulsion systems, and four years with Tetra Tech, Inc., leading their Marine Systems and Services Department. He was with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 31 years, mostly in line and project management. A most significant experience was leading the team that reprogrammed the Galileo Jupiter mission spacecraft while in flight to Jupiter, while simultaneously redesigning NASA’s Deep Space Network to support Galileo’s mission at Jupiter using its S-band 7 dBi low gain antenna after its X-band 43 dBi high-gain antenna failed to deploy.