After meeting at lake Janet at 11:30am 2 four-wheel drives and Geoff in his small car headed up the 5km 15 min drive up to the Kordia tower. After arriving at the top at 1155 and checking out the views Richard ZL4FZ then gained access to the building and then with the help of mainly Mike ZL3TMB and others passing equipment removed the old analog repeater, tested the antenna and installed the new repeater. By about 1:15pm the new Fusion Analog repeater was switched on and tested.
We had Jim from Methven and Harry from Kaikoura use the Fusion side of the repeater. Richard gave us a small talk on the inside racks and the antenna.
The Kordia tower is 43 meters high at a height of 920 meters with Branch 68 antenna at the top so Branch 68 antenna is 963 meters high. The Summit is 330 meters to the north at 934 meters high and there is also a commercial repeater with 2 wooden pools and a hut about 30 meters to the north of the Kordia tower. The repeater is 46 km line of site to the Square in Christchurch city.
The weather was nice and warm in the sun with some cloud cover at times but not too windy. There were some patches of snow on the side of the road going up and on the grass area up at the repeater after the southerly came through the previous week
We headed down about 3:30pm and then met at the Amberley pub for refreshments and recon on the afternoons work.
The 146.750 – split now needs a TS of 123.0 to TX and receive the repeater as you will hear data sound without the tone and not be able to TX the repeater.
Photo’s by Simon ZL3SI & Mike ZL3TMB
Word’s by Simon ZL3SI
