Blue Knob – 147.150+ PL 167.9 – KB3KWD – Node 27354

As many of you already know, the Blue Knob repeater is the highest 2 meter repeater in Pennsylvania.  On Friday, March 11, 2011 BK was officially made part of the WAN Repeater System.  Scott Zimmerman – N3XCC, Dan Ruhe – KE3UC, and myself installed a temporary MICOR mobile repeater and Linux computer running XIPAR to connect this Giant into our system.  The MICOR was installed because work needs done to the Tait repeater to make it fully functional and compatible with AllStar, plus, we have something a little different in store for this site.  Internet connectivity was established to a local provider with help from Dan Ruhe.  It is our hope to have the permanent repeater, controller, and Linux computer all completed and ready to install in the next few weeks.  In the mean time, the temporary repeater and computer may experience issues that result in loss of connection and control.  While some problems surfaced quickly, we are hopeful the repeater will continue to function properly during the rebuild.  Subsequent visits to the site by Scott and Jeff Blake – N8PSU have given us some insight as to the source of some issues, and measures have been taken to correct them.  Blue Knob is one of those sites that isn’t easily accessible, so we are engineering the permanent install a little differently.  Initial reports show that this site hasn’t lost its ability to operate over great distances, as we have had check-ins from some far-out places.  Please check back for updates to the status of this repeater, and be sure to give it a try if you are in its (vast) coverage area!

Thanks,
Kevin Custer – WJ8G