I had received several reports that our KUWP transmitter had gone off the air.  It came back on its own.  I hate intermittent problems….  Our logging confirmed that the satellite signal had gone away and caused the outage.  This site had received a significant amount of rain and snow recently which would explain the satellite outages.  Still, this had not been a huge issue in the past so I wanted to go check it out.  In addition, our remote control was no longer answering the phone line so I went to check that out as well.  After a failed attempt to access the site over the weekend (too much rain and mud) I came back today on the ONE good day of weather predicted for the area this week.

The drive to the site actually wasn’t too bad…There was still some snow up on the peak.  I had to chain up the tires on the truck to make the steepest part of the road up to the site but I was able to drive all the way in.

McCullough Peak is home to a number of communications sites for the area (AT&T, Verizon, etc).

First step, remove the old remote control.  This particular unit uses technology dating back to the 80’s and is not terribly flexible.  Connecting to a network is possible but requires an additional piece of hardware.  It now refuses to answer the phone line.

Here is the replacement remote control…An Audemat Mini-Control Silver.  8 channels of relays, analog and digital I/O.  This unit is also capable of functioning as an audio backup.  It is FAR more flexible and can be connected to an Ethernet connection for monitoring and control.  I have added a punch block to make wiring a bit easier.  All wiring between the remote control and site equipment terminates on this punch block.

A PC is installed in the rack for monitoring and control of the system.  It is not required for normal operation but I have found it increasingly valuble to have a PC on site to talk to the equipment.  Also note the second audio decoder that was installed to provide Jazz audio to the site.

This Keyboard/Monitor/Mouse drawer allows me to talk to the computer based equipment at the site.  It has an 8 port switch built in.  Three of these ports are currently used (Satellite Receiver, Exporter, Utility PC).  When not in use it conveniently folds into the rack and consumes a minimum amount of space.

This is “master control” for this particular site.  I can view all parameters at a glance and control the site.  These parameters and controls are also available remotely.  I will now be able to integrate this site into the DMAC system I posted about earlier.

Your tireless engineer (or is that very tired?) stands next to the equipment rack after a full and very productive day of work.