A while ago I received a report that our Dubois translator was not performing as it should be. This is a 10 watt translator with a pair of Yagi antenas that produce a directional pattern.

One of the site managers was able to get to the site once the snow thawed and confirmed that in fact one of our antennas had broken. I made arrangements to visit the site and replace the failed antenna. This site frequently gets extremely high winds. The name of the site is actually ‘Windy Ridge’. Apparently it lives up to its name!

Another site with absolutely gorgeous scenery…I never get tired of this…

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This morning I received a report that our Douglas station was off the air. This is the same station that suffered a tower failure earlier this year. After attempting unsuccessfully to restore service remotely, I drove to the site.

Made it to the site…Tower is still down…

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I had been receiving several reports of issues at our Casper site so I spent my 4th of July holiday investigating…Unfortunately the failures returned shortly after I left the site (of course)…Next time I’ll have to troubleshoot even further.

Made it to the site!

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I was heading up to Casper to do some troubleshooting and witnessed this absolutely SPECTACULAR sunset on the way. I had to stop and take a few pictures. Enjoy!

Recently I have been evaluating a new remote control system.  This system is made by a French company called Audemat and is called the “Relio”.  It packs 64 digital I/O channels and 24 analog inputs into a single rack mounted unit.  So far I am extremely impressed with its capabilities.  The unit will allow you to simply “draw” your logic functions into the system–much like designing a circuit.  Look for my full review of the unit in the July/August edition of Radio Guide.

My Relio test setup

Once Reid and I were done in Sundance, we headed down the road to Newcastle.  Again, we had intended to completely rewire the site but did not have time.  Instead we simply installed a KVM console and new UPS on this visit.

Newcastle transmitter site

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Over the past year or so I have been in the process of replacing all of the battery backup systems at sites with brand new UPS units.  The previous battery backup consisted of a large tractor battery and an interter typically used for photovoltaic systems.  These systems worked well but the batteries were fairly bulky and starting to age.  In addition, the inverters were starting to fail one by one.  The new UPS units likely will not have nearly as much runtime but it will be more than enough for the remote control to call and alert me of a power outage.  Eventually I would like to have long term backup power for each site (including the transmitters).

Apparently our neighbor at the site had suffered a lightning strike and was off the air at the time.  Our gear was unaffected.

Reid and I had intended to completely re-wire this site today but did not have time on this visit due to the unexpected emergency repairs in Gillette.  At least getting the new UPS installed is a start…

Battery from old backup system–Note the bulges on the side!

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Reid and I went to the Gillette transmitter site to do some routine work earlier this week.  Unfortunately, the blower motor on the transmitter failed when we went to restart it.  It had been starting to get noisy but was still working.  This time, however, it failed completely and took the transmitter off the air.  We had a blower sent overnight to the hotel in Gillette and installed it after our work in Sheridan was completed for the day.  It was starting to get dark but we needed to get this site back on the air now that we had the parts.

Dusk on Antelope Butte

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Once we finished in Buffalo we headed back to Gillette.  The next day we headed up to Sheridan to do some re-wiring at that site as well.

Reid cleans up some wiring inside the shack

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Reid and I started a trip around the state this week…We based ourselves in Gillette but intended to visit Buffalo, Sheridan, Sundance and Newcastle on this trip.

The first stop was Buffalo…We made it to the site and finished all of our rewiring. In the process, however, a major thunderstorm rolled through the area. It probably isn’t wise to hang out next to a huge lightning rod in the middle of a thunderstorm…

At long last, UW88 rides again! We finally got our engineering truck back last week. This is (yet another) brand new 2008 Ford F250 SuperDuty to replace the one that was destroyed in a weather related rollover earlier this year.

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