Two Central Washington repeaters, owned and operated by the Lake Chelan Amateur Radio Club, have been destroyed by one of the wildfires raging in that state. The co-located machines, one on 2 meters and one on 6 meters, were sited on Slide Ridge near Manson, Washington, in Chelan County. On August 27, the First Creek Fire completely leveled the building housing the repeaters. Scorched antennas and support structures are still standing but are likely beyond repair. The club’s Roger Odorizzi, W7CH, said the repeaters had been offline for several days.
“We knew the fire had wiped out the power going to our site, but we hoped for the best, that our mountaintop building was possibly spared,” he said. “Now we have confirmation this was not the outcome.” Odorizzi said the area remains closed, and the club likely will not have access to it “for a long time.”
The club’s Ken Rau, K7YR, said the loss, in addition to the building, included the two repeaters, duplexers and antennas. The repeaters provided coverage in North Central Washington. Rau told ARRL that it’s unlikely that the building housing the repeaters would be replaced. It once housed radio and TV broadcast translators, most no longer in use. Topography is also a factor. “This is a mountain site — 4900 feet above mean sea level — with power lines that were installed on a very steep slope.”
Rau said a lot of fire remains in the area and predicted that access to the repeater site probably would be limited for several weeks and that the site could remain off limits until first snowfall.
The First Creek Fire covers more than 6000 acres and has been threatening hundreds of homes, destroying a dozen houses along with seven “other structures,” according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It is only 25 percent contained.
Source:ARRL.org
Bruce Perens K6BP and Chris Testa KD4BMH update their work on a multi-digital mode radio… what went wrong, and what happens next. Read more
6 Factors Influencing Requirements for a Good Grounding System Read nice Article from by EDVARD in ENERGY AND POWER Read more
Stan, WS5K plans activity from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania as 5H2SF between January 26 to February 10, 2016. QRV on HF bands. Read more
ARRL Field Day — the most popular operating event on the calendar — is June 27-28, and official gear and supplies now are available from ARRL. Shirts,... Read more
GENERAL FEATURES 160-6-meter ham bands; General ‘receive’ coverage 0.5 – 56.0 MHz; All modes: SSB, CW, DIG, AM, FM; High-performance 32-bit fl... Read more
FlexRadio Systems announces the release of SmartSDR for iOS v3.06.02 is now available for download or update from the Apple App Store. This App requir... Read more
Despite what the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) called “solid results from an exciting JOTA weekend,” Scout participation for the October 2015 event was... Read more
Mix and match any four HF/VHF/UHF bands. Example: screw in 80,40,20 meter hamsticks and a dual band 2M/440 MHz whip (two on each band) on opposite sid... Read more
SSB: 2200Z February 22 to 2200Z February 24 DEADLINES FOR LOG SUBMISSIONS ARE 5 DAYS! I. OBJECTIVE: For amateurs around the world to contact other ama... Read more
Recent Posts
Digital Modes Now and for the Future – HamRadioNow
6 Factors Influencing Requirements for a Good Grounding System
5H2SF – Tanzania
ARRL Field Day Gear, Supplies Now Available!
Lab599 Discovery TX-500 QRP Ham Radio Review
SmartSDR for iOS v3.06.02 Now Available
Scouting’s Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) Participation Dips for Third Year
MFJ-2104 Octopus Antenna, Four Dipoles of Fun!
The 2019 CQ World Wide 160-Meter Contest
There are no ads, please add some
Warning: file_get_contents(https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?url=https%3A%2F%2Fqrznow.com%2Famateur-repeaters-fall-victim-to-washington-wildfire%2F): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found in /home/qrznow/public_html/wp-content/themes/goodnews5/framework/functions/posts_share.php on line 151
