US Virgin Island Amateur Radio Group Bolsters Repeater Infrastructure

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US Virgin Island Amateur Radio Group Bolsters Repeater Infrastructure

An ARDC grant will enable the group to purchase backup repeaters, improve repeater coverage, and train and outfit new hams

When two Category 5 hurricanes hit the US Virgin Islands in 2017, hams there knew they had to do something. The two monster storms destroyed 95% of St. Croix's electric utility poles, and many antenna towers were down. As a result, the USVI Government's primary land-mobile-radio (LMR) trunked radio system was essentially non-functional, and the National Guard could not be heard on any radio frequency for a week following the storms.

Territory radio clubs immediately went into action. St. Croix ham operators quickly established a daily high-frequency (HF) net for first response agencies. A single surviving ham repeater provided limited communications between islands. These links provided critical information and communications for governmental and non-governmental agencies including FEMA, Department of Defense, Transportation Security Agency, National Park Service, VI National Guard, Red Cross, and local police and fire services.

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Denmark's 40 MHz Beacon is Back on the Air

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At the end of August 2021, the OZ7IGY 8m beacon on 40.071 MHz was turned off because of a faulty trimmer in the power amplifier stage

At the end of October 2021, after replacing the faulty part it was turned back on.

OZ7IGY Beacons - http://www.oz7igy.dk/

Repeater Troublemaker Caught Red-Handed!

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Switzerland's national amateur radio society USKA reports on action to tackle the problem of repeater abuse.

On 2nd July 2021, in the morning on various 70 cm repeaters, increased interference in the form of DTMF and siren signals were heard again. Various DF teams were encouraged to track down the troublemaker and with success - various bearings led to Bellevue / Gottschalk Enberg (southeast of Menzingen), where two teams found an already known radio amateur at 12:30 p.m. Two people then had intensive conversations with this troublemaker, who - as in a conversation on May 26, 2021 with another successfully tracker - pretended to be stupid and clueless. Due to the waterproof bearing results and the repeated encounter of the same person at the coordinates of the respective bearings, there is no doubt that we have found the right one.

Maybe it's just a pious wish, but we hope that the interferer's intelligence is sufficient to see that it is now time for his QRT.

It remains for us to express our thanks to all those who have supported us for weeks and months with their tips, their active help and thousands of kilometres driven. In the end, Ham spirit is what you achieve together - and not what you talk about autocratically and preferably by radio.

USKA - tinyurl.com/IARU-Switzerland