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Everyone,

This past Tuesday during the SKYWARN net it was noticed that the 147.255 W3CPA repeater was behaving poorly.? Our stations who were trying to access the repeater were, at times, unable to do so.? The signal on both receive and transmit was full of static crashes and as quickly as it started, it would disappear?for a while.? And reappear?within a few minutes.??

Allen K3HOC took the opportunity to visit the site and check things out for us.? What he discovered was that we had a high SWR indicating an issue with the antenna system.? Upon further examination he discovered?the hardline coax had holes in it which Allen suspects was the result of a?lightning strike.? One of the holes was at a metal clamp that holds the coax to the tower.? He suspects the issue we were hearing was due to the metal-to-metal short that was created when the wind would blow.? When the wind subsided the connection was broken.??

Allen was able to have the damaged coax replaced and the repeater is once again?operating with minimal?SWR.? ?We should have more details for discussion at our May 22 CCARC meeting.? Thank you to Allen for keeping the repeater in tip top shape!

Thank you.

John N3SPW