Current Events 2026


Intertie,Inc. Anual Meeting was held Saturday, August 1, 2026 at 11:30am in Boerne. Location was The Hungry Hourse Cafe, 109 Saunders St. Boerne, TX 78002.


July 18, George West Repairs

The fix-it team (HQU & LNL) went to GWS to do some minor things.

After morning breakfast tacos, we left to do the following:

1. reprogram a few things in the SRS controller

2. get the APRS weather station working (No weather)

3. check L2 (to Corpus) and why we have a weak signal ( RX signal has a lot of QSB )

We found the 'bug' in the SRS controller and put PL filters on all (3) radios. We changed out the TNC on the APRS weather station and we started to get WX data. The wind speed device will need to be replaced. It is frozen and not moving.

BAD news on both Link 1 and Link 2- -

The Anritsu did not paint a pretty picture. Both link antennas have high SWR. More checking will need to be done to see if the beams are bad or we have water in the heliax.


Walt/KA5HQU Dink/WA5LNL


July 11, Reinstall of Pandale (PAN) Equipment.

The fix it team (Walt, Bart & Dink)left SA at 4:30 am. We ran into a lot of rain in the Kerrville area. The back of Walt's SUV was full of equipment! This team needs TACOS to do the job and we have Walt (the cook) that made breakfast tacos. The morning stayed cloudy and this was great. Arriving about 8:30 am , the work started. Two metal sheets were placed under the cabinet to keep the cabinet from sinking into the plywood. With a completely empty cabinet, we could rock the cabinet to get the sheets under it. Walt got a hole drilled (low in the cabinet) to let cooler air in. Also, Walt wired up the 4 x 4 AC box with clamp. Thanks to an earlier visit by (Larry & Stan), they pulled 5-electrical boxes out and wiring so equipment could be mounted. Bart got all the radios from the car and placed them on the grill at the shack for the install. Bart kept the weather radar on his phone going to know where the rain was.


Things Done at PAN:

1. metal placed on the bottom of the radio cabinet

2. Hole punched in cabinet for cooler air

3. AC power cord clamped

4. (2) Motorola MTR2000 installed ( you need muscles/ 43 lbs ! )

5. All radios have isolators and Rx bandpass filters

6. Holes punched on CDM TX blower for better cooling

7. Filters placed on CDM blowers for noise

8. PL filters inserted in SRS controller

9. SRS Id notch filters put in

10. APRS- cover removed from CDM radio-cooling

11. Barometric pressure set

We left the site at 1:30pm under cloudy skies and were home by 5:30

73,

Walt/KA5HQU, Bart/KG5PGH, Dink/WA5LNL


June 25, Uvalde

Uvalde (UVA) /(Muffin Hill) is back on the air! After breakfast tacos this morning, the fix-it crew (Walt & Dink) left for UVA to reinstall the repeater (443.925) and throw the 'big switch'. The 'big switch' was left in the OFF position on the last visit. The repeater had NO power and we found the 'driver' may have melted some solder! Extra fans were installed on the repeater, Astron 12v power supply and CDM's. PL filters are now ON links #1 & #2 + the repeater. Cabinet door hinges were oiled per Larry's/EX instructions


APRS: WX5II-2 UVA


In the APRS cabinet, a 3" fan was installed to replace a bad fan. "AA" back-up batteries were changed on the on the weather station. Wind speed and wind direction failed about 3 months ago?

We either had a hungry hawk or some big hail that took out the instruments?


Walt/KA5HQU Dink/WA5LNL


May 2, Trip to Pleasanton

The 'Fix It' team( Walt & Dink) (after breakfast tacos) headed to PLZ to get several things done. The main reason was to pick-up a Db-4042 VHF duplexer with a Hoffman cabinet to sell at the Schertz swap fest, May 29,30. Intertie will have a very good price on this duplexer!

Things done at PLZ:

1.Rack mount switching power supply was reinstalled. It had a bad fan.

2.A big surprise, all the lights were working!!

3.Summer is getting close, so we opened a vent in the ceiling to let the hot air out.

4. APRS weather station was worked on. The buzzards had crashed the wind speed and wind direction. A new 'better spike'/NO landing bar was installed. We also found a dead back-up battery on the weather station. This will be replaced on next visit. Check out KC5L-11

April 10, 2026, Trip to PLZ

It was 'Good Friday' today for Intertie? The 'Fix-It Team' (FIT) ( Bart,Walt& Dink) went to Pleasanton with a truck load and trailer load of mostly Sonora and Huntsville equipment. This will give Dink's garage some needed room. Thanks to Walt's 'red trailer', we got the 7/8" heliax to PLZ.

Things done at PLZ:

  1. Many trips were made putting equipment in the shack.
  2. Walt replaced (2)- cooling fans in the radio cabinet. [Thanks to to Joe/W5KTX for the 5 1/4" fans] -- - - Thanks Joe
  3. While in the radio cabinet, we noticed the power supply fan on the link radios was not working. Unit was pulled and a Astron RS-20 was put in. The frozen fan was making the power supply to run hot.
  4. Notice to KC5L ( site manager)--- RF exposure study was left in the Log Book.
  5. Some nice 'vitamins' were left for the four legged friends with a tail.
  6. Ferrite beads were put on the APRS power supply.
  7. Id in the Kenwood TKR-850 repeater was lowered to 1 1/4 khz dev.
  8. Not fixed today, we found the wind cups on the APRS weather station almost under the the tower!

On the way back, Bart got a call from David/W5JDO(Midland). David got a tower climber to clear a large bird nest off the paraflector going to ALP. David also gave Bart signal reports from most of the West Texas radio sites. The trouble spot seems to be Pandale. This is the next site visit to seewhat is wrong. ---- Thanks David

"Good Friday".......Things got done today !!

73's

Bart/KG5PGH, Walt/KA5HQU, Dink/WA5LNL

March 13, Sonora

If you have not heard, Sonora (SRA)is shutting down. The Tower People said all radio communications must pay rent. This is over $1000 / month! Radios were taken down Thursday and antennas and heliax Saturday 3/14/26. I was looking at the Log Book and many hams have put in 'time' at the site since Dec.22,2008.

W5EX N5HN WA5WPJ W6BIE

W3DH KD5FVZ WD5JLS K5DRT

W5KTX W5RMC KG5OLF KG5PGH

KG5PGI KA5HQU WA5LNL KD5ZSY

All have signed the log book in the past 18 years!

Some interesting things found: I built-up a Kenwood repeater (TKR-850)and I put an isolator on the tx output for stability. It was hooked up with out looking at the back of the duplexer? The radio rack was close to wall. There was a second isolator mounted on the duplexer! So, we had (2)isolators on the TX.We could have had more power out to the antenna with one. I found a BAD 'N' connector center pin on the duplexer receiver connector. This may have given the receiver an intermitten operation. This will be repairable with a lot of work.

Thanks to Bart/KG5PGH and Walt/KA5HQU for many trips and take down at Sonora.

73, Dink/WA5LNL

March 7, Corpus Christi North

Mark/ WA2MCT reported Corpus North (CPR)was completely down.Also, APRS operation was not working. APRS is completely seperate from the linked radios. This meant the AC power must be out.So , the 'fix-it' team (Walt & Dink)started off like GOOD hams with morning breakfast tacos.

We noticed mesquite trees were putting on nice lime green leafs from about Pleasanton south. As we past the George West area at 75 mph it happened? Boom, what was that. Walt said, I known- as we pulled off the highway. Walt had exceeded the magnetic flux of the mag mount antenna! With 75 mph speed and south winds at 20 to 30 mph,it took the antenna down.For the rest of the trip, the antenna was on the back seat. Just north of Corpus, we saw a few wildflowers and Bluebonnets.

We got to the repeater site and found the radio cabinet dark--no power. We have (2)OVP devices at the site. We found the Dinkerator (OVP) with a blown fuse and the Isobar bad. A new fuse was installed and the Isobar replaced. Power was applied and everything turned ON.

Thanks to Mark/WA2MCT, Bart/KG5PGH,Corky/WB5CIT and others for checking out things. We had a list to check off

  1. check on removal of bandpass filter
  2. check ferrite beads on APRS P.S.
  3. check all link blowers
  4. check L3 TX for power and swr + beam azimuth
  5. up the timer on the MTR2000
  6. get a new exhaust system on the cabinet door

Walt worked on the cabinet door lock and got it working. Next on the list was a visit to the "Oyster Street Bar" to make sure there was talkie coverage!!

73's, Walt/KA5HQU, Dink/WA5LNL

Jan 3, Huntsville

After a few GOOD tacos in SA, The fix-it team (Bart, Walt & Dink) left heading east to Huntsville Saturday morning (Jan.3).On the way, we received GOOD news.Imelda (KB5PQS ( D'waynes wife)) was cooking a super great 'Mexican plate'. Fact: Hams only travel where there is GOOD food ! The remote consists of 2-Motorola CDM's (rpt) & link 1 is the NXU-2. The remote (rpt) is on 443.700 mhz, PL 141.3 hz. in Huntsville. This setup is as if it was AFV SA.The install went smoothly except for ip address for the NXU. With help from Joe (KG5OLF (Bart's son)) and Tom (KC5L), we got things running. Bart had a nice talk with Russ (via phone) for info on the New Waverly site. We missed Glen(KD5ZFN) from Nomangee as his wife broke her arm. Laura was there and is secretary at the local ham club and crimps coax connectors now!

Thanks to everyone, 73's, Bart, Walt & Dink