Our beacon site at Vassfjellet has been a topic for many blog posts in the past. It has been one of our favorite pastimes, so naturally we were excited when the snow finally started melting. At last we are able to access the site again, and are eager to see what needs to be fixed this year.

The season was kickstarted when some of our extra-eager members, LB0VG and LA2QUA, went for a winter trip there to make some quick repairs on the wifi link, and assess the health of the site in general.

LB0VG returned to the site again this Saturday. He was able to make this trip by car, which makes it much easier to haul equipment to and from the site.

The goal for the trip was to install another wifi link, this time to act as a failover for the first wifi-link. The failover link will take over once the main link dips below a certain threshold. This way, we have a method of securing continuous operation for our beacons and monitors in case of trouble.

LB0VG aiming the Ubiquiti PowerBeam for the failover wifi.

The failover link still needs some alignment to make perfect contact, but we are sure that it will work after some more tweaking. Once it is operational we are eager to detail the nitty gritty technical details on this blog.

The only technical installation that broke this year was our ADS-B antenna, which had gotten bent 90 degrees out of shape. Luckily this was rapidly repaired by LB0VG, and our ADS-B station is now back to receiving DX-like distances on passing aircraft.

ADS-B antenna 90 degrees out of shape.

Other than improvements to existing setups, the main theme for this years Vassfjellet adventures will probably be repairs to the building structure. Over the last couple of years, we have made small repairs to various things (mostly the leaky roof), but have noticed some problems that will need a more thorough refurbish. The main problem that we need to address is that the cabin has started to slant significantly, leading us to think that the foundation is compromised. Also, the roof is leaking again. 🙂 We will come back to these issues in future blog posts.