An Update of the Beacons at Vassfjellet

It has now been almost two years since we posted the last update of our beacon QTH and almost a year and a half since the beacons were taken off the air. Since we have received a few emails asking about the current situation, as well as questions even offering a new QTH, we thought it would be easier to address the situation publicly here. The short answer is that all the beacons for 70cm, 2m, 4m and 6m are going to return soon, so for those of you that have used and/or miss them; please bear with us a little longer!

Where are the beacons located?

Our radio beacons are located in a small cabin at the summit of Vassfjellet, a mountain just on the border of neighbour municipalities Trondheim and Melhus. The summit is over 700 meters tall, and takes about 50 minutes to reach by car from our clubhouse in Elgesetergate. The QTH is just barely located on the Melhus side of the border, which also hosts the 212 meter tall TV-mast. Despite our tall surroundings, we have a beautiful view of the cities in the distance.

How did they end up there?

During the early 1960’s, barracks were set up for radio links during the constructions of hydroelectric plants in the area. After construction concluded, the temporary radio barrack at Vassfjellet remained standing and in the early 80’s, ARK entered an agreement with the owners to utilize the otherwise unoccupied building. Quite fitting that a club like LA1K would repurpose the building for radio transmissions, just like before. However, as the building was constructed to only last a few years, it had become disheveled looking after some 60 odd years in the Norwegian weather. With only some (infrequent) maintenance work since then, the building was nearly condemned before we sought it necessary to do a bigger overhaul than ever before. In the summer of 2021 work began to clear out the cabin in preparations for renovation in the close future.

Why are the beacons off the air?

Clearing out the cabin meant we had to remove all technical equipment including the beacons, as well as their accompanying antennas. After completing this cleanup, we put the beacons temporarily back in service late 2022, right before the winter season began. In late spring 2023, after the snow had mostly cleared from the road up, we went back to investigate the current situation. A quick inspection revealed that the wind and snow had entered the cabin through nooks and crannies in the walls, which after removing the inner wall earlier, now were bigger than before. Noticing corrosion on surge protectors and other metal parts (luckily nothing on the beacons themselves), we dried everything up and put the beacons safely back in storage until the renovation was complete.

What is taking so long?

Great question! This can be divided into more categories:

Manpower – Even though our club consists of 40+ members, only 4-5 people can fit in a car at once. And, that’s only applicable if you can gather that many people at once. As previously mentioned, the cabin is located 50 minutes away by car, with the same time needed to return back home. Not to mention, the cabin is only accessible by car half of the year, and it’s the half when students are the busiest with exams and vacations! It’s quite the puzzle figuring out the availability and work capacity at times , but it is also only then that we are able to get a lot of work done!

Another important factor in the completion rate for the project is that it is dependant on volutary work, done by members in their spare time. And when projects go on for a while, the work morale tends to sink a bit leaving more work for fewer people.

Money – As a student union, we don’t have an endless supply of money to just do whatever we want unfortunately. Supplies have to be bought, cars have to be used, and time is limited. A lot of time the recent year has been spent allocating money for the project, as the budget may or may not have been exceeded. We have however also received some donations, which helps a lot in continuing the progress in completing the project.

Unforeseen events – We have for the most part been progressing slowly but surely, but sometimes it happens that we have to take a step back as well. In the summer of 2023 we got a lot of work done during the summer and fall, but an early snowfall on October 7th made us have to rush and get the roof done way earlier than expected. When January 2024 was about to end, the hurricane Ingunn hit the city which tore the temporary roof of our cabin. This summer, an allocated week for finishing several projects was cut short, as the military arrived for a military exercise, asking us to pack our bags and leave.

At least we are progressivly moving forwards with the project, and are able to see the end of it very soon.

Any estimates of completion?

The current estimate is for everything to be completed during the summer of 2025. We’ll also be very satisfied with an early fall completion too, but hopefully we’ll reach our goal way before that. We’ve missed earlier deadlines before, but this time we have completed most of the work, needing only to complete the finishing touches and finally mounting the equipment.

Until then we have plans for servicing all beacons, to make sure they are in tip-top shape before being deployed again. Some of the antennas are also in need of a rebuild, so we need to plan for designing and building those. The VHF-yagi, which was previously placed inside, has to be rebuilt and modified as the available area in the cabin no longer accommodates the original design. A renovated building also means we have to take care and plan when making holes and cable passthroughs, as to not break the insulation and weather barriers in the walls.

Our previous attempts at temporarily mounting the beacons have not exactly been fruitful, and because of this we have decided to postpone putting them on the air until we are completely ready. We already have some installations running from the cabin for collecting environment data, mostly to see if the work so far has rendered the cabin sufficient to house our radio equpiment in the future. So far it is looking good, and we are hoping to be on the air very soon!

That’s it for 2024. Time will show if we are able to meet our current deadline, but in any event we hope to keep everyone who’s interested informed on the progress of our project. We’ll see if the project calls for another update before that, but until then this is where its at. The page for the beacons can be found right here in the navigation menu, which lists the details for LA2UHF, LA2VHF, LA2VHF/4, LA2SIX as well as LA2SHF which will not return to service in the foreseeable future.

Thanks for reading!

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Featured image details:
Caption: The final touch before winter arrives, November 15th, 2024!
Photo: LB0VG