NOAA in Stillwater

[oklameatman]

Anyone know what happened to Mr. Weather Robot on 162.50, out of Stillwater? Seems to have died?

 

[K5MAR]

Yep, it's been down since Sunday morning. I emailed Rick in Norman that day, they weren't aware of it, but are getting it checked out. Here's his reply to me (in part):

OK...we are checking into it. Since it is still in "test" mode, I'm not sure we're set up to be alerted when it's
off the air. That will be fixed.

Talked to another source just a few ago, he advised that it could be up to a week, since the transmitter is still undergoing commissioning, they would need to get the factory repairman to check it out.

Mark S.

 

[K5MAR]

It's back on the air. Apparently there was a phoneline problem, with no audio input, the transmitter is set to shut down rather than transmitting a dead carrier. Good ol' SBC!

Mark S.

 

[oklameatman]

OK...we are checking into it. Since it is still in "test" mode, I'm not sure we're set up to be alerted when it's
off the air. That will be fixed.

Mark,
Do you have any idea how they are alerted of problems on the other existing systems?

 

[K5MAR]

No, I don't. I would have expected that it would have been a trouble signal sent back down the phone line to the FO, but in this case I'm not sure how that would have worked. I do know from my days at the PD that the alarm lines were capable of generating a trouble indication, so I guess something like this is also possible for the feed to the transmitter.

I've been supplied with contact information to report any further problems, and an outage report can also be sent using the severe weather reporting form: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/stormreport/
Hopefully, this won't be needed, but it's nice to know, just in case.

Mark

 

[N5TWB]

K5MAR....

Just out of curiosity, do you know what tower they put the transmitting antenna on in Stillwater? Is it the one out west by the Lake Carl Blackwell and the golf course?

 

[K5MAR]

No, the owners of that tower (the parent company of Stillwater Radio) have proved amazingly difficult to deal with regarding the installation of new users. Our ham club tried to work with them for two years in an attempt to put up a NWR transmitter before throwing in the towel. Then the NWS/NOAA people tried to negotiate with them with no joy either. They finally worked a deal on a tower site north of Stillwater, which incidently gives a better signal into Noble and Pawnee counties.

I haven't gone looking for the site as of yet, but I have a pretty good idea where it might be. NOAA has quit listing tower lat/lon for these sites in the post-9/11 climate, so I may respect their desires and give a generalized location when I do.

Mark S.