Salida machine connectivity is restored.  The interconnecting site at the Royal Gorge was restored to full service.

The Durango repeater has been intermittent for the past week.  We know it is a link issue with the ISP we are using, but historically it self-healed after a few days.  It has not done so for at least a week now, so fear the ISP issue is not going to clear.

Thanks to Bill (W0BX) for making the trek to the site via mountain bike!  Roads are still at least a month away from passable but accessible via mountain bike (24 miles taking 4 hours).

We were able to “borrow” a snowcat and make it up to Thorodin earlier than waiting for jeep access and repairs have been made.  The Mt. Thorodin transmitter is back up to being fully operational!

The temporary transmitter on Lee Hill has been re-tuned to 145.310MHz, so now you can use your normal repeater offset for this location.  The “alternate” 145.430MHz is not available.  Coverage is still not the same as the Thorodin transmitter, but now at least the “normal” frequency.

We have a “not great, but better than nothing” solution, we are using a backup transmitter on Lee Hill.

It transmits on 145.430MHz with an optional 141.3Hz output tone.

This transmitter does NOT have frequency paired receiver, so you still need to transmit on 144.710MHz!

You can either work split frequencies or have a very non-standard (-720Khz) offset whichever is easier for you and your radio.

This is a very temporary and sub-optimal solution.  No need for signal reports, it isn’t going to be great.

Plans are under way to be ready to visit Mt. Thorodin hopefully in about a month after a bit more snow melts.

The Colorado Connection is a statewide Amateur Radio system that was conceived and built to help all radio amateurs in Colorado to better communicate. We use commercial quality repeaters and antennas to ensure that the system is always there.

Some of our sites are above 13000′ and are in a very brutal environment. These need extreme care and high quality installation focus to ensure that these sites are always there for you.

We know that you count on us and we’ve tried to do our best!

The Grand Junction machine is un-linked. Unfortunately it cannot be fixed remotely, it is going to require a site visit.

The Connection’s web server was hacked a couple of days ago, but the whole network is fine. We are trying to get things restored as quickly as possible. Please bear with us.

With the help of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio, the network headed West through Colorado was completed and interconnected to Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction.  As of December 29, 2019, the link was completely finished and is now continuous from Denver through Grand Junction!

This changes the quality of the audio and the reliability of the connection to the western slope.  It’s no longer reliant on 70’s technology with analog links and is easily manageable remotely with simple network management tools.