A new amateur radio station was installed at the new
Franklin County Emergency Operations Center in Belgreen, Alabama in the summer
of 2004. This station included a Yaesu FT-857, MFJ-969 tuner, an 80-meter
dipole, a Comet GP-3 VHF/UHF antenna, a Diamond GZV-4000 power supply, and a
Pentium III computer.
In March 2005, the NV4B-6
APRS weather station was installed.
A KAM all-mode TNC and Buxcomm soundcard interface were
added in June 2005.
In November 2005, the FT-857, MFJ-969, and WXTrak were
destroyed by a lightning strike. The WXTrak was replaced within three days and the weather station resumed operation.
In January 2006, a new Kenwood TM-D700A VHF/UHF radio was
installed. This radio will allow the operator to monitor the local
frequency and SKYWARN frequency simultaneously on one antenna, allowing the
weather station to stay on the air during an emergency.
Update: In December 2006, a new HF antenna was
erected to replace the old 80-meter open-wire fed dipole: a coax-fed
parallel dipole homebrewed by NV4B. This antenna covers 80, 40, 20, 15,
and 10 meters.
Along with the antenna, we also installed our new Kenwood TS-570DG HF radio that
replaces the lightning-struck FT-857D from last year.
