The friendly voice of WAY-FM, along with its news and music, had been silent for too long. The Christian-based, listener-supported community station needed even more support - in this case, amateur radio support - to get back on the air. The problem was twofold, both with the 10 metre high base link antenna and at the broadcaster's remote transmitter station. The cause wasn't completely clear though until Hayden, VK7HH, and his friend Nicholas hiked up a rugged mountain 1100 metres above sea level in Tasmania on the 29th of March, repaired the solar powered, FM-Band transmitter station by installing a temporary, self-built, antenna and got the station back on the air.
Hayden told Newsline in an email that all they had to do was swap the feed lines over to another set of antennas for the studio-transmitter link to the remote site and install the temporary main transmitter antenna.
The existing antennas were showing a bad SWR resulting in the transmitter folding back the power to protect itself.
The two-hour drive up - and another 1.5-hours back - plus the 3-km hike afterward up steep slopes was well worth the effort.
Happy to have been helpful, the friends documented their adventure in two installments on Hayden's YouTube Channel, hamradiodx. Like the radio station they assisted, they are hoping it will provide a little bit of inspiration.