Ken, N6KTH, Matt, W6KGB, Calli, KD6OVS, Dave, K9KBX and Tim, KG6TAT are the principle drivers behind an exciting project to construct a remote base in Santa Barbara County.  Originally planned for Mountain Drive above Montecito California (east of Santa Barbara) we now plan to install the equipment at Painted Cave, in the Santa Ynez mountains above Santa Barbara. As it is currently envisioned, we will have a multi-band, multi-mode remote attached to a 440 repeater. 

Currently, the remote is functioning on a repeater test pair (448.880 MHz minus offset) with a pl of 88.5 Hertz.  For now, the remote is located in downtown Santa Barbara and is in the testing phase.

April 2009: Painted Cave will be new location for remote!
Tim, KG6TAT has generously offered to host the remote base at his house, high atop the Santa Ynez Mountains at Painted Cave.  This will put the project back on the fast track, since the Montecito location will not be available to us any time soon (see below).  Tim's location should provide superior coverage compared to Montecito, particularly for Santa Barbara and Goleta.  On 4/14, Ken and Tim picked up a large wooden cabinet at UCSB that will house the equipment cabinet.  Click HERE to check out the photos of the new cabinet (be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page for the latest pictures).  Calli will perform some more work on the remote (adding fans and a circuit that will disable the squelch when the remote is put in SSB mode).

Since this is no longer a remote for Montecito, Ken renamed the informal association the "Santa Barbara County Remote Base Association."  This way, no mater where we put repeaters or remotes in the county, we won't have to change the name again!  Also, Painted Cave does provide a little coverage on the north side of the Santa Ynez, so our coverage area is expanding county wide!

Duke is reconstructing his home on his property that was destroyed in the Tea Fire.  He did offer to host the remote in the future.  Unfortunately, we would have had to construct an expensive cabinet for this location (no wooden ones will be allowed) and this option was not practical for us at the moment.  

November 2008: Tea Fire damage and system progress
Sadly, the property where we plan to locate the remote base was completely destroyed in the Tea Fire of 11/13/08.  Our friend Duke McPherson lost just about everything. 

Fortunately for us, we did not complete the preparation of the equipment, so it was not located at the site during the fire.  Unfortunately, the enclosure was burned to the ground, and our hardline cable was destroyed.  The antenna was toppled, but apparently not damaged.

Click HERE to see photos of the fire damage (scroll to the bottom of the page).  New photos added 11/20/08).

Calli continues to make needed improvements to the system.  He has designed an automatic temperature control system and has programmed the remote for easy access to local repeaters.  We also regularly use the remote to monitor the SSB net on Wednesday evenings at 8:30 PM.

June 2008: System Testing has Begun!
We have begun testing the system, and it's on the air on 446.880 (minus offset, PL 131.8).  This is a temporary test pair.  For now, the equipment is in a downtown location, while we test the components, programming and settings.  Calli has been putting in a tremendous about of work, and it shows!

May 2008: Site preparations finished.
We've completed the installation of the site infrastructure.

Click HERE to see photos of our site visits and system construction (new photos added 5/18/08).

May 2008: System Featured in KeyKlix
KeyKlix, the newsletter of the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club, has featured our system on the cover of the May issue.  Click here to read it

Equipment List
Click HERE to see a list of our current equipment inventory.
(Updated 6/08)