White Tanks Repeater Rebuild
W7TBC's mountain node — AllStar, Starlink, and a little bit of grit.
- ONLINE / STALE / OFFLINE
- Heartbeat freshness. The Pi posts telemetry every 60 s. Green < 3 min, amber 3–10 min, red > 10 min (or never reached).
- asterisk · docker
- Systemd service state on the Pi. active · inactive. Asterisk runs AllStar; Docker will host future support services.
- Uptime
- Time since last boot. Long uptime = stable, but periodic reboots (e.g., after kernel updates) are normal.
- CPU LOAD
- 1-minute / 5-minute / 15-minute Unix load averages. Pi5 has 4 cores, so 4.00 = 100 % saturated. Normal idle: < 0.3.
- CPU TEMP
- SoC thermal zone. Green < 65 °C, amber 65–80 °C, red > 80 °C (where the Pi thermal-throttles).
- MEMORY
- Used / total RAM (8 GB on each Pi). Green < 70 %, amber 70–90 %, red > 90 %.
- ROOT DISK
- Used / total on the NVMe root filesystem (~117 GB usable). Green < 70 %, amber 70–90 %, red > 90 %.
- NVME TEMP
- Drive controller temperature from SMART. Green < 55 °C, amber 55–70 °C, red > 70 °C. A firmware quirk on one of the 70 cm drives reports sensor 1 instead of the composite — see the 2m drive for the reference reading.
- NVME WEAR
- Manufacturer's estimate of lifetime consumed (0–100 %). New drives read 0 %. Green < 20 %, amber 20–80 %, red > 80 %.
- SMART
- The drive's
critical_warningbitmap. PASS = 0 (all OK). Any other value means the firmware is reporting a health issue. - UNSAFE
- Count of unclean shutdowns (power loss, kernel panic, etc.). Watch this climb if the mountain loses power often — suggests we need a UPS.
- pwr-on · written · spare
- Cumulative power-on hours, total host writes to the drive, and remaining spare-block percentage. Together these approximate drive lifetime remaining.
- ONLINE / STALE / OFFLINE
- Heartbeat freshness. The Pi posts telemetry every 60 s. Green < 3 min, amber 3–10 min, red > 10 min (or never reached).
- asterisk · docker
- Systemd service state on the Pi. active · inactive. Asterisk runs AllStar; Docker will host future support services.
- Uptime
- Time since last boot. Long uptime = stable, but periodic reboots (e.g., after kernel updates) are normal.
- CPU LOAD
- 1-minute / 5-minute / 15-minute Unix load averages. Pi5 has 4 cores, so 4.00 = 100 % saturated. Normal idle: < 0.3.
- CPU TEMP
- SoC thermal zone. Green < 65 °C, amber 65–80 °C, red > 80 °C (where the Pi thermal-throttles).
- MEMORY
- Used / total RAM (8 GB on each Pi). Green < 70 %, amber 70–90 %, red > 90 %.
- ROOT DISK
- Used / total on the NVMe root filesystem (~117 GB usable). Green < 70 %, amber 70–90 %, red > 90 %.
- NVME TEMP
- Drive controller temperature from SMART. Green < 55 °C, amber 55–70 °C, red > 70 °C. A firmware quirk on one of the 70 cm drives reports sensor 1 instead of the composite — see the 2m drive for the reference reading.
- NVME WEAR
- Manufacturer's estimate of lifetime consumed (0–100 %). New drives read 0 %. Green < 20 %, amber 20–80 %, red > 80 %.
- SMART
- The drive's
critical_warningbitmap. PASS = 0 (all OK). Any other value means the firmware is reporting a health issue. - UNSAFE
- Count of unclean shutdowns (power loss, kernel panic, etc.). Watch this climb if the mountain loses power often — suggests we need a UPS.
- pwr-on · written · spare
- Cumulative power-on hours, total host writes to the drive, and remaining spare-block percentage. Together these approximate drive lifetime remaining.
Build Phases
2 of 7 complete- Board approval + funding2026-02-11
- Equipment procurement2026-04-09
- Pi5 controllers online
- Ground-level build + testing2026-04-16
- Integration testing on 445.800 MHz
- Mountain deployment + cutover
- 30-day monitoring
currently: Equipment procurement
Tech Committee
5 operators- Chris JohnsonK6OZYVP · compute, networking, and systems architecture
- Gary DuffieldWK7BPresident · on-site delivery — Starlink, cameras, antennas, coax, cavity filters
- Josh WhyteW9JJWInfrastructure & systems administrator · Board Member
- MattN0SNOLogistics · mountain access coordination
- Adam KellyN7XAKLogistics · mountain access coordination
What this site is
During the build: live status of the Pi5 controllers, build progress, and the tech committee's work as we rebuild W7TBC's mountain node.
After cutover: the go-to site for both the public and the club — repeater status, connected nodes, recent activity, and an operator console for admins to monitor and control the repeaters on the mountain.
Digital modes roadmap
AllStar Link
The backbone. ASL3 running natively on both Pi5s, cross-linked via startup macro. Gives us internet-linked repeater access from anywhere and the ability to connect to other AllStar nodes worldwide.
EchoLink
Piggybacking on AllStar's built-in EchoLink proxy. Operators who prefer EchoLink can connect without dedicated hardware.
Wires-X
Planned for a NUC VM with an HRI-200 interface. Bridges Yaesu System Fusion users into the W7TBC network.
DMR & D-Star
On the roadmap pending vocoder board procurement. Both would run on the NUC alongside Wires-X, giving the club full multi-mode coverage.
Tower & site
The White Tanks Mountain site is a club-maintained installation with existing tower infrastructure and antennas being reused from the previous repeater deployment. A diesel generator provides site power, with a UPS as the battery backup layer. Starlink provides the internet backhaul.
73, Wayne W6IZK
Wayne Hale, W6IZK, was the tech committee's AllStar subject matter expert. He became a Silent Key in March 2026. This project carries his work forward. 73, old friend.