Snow Peak Radio Details

Snow Peak Radio

The Snow Peak site is located directly above the city of Banning on Interstate 10. Just across the valley to the west is San Gorgonio Mountain at 11, 499 feet above mean sea level. The site is inaccessible about 3 months of the year, except by helicopter, due to snow. A small area between the buildings, just large enough for the rotor blades of a helicopter, is always kept clear for landings. The entire electrical system inside the building was installed by Chuck Karayan, WD6AML.

Snow Peak is at an elevation of 7,920 feet above mean sea level. The site has an outstanding view of the Coachella Valley to the southeast. While the Remote can be heard in many parts of the Los Angeles basin, that is not its primary coverage area. The remote covers much of the Inland Empire as well as the Coachella Valley all the way south to the Mexician border and the 29 Palms and Yucca Valley area.

Here's a picture of the site showing the 120 foot self supporting tower and the building. The highest antenna on the tower, on the right leg, is the Cactus 440 Super Stormmaster. Not shown in the picture (because it was installed after) is the Community receive 420 Stationmaster link antenna which is mounted just below the 440 Super Stormmaster. On the candelabra half way up the tower are the link antennas pointed to Potato Patch, Chuckwalla and the Switching Center. The Stationmaster and other link antennas belongs to the KF6FM system.

Here's a picture of San Gorgonio Mountain to the north taken from the site.

The Snow Peak radio consists of a Palomar Telecom Controller, a GE Mastr II continuous duty 100 watt base station with a Motorola T1507 duplexer. Two of the links consist of Motorola Mitreks as transmitters and GE MASTR Pro wideband receivers. The third link, to Potato Patch, is a 420 Megahertz Motorola Micor base station. All of the amateur 420 link receivers in the building use the Cactus owned and installed 420 Mhz community receive antenna and receiver multicoupler system.

It was a little cold and there was snow on the ground when the 2 cabinets were installed at the site. This picture shows the placement of the cabinets. Chuck, WD6AML, was trying to warm up in front of heater we brought with us. Chuck had installed the complete electrical system in the building prior to any cabinets going into the building.

This is the back of the two cabinets.

These two pictures show Dave, WA6JDV, installing the 420 Community link receive antenna (8/15/97) just below the 440 Super Stormmaster antenna at the top of the tower.

This picture shows Dave, WA6JDV, on the right, and Ken, WA6PYJ, doing the initial install of the link antennas on the candlelabra at the 50 foot level. Ken is holding a link yagi per Robin's, WA6CDR, instructions. We thought it was a little strange but he did say he wanted the link antenna vertically polarized!

This picture shows the ice damage on the link antennas after the second winter at the site, 1997. There are several elements broken, just hanging by the phasing straps, on the horizontally polarized antennas.

Return to:

Cactus Intertie, Inc

Revised: May 7, 2011 by WA6PYJ
Copyright 2011 by Cactus Intertie, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Cactus Radio Club, Inc. logo, "Cactus Intertie, Inc.", "Cactus Radio Club, Inc.", "Cactus Intertie" and "Cactus Intertie System" are registered trademarks of Cactus Intertie, Inc.
No use of these symbols or phrases is allowed without the express written permission of Cactus Intertie, Inc.

This picture shows Dave, WA6JDV, on the right, and Ken, WA6PYJ, doing the initial install of the link antennas on the candlelabra at the 50 foot level. Ken is holding a link yagi per Robin's, WA6CDR, instructions. We thought it was a little strange but he did say he wanted the link antenna vertically polarized!	This picture shows the ice damage on the link antennas after the second winter at the site, 1997. There are several elements broken, just hanging by the phasing straps, on the horizontally polarized antennas.