A trip on a local passive repeater
Passive repeaters is a wonderful technology! If you are interested in more technical information, please read this pdf article, which describes everything about them. (notify me is the link is not working)
I have red lot about passive repeaters and fascinated about this technology but I never had the chance to see one for real. Many years ago, I noticed a big board-like construction on a mountain not very far away from home. I thought it to be an advertising board at the time but I had never seen an advertisement on it. This was made of metal sheets and not wood, as it should be expected for an advertising board. Furthermore, It was at a location far away from the highway. Back then, I did not know the existence of passive repeaters but later on, when I red about them, my mind brought this picture of this board. Yes, this board matches a passive repeater!
On 15 December 2010 there was a big strike in Greece, so I decided to take the chance to make a first attempt to visit the repeater. First a quick look on Google earth to find out the road to the repeater. The Red dot in the next pictures represents the location of the passive repeater.
The repeater was not difficult to locate as it can be seen from the highway right away.
The road to the repeater is good since it has been made for the local factory needs. The road is shown with yellow color in the picture below. The blue dot in this picture is St. John's church.
The view from St. John's church is gorgeous. You can see almost everything from up there, the local villages, the factories, the Rio-Antirio bridge, Nafpaktos city and the sunset. Click on the panoramic photo below to see a larger version.
My car could go up to St. John's church without a problem but further on, the road is not ok if you have not got a jeep, so I have decided to go back and take the green line, so that I can take some far pictures of the repeater. I thought the next trip would definitely be a foot walk from St. John's church to the repeater. So, here is what I have seen following the green line.
The pictures have been taken using optical zoom to bring the repeater image as close as possible. I tried to photo all the details that show that this is a passive repeater indeed. During this first visit, I enjoyed the little trip very much. I hope to have more closer photos on the next trip to the passive repeater.