The long awaited replacement of the damaged solar panels at Tic Hill took place during July 1996. The crew that worked on the installation are from left to right: John VK6NT, Cliff VK6LZ, Ralph VK6KRB, Chris VK6KCH , Dennis VK6LD, and Will VK6UU, who took this photo. An Article appeared in Amateur Radio (September 96) about the installation, complete with a front cover photo of Chris and Dennis up the tower installing the solar panels.

The long haul up of one of the heavy solar panels. Dennis in red cap and Chris manuvour the panel up the side of the tower, the weight of which was taken by Ralph (in the bushes) via a rope through a pully to the 40' mark. Onlookers, John on the left and Cliff in rain coat. Yes it did rain a bit on the day but all in all fairly pleasent.

The finished solar panel installation. There are two 70 watt panels mounted vertically on the main 31M (100') tower. The old wind generator tower on the right shows the damaged solar panels. Not all the panels were damaged so they have been left in place to produce about 2 Amps. The replacement panels produce over 10 amps. The new panels are vertical and face North East and North West, and each panel only receives sunlight for about 70% of the day. Even with this reduced output the site has enough power to run 6800 voice repeater, 8225 voice repeater and 4825 digipeater.
 
 
 

This photo is the first that can be found of the Tic Hill site. It was day one of clearing the site. Trevor VK6MS on the right (in an orange shirt) stands where the brick hut now is. The person on the left wearing the hat and white shirt stands about where the main 100' antenna mast now stands. Site work took many months, in particular the jack hammering the rock out, for the foundations of the two towers.