145.130 Repeater Back On Air with new PL tone

[Fordham, David - fordhadr]

Thanks to Larry Harrison K4JRR, and Dwayne Kincaid (CEO of LDG Electronics), the 145.130 repeater is now back on the air, fully operational, coordinated with T-MARC under its new specs, and in compliance with all known FCC and good operating practice requirements.

The machine is located at Massanutten Peak, with 360-degree views, at an elevation of 3100 feet ASL, which is about 1600 feet above the average valley floor.

The repeater now uses PL of 131.8. This is a change, so please make note of it. You will want to reprogram your rigs' memories for the new PL frequency.

The offset is still down 0.600 MHz.

Here is a summary of some of results of the many hours of work Larry has put in on this machine:

The repeater has the new callsign (K4MRA), thanks to a new professional-grade controller which Larry integrated with the Icom repeater. The system now has a separate dedicated UHF control receiver, allowing control operators to control the machine remotely and independently of the repeater's VHF frequencies.

The four duplexer cans have been re-tuned and some troublesome connectors replaced/fixed. System grounding has been improved.

Extensive testing was conducted using outboard filters, both passband and notch filtering cavities (above and beyond the four duplexer cavities) using Larry's service monitor on site. But due to the nature of the RF saturation at the site, e.g., de-sense, the additional filtering did not improve the signal quality sufficiently to warrant the insertion losses.

The bottom line is, this repeater is now about as good as it can get.

With its location, this machine should have very good coverage from New Market and Luray, down through Rockingham County, well into Augusta County. Dean, KK4GZC, gets into this machine regularly from Steele's Tavern, south of Greenville. Jennie KK4GZF and Chris KK4GZD, get into the machine with an HT from Verona, and Josh KK4GZA and Kristy KK4GZB, get into it from Staunton (near the Frontier Culture Museum) also with HT's. The Mercury group uses the machine for their Sunday night net, and the machine is the designated backup repeater for the Monday night Rockingham County ARES nets. While the primary purpose of the repeater is emergency preparedness and response, it is an OPEN machine, available for general amateur use when not being used by a net. The PL is there only because of interference, not to keep anyone from using the machine.

Give the machine a try, and let us know if you have any problems with it. And don't forget to thank Larry K4JRR when you see him. Thanks also to Sheryl KJ4DOC for helping with logistics and testing, and Mark N4YSA for site coordination and access.

(Remember, the PL is no longer 88, it is now 131.8, like most of the other 2-meter repeaters in the valley. So if you can't raise the repeater, double-check your PL tone!)

Enjoy!

David Fordham, KD9LA
President, MARA