224.640-

224.640 repeater

PL 114.8 (2A)

last update 10/23/2009

The WVRA 220 repeater is located at the Fox 55 tower located in the town of Hewitt, northeast of Wausau.  The repeater is an ICOM model IC-RP2210.  This repeater system is run into a Wacom WP-652 duplexer.  Then the duplexer is fed into a Comet triband triplexer (2M/220/440) and combined with the 144.390 APRS digipeater/ 145.030 Packet node and the voting receiver links on 440 , onto one 1 1/4″ hardline coax to run up the tower.  The hardline runs up the tower to approx 580 feet and is connected to another triband triplexer to split the signals out to their respective antennas.  A 1/2″ hardline jumper comes from the triband triplexer to the Telewave antenna which is mounted hanging down on the antenna mount at this level.  The APRS/ Packet antenna is on the same mount, however is stands up from the mount.  The radio is set to 25 watts out, however after running through the duplexer and the triband triplexer, there is only about 13 watts out to the antenna.  The repeater is controlled through a SCOM 7K repeater controller that is also shared with the 147.135 repeater system.  There is also auto patch access on this repeater.  As a note, the transmit PL tone is stripped off of the hang time of the repeater.  If you have your radio programmed for PL receive, you will not hear the hang time or any courtesy tones or controller voice announcements.

Just a reminder that because of the voting/ multicast system on the 147.135 repeater, we will no longer be able to link the 147.135 and 224.64 repeaters.

7/18/07 – Had an issue during the net where all you heard was squelch noise.  Have also had the transmitter lock in transmit from the controller.

7/22/07 – Looked at the squelch noise issue and found that intermittently while the transmitter is keyed up, the receiver will unsquelch with just squelch noise.  Even with the squelch control turned to the tight position, it still happens.  This may also have something to do with the transmitter staying keyed.  A couple of times in the past, on the 147.135, when a unit has been cutting in and out very fast, the transmitter has locked in transmit from the controller.  The duplexer will need to be checked the next chance I get.  Also, the 220 repeater is going to be removed from the Wednesday night net link.  This was one of the draw backs when going with the voting/ multicast system on the 147.135/ 146.865.

9/1/07 – Looked at the squelch noise issue from July and could not find anything wrong.  However, the problem would not occur as often as it did back in July.  The only time it would ever act up was when the repeater was hooked up on an antenna.  It never acted up when on a dummy load or hooked up to the test equipment.

9/14/09 – Got an email from Matt N9NMH letting me know that the autopatch wasn’t working.

9/17/09 – Ran out to FOX55 tower today and found that the phone line was bad at the demark box.  Verizon will be called so they can send someone out to fix it.
10/22/09 – Heard the repeater was locked in transmit when I got in the truck this morning.  Not sure if it was locked on since the net last night or not.  Tried to turn off the repeater transmit remotely, but it didn’t work.  Ran out to the site and found the controller was causing the repeater to be locked in transmit.  Cycled the power on the controller and that cured the problem.  This has been the cause in the past.  For some reason, after the link is dropped after the net on Wednesday, the controller will intermittently lock up the repeater.

224.640 Repeater and Controller Equipment at the Hewitt (Fox55) Tower