Editor’s note: A busy week in Pamlico County! The Oriental Repeater
Group has a new dual-mode repeater up and running; Bill Michne, WM3X has
his C4FM Wires-X node on the air with access to meeting rooms around the
world via the internet; and Lor Kutchins, W3QA is inviting close-by hams
to use his multi-mode mini-node. We wish to thank the members of the
Oriental Repeater Group and Bill for all their time and effort, given
the challenges and frustrations they faced as well as considerable
financial cost, to offer new operational opportunities and technology to
hams in Eastern North Carolina. Members of the Oriental Repeater Group
are Bruce Perkins, K4ONC; Lor Kutchins, W3QA; Gary Mitchelson, NC3Z;
Bill Olah, KR4LO; Mike Marsh, K4NLC; and Dr. Ron Benfield.
NEW ARAPAHOE REPEATER ON-AIR
The Oriental Repeater Group reports the new Arapahoe NC4ES VHF Repeater,
located on the WNBB FM tower in Arlington Place, is on-the-air. Being a
new installation, we’ll be continuously testing and improving it. The
transmitter/receiver/controller is the same Motorola SLR 5700 that had
been operating at the Oriental Kershaw tower since March. The new
antenna is a Decibel Products DB224 4-element exposed dipole array,
omnidirectional at about 8.1 dB gain, and is side-mounted on the south
side at 330 feet above ground level. With WNBB and WNBU broadcast FMs on
the same tower, the RF environment is challenging. Accordingly, the
antenna system employs interesting filtering to avoid receiver desensing
and transmit intermodulation from a 50,000-watt transmitter with a very
close and big antenna. As it did at the Kershaw site, this machine
operates using two modes, analog FM and DMR. The power driving the new
system will come from nuclear fusion. (Solar power and
lithium-iron-phosphate batteries – Ha!) We will be avoiding our area’s
occasional mains power-outages!
In time, the DMR side will participate in the NC4ES network which links
to or from the worldwide EchoLink and Allstar networks, the Brandmeister
and TGIF DMR networks, and the 16 NC4ES machines across Eastern NC
intended for emergency and contingency communications serving hospitals
and emergency management as well as for use by hams. Some exciting
linking capabilities will be coming with the Oriental repeater and the
other NC4ES DMR repeater at the Florence-Whortonsville VFD.
Initial performance reports indicate audio and range is excellent, at
least matching or improving upon the coverage we get with the Oriental
repeater. Your tests and on-air reports are welcome and encouraged!
The Arapahoe machine uses CTCSS, or PL tones, on the analog side to
determine which mode a user intends. If it hears a transmission using
88.5 PL, it repeats in analog FM mode, services the conversation, stays
in the mode for twenty seconds, then drops the mode until reset by a new
call. If it hears a digital signal without a PL, it switches to DMR
mode, etc.
Analog FM settings of your radios should be as follows for compatibility:
Repeater output (your RX): 147.285 MHz
Repeater offset (change in frequency to your TX): +600 Hz (set your TX
to 147.885 MHz)
Encode PL: 88.5 Hz (sensed by the repeater and allows you access)
Decode PL or “Tone Squelch”: 88.5 Hz (sensed by your radio to open your
squelch so you can hear the repeater)
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOUR ANALOG FM RADIO BE SET UP WITH THE DECODE PL.
WITHOUT IT, YOU WILL HEAR DMR USERS’ BUZZSAW-LIKE SIGNALS WHICH CAN BE
ANNOYING!
DMR users’ channel setup should follow these settings:
RX: 147.285 MHz
TX: 147.885 MHz
CC: 1
Channel Type: D-digital
DMR mode: repeater (not simplex)
Set TS and TGs according to the lineup on the NC4ES dashboard at
http://cluster.nc4es.org:8080/ –click on “Info”.
Note: The Oriental N4ONC 147.210 MHz Repeater is back to FM-only
operation using the original equipment with no change in settings
required for your radios. Yes, your favorite little talking man is back,
at least for the time being.
-For the Oriental Repeater Group, Lor Kutchins, W3QA
WM3X-ONC WIRES-X NODE UP FOR TESTING
Late Thursday, November 3rd, Bill, WM3X, activated a C4FM Wires- X
access node for test and evaluation. Located at his home just outside of
Oriental, the major components are a Yaesu FT-200DR VHF/UHF dual band
transceiver and a WIRES-X HRI-200. These two components provide Internet
to RF C4FM digital communications for local C4FM capable users. It is
not a local repeater. For a description of Wires-X go to
https://www.yaesu.com/jp/en/wires-x/index.php The web page also lists
active nodes and meeting rooms.
The node operates 7/24 on 145.530 MHz, simplex, C4FM Wires-X mode.
Bill would appreciate user reports. Please include connection quality
and user location. He cautions that the node is under test and may be
off the air for adjustments and re-configuration. It is a work in
progress. For more information contact Bill Michne, WM3X, 252-671-6703,
drmichne73@gmail.com.
FORK POINT MULTIMODE HOTSPOT (MINI-REPEATER)
From Lor Kutchins, W3QA
…info for my multimode hotspot (mini-repeater) running at my home is:
440.55+ (445.55 RX) no tones
The node runs both C4FM and DMR in multimode. The repeater is constantly
set on FCS00290 AMERICA-LINK-WIRES-X. This is the most active talk group
that entertains contacts from anywhere to US operators. Fun to listen to
if you like conversations about just about anything. Open to all who
have an interest. Reliable range is about 2 miles from my location on
Fork Point Road on Broad Creek.
—Lor