Any questions regarding repeater use or operation should be E-mailed to David KCØLL@comcast.net
I have four open Repeaters in southeast Arizona.
They are sponsored by my employer Action Communications and myself.
These are commercial quality repeaters link with a T1 microwave.
Mt LEMMON UHF: 444.975 (Tx) / 449.975 (Rx) 100.0 PL Linked full time with Keystone
This repeater was quickly constructed when most Commercial and Ham
repeaters were burned and commercial power was lost to those that didn't burn. Our
building, tower and all our commercial repeaters were among the many that were
burned and totally destroyed. We had the (then) 449.975 "Lemmon" repeater on the
air before the fire had stopped burning. We provided power with a
generator for weeks until commercial power was back on. It was received with
such enthusiasm I decided to leave it on the air.
This repeater has coverage from Gila Bend & Wickenburg
[West], to North of Phoenix [North], Lordsburg, NM to the [East] and Nogales to the [South]. It is easily accessed from many parts of Phoenix with HT's, however
in Tucson it is weaker in the Northwest (where I live) near the foothills and
unusable at the base of Mt. Lemmon due to the shadowing effect of Pusch Ridge.
Mt. Lemmon can be linked to Mule Mt. (Bisbee) by using 107.2 tone.
Also, 123.0 can link all three UHF repeaters together in an experimental mode. Fell free to try it. In this case, both the Mt. Lemmon and Keystone repeaters would need to be keyed up with 123.0 (that day) to link them to Mule Mt. They reset and "unlink" at 3 AM every day.
Note: Mid 2009 this repeater's Rx and Tx frequencies were swapped, your radio must now Rx low on 444.975 and Tx high on 449.975. This was done to stop noise being generated by the military from jamming the repeater's receiver. The repeater was then re-coordinated late 2009. This noise is affecting all UHF repeaters in the area and because we are secondary to the military there is little we can do about it.
KEYSTONE PEAK UHF: (Green Valley): 444.875 (Tx) / 449.875 (Rx) 100.0 PL Linked full time with Mt. Lemmon
Because of poor coverage in Northwest Tucson provided by any Mt. Lemmon repeater, I constructed the Green Valley (AKA "Keystone")
repeater located West of Green Valley on Keystone Peak, the highest point
in the Sierrita Mountains. The repeater's coverage is extremely good into most areas of
Tucson, Nogales, North of Casa Grande, West into Sells and East to
Benson. This is my main Tucson repeater, with Mt. Lemmon used for outside
Tucson coverage and linking Phoenix traffic to Tucson.
Keystone is now linked
full time to Mt. Lemmon. 100.0 is the normal tone to use.
Keystone can be linked to Mule Mt. (Bisbee) by using 110.9 CTCSS tone.
Also, 123.0 can link all three UHF repeaters together in an experimental mode. Fell free to try it. In this case, both the Mt. Lemmon and Keystone repeaters would need to be keyed up with 123.0 (that day) to link them to Mule Mt. They reset and "unlink" at 3 AM every day.
Note: March 2009 this repeater's Rx and Tx frequencies were swapped, your radio must now Rx low on 444.875 and Tx high on 449.875. This was done to stop noise being generated by the military from jamming the repeater's receiver. The repeater was then re-coordinated late 2009. This noise is affecting all UHF repeaters in the area and because we are secondary to the military there is little we can do about it.
MULE MT UHF: 444.875 (Tx) / 449.875 (Rx) 107.2 (Keystone link) or 110.9 (Mt. Lemmon link)
Mule Mt is located on top a mountain 3 miles NW of Bisbee, AZ. It is reusing the Keystone (Green Valley) frequencies and must be linked with either Mt. Lemmon or Keystone to use and is not intended to be a stand-alone repeater.
Mule Mt. (Bisbee) can be linked to Mt. Lemmon by using 107.2 CTCSS tone.
Mule Mt. (Bisbee) can be linked to Keystone by using 110.9 CTCSS tone.
Also, 123.0 can link all three UHF repeaters together in an experimental mode. Feel free to try it. In this case, both the Mt. Lemmon and Keystone repeaters would need to be keyed up with 123.0 first (that day) to link them to Mule Mt. They reset and "unlink" from Mule at 3:00 AM every day.
Mt LEMMON VHF: 147.100 (Tx) / 147.700 (Rx) 100.0 PL
On June 1, 2004, I added a two meter repeater at the Mt. Lemmon site. The frequency is 147.100 + offset with a Pl tone of 100.0.
June 28 2008 we replaced the antenna and feed line. It now has a new commercial antenna mounted 180 feet on a 160 foot tower at Radio Ridge. 7/8ths hard-line gets most of the 50 watt from the Kenwood TKR-720 repeater to the antenna. At this time it is running about 400 watts ERP. This antenna works quite well, but the repeater was intended to only be temporary. If I get time I have a 110 watt GE MastrII to replace it.
At this time it is not linked to the UHF repeaters.
I want to thank Dale and Jason Swiss of "Upright Energy" for installing the antenna. Dale and his Son are extremely accomplished tower climbers.
TECH STUFF
Many have asked how the repeaters works, for those interested here it is:
The repeaters are MTR2000's running 500 Watts ERP.
Mt.
Lemmon has its TX antenna at 160 feet high and has five commercial and one ham
repeater all connecter together with a TX combiner I built. All transmitters are
run through dual Isolators into 10 inch cavity's then phased cables are
combined with "N""T's" to 7/8 hard-line and antenna. It
works very well, you can here it 150 miles away. On Tx I have less than 1dB loss with no IMD.
Keystone is built in the same manor as Lemmon, but the antenna is lower at
80 feet.
Mt. Lemmon has its Rx antenna at 180 feet high on an
already high 9,000+ foot mountain. 7/8 hard-line brings the signal into a
Rx combiner I built. It uses 10 inch cavity's combined with phased lines into LNA
GasFet preamps. The input is divided with phased lines into 460-470 Mhz cavity's and to
444 cavity's with LNA GasFet amps. Each side drives dividers to feed the
corresponding receivers. The ham receiver has 12 dB Sinad at well below .18uV
and the squelch opens with a usable signal at .12 uV, this is the levels into
the [input] of the combiner. This is a very hot receiver.
The controller for all repeaters is a commercial Trident NTS (PassPort) controller used to link our commercial repeaters from NM to Northern California together. Linking is done with Western Multiplex dual T1 microwave radios on 2.4 and 5.8 Ghz using 8 foot dish antennas. The audio is converted to digital and dropped into one 64k time-slot on the duel T1 microwaves. Control data is Muxed with other channel's control data and dropped into another timeslot. The microwave radios are capable of carrying 48 audio channels simultaneously on only 2 pairs of wires, and a total of 96 channels.
Enjoy the repeaters and feel free to use them, but please
follow good amateur operating procedures.
If you don't know what they are,
ask me.
Terry KB5B and my wife Mary NØTOY are Control Operators on these repeaters
and helps me
monitor them.
Click KCØLL PHOTO GALLERY to see my slideshow
CLICK ON PIC FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE !
E-mail KCØLL