Club News
Time to reprogram your radios!
145.19 repeater is changing
In the good ol’ days of the 1990’s, there used to be a wide area
repeater system that covered several states on two meters. It
was an absolute blast to listen as hams from Louisville to
Indianapolis and Columbus all talked among each other. A series
of repeaters and remote sites were linked together to form this
network. The home frequency? 145.19. This was the FARA
system, based in Fairfield.
As things happen, the club dried up, people actually got annoyed
that operators were talking long distances (the purpose of the
system??) and many were truck driving hams. Add to that
combination the amateur radio phenomenon of “grumpy old
men” and you have the picture of why this system eventually
went off the air.
Enter Delaware County ARES, which was tipped that this very
rare two meter frequency was actually open, and the
coordinated pair was assigned to the DELARES call of N8DCA.
Because I didn’t know any better at the time, I became the
license trustee. Happy to do that, btw. Thanks to Ken, we were
able to put a GE Master Pro repeater on the air, later to replace it
with the first generation of Yaesu repeaters offered at the onset
of Fusion systems. After blowing the first set of finals, this
machine has been on the air untouched for several years now. I
installed it without an access tone with the idea that any ham
could just dial it up during an emergency and it would work.
That brought with it the reality that ~any~ RF near that frequency
would also bring up the repeater. That included legitimate
signals talking into the 145.17 repeater since they’re so close in
frequency.
Recently, long bursts of static from some type of electronic
device near Conger school has been beating the repeater into
submission, so it’s time to change!
STARTING SEPTEMBER 1ST, YOU WILL NEED 123 TONE
TO ACCESS 145.19.
This will mean you need to re-program your mobile and
handheld radios to include 123 tone on the 19 repeater. I
sincerely apologize for the inconvenience! (I have 10 radios to
reprogram here at home!) The good news is this will be a one-
time inconvenience and will result in a lot less extraneous noise
and interference as you scan the two meter bands.
August Meeting: Who can actually
hear me?
It’s generally agreed that some being has kidnapped the ham bands
and replaced them with a series of RF brick walls. That 11-year
sunspot cycle? I think we’re on hear 25 now. Every year we hear
optimistic predictions, “This year it’s going to start back up the slope!”
and at the end of the year, we’re still sitting on nada, zip, zilch.
But what If I told you the bands were NOT dead… that your signal
could actually be heard in many places around the world? And what
if I told you there was an easy web page to find this information?
The magic of ham radio - being able to reach around the globe brings
with it the fascinating study of how signals work. Software is available
now to not only see how each band is performing, but to see where
YOUR signal is being heard!
This is the topic for the DELARA August meeting- August 19 at the Red
Cross! Richard Wynkoop, KD8PHG, co-manager of the W8SGT station
and DELARA Field Day “ringer” operator has been deeply involved in
the band-mapping process. He’ll have examples and suggestions that
we all can follow! Hope to see you there (or see you on Zoom!)
DELARA News again in top three
DELARA News was rated the #3 newsletter in this year’s ARRL
Newsletter competition. See more in John’s article (From the PIC).
A HUGE thanks to all our writers and contributors for your consistent,
excellent writing!