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The KØNR Repeater
30 Million Microwatts of UHF
Power
The KØNR amateur radio repeater is a UHF repeater operating on 447.725 MHz
with an input frequency of 442.725 MHz (- 5 MHz offset). This repeater is a
local coverage, experimental system located in Colorado near the top of Monument
Hill (Palmer Divide) at 7500 feet in elevation.
Repeater Access
This repeater is on "open machine" and all properly licensed and
well-behaved amateur radio operators are invited to use it. The repeater
requires a 100 Hz CTCSS tone on the input signal. (It also transmits a 100 Hz
tone on the output which can be used to limit interference problems on the
receive end.)
Repeater Hardware
The repeater consists of two Motorola Mitrek radios used as transmitter and
receiver, controlled by an SCOM 7K Repeater Controller. The SCOM 7K has an
optional autopatch board and speech synthesis board installed. The duplexer is
Decibel Products 4-can UHF duplexer. The
transmitter puts out about 30 Watts, which is fed to a Hustler G270
dualband (146 MHz, 440 MHz) antenna.
Emergency Power
The repeater uses a deep cycle marine-type 12V battery with a 5 Ampere
"Smart Battery Charger" from A&A Engineering to provide an
emergency power source. If the AC line goes down the repeater will continue to
operate off the battery for many hours. The repeater does not indicate
that it is on battery power.
Autopatch
The repeater has an autopatch which is closed (available only to designated
control operators.) Besides, no one actually uses autopatches anymore.
Weather Alert
A weather radio is configured to always monitor the local NOAA weather
frequency on 162.475 MHz. When a weather alert for El Paso County or Douglas
County is broadcast
by NOAA using the S.A.M.E. Weather Alert system, the repeater will automatically
transmit the weather radio audio onto the UHF output. The weather radio is a
Bearcat WX100, which is interfaced to the SCOM controller.
2 Meter Remote Base
This repeater also operates as a 2-Meter remote base. A 146 MHz FM
transceiver (a Yaesu FT-7800R) is connected to the UHF repeater such
that the 2M transceiver can be controlled by a station on the UHF repeater. This
allows the UHF repeater user to come into the repeater system on UHF and go out
on any 2 Meter frequency (simplex or repeater pair). The main purpose of this
feature is to allow small UHF handheld radios to access 2 Meters with a much
stronger signal and better antenna location.
The repeater indicates the status of the 2M transceiver via a short voice
message after the repeater transmitter drops. If the message says "Two
Meter Receive", the remote base is configured to pass 2M receive audio into
the repeater output but does not transmit on 2 Meters. If the message says
"Two Meter Transmit", the remote base is configured to receive and
transmit on 2 Meters. In this mode, signals on the input of the UHF repeater
will be transmitted back out on 2M (and on the normal UHF transmitter). If
no message is present, then the remote base is off. Signals coming through from
the 2M received have a unique courtesy beep (a low single beep) so users can tell if the signal is
on the repeater input or the 2M frequency.
Due to its experimental nature, the Remote Base feature is available only
to designated control operators, which basically means me.
Monitoring the International Space Station on 2M
Often, the 2M remote is set to monitor 145.80 MHz which is the
amateur frequency used by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
A specially modified dualband Kenwood TM-D700A transceiver has been
deployed on the space station. This radio has several different configurations,
including FM voice, packet and crossband repeater. If the astronauts are not operating using FM voice, the ISS packet radio station
or crossband repeater is usually on. If you hear packet transmissions (digital burps of data) on the
KØNR repeater, it is probably coming from ISS. If you hear non-Colorado
stations working each other on voice, exchanging grid squares, then you are
hearing the voice repeater from the ISS. The uplink frequency for the ISS
repeater is 437.800 MHz. Since the 2M remote transmitter cannot transmit on 437
MHz, the KØNR repeater can only monitor the downlink (not transmit on the
uplink).
You can learn more about the amateur radio on ISS at the ISS
Fan Club web page.
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