Category Archives: Repeater

147.210 Repeater Moving / Downtime

The 147.210 W0IN repeater will be shut down this Saturday, January 12 so the equipment can be removed from the current site. The JOPLIN APRS Digipeater will also be off the air as it is located at the same site on the same antenna. We anticipate it being off the air for 2-4 weeks as we prepare the new site for it to be installed. The new location will be SW of Joplin and will also be the location of our new DMR UHF repeater. The length of the downtime is due to being able to coordinate installation of both repeaters and antennas and availability of tower climbers.

This new site will be a more economical choice for us and the cost of relocation will quickly pay for itself with lower annual cost.

While the 147.210 if off the air, there are several alternatives in the area: 

  • For SkyWarn – the 145.350(-) 91.5 PL N0NWS repeater can be linked to the regional SkyWarn system.
  • The 145.190(-) 91.5 PL W0IN repeater is a Joplin repeater with local coverage located at Mercy.
  • The 145.390(-) 91.5 PL KM0HP repeater is part of the SMLRS wide coverage linked system.
  • The 147.000(+) no tone WB0IYC repeater is Jim Scott’s personal repeater located in downtown Joplin with local coverage.
  • For APRS, I will keep my K0JAA digipeater on the air from my house, although coverage is very limited. I’ll point my antenna to cover Joplin if possible. It’s main function was to gate packets from JOPLIN to the internet, so it was pointed directly at the tower.

Please respect the repeater owners’ rules and other users as you move your QSOs and Nets to other systems until the 210 is back on the air. There will be an announcement here when services resume. Thanks!

190 Repeater Status

There was some confusion on the current settings on the 190 repeater, so I wanted to clarify how it is set up currently.

The 145.190 repeater is a Yaesu DR-1X System Fusion repeater, and is currently set to AUTO on both the RX and TX sides. This means that it will accept both C4FM and analog FM and will re-transmit in the same mode it receives. The 190 is not Internet-connected at this time, so all transmissions are local.

If you have a Fusion capable radio, you have a few options: you can use any of the C4FM digital modes including Normal (voice+data), VW (voice wide), or Data only, or of course you can use analog FM as well.

Non-fusion users will hear digital noise if they are listening to the 190, however I have turned on the 91.5Hz tone on both input and output, which will enable you to set Tone Squelch on the receive of your radio to block out digital signals if you don’t want to hear it. If you are using RX Tone SQL, please open your squelch to check if a digital transmission is occurring before transmitting to that repeater.

The best way for both digital and analog users to co-exist on the repeater is for Fusion users to set their radios to Auto Mode Select (AMS) – the way to do this varies by radio, but I know on my HT it is indicated by a bar next to the mode display. What this does is automatically switch your radio to TX in the same mode received – so if you are having a conversation using a digital mode, and an analog user breaks in, your radio will switch over to analog automatically to accommodate everybody.

Let me or the tech committee (KE0BKM) know if you have any questions about the repeater, or setting up your radio, or experience any problems.

~Jason (K0JAA)

W0IN Repeater Issues Solved

The issues with noise getting into the .210 repeater appear to be resolved.  After going to the site with some technicians, Wayne, WBØAAN was able to track down the issue to AC noise and the problem component was replaced.  The PL Tone remains on for the time, but most of the noise has subsided.

W0IN PL Tone Turned On

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Due to the ongoing noise issues at the repeater site, the PL Tone Squelch has been turned on, set to 91.5 Hz.  Make sure you program your radios to transmit the PL Tone in order to bring up the repeater.

K0JAA

W0IN Repeater Update

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If you have been experiencing difficulty getting into the 147.210+ JARC repeater, it is because the technical committee has had to tighten the squelch.

It has been confirmed that there is low level background noise barely in the passband which is getting through the filters into the receiver. This is causing it to key up. The fix is to tighten the squelch while we investigate.

This issue first was noticed November 21st, 2014.

An alternate solution is to turn on the PL tone for the receiver, which may have to be done, if we are unsuccessful.

In any case, at the officers meeting today, it was noted that the technical committee is working toward a permanent solution, but is still investigating the issue.