It has a tendancy to
get very cold and lonely on top of a mountain in
East Tennessee.
This is
evidenced in a photo of
145.470 repeater antenna...
on this remote mountaintop.
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The 145.470 (-) (optional decode tone: 118.8
Hz) repeater is located NORTH
of the Knoxville area - high atop Cross Mountain!
The 145.47 repeater celebrates 40 years of service in 2021!
Current
Status: ON THE AIR!
After
a several months period of either being at low profile or off the air,
the 145.47 repeater is back on the air! The antenna has been restored
to its full height, and the issue with the VSWR problem has been
resolved. '47 lives! Please use and enjoy! Thank you for your
continued support and
patience. 73 de Tim WB4GBI
BATTERY BACKUP NOW INSTALLED AND READY! Please note: If you hear a "beep" tone at 15-second intervals, this indicates that the repeater is on emergency battery power.
PLEASE
NOTE: THE 145.470 REPEATER MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE A 118.8 Hz
DECODE
TONE ACTIVE. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ACCESS THE REPEATER,
PLEASE VERIFY THAT YOU ARE TRANSMITTING (ENCODING) A 118.8 Hz ENCODE TONE. IF THE
REPEATER HAS THE TONE DECODE ACTIVE, IT WILL BE RETURNED
TO CARRIER
SQUELCH AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. 73 de Tim WB4GBI
When this repeater was first put into
service at this location, it was hoped that it would cover an area
just to the north of Knoxville to up near the state line... however...
that was not to be the case. As it turns out, we were pleasantly
surprised that this machine has far exceeded
those boundaries!
In reality... this repeater covers a wide and rugged area of the Southeastern
United States! Many regular users of this machine do so routinely
from Tennessee, North Carolina
and Kentucky!
Although many East Tennessee hams use this machine every day, we have
been known to make contacts in Virginia... Georgia
and even parts of Ohio!
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To the left, is a shot
of the rear of the cabinet, that shows some of the many connections.
To the right, you will see a
front shot of the cabinet that houses this machine.
(Notice the exciter and
receiver is closed, and outside of view).
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Some of the
equipment that makes up this machine includes:
- General
Electric "Mastr II" VHF repeater with internal controller
- Autocode
CW ID unit
- Celwave
(Phelps Dodge) PD-497 6-cavity pass/reject duplexers
- Sinclair
SD-224 4 element folded dipole VHF antenna
- 1/2 inch
Andrew "heliax" transmission line
- Motorola "Maxtrac" UHF mobile transciever for remote control
- Broadcast Tools
DTD-16 DTMF decoder for remote control
- Four
(4) FP-AGM24 backup batteries and battery tender (charger) NOTE: If you
are using the 145.47 repeater, and hear a "beep" tone at 15 second
intervals, it means that the electrical power is off and the battery
backup is active.
NETS HELD ON 145.47:
470 Amateur Radio Group: Thursdays at 7:30 PM
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Since this repeater
has been on the air, it has developed quite a following!
So much so, that a separate website has been formed. They call
themselves the "470 Amateur Radio Group." Here's the link
to their site:
https://470amateurradiogroup.com
Special Thanks to Rick, N4JTQ, for creating and managing this web site!
Check out the 47 repeater group out on Facebook!
Join
us every Thursday Evening at 7:30 PM (except holidays) for the 470
amateur radio group net! Trivia, topics, ask and elmer, swap and shop, and much more!
A brief history
of the 145.470 Repeater...
The 145.47 was Tim's
first repeater, which went on the air for the first time on September
17, 1981. The picture you see here is the actual 145.47 repeater
when it was located at Tim's home, before it went to its first location
atop View Park Hill (the present 145.17 site) in November 1981.
The equipment you see is General Electric "Progress Line" tube -type
equipment. The repeater was a "prog-line" receiver and transmitter with
a home-brew control board and diode-matrix ID'er. From View Park,
it has been located on House Mountain, Bluff Mountain (near where
146.94 is now), and "Top-of the-World" (the present 146.625
site). After the GE progress line equipment was retired, the 145.47 repeater
sported a GE Master Pro solid state receiver and a Motorola VHF exciter/PA
combination. In 2005, Tim took the repeater off the now 146.625 site and
completely rebuilt the repeater, using a factory-stock GE Mastr II repeater
that you see in the above pictures. Here's a link to the NEW 145.47
history page! Click here.
After the rebuild....
and after receiving the SERA coordination, Tim was finally able
to relocate the 145.470 machine to its long awaited home on top of
Cross Mountain in January 2007. For a long time, it has been obvious that this location
was perfect for a repeater. As a matter of fact, Tim originally
did attempt to locate a machine there back in the 1980's, but for one
reason or another it just wasn't to be. Now however, that the
dream has finally been fulfilled.
You can see from these photos that
this repeater location is not only at a high elevation,
but is certainly in a Rugged
area of East Tennessee.
Now... for a breathtaking look at the view from this repeater
site. It is truly a sight to behold!
(Click on any image to get a larger version)
Web Design by Dave Jeffries
Copyright
© 2012 - Dave Jeffries Productions
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