146.730 Repeater Page

6-Meters

2 - Meters

220

440

900 Mhz

D-STAR

DMR

REPEATER STATISTICS:

Frequency:
Input 146.130 MHz
Output 146.730 MHz

CTCSS:
118.8 Hz

GE MASTR II repeater

TX-RX 28-37-11E duplexer

Sinclair SD-224
4 element antenna

GE MASTR II UHF control receiver

Broadcast Tools DTD-16 DTMF control decoder

Ground Elevation: 3600' AMSL

Antenna Height Above Ground: 120 feet

EMERGENCY POWER ON SITE

NETS ON 146.73:
Sevier County Emergency Radio Service/RACES
Monday Evenings 7:30 PM Eastern

Winter on English Mountain

Looking at Greentop (146.85/146.94 / 444.300 / 927.0625) from English Mtn (146.73)

Guess who got stuck in the snow? Right in front of the old 146.73 building. The new site is in the background.

The 146.73 repeater is dedicated to the Memory of its founders:

Matt Kirby, WB4IOB 1950-2012 Sam Kirby, WB4HAP 1944-2007

OPERATIONAL STATUS: ON THE AIR, AT A NEW SITE WITH A BRAND-NEW ANTENNA!

PLEASE NOTE: THE 146.730 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

On Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019, the 146.730 repeater was relocated from its existing site (since January 2016) to a new site- which is still high atop English Mountain. The purpose of the move was to separate the .73 machine from the source of a fifth-order intermodulation interference occurring at an adjacent site. The interference problem has plagued the repeater since it returned to English Mountain in 2009. Since the move, the 146.73 repeater has been able to return to carrier squelch access, as the interference is gone! On January 30, 2020, a brand-new antenna was installed at the new site, and coverage has far exceeded expectations! Please check out 146.73 soon.

A VERY SPECIAL "THANK YOU" to WGSN-FM, New Life 90.7 radio, for their support of WB4GBI repeaters!

ABOUT THE 146.73 REPEATER:

The photos below show the 146.73 in its home atop English Mountain!

Repeater maintenance in the middle of the winter can pose unusual circumstances -
just in getting to the tower site!!! Welcome to a winter wonderland on English Mountain! There is often snow on the ground at this site, even when the "lower elevations" are clear!

Cable installation

The photos above are of the crew from Tower Services of Chattanooga, who have installed numerous WB4GBI repeater antennae.

Here you see the antenna farm within which
the 146.730 antenna is located, as seen
from the OLD 146.730 Site.

This repeater is dedicated to the memory of
Sam Kirby, WB4HAP-SK
Thank you Sam for your service to Amateur Radio

Look very closely. That tiny tiny town
down there, is actually NEWPORT Tennessee!

To the Right, you can see the only remnant of the
old 146.730 repeater site. The abandoned
building is all that's left of where this machine
USED to live, from 1974 until the early 2000's.

(You can click on many of the photos for an even-closer look!)
This machine is now back to its original level of service from it's original home atop
English Mountain in East Tennessee
(in extreme southern Jefferson County, near the borders of Cocke & Sevier Counties)

By the way... here is a view from the mountain, looking back toward the smokies.
(Notice the mountain tops are not very high... this is because from this vantage point,
the mountain tops are only a bit higher than the repeater site!)

Second only in time of service to the 146.940 machine... this machine has been on the air since 1974. It has been one of the most prominent repeaters in this part of the country, spending the majority of it's useful life atop English Mountain.
The history of this repeater dates back to when there were only a handful of 2-meter repeaters available in Eastern Tennessee.

Some Final Adjustments...

...and an appropriate tribute.

The 146.73 repeater is one of East Tennessee's "Heritage" repeaters, having been placed on the air in 1974 by Sam (WB4HAP) and Matt (WB4IOB) Kirby. When the FCC was issuing licenses for repeaters, the 146.73 repeater held the call sign of WR4APU. The repeater had been operated maintained by Sam and Matt until Sam became a silent key in 2007. Tim acquired this repeater from Sam's estate on September 12, 2007... and moved the machine from Sam's home, to his own home, where it underwent some major refurbishing. It has been located in two other buildings before reaching this destination building in January 2016. The new Sinclair SD-224 and the 7/8" heliax was also installed.

When the .73 repeater was on the air under Sam and Matt's leadership, it occupied space close by on top of English Mountain. This site is a very high profile location, which enabled the .73 repeater to enjoy a very wide area footprint of the Eastern Tennessee landscape. However, in later years, due to economic and political reasons, the machine was forced to evacuate it's strategic position, and was put into a much lower profile service at Sam Kirby's home. There it remained, awaiting a better climate, which might allow it's return to English Mountain.

Sam's untimely death in August of 2007 placed those plans in jeopardy... but only temporarily, as Tim was determined to follow through on Sam's vision. Now that it is once again back on English Mountain, with a new antenna, feedline, and duplexer in service, it is hoped that it will once again become a valuable resource to the East Tennessee Amateur community!