6  Meters 2 - Meters    220  440 900 Mhz   DMR  D-STAR

The 146.940 MHz and 444.300 MHz repeaters are dedicated to the memory of their founder: George W. Shaver, K4HXD, 1943-1995 OPERATIONAL STATUS:  ON THE AIR!! PLEASE NOTE: THE 146.940 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 A 118.8 Hz  TONE. IF THE REPEATER HAS THE TONE DECODE ACTIVE, IT WILL BE RETURNED TO CARRIER SQUELCH AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  73 de Tim WB4GBI For 50 years, one of the most widely used 2-meter repeaters in the East Tennessee area is the 146.940 (-) repeater, located on  Bluff Mountain, also known as "Greentop," just outside Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  For those of you who are recent additions to our great hobby, you might not know that the 146.94 repeater was the very first 2-meter repeater in East Tennessee. Its history is that of great and continuous service. I am VERY proud to be carrying on the tradition started by George, K4HXD, who was the creator and founder of this repeater. We lost George in 1995. He was of my mentors.    The 146.940 repeater is the  oldest "continuous service" 2-Meter Amateur Radio Repeater  currently on the air in East Tennessee, and celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2017!  In addition to our in-depth investigation into the history of this machine... we have uncovered a few tidbits of this history.  You can see the fruits of this effort on the newly created HISTORY PAGE of the 146.940 Repeater! Simply click HERE to check out the History Page!             The 146.940 Repeater, located on Bluff Mountain (Green Top) in Sevier County      This wide coverage repeater is located on the same tower as the commercial FM station WIVK, 107.7 FM.  This radio station, licensed to Knoxville TN,  has a very wide coverage area, which encompasses the majority of Eastern Tennessee, from Bristol to Chattanooga.  So, if you can hear this frequency on your regular FM Broadcast radio, you can most likely also hear this repeater!      As everyone knows, it isn't how far a repeater can transmit a signal that makes it a good repeater... it's how well it can copy a low power station, to repeat it's signal that makes it a great machine!      In the photo to the right, you will see that the '.940 machine's antenna shares the tower structure with many other primary service antennas, including public safety systems, commercial repeater systems, and of course, the 7-bay  FM antenna of the radio station take up the very top of the tower. The .94 repeater is in the tapered red section of the tower Many thanks to WIVK for their use of this facility!      In addition to the coverage benefits of being co-located with it's "Tower-neighbors"... this repeater site also has many other benefits as well.  Since WIVK is the primary EAS Station in east Tennessee... there is ample emergency power for use during power failures, for whatever reason.  This makes the 146.940 machine a very important part of the emergency communications infrastructure, regarding amateur radio.       This repeater is the primary relay for SKYWARN in east Tennessee, where weather spotters can contact the National Weather Service, directly, during inclement weather, to officially log in unusual weather observations.  It is also used as the primary repeater for METERS, an EMCOMM group serving the Middle East Tennessee area. It is also used by other groups for emergency communications, due to it's wide coverage area, and it's reliability!         EQUIPMENT LIST FOR THE 146.940 REPEATER:  GE MASTR II 100 watt VHF commercial-grade repeater Phelps Dodge (now Celwave) six cavity duplexer  Motorola "Maxtrac" UHF control receiver with Broadcast Tools DTMF decoder for remote control 7/8 foam heliax from duplexer to antenna Commander Technologies (formerly Phelps Dodge/Celwave) "Stationmaster" antenna  (@ approx. 265 feet up the 330 ft tower) - Newly installed in 2012 This repeater combination was placed in service in March, 2017. It replaced a Motorola MTR-2000 which will now be used on the WB4GBI  146.85 repeater. The MTR2000 was an emergency replacement for a Motorola Micor repeater which failed in February 2014.  Prior to that time, the Motorola Micor had served since Tim's acquisition of the 146.94 repeater in 1985.  The Micor repeater is being refurbished, and may return to the air again soon! The 146.94 repeater celebrates its 50th Anniversary of service in 2017!

The photo on the left is the actual 146.940 repeater (from top to bottom): This is a full-length photo of the 146.940 repeater. From top to bottom: The DTMF control decoder and control relays.   Just below the control shelf is the Motorola "Maxtrac" control receiver. The GE MASTR II repeater itself is in the middle of the cabinet. A Tripp-Lite AC power panel/surge protector is between the repeater enclosure and the power supply. The power supply (a GE MASTR II  30 AMP heavy duty linear power supply) is at the bottom of the cabinet.  The Phelps-Dodge (Celwave) six cavity duplexer is shown to the right of the repeater cabinet.

The photo to the right is a rear view of the 146.940 repeater cabinet. There are two fans just below the repeater             power amplifier (PA) to cool the PA during long periods of key-down use. You can also see the GE MASTR II                  interconnecting  backplane above the black PA heatsink.

The 146.940 MHz and 444.300 MHz repeaters are dedicated to the memory of their founder: George W. Shaver, K4HXD, 1943-1995 OPERATIONAL STATUS:  ON THE AIR! Also located on Bluff Mountain (Greentop) just outside Pigeon Forge, TN. is the 444.300 (+) repeater   6  Meters 2 - Meters     220  900 Mhz   DMR  D-STAR                       The 444.300 machine is a combination of Motorola Micor and General Electric (GE) MASTR II equipment, and a  Vocom products commercial grade 100 watt continuous duty power amplifier  (PA).    In the photo on the LEFT,  you can see a close-up view of the 444.300 machine.  The receiver is mounted at the bottom of the rack-mounted equipment, then another home brew control panel similar to 146.940 is on top it, then the exciter, Vocom PA, and the six cavity Phelp-Dodge (now Celwave) six cavity duplexer at the top of the cabinet Meanwhile, the photo on the RIGHT depicts the bottom of the Rack cabinet, containing the the 50 AMP homebrew power supply, which was built by Bill Nobles  In case you're interested, here's a photo of the "other" transmitter in the building...the 40KW  Harris transmitter for WIVK-FM  Below, is a view from near the repeater site, looking back toward Knoxville....  (Notice the Seymour community in the lower-right... with the city of Knoxville in the Distance) Click on the photo for a larger version!

 

6  Meters 2 - Meters  220  440   DMR  D-STAR

From Tim, WB4GBI:  For those of you who have one of the Motorola MCS2000 radios that were purchased in the Knoxville area recently, you can find my 900 Mhz repeater frequency by selecting "ATL 0625"  in the first zone of programming. There is a repeater in downtown Atlanta that is on this same frequency and PL tone. I picked this frequency and tone combination on purpose, as it is already in the MCS2000 radios that I have programmed. This is one channel above the "NFARL" channel that Kevin's repeater is on. Or, you can contact me and I will make arrangements to re-program your radio for you.   This repeater was purchased from a Ham Operator in Northern Ohio,  and just recently made the trip from just south of  the great lakes area, to East Tennessee! This machine also features a tone-squelch access of 151.4 as all 900 Mhz repeaters are tone-squelch machines. This repeater is a Motorola quantar machine,  with the internal high stability oscillator. It has been installed on the same tower as the  146.940 and 444.300... along with  commercial radio station WIVK-FM 107.7!  The duplexer on this machine is a 2 cavity decibel products unit,  and the machine delivers 80 watts out of the duplexer to the antenna. The antenna, by the way, is installed at about 120 feet up the tower, and was a leftover gift from a paging company  when they moved to a different location. This machine was placed into service on Tuesday, March 8th 2011, and is currently available to all licensed amateur radio operators who have the proper equipment. Enjoy! Photo of the Repeater being tested before installation..... This is the inside-rear of the repeater cabinet The inside-front of the cabinet.  Note the 900 Mhz duplexer in the bottom of the rack