The repeater system consists of a main
transmit site, with remote receive sites linked to it. The main
transmit, and central receiver site is located just south of U.S.
6 and 31 on a 370 foot commercial tower. This is just north of the
town of Plymouth, IN. It transmits / receives on the coordinated
frequencies of 147.285 / 147.885 mhz. The repeater is protected with full
time P.L., so your radio will require a sub- audio tone of 131.8 for
access. The transmit power is 110 watts, with an effective radiated
power of 225 watts. It is computer controlled by a ACC RC 850 controller
with a DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER OPTION.
Through the utilization of these items,
along with others, the K9WZ repeater is able to offer to
the supporting member, many features, some of which are expanded
upon in the text that follows.
REPEATER FEATURES
DVR The Digital Voice Recorder, or DVR
is one of the most useful features of the repeater. It acts somewhat
like a tape recorder, in that it records your voice over the air,
and then plays it back just the way you said it, mistakes, and all.
The DVR has many parts, or functions that make it a very useful tool.
The Public mail box is a voice mail box,
where you can leave a message for any , or all members of the
repeater. You are prompted for - Who is the message for? - and, then
- Record it now -. The DVR then periodically announces at the end
of tail messages, that - There are messages for -, and then plays back
the first recorded response. Often times there will be messages waiting
for more then one member, and each is announced in order. Since these
Public mail messages are announced at regular intervals, the member
your message is for, has a good chance to hear about it, even if they
are just monitoring the repeater. This is the most effective way to grab
someone's attention. The nice feature is that you don't have to hang around
waiting for them to show. It effectively ends the amateur version of "telephone
tag".
The Private mail box isn't really private,
as everyone listening will either hear you putting the message
in, or the member taking it out. In this case Private means, that
the message is placed in the members personal mail box. This message
is not announced, as in the Public message section. The member has
to check his particular box number in order to know if someone has
left him a message. This feature is used if the message is not urgent,
or no quick reply is needed. Often times this feature is used to just
say hello, or let them know, they have been thought of.
Another feature of the DVR, is that it
allows for human voice identification of the repeater. This replaces
the traditional CW identifications. This feature allows announcements
of amateur events to be made, or just some comment to brighten your
day, along with the voice id - This is the K9WZ REPEATER, etc.
Since we are not limited to canned messages, we can make our announcements
fit the event, and give all the details. This is often used to announce
special events that will be upcoming on the repeater, local hamfests,
meetings, breakfast gatherings, helpful tips, and other useful amateur
related happenings. Just by monitoring the repeater you will be able to
keep up with what's going on in the area. While this particular feature
can only be accessed by a Control Operator, they are always looking for
volunteer voices, and/or announcements.
REMOTE BASES
The repeater has 4 remote bases, that
are fully accessible by the membership. There are remotes for
2 meters, 220 mhz., and 440 mhz., and 10 meter FM, (requires General
Class license to use.). By accessing one of the remotes you are able
to extend the range, band, or location of your own radio. If you operate
using just a 2 meter radio, you now have a Quad band radio! The remotes
allow you to link into repeaters beyond your normal range, from a 120+
foot tower height. You may now visit distant cities, states, and maybe
countries on 10 FM, with just a basic 2 meter handheld, or other radio.
This feature also allows the repeater to be tied into other repeaters
to increase the coverage area, or range of emergency weather, or disaster
nets. The remotes all have user selectable PL tone on transmit, so you
won't be locked out of PL protected repeaters.
AUTOPATCH
The repeater has autopatch privileges
for the membership, that allows them to dial local (Plymouth exchange),
or long distance numbers (billed to your membership account). Each
member can be assigned a speed dial number slot, to speed up dialing
one member selected phone number. In addition, emergency autodial
numbers are preprogrammed into the controller, so a member can reach
the police / fire departments without having to know their phone numbers.
A great help in an emergency.
REVERSE AUTOPATCH
The repeater features a reverse autopatch,
where someone may call the repeater, and the controller will announce
that you have a call, ( Phone Call for XX9XXX ). You can then instruct
the controller to answer the call, so that you may talk to the person
calling. If you're not around to hear the controller announce your
call, the controller will leave you a message to inform you, that you
have missed a call, and what time it was missed. If there is an emergency
at home, this feature will allow them to contact you quickly!
WIDE AREA COVERAGE
One of the best features of the repeater
is it's wide coverage area. With the addition of the remote receive
sites, the repeater's capability to pick up that weak signal improved
dramatically. The repeater system currently has three remote sites.
The 300 foot Richland Center site near Rochester, In. increased our
range to the south. The 100 foot Laporte, In. summit site opens up
the west, and Lake Michigan waterfront. The 300 foot western Elkhart
Co. location that improved our coverage to the north, and east. Depending
on your equipment, of course, the repeater system, with the remote receivers
are able to hear, and be heard for much of the Northern Indiana area,
and parts of other adjoining states. This means that you don't have to
end your QSO when you reach the city limits. Also the wide coverage range,
allows more amateurs to reach the repeater, and therefore provides for
a greater number of possible contacts.
BATTERY BACKUP
The 200 amp/hour battery backup at the
main site is just one of the many safety features added to this repeater
to insure it stays on the air. While mother nature can still attempt to silence
it, the abundant precautions taken to insure power, and to protect the equipment
from lightning, gives this repeater a greater chance of making
it through, where other less protected systems would go down. In
addition, each remote receive site is also backed up by batteries.
IRLP
The K9WZ repeater is part of the IRLP
project, which links repeaters around the world via the Internet.
We are node 4330. Using IRLP linking, amateurs from around the
world can have a QSO using their local node but be talking to
others from around the world.
As mentioned each location is called a node, and can be connected
to directly as desired. Additionally there are Reflectors, which are
like a big party line, where numerous repeaters can connect to form a
big round table like connection. There are hundreds of nodes located
across the world, including the United States, Canada, Great Britain,
Australia and many other exotic locations.
It all works using a computer running
Linux, and a sound card to handle the audio translation. A high speed
Internet connection is required to pass, and receive the data to, and from
the other nodes. Although it may sound complicated it is really rather
simple, especially for the user.
Of course, you may be wondering
what does IRLP stand for, that's simple; Internet Radio Linking Project.
For more information about
the IRLP you can find it here 
For a list
of all the IRLP Node locations click here
To see the IRLP Locations on a World Map
For a Live Audio Feed from the Indianapolis Reflector
