53.63 -1Mhz pl100 testing from north of ENO

As of March 25, K4WCV’s new 53.63 repeater is on the air though the coverage on it is not as good as we think it eventually will be. The repeater is running from a location north of ENO, right on the Orange Durham county borders about 7 miles northwest of Durham. The antenna is currently a multi-band Comet GP-15 vertical 90′ up. The repeater is a GE-Master II and a Sinclair 6-can helical duplexer.

Coverage is probably:

  • all of Durham
  • Chapel Hill
  • most of Hillsborough
  • Efland
  • i-85 from Efland through Butner.
  • east to Creedmore

Over the next several months we expect the antenna to be replaced with a mono-band 6meter base-station antenna, about 40 feet higher than the existing multi-band antenna.

The repeater transmits on 53.63Mhz.  Input is -1Mhz split with required PL tone of 100hz.

Touch tone code 111 is available to record your audio for testing. Key down and press 1 1 1, and then unkey. The repeater will send morse code “OK”. Now key up and talk for 10 seconds. Unkey and the repeater will play back your voice. The sound quality is a little restricted on the playback but you can definitely tell if you are choppy or noisy or have no audio.

The repeater is simulcast on 443.75 Mhz from the same site.  Eventually there are expected to be two repeaters where 443.75 +5Mhz will be available and will be fully linked to 53.63.  KK4PH is supplying the 440 repeater hardware.  KM4KZ supplied the antenna, coax, mounting, air-space.

Bob, K4WCV, has been running the 6m interest net on the OCRA 53.45 repeater for the past year. Until two weeks ago it was on Friday night at 8:30pm. The net recently moved to Wednesday night at 8:30pm, still on 53.45Mhz.   Wednesday night, on one or both of the repeaters, will be a good time to see who can work the new repeater.  Stay tuned!

KK4PH, W4RFQ, KA2DEW, and KW4KZ are helping Bob with site, technical assistance, equipment, testing, tuning, wiring, pats on the back, pity, and anything else to get the repeater on the air!