Other Local Repeater Capability

[Admin]

Posted to NARA Facebook Page by Keith Foor:

"Some of you may be aware that I have installed a couple ham repeaters at the tower.  First repeater is an analog / P25 repeater on 147.090.  The PL on that repeater is 94.8.  This was the pair that COARES had and was off the air for a while due to equipment issues.  The pair was issued to me and is 'coordinated'.  This is a mixed mode repeater.  The P25 side of the repeater is linked to the worldwide P25.link system that has a number of nodes and will also link to some of MMDVM P25 reflectors as well.  Please go to p25.link on your favorite web browser for more details.  If you have a reflector you would like to have added, please let me know.
The second repeater is UHF analog ONLY.  442.775 with a PL of 100.0.  I might multi-mode this repeater adding DMR. But with the number of DMR repeaters in the area, there was little sense in adding more. 
These repeaters have the advantage of being at the highest point in Licking County, with a receive antenna at 1560 and a transmit height of 1510, and an equally good view of both Licking and Franklin for  County for the UHF repeater. This provides full quieting coverage in the west end of Newark from a portable as tested today. 
I have line of site into Columbus at 110 feet AGL off the tower.  Antenna for the VHF repeater is at this height currently and also has handheld coverage in the west end of Newark.
These are both general use Amateur repeaters with up to 100% duty cycle and are generator backed up.  They will also be battery backed up in the near future once I get the wiring in place which will provide 100% uptime for these machines.  The current battery plant at the site will run these two repeaters and the three GMRS repeaters at the site for at least four hours of full transmit which is more than enough time for the generator to take over which has a week's worth of fuel. 
Feel free to test them out and use them for amateur communications. 
Be aware that these are COMMERCIAL repeaters.  They do NOT have any voice ID and do not transmit PL when they CW ID as there is no requirement for it on ham radio.  So pay attention to your 10 minute requirement to ID as the repeater will NOT remind you.  They will ID every 9 minutes and FORCE ID at 10 minutes.  If you are on P25 and experience a momentary dropout, it's the repeater switching to analog to CW ID. 
I will be discussing an MOU with several county EMA's and ARES group's to set guidelines for Emergency use.  If we have a situation prior to that discussion taking place and an MOU being established, please make every attempt to limit communications from these repeaters to out of county.  I will be discussing MOU's with Franklin and Delaware counties as well and the State EMA as these machines can be reached from directional antenna's from all those facilities.  Other counties covered from fixed stations with elevated antenna's are Muskingum, Coshocton, Knox, Fairfield, Madison, Union, Fayette, Marion for the UHF repeater.  This is based on the verified coverage footprint of the three UHF GMRS repeaters I have on the same antenna system where I have reliably communicated from a 35 watt mobile with a unity gain antenna (service vehicle).  If a failure of the current ARES repeaters occurs please feel free to use these machines as backup's of those assets."