Repeater

The 147.135, 145.350, and 444.700 mhz. repeaters are made from a GE Mastr II rack mount repeater. It was re-tune and modified for amateur radio use. All the control shelf cards, except for the repeater audio and regulator cards were removed (fig A). It has a GE preamp on the receiver and a PLL exciter board. Modifacation consist of installing a ComSpec TS-64 tone board on the channel guard plug (P908) (fig B) The green LED is for knowledgement of CTCSS. Red is for PTT. I used pin 8 on the local master controller plug (P1102, J1) for the PL tone detect logic for the CAT controller. I installed a nine pin male D plug on the mother board in the hole where plug J2 was. Which I took out and layed back out of the way (fig C). This connector is for the cable that connects to the CAT-1000 controller. Here is the pin layout for that connector.

CAT-1000 9 Pin Local controller Board

J4 Connector J1

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6 - CAS 1 13- CAS

4 - CTCSS logic 2 5 - CG Monitor

10 - PTT 3 3 - local PTT

11 - Transmit audio 4 1 - Mic HI

13 - Receive audio 5 15- jumper to J1206A pin 10

x - not used 6 x - not used

17, 18 - Ground 7 4 - A- ground

16 - 12 volts 8 x - not used

x - not used 9 x - not used

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The receiver audio comes from pin 10 at J1206A on the mother board. I installed a jumper on the repeater audio card. This jumper goes from P6A pin 10 to H13. This will give filterd audio to the controller.

Transmit audio goes into mic Hi with a tone encoder set at 127.3 Hz.

The repeater has a station SWR / Watt meter with alarm for transmitter protection. This will send a signal to the repeater controller for a alert message to be played.

13.5 and 10 volts DC is supplied by a GE repeater / base 30 amp resonance power supply.

Link Radios

The link radios are UHF GE Pheonix SX mobile units(fig D). I added a cooling fan on the PA fins. Each radio has been modified for a 9 pin DB connector (fig E).

Phoenix Radio DB 9 pin

connections connector

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HL-50 CAS 1

CTCSS 2

HL-76 PTT 3

HL-78 TX Audio 4

HL-55 RX Audio 5

X 6

HL-75 Ground 7

X 8

X 9

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Repeater Controller

The repeater controller is a CAT-1000B with a DR-1000, RLS-1000B, and a DL-1000C boards added. To check out CAT click on the icon. This controller has a autopatch which is capable of reverse autopatch and speed dialing. Plus many other features. The CAT-1000B has two ports for radios. Port 1 is for the repeater and port 2 is for the RLS-1000 Remote link board. Which has three ports for link or remote base radios. The RLS-1000B can switch between any or all of the four ports. Port 1 takes priority (control receiver). The DR-1000 is digital record board that can hold 16 messages with a total of 30 seconds. It can also be used for repeater receiver audio checks (600 star). The DL-1000C is a digital delay board for delaying repeater receiver audio untill all the link system radios are transmitting. Delay range is 62.5 to 500 miliseconds.

Antenna ERP plot program

Feedline and Antennas

The repeater antenna is a DB-224E four pole array. It is mounted on the SouthEast side at the 480 foot level of the Time Warner tower North of West Monroe. It is connected with 560 feet of 3/4" P3 CATV hardline to a set of Decible Products 4050 duplexors. The jumpers from the duplexors to the repeater are made of LMR-400 flex.

The West link antenna is a DB-437-1 cut for 420-445 Mhz. which is pointed at 260 degrees is mounted at 250 feet. It is connected to the radio by 325 feet of Andrews 1/2" Heliax with 5 foot of RG-142 to the radio.

The East link antenna is a Phelps-Dodge 7 element yagi. Model is unknown. It is pointed 110 degrees at the 200 foot level. It is connected to the radio by 300 feet of Andrews 1/2" Heliax with 5 foot of RG-142 also.

Transmitter 147.135mhz.

Receiver 147.735mhz.

UHF Control Receiver

This page was last updated: May 15, 2008

Hey guy's, Here is the Weather

For my area.

Here is my portable UHF repeater. It is two GE MDX mobiles tied together with a CAT-200 mounted in the bottom of the receiver. Updated pictures will be posted when I finish.

I have two fans mounted on the fins for the Transmitter. They are controlled by the CAT. The extra cable on the left is for a remote base radio. When finished I will have a cover made to go up one side over the top and down the other side. With feet on the bottom. There will be a 1/4 wave antenna on top of the cover along with a handle. The Alinco DM-330 power supply will be changed to a smaller one when I can get one. The radios are programmed with two frequencies in-case of interference problems. I will include spec's when finished.

Kevin is the Cat Man.

Bryceland, Louisiana

Often, with the exception of high profile systems, repeaters can operate at 100 mile spacing, provided they stay at their coordinated location and parameters. This permits a user area of up to 50 miles from the repeater. When we place repeaters much closer, problems start to develop. A 25-watt mobile on a quarter wave antenna or a 10-watt mobile on a 3-db gain antenna is good for 35 to 45 miles to most repeaters. It is not unusual for a Ringo Ranger on the roof of a house and a 10-watt radio to access a repeater from 50 miles.