147.330 & 44x.xxxxx
Hamilton, Ohio East
147.3300 started out on a city of Hamilton water tank on Wasserman Rd. One day it just stopped working. At the site when we went to find out the problem, the Yaesu repeater circuit traces had been badly destroyed from the chlorine fumes and moisture inside the building. That and the large amount of black mold found in the repeater, it was deemed not fixable and decided we needed a better environmentally controlled site.
Our club officers talked to the people att he school that had allowed us to establish a radio room and have a meeting room at the Butler Technology and Career Center for use of their 160 foot self supporting tower at that facility.
Jumping though a few hoops to get permission from user's already on the tower - it was finally a go.
A lesson learned: Don't fight for the top of the tower!
Let someone else's equipment take all the lightning strikes!
We mounted a G7-144 at about the 150 foot level fed with 1 5/8" Helix into a room shared by WLW-TV remote broadcast equipment. That is their movable aimable microwave dish on top. The lowest dish on the tower links to the studio in Kenwood.
The other microwave dished were used by the school for telephone and internet service out of Middletown. Now everything is fed by fiberoptic's into a new centralized data center.
N8TVU built a Motorola 110 watt MICOR repeater to replace the Yaesu FM repeater to use at the school.
The two large holes behind the mesh screen are repeater controller controlled 8" fans that blow directly on the 110 watt PA amplifier.
Below the PA amp is the exciter, the controller and associated MICOR required voltage regulators and interfacing controls, the receiver with preamp and 12 volt 50 amp Astron power supply.
In the bottom of the rack is the VHF duplexers and deep cycle battery and charger.
In 2015 this was all replaced with a Yaesu System Fusion multi mode repeater.
Like the other sites, this too will be getting a UHF linked P-25 repeater system (now that we have plenty of room for one!).