Club Program for October 2006 By Rick Sohl – K5RIC

- Repeater - Repeater Buck Mountain Repeater System / Design Plans By Rick Sohl – K5RIC

Repeater Access Getting this Repeater site requires a 4- wheel drive vehicle.

Repeater Basics First some Repeater Basics. What is a Repeater and how is it Used.

Repeater Basics

Basic Repeater Duplexer ReceiverTransmitter Controller Ant

Repeater Input Processing The input signal reaches the Antenna, goes to the Duplexer, is filtered and then goes onto the RX port and to the Receiver input. The Receiver processes the signal into audio or data and sends this to the Controller.

Controller Processing The receiver also sends Noise and Tone Squelch data to the controller. The Squelch data turns on the Transmitter and starts two timers. The first timer is a maximum Transmitter Keyed timer, the second timer, Adds any Repeater tail used on the Repeater.

More Controller Processing The Controller also processes the Audio or Data from the Receiver and matches it to the Transmitter input. The Controller may also add Identification, other tones and may also, provide remote control and telemetry data.

Transmitter Processing The Transmitter processes the Voice and or data onto an RF Signal. This signal is then passed to the Duplexer and filtered to the Transmitter Input port.

Duplexer Processing The Duplexer provides isolation and filtering between the Transmitter Frequency Port and the Receiver Frequency Port and Combines the two ports to one antenna port.

KISS - Repeater Duplexer ReceiverTransmitter Controller Ant

K5RIC Buck Rpt Normal Repeater Use: VHF – MHz with Tone UHF – MHz with Tone

K5RIC Buck Rpt Emergency Operations: VHF – MHz with and Tone for Emergency Operation Announcements ONLY Emergency Repeater operations Echo Link – Use normal tone, but no Encode Tone will be sent out. AT this time the UHF only has tone

K5RIC Buck Rpt The Buck Mountain. Repeater System is built with a much expanded System, but uses the above system as its foundation. The Buck System will be built in a number of Phases. –Phase 1 is now completed and provides two Repeaters on Buck Mountain. –VHF MHz / tone / tone –UHF MHz / tone

K5RIC Buck Rpt These two repeaters are built so that they can be operated as two separate systems or: They can be cross-linked between each other. They share a common power supply with an emergency battery back up and also They share a controller

K5RIC Buck Rpt They share a common 100 foot radio tower, but the two antenna systems are separate. Buck is at 10,750 Feet MSL. The control operators may operate the two as separate systems or they may cross- link the two. In the cross-link mode only one side may operate in the full repeat mode. The other must only link to other sites

K5RIC Buck Rpt This Cross-Link feature allows a partial control / link feature to be utilized at my home station. This allows, at this time: –Echo Link –Manually configured Remote base use –Back up Transmit or Receiver use –KISS Voter Operation

K5RIC Buck Rpt This completes the Phase 1 Project for this system.

K5RIC Buck Rpt This completes the Phase 1 Project for this system. I still have a few items to work or improve on, but the basic Phase 1 Project is now complete.

K5RIC Buck Rpt Phase 2 This phase will build the “Master” Repeater control system to be located at my home station. This system will provide the following features to the repeaters on Buck Mountain.

K5RIC Buck Rpt Remote Base Operation –Full Frequency / Tone Controllable Bases on: –10, 6, 2 Meters and also MHz –Fixed Remote Base on , , or MHz Frequencies Phone Patch Echo Link

K5RIC Buck Rpt All of the above features will be fully controllable and useable by all members of the Sierra Blanca ARC and Lincoln County ARES/RACES team. A full list of all USER codes will be provided to all SBARC members who have a Technician or Higher Class of License.

K5RIC Buck Rpt These features will be set up on Phase 2 by using the existing UHF system as our control / link, An added control system consisting of a full duplex 420 – 430 MHz link radio channel will be added soon, this is part of Phase 3, but will / may be integrated during Phase 2 construction.

K5RIC Buck Rpt Phase 3 This project as noted above, may be started during some of the Phase 2 project. This will add a separate full duplex (one for VHF and one for UHF) control link / system between Buck and the Master controller.

Buck / Master Site Map Rpt TX Rpt TX Master Site Remote Bases Master Site Remote Base Phone Patch Echo Link NOAA WX RX

K5RIC Buck Rpt Phase 4, in this phase the Automatic Voter System will be installed, this will add Satellite Voters for both VHF and UHF repeaters at Ruidoso, Roswell and other areas that will be determined by this time This will include a separate UHF link system for each Voter Receiver

Voter System

K5RIC Buck Rpt The Voter controllers will be located on Buck Mountain and will send the Voted Receiver data / voice to the Master Site or in case of a failure on that system, the Voter can be voted directly to its associated Transmitter.

Voter Process When we add Voting, we can then use the Receiver coverage from more than one geographic location to the Repeater. The Voter will measure the Signal and Noise on each Receiver and Vote the one with the best signal to be Repeated.

Voter Repeater Diagram The next slide will show a diagram of a Voter Repeater with three Receivers. One Receiver will be at the Repeater site and the two others will be at remote sites from the Repeater. A voter System can have as many as 32 Voted Receivers.

Buck Repeater w/3RX Voter Duplexer Receiver Transmitter Controller Ant Link RX ??? Link RX ??? Voter Ant

Voter Site Cavity Filter* Pre-Amp* Link Transmitter 420.??? Controller Ant Receiver Ant * Optional

Voter Uses Radio Repeater Voting can be used to fill in coverage or dead spots for a single repeater or a group of repeaters in a large system. It can extend range of a Repeater System using Hand Held Radios. Voting may also be used to resolve Interference issues for a Repeater System.

Repeater Voting In most cases different radio bands will be used for RF Voting links. The same band may be used but expensive and large filters may be required as well as careful planning.

Voting Set Up Buck Mtn. Rpt. 1 VHF Rpt. 2 UHF Voter 1 VHFVoter 2 VHFVoter 2 UHFVoter 1 UHF

Voting Map Rpt. 1 Rpt. 2 Voter 1 Voter 2 Voter 3 Rpt. 3 Voter 4

K5RIC Buck Rpt Phase 5 This last phase will add a fully controllable High Frequency Remote Base radio to the Master site. This will allow voice operation on all allocated SSB voice bands with 100 watts output. This Remote base can only by controlled by a General Class or higher Licensee.

K5RIC Buck Rpt Part of the design of this system was started on the Bullfrog Mountain Site / WB5MPX, / Repeaters in Brewster County Texas. That system had all the above features except for the Voter and Echo Link systems, that Buck System will have.

K5RIC Buck Rpt The Buck System is planned to allow for a Lincoln County mountain top system that has capability to provide: –Phone Patch –Multiple Remote Bases / Bands / Linking –Echo Link and –other features as may develop in the future –Battery back up power

K5RIC Buck Rpt But the system design also required, that in the event of a failure the Mountain top Repeater(s) may be Un-linked from the Master site and operated as KISS standalone repeaters. This allows redundant back up in case of a failure when Buck has snow and is inaccessible during the winter.

K5RIC Buck Rpt Current Status: Both UHF and VHF are linked and Echo Link is operational. The battery back up system is on line and will keep the system up for about 48 hours.

K5RIC Buck Rpt Current Status, Cont.: The Antenna System on VHF was damaged by the high winds, but it is operational, but under high winds it may lose RX and TX range. This system will be completely replaced in 2007.

K5RIC Buck Rpt Current Status, Cont.: The UHF system is operational, but is cross linked so it is primarily used for the link not as a repeater. The UHF Antenna system has better coverage in Roswell, Dexter, Hagerman than Ruidoso, this antenna will be moved in 2007.

K5RIC - Repeater Systems This Presentation prepared by: J. Rick Sohl – FCC Licensed Radio Engineer © 2006, 2007 J. Rick Sohl

The End 73 Rick Sohl

Coffee Break !!!!!! Coffee Break !!!!!!