W4HHH

N. GA Area Repeaters

Repeaters & Nets other than ours!

Gilmer Repeaters and Net

The EARS club has it's own repeaters now (W4HHH), our 440 went operational Dec. 17. 2006 and the 2 meter early in 2007. Our frequencies are Rx 145.170 Tx 144.570 with a PL tone of 100Hz. Location of repeater is Coosawattee River Resort water tower. In Sept of 2010 we took our analog 440 repeater down and installed a new D-Star 440 repeater operating at 443.9875 MHz (+5.0 MHz). Because the repeaters are not linked the net is only on 2 metters right now.

We will hold a Net most Monday nights at 7:30 PM local on the EARS W4HHH repeater. If something should happen to the primary repeater during a Net then we will go simplex or switch to KC4ZGN back-up repeater (see above for frequency and PL tone). This net is combination net of ARES check-ins and usually afterwards a (rag chew) Roundtable Net. Net controllers are rotated monthly. For Volunteer/Draftee controllers click HERE for NET Preamble and NET Close wording. All amateur radio operators are Welcome..

Gilmer Repeater History

Club started using Jack Ferguson (W4HHH) repeater. After Jack Ferguson became a "Silent Key". Joe Griffith's KC4ZGN bought the 2m/440 repeater from Jack's widow in the early-mid Nineties. Jack & Joe's repeater frequencies are Rx 146.985o & 442.700 Tx 146.385o & 447.700 PL tone 77Hz. The repeater was on Talona mountain in central Gilmer County up until the latter part of 2005. Then moved to the North West section of Gilmer County, on Double Knob Mountain. The 2m/440 has been moved to Tower Road just Northwest of Ellijay. A year or so before the repeater was moved off Talona mountain the repeater became so noisy that it was unusable. Since the repeater had to move do to a land purchase we hope the repeater would do better at Double Knob Mtn but the problems followed, but Joe now knew it was not a local interference problem. Since we did not know what was wrong or how long it would be to fix the KC4ZGN repeater we looked into getting a club repeater of our own. Joe discovered that the 440 worked fine by it's self and only the 2mtr was not as bad with the 440 turned off. The 440 was moved to Tower Road. Joe finally had a idea of what was wrong with the 2mtr and planned to move it to Tower Road when fixed. While Joe was fixing his 2mtr the club had decided to get a repeater of it's own.

We first got the 440 up and going but coverage was poor to say the least. It took longer and of course cost more than expected but finally got the club's 2mtr working, but again coverage was a problem as some locals where great others terrible at the Walnut Mountain location. We also had hardware problems, mainly the duplexers. Mean while Joe got his repeater working good up on Tower Road and the club knew more or less what was needed to fix our repeater, hardware wise nothing that money couldn't fix the other was "Location, Location, Location" (as they say in the real estate buss.) We got an offer to put the repeaters in Coosawattee River Resort and did a test. the test went well. We now (early 2008) have moved our repeaters to Coosawattee and so far so good. Keep your fingers crossed! The club's repeater is W4HHH and has come full circle as the club got permission to use Jack Ferguson's former call sign. Special thanks go to: Dave Meadows (K4LDI) for under taking this task almost singlehandedly at times, from the paper work to the hardware, to the hard-work. To Dennis Rodgers (KA4VHP) for his technical expertise and support. To Dow Hoffman (N4VYU) for access to his Walnut Mountain site. To David Barlitt (KF4AWU) for custom made metal covers for repeater chassis. To Doug Barker (N3DAB). And last but not least to all the club members that gave donations and their time to make all this happen :-)  

That's All Folks!!!

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