440.550 Repeater - KC2LEB.com

In its former life, this was a Public Safety UHF DC Remote Station commissioned to a local Gov't facility. The FCC Mandate for Narrowbanding has made these reliable workhorses available as "Surplus" now for our use.

I doesn't take much to make these work in the Ham Bands. A little tuning, wiring and patience.

It came in a U.S. Gov't Gray ("if it don't move, paint it") 48" GE Cabinet with a 75 Watt PA and 30 amp power supply. I wired out the CAT Repeater Controller points to a DB-25m cable soldered to the backplane. Plug and Play. Install the "ICOMs" or Crystals and let it "Burn In for a few days, Check and install.

A spare CellWave PD-526 duplexer was pre-tuned and then installed at the site. It weighs in around 180 Lbs, not exactly portable, but a spare.

(Thanks to Steve WB2ZSE)

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Technical Information on the ORIGINAL 550 Machine

Currently in "da Cave" I am rebuilding the original GE Mastr IIe UHF 100 Watt Continuous Duty Repeater Station w/PLL exciter to be put back in service. It took a lightning hit in April 2011 and has been out of service since.

TX 440.550 / RX 445.550 Crystals by International Crystal Manufacturing

Channel Guard Tone of 141.3 has 180 degree reverse burst for quieting.

A 7.2db Diamond X50NA Repeater Antenna fed with 75 feet of 7/8 Andrew Heliax connects an RFS PD-526-4-2 6 cavity Duplexer to the system. An AR2 Recieve Pre-Amp with a 3db pad puts your signal into the receiver.

A GE Mastr III 33 Amp Power Supply is part of the Battery Backup System with a GE Mastr III 10 Amp Battery Charger connected to a pair of 225 Amp Hour AGM Batteries in parallel.

Future Remote Receivers will utilize the GE Mastr Voting System.

Links use CAT Controller ports

All of the equipment (and spare parts) used in this project was purchased, donated, found in dumpsters or rescued from the perils of the sea. No radios were harmed in the construction of this repeater. KC2GOW was fed and watered as per the SIEC.

Using the field strength calculations

The map above represents relative signal loss from the areas nearest the repeater. Notice that the highest field strength shown is 118 dBuV/m (that is in decibels relative to one microvolt per meter), and that a change in color represents about 20db loss.

So by the time the field strength is in the red, the signal strength is about 60dB lower than it is in the area immediately around the repeater.Some useful rules of thumb for a 100 watt repeater are:

Orange - good handheld coverage

Red - marginal handheld coverage (need a better antenna)

Purple - mobile coverage

Dark purple / gray - base coverage with an outdoor antenna at 20 ft+ AGL

Thanks to K5EHX.net for the repeater mapping

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