Megler Mountain
Pacific County, WA
46.2863, -123.89699
1320 Feet
Call: NM7R
444.925 +5MHz 82.5Hz
Megler UHF IRLP Repeater
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IRLP Commands
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Disconnect
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73
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Disconnect
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#
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Keypad Test
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# (+ digits)
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WIN System
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* (a "Star")
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Any Node
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4-digits
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Pre-codes
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-none-
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Note the
82.5 Hz
CTCSS (PL)
Tone
on the 444.925 repeater
When holding a "local" contact,
that is, two or more stations
conversing on this repeater
without involving the IRLP,
please disconnect the IRLP
link. The WIN System has over
90 repeaters connected, and
there is
no need to bother
them for
a
local QSO here.
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Location: The Pacific
County Megler radio
site is located
just northwest
of the town of
Chinook, WA, on
the north side of
the Columbia River, overlooking Astoria,
OR to the south and Long Beach, WA to the west,
from an altitude of about 1300 feet. There are
several different sites,
within
about
3
miles that are collectively
known as "Megler", and
this is the nortwestern-most
and highest of these. The other
sites are prominently visible
above the Astoria-Megler
bridge while
crossing north-bound.
Access to these other
sites is via the logging
road across from the
"Dismal
Nitch" rest area
on Highway 401 just
east of the Astoria-Megler
bridge. The Pacific
County site is reached
by way of the Chinook
quarry road. Although
not visible from the
bridge, the Pacific
County site can be
spotted from Highway
101, southbound, just west
of Chinook, look up
and to the left, to
the north of the highway.
Coverage: The
"Megler" repeaters cover
nearly the entire
Long Beach Peninsula, and north
along the coast including parts of
Tokeland, Grayland and
Westport, WA. They can be utilized
east nearly to Longview, WA, and
south to Seaside, OR. To the west, they have both
been worked from
60-miles or more at sea.
Click here for a
more detailed UHF Megler site plot.
The VHF coverage is a bit better than
the UHF coverage, as one would
expect.
The building and tower
are crowded with a number
of commercial, public safety and
broadcast stations, including six,
one-kilowatt television transmitters
that serve the greater
Astoria-Long Beach area, giving the site a high noise floor,
making operations there challenging.
Even though they are stacked one atop the other in the rack,
the 147.180 and 444.925 repeaters have different missions and operate
independently.
The 2-meter repeater
is normally linked to the
BeachNet
system of repeaters.
Follow this link for more
information on the Megler 147.180 repeater.
The UHF repeater is not linked to
BeachNet
and operates "stand-alone".
The 444.925 IRLP Repeater: This repeater
operates independently as IRLP node 3105. Internet
Radio Linking Project (IRLP) is a system of hardware and software
that allows two or more radios to be linked together using the Internet.
This provides the ultimate in flexibility, allowing connections
anywhere there is Internet service.
Follow this link for more general information
on IRLP.
This node normally
"idles" connected to Reflector 9100, the
WIN System (Western Intertie Network),
a network of over 90 repeaters in 17 States and 4
countries. The WIN System started in Southern
California, and has grown to
the point that there is always someone to talk
with! This repeater is a
WIN System Affiliate.
Follow this link for current status of this IRLP Node.
Even though the repeater
is normally connected to the WIN System,
you are completely
welcome to disconnect it and connect
to another IRLP
node if you wish. Yeah, really!
Reflector 9100 and the WIN System are
just one of the several thousand possible
IRLP connections, including over two
dozen other Reflector-based groups, and thousands
of individual nodes. If you want to
meet a friend on a schedule, check into the node back home,
or just explore, please do!
It is not necessary to contact
the node owner before using this node.
It was put in place as a community resource
for general Amateur use. If you need any
additional information or wish to contact the node owner,
Click here to
email Frank, NM7R.
There is no special equipment needed to operate IRLP.
All that is necessary is a UHF (or even VHF) Amateur
radio transceiver (Mobile, Base or
Handheld) that has a DTMF,
"Touch-Tone" keypad. All commands
are sent to the repeater, using your keypad.
To access a list of all available IRLP nodes,
and their four-digit codes, CLICK
HERE for a list of all current nodes, in order by State/Province,
or (if that doesn't work), go to: IRLP.net, and click on "NODE
INFO", then click on "List of nodes and
Frequencies".
This will bring up the Status Page. Click on any of the Tabs
to view nodes by category, or click on the "All Nodes"
tab for a complete list of all active IRLP nodes, worldwide.
Special Commands:
If our node is currently connected to
another station, you
must Disconnect before
connecting to another node. Think of
it as "hanging up the
phone" before dialing
another call. The
standard
disconnect command
is "73",
or on
this repeater, a
pound-sign, "#", by
itself, also works to
disconnect a link.
You can send a disconnect
command while
people are talking on the
IRLP connection. They won't
hear you. You don't
have to wait for
a break.
A
keypad test
is available, to see if your signal is
solid enough to
command the station. Use a
pound-sign, "#",
followed by a series of digits.
The controller should read
back the digits to you; fifteen digits
maximum, and it won't read back the
"D" key, which functions
as an "Execute" command.
If you are having trouble getting the
repeater to accept your commands,
a keypad test may be advisable.
If some of your digits don't decode,
try moving to a different spot.
Unless the DTMF codes are correctly
received, you won't be able to
control the IRLP link.
When disconnected, you may
dial up another node
with its
four-digit node number. There are no
pre-codes, just the four
digit number.
For best results when
dialing DTMF
commands,
hold the first
digit for a
half-second,
and then
"press"
(not
jab) the other numbers.
When you are through
with your contact(s),
please disconnect and
then send a
"Star (*)",
a special one-digit
command to put the
repeater back on the
WIN System link. Thanks.
There is a
20-minute
time-out
on normal connections.
Any key-up will reset this
timer, so the connection
will stay alive as
long as it is actively
being used. But if you let
20-minutes go by without
a local key-up,
the connection will
auto-terminate. This is
protection in case you
drive out of range
and can no longer
drop the connection.
The "Star"
command
automatically
connects
to the WIN System with
no time-limit.
There is a
courtesy
tone,
consisting of a single quiet
"beep" following
a transmission that
originated from the
Internet side. There
is no courtesy tone on
locally originating
transmissions. This
allows the user to
determine if the traffic
on the node involves a
local user, or if it is
all coming from elsewhere.
If the node is in
use by a local Ham,
then, as always,
please be courteous...
Remote Audio
Link:
The repeater is at
1320-feet
on Megler hill,
but the
computer and
DSL connection
are at my
home
station, 17 miles
away over Willapa Bay
in Nahcotta. I
have a
pair of
yagi antennas on
the side of my
tower, aimed
at the repeater
site, supporting
a 220-MHz up-link
from the
computer to the
repeater. The 440
antenna listens to
the repeater output
as a down-link.
When the user keys
the repeater, a PL
tone on the repeater
transmitter
tells the computer
that the local user
is talking. This mutes
the up-link
and whatever the user
says is sent out
on the Internet IRLP
connection. When the
user un-keys,
the PL tone
drops*,
and the computer
starts sending audio
from the Internet up
the
220-MHz auxiliary-link
to the
repeater site to be
transmitted
to the user. The two
pictures below, on the
right, are the
antennas on the
tower at my house,
and the other end
of the connection,
looking back from
the repeater site
to my house.
This arrangement
allows the IRLP to
share my home DSL
connection, avoiding the cost of an Internet line at
the commercial site. It also lets the computer live in a more benign
environment, where it is easily accessible for software maintenance.
I don't have to drive 60-miles to the hill and back, just
to hit the reset button. The Bandwidth used by the IRLP connection
is minimal, and I have never noticed any speed reduction in my normal
on-line activities. The link is full-duplex, allowing commands to be sent
at any time, even when the IRLP link is talking. I much prefer this to
the more typical remote link where the user must wait for "dead
air" to send commands.
Hardware: The repeater is a
GE Mastr-II 110-watt continuous
duty base station running 75-watts output
through a circulator, low-pass
filter, a four-cavity
Motorola bandpass duplexer and a
diplexer to share the Hustler
G6-270 dual-band antenna at the top of the
80-foot tower (with the 2-meter
repeater receiver), fed with 100-feet of
LDF5-50 seven-eighths-inch hardline.
The station uses a Mastr-II
Auxiliary Receiver (originally
a VHF High-Band model,
converted to 220-MHz)
as an uplink receiver, to
bring the incoming audio from the
Internet computer to the
site, using a 4-element Yagi.
The controller is a CAT-200B model.
The power supply is GE Mastr-II.
*Technical Note: The
PL encoder on the 440 repeater downlink
isn't switched on and off.
If handled this way, when the encoder
is switched off, the decoder
"coasts down" for as much as a
half-second before closing.
Instead, the PL encoder is switched
between two different tones.
As soon as the "wrong" tone
hits the decoder, it slams shut.
The encoder runs all the time,
but one of the tone-selection
pads is either grounded or floating
to change tones. This gives
more immediate switching.
Historical Note: 12/18/10 - The IRLP connectivity was temporarily "down" due to the failure of the computer during a sudden power outage. A new power supply failed to revive the beast. Dan, N7DRD, provided a new HP computer to replace the original (nearly 20-year-old) one. I swapped the old hard drive over to the new computer and as of 01/07/11 the IRLP station was back in business.
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