PCARA's Repeater Systems

1. Overview
2. Our Repeater Equipment
3. Usage of our Repeaters
4. Panama Repeater Frequency Listing

Overview

The Panama Canal Amateur Radio Association has a very nice complex of VHF repeaters for use throughout the Canal Zone. We own three 2 meter repeater systems from one side of the canal to another. Two of these repeaters, one on each side of the Canal, are linked to each other for cross isthmus coverage. These repeaters are all open repeaters, as all repeaters in Panama are supposed to be. Many of the extra features, such as the link and the autopatch to name a few, are only open to paid up club members. For information on becoming a PCARA member, click here.

The repeater on the Pacific (Panama City) side of the Canal is known as the PCARA South Repeater. It operates on 14.270 with a + offset. It also has a PL frequency of 167.9. This is necessary to help keep the large amount of intermod and other inference characteristic of this area out of the repeater. It is located atop Sosa Hill and provides great coverage from the City. It has a power output of about 80 watts.

The repeater on the Atantic Coast is known as the PCARA North repeater and operates on frequency 146.850 with a - offset. It currently does not use a PL frequency. It is located atop the Gatun Locks Complex just south of Ft. Sherman and slightly west of Colon. It is linked to the PCARA South repeater in Panama City.

The other repeater is known just as the PCARA. It is located atop one of the PCC radio towers near Gamboa. It operates on a frequency of 146.700 with a - offset. It is currently not part of a linked system, but does provide nice coverage, especially from out on Lake Gatun.

Equipment

1. Pacific Side

   The equipment at the Pacific repeater is located atop Sosa hill. It consists of a RC850 Controller, a HI-Pro Repeater running 25 watts into what I believe is a Mirage amplifier. It is linked to the Atlantic side repeater via a VHF radio.
   
   
   
   
   
   File size is 69K. This picture got a little cut off, but you can see how tall the Sosa Hill Antenna Farm is.
   
   
   
   
   This is the view from the top of the hill looking north. File size is 135K
   
   
   
   
   
   This is our future project: to clean up this installation. HP1XPF will be heading up this project. File size is: 53K
   
   
   

2. Gamboa

   This repeater uses a Yaesu VXR5000 driven with a MCC RC 1000 controller. It puts out about 25 watts and has coverage mostly of Gatun lake and into Panama City. Not everyone in Panama City can hit this repeater due to terrain, but it is a great repeater to use in between Panama City and Colon. This equipment is the newest in the club's arsenal.

   
   
   
3. Atantic Side

   This is a brand new system utilizing a Yaesu VXR 5000 controlled with a Link-Com RLC Club. This controller is a very powerful one and should suit the needs of this side for many years to come. The antenna for this setup is an ASPB 602 located 170' up the tower. The tower is already 90' MSL, so you can see why this machine has good coverage. Typical power out for this system is about 22 watts. The PCARA North repeater is located atop the Gatun Locks complex and has very good coverage of the Atlantic side, although it does get a little scratchy in Colon. We eventually hope to have a control link hooked to this to be able to bring up the Sosa Repeater from Colon.

Usage

Non Club Members

Every operator must identify BEFORE you attempt to control the repeater. This is mandatory. Unlike the regulations in the US where you only have to ID once every 10 minutes and at the end of a QSO, you must ID at the beginning, every 10 minutes, and at the end of a QSO here in Panama. A very good operating practice that Panamanians use and works real well is that they ID their callsign and the repeater system they are on. An example of this would be, "HP1XBG is mobile monitoring PCARA South."

The only extra functions that are open to non-association members is the emergency autodial numbers. The emergency autodialer is a special feature to our system. We have programmed nine emergency numbers for use under different circumstances. To use this service, key the microphone and enter the code for the emergency service you need. The repeater will tell you the service you are calling and place the call immediately.

If you accidentally enter the wrong code, IMMEDIATELY key your mic and enter the patch hangup code. This is very important because if the call goes through and there is no emergency, we will earn a bad name for ourselves and the emergency services will not deal with us. Also we risk the possibility that patch priviliges can be removed by the government. This in turn will cause a great amount of gastric distress on the part of your Primary Control Operator as well as the rest of the club.

Club Members

The Autopatch is divided into three basic operations: They are the manual autopatch, autodialer, and the emergency autodialer. The emergency autodialer was already covered in a previous section. You will notice different responses from the controller when you operate the different patches. The manual autopatch operates as a "store and forward system." This means that the number you dial is stored within the controller and then sent down the phone line error free. In order for this to happen you must key your mic and enter the patch prefix and telephone number as one sequence. For example, if the patch prefix is "*" and the telephone number was "224-1234", you would first Idetify, key your mic, and then enter "*2241234," then unkey your microphone.

After you enter the proper prefix and number, the repeater will answer you by saying "Manual Autopatch." You then have 2 seconds to key your microphone momentarily. If you do not key the mic momentarily within 2 seconds, the repeater will read back the number you just dialed. In other words, it will say, "2241234" in order to verify the number you dialed is correct. If the number is correct, just wait and the call will be completed automatically. If the number is not correct, enter the patch hangup code to cancel the patch. If you do not want the number read back over the air, be sure to key your mic within the two second window after the repeater says, "Manual Autopatch." ALWAYS IDENTIFY AT THE END OF A PATCH WHEN YOU USE THE HANGUP CODE.

The Autodialer normally uses autodial bank 0. All other banks are disabled by the Control Operator. When you call someone on the autodialer, the repeater will respond by saying, "Autodial XX" where XX is the last two numbers of the mailbox just dialed. For example, if the last two digits of a mailbox (autodial location) were 42 and you placed an autodial call, you will not hear "Autodial Call for HP1XBG." Instead, the repeater will say, "Autodial 42." This method allows for a little more privacy.

There is no need to key your mic after the repeater announces the call. The telephone number in the mailbox will not be repeated over the air as it was already stored in the controller. Your only verification is the controller telling you the last two digits of the mailbox number you entered. If you accidentally entered a wrong mailbox number in the autodialer, you can canel the patch by keying your mic and entering the patch hangup code.

The Reverse Patch works just about the same as the other patches except for a few differences. First, when the reverse patch telephone number is called, the repeater will answer the telephone by saying, "This is PCARA South Control." The reverse patch code cannot be entered until the controller has finished its message. The second difference is that the person who initiates the reverse patch must enter the pound sign (#) after entering the reverse patch code. For example if the reverse patch code was "1234," the person calling on the telephone must enter "1234#" to activate the reverse patch.

The reverse patch callout message and ring will only run for 45 seconds. The person's call is announced more than once. If you are the proud recipient of a reverse patch and are not there to answer it, when the reverse patch times out it will generate a message to you from a mailbox called "HOME." When you retrieve the message, it will only tell you the time and who (if it can) called.

All of the patches have timers on them. With the exception of the emergency autodialer, the patch timers have been set to a maximum of 3 minutes. The timer on the emergency autodial is set to 7 minutes to ensure that you have sufficient time to complete your emergency traffic.

All of the patches also have two additional timers on them to watch over the system. The first is a 45 second timer that prevents the patch from staying on the air if you should lose control because of being in a poor location, the batteries suddenly fall out of your radio, or any other reason you may be unable to access the repeater.

The repeater looks for a change in the telphone/repeater receiver lines to verify that all is going well. If the person on the telephone is long winded and talks for more than 35 seconds, you will hear a short warble warning tone. If you do not key your mic momentarily within the next 10 seconds, the patch will automatically terminate. Needless to say, if you call someone and are put on hold, the same rule applies. On the other hand, if you are long-winded and talk for more than 35 seconds without unkeying the mic, the person on the telephone will hear the warning tone. If you do not unkey within 10 seconds, the patch will automatically terminate.

The second timer on all the patches is the timeout warning. Thiry seconds before the patch is set to timeout, the repeater will say, "30 seconds left." If you do not terminate the patch within the following 30 seconds, the repeater will do it for you.

If you should have a problem shutting the patch down, don't worry. In the worst case, the patch will timeout after 45 seconds of inactivity. When any of the patch modes are terminate, the repeater response will be, "Phone Call Complete."

Mailbox Messages

The repeater has 3 different mailbox systems. The capability that we have is nothing short of outstanding when it comes to leaving messages for other users. There is one mailbox system in the repeater controller itself. This system allows one mailbox user to leave a "canned" message for another mailbox user. Any of the nine preprogrammed messages can be extended to include a specific phone number by adding an asterisk (*) after entering the selected message and then the telephone number you want to leave.

As an example, we will say that user John has a mailbox number 344 and user Jim has a mailbox number 367. John wants Jim to call as soon as possible, and John is not home. We will also say that the mailbox prefix is "1". John would leave a message for Jim as follows: John keys his mic and enters--"167443*2234567." The first number is the mailbox control prefix; the second two numbers are the last two numbers of Jim's mailbox and the next two numbers are the prefix to John's mailbox number. The number just prior to the "*" is the number for the canned message, "Call me ASAP". The number after the "*" is the phone number for Jim to call John at.

Let's say that John's call is HP1ABC and Jim's call is HP1DEF. When John enters the message, the repeater will say, "HP1DEF from HP1ABC, call me ASAP, 2234567, Time entered 2:17 today."

When Jim retrieves the message, it will repeat exactly the same so Jim will know when the message was sent, unless it was retrieved after midnight. If retrieved after midnight, instead of saying today, the repeater will say, "Y-E-S-T," meaning YESTerday. Messages will automatically erase after being on the system for approximately 48 hours. However, please erase your messages after you review them to help free up memory for others.

If there are messages stored in the system, the repeater will say "Messages" at the end of the identification sequence. For example, the repeater may say, "This is HP1PCARA South, HP1XBG SH, Messages."

The two other message centers that are available depend on the DVR which is not currently installed in the controller. For that reason, I will not explain the prodecures for that until we get the DVR back.

Other User Functions

Each command for checking your signal level, frequency deviation, etc is different and is a one time operation. The codes for these other commands are listed on the User Function Command Code Sheet. The only requirement before you use any of these codes is that you first Identify.

The Signal level that is read back to you can range in strength from S-0 to S-9 plus 60.

If your radio is on frequency, the response will be, "Under 200 Hertz."

Your audio deviation will always vary according to how loud you are speaking into your radio.

The touch tone pad test is very simple. All you have to do is enter the check touch tone pad test prefix and then whatever numbers or letters on your pad you want to test. You can enter these numbers in any order you want, up to a maximum of 16. If you enter numbers/letters and any of them are not read back to you, then the command decoder did not "see" that particular number or letter.. Please do not discuss any of the codes over the air or with anyone who is not authorized to use them. (Associate members are currently restricted from using the controller.) If you do, you may find that the codes have been changed without you being notified after the gastric discomfort mentioned above has settled down.

Have fun with the system and let us know how you like it. We would also like your input as to what else you would like to see on the system. Please contact one of the club officers for any further information.