Satellite
links - The
KB8MFV/R has several C and Ku band TVRO links for Amateur
information services provided by the dish farm here at
the main site (six dishes in all!). From left to right in this image
from the top of the tower is a 7' Hero, 6.5' solid stainless steel, 10'
BUD... (big ugly dish) on a 15' pole, 7' Hero, 3' Primestar (not in use...
YET!) and a 5' Wilson solid spun aluminum dish. There are dedicated
receivers for NASA select TV for
round the clock coverage during space shuttle missions,
and the W0KIE network which carries This Week In Amateur
Radio and the Houston area AMSAT net. A snow covered 50 watt home brew
solar panel is visible in the top left of the image.
Dish farm viewed from ground level
Nets - The Ohio SSB net is
on 3972.5 KHz at 10:30 AM, 4:15 PM and 6:45 PM EST
everyday of the year. The KB8MFV/R is linked to the
evening net from 6:44 PM to 7:15 PM. Users are encouraged
to check-in and sharpen their message handling skills. If
you are a Technician class operator, you should give your
call sign along with the fact that you are using the
KB8MFV/R as "third party traffic". This link
was called into question by an Official Observer in
December 2000. There ARE several requirements that MUST
be met for this to be done on a 2 meter repeater.
KB8MFV/R meets those requirements, so the daily net
operations were resumed on January 5th 2001. For details
on this, the applicable sections of Part 97 of the FCC
rules and E-mail copies of the correspondence with the
ARRL on this matter, click here.
The Houston area AMSAT
net is heard live via satellite Tuesdays at 9 pm EST.
The net is RX only from the W0KIE satellite network on
Satcom C3 transponder 24 at 7.5 MHz audio. The net has up
to the minute information on the amateur satellite
program, bulletins, status reports and also sends slow
scan TV images near the end of their hour long net. You
can check-in to the net via E-mail or telephone.
This Week In Amateur
Radio (TWIAR) is heard live via satellite Saturdays
at 9 pm EST. This satellite delivered bulletin service
also comes from the W0KIE satellite network. This is
"the weekly news" for amateur radio operators.
It is very well produced and deserves our support.
The Columbiana County Emergency Training Net is rotated
among the five two meter repeaters in our county in the
following order: 146.700 East Liverpool, 146.775 East
Palestine, 146.805 Lisbon, 147.255 Salem and 147.285
Salem. None of the repeaters require PL during the
traffic nets. CCETN is held Mondays at 8 pm EST.
Wx
service - The
KB8MFV/R has a weather alert monitor that will sound a 5
second alarm and change the courtesy tone to a Morse code
"W" for five minutes after the alert is sent.
Users can enter a DTMF command to listen to the radio on
demand. The six meter remote base is linked in RX only
mode to the Cleveland weather net during severe weather.
The two meter synthesized remote is RX/TX enabled for the
Columbiana County SKYWARN net when the weather really
gets bad.
Remote
Bases - KB8MFV/R
has several remote base radios available for users to
link the repeater to other frequencies. They may be
activated individually, or multiple remotes may be active
at the same time.
Icom 2AT synthesized remote. User programmable with PL, 3
watts to a 1/4 wave at 45 feet using 70 feet of 1/2 inch
Heliax.
Icom 4AT synthesized remote. User programmable with PL, 2
watts to a 3db gain at 45 feet using 70 feet of 1/2 inch
Heliax.
Drake TR7 HF remote. 100 watts, 160-10 meters including
the WARC bands with Drake L7 2KW amplifier, using
tri-band beam at 40 feet, double size G5RV, elevated six
band vertical and a double bazooka inverted V for 75-80
meters. A MFJ-984 3KW tuner is also available. Feed lines are RG-8 and RG-8U.
Yaesu FT-680r 6 meter all-mode. 10 watts to a Mirage
A1015G 150 watt amp with a folded vertical at 50 feet and
a 5 element beam at 45 feet using RG-8.
Yaesu FT-736r all-mode with 2 m (80 watt Mirage B108),
1.25 m (25 watts), 70 cm (100 watt RF concepts RFC4-110)
and 23 cm (10 watts) modules. All feed lines are 70 feet
1/2 inch Heliax or 1/2 inch hardline.
Remote RX - KB8MFV/R has a remote
receiver just north of Canfield, Ohio at the
home of KC8WY (Dave) at 41.04'.11" North and 80.45'.53" West
at 1290 feet above sea level just a few miles north of Canfield,
Ohio. The RX antenna is a Ringo II at 120 feet using
150 feet of Times Microwave LMR-400 cable feeding a Advanced Receiver
Research 25 db GAsFet preamp. The link TX antenna is a 7 element homebrew
yagi. Two more remote receiver sites are planned for the future.
Phone patch - KB8MFV/R has a 250
number auto dialer phone patch including 10 emergency
autodial numbers. Auto patch slots are FREE to all
licensed amateurs. Priority is given to SKYWARN spotters
that want to use their spotter number for an autodial
slot.
DVR - A homebrew Digital
Voice Recorder will be available soon using the ISD
family of "Chip Corder" voice storage IC's.
Users are able to hear how they sound at the
repeater and stored natural voice messages will be
available. Users can E-mail MP3 or wav files to have them
recorded as rotating ID slots. Watch the KB8MFV
projects page for future updates, information and schematics for this
handy feature. The DVR went on-line 3-1-2001... users are encouraged
to send text of
their ideas for new DVR messages to [email protected]
Above is a view of the OLD repeater equipment rack... a new 6 foot by 3
foot rack (much bigger) was installed on 3-6-2001. Photo will be posted
soon.
RX voter - KB8MFV/R uses a homebrew
Doug Hall 4RV 4 channel active voter to select the best
main RX signal from the two main receivers currently
available. It is expandable up to 32 channels. This is real time true
diversity reception that requires no additional effort on the users part
to improve signal to noise ratios. A tone generator board will be added in
the future to generate a unique courtesy tone sequence for each active
receiver site. This way users will be able to tell by the courtesy tone
which receiver another user came in on. Watch the KB8MFV
projects page for future updates, information and schematics on this
too.
Locations - The KB8MFV/R is
located in Salem, Ohio 44460 maidenhead grid square
EN90nv. If you like to crunch numbers, that's 40.54'.20" North and
80.51'.00" West. Ground elevation is 1270 feet and the main antenna
is up 80 feet at 177 feet above average terrain. The image on the right
shows the main tower (13 antennas!) including the ATV, repeater, PBBS,
link, remote base and satellite antennas. Guy cables for this tower are
NOT optional! The Youngstown area receiver is located at the
home of KC8WY (Dave) at 41.04'.11" North and 80.45'.53" West
at 1290 feet above sea level just a few miles north of Canfield,
Ohio. Future RX sites are planned for the Alliance and Lisbon, Ohio
areas
Tower top views - Here
are eight views from the top of the tower here in Salem looking N, E, S,
W, NE, NW, SE and SW. They can be arranged to form a panoramic view. Click
on each direction to download a high resolution image.
Main radios - The entire KB8MFV
repeater system including all link RX and TX radios uses
the Motorola Mitrek line of radios. All receivers use GAsFet preamps
and/or the factory internal preamps. All radios have been
modified to be capable of full duplex operation (RX/TX at the same time)
for redundancy in case of a failure. The main
transmitter is 100 watts output continuous duty. The
Youngstown receiver site uses a full duplex 45 watt Mitrek radio and is set to 3
watts feeding a Celwave duplexer. The remote site will in the future be
able to be commanded on and off remotely and/or to enable the site as a
remote transmitter/receiver with the addition of another VHF duplexer if
desired.
Controller - KB8MFV/R uses the
Advanced Computer Controls RC-850 repeater controller
(top) running version 3.42 software. The computer interface
board option is not installed. The RC-850 is interfaced
to a homebrew controller (below) consisting of a second DTMF
decoder with display, a four port remote base interface,
a four port rx only link interface, two
FC-1 synthesized remote base controllers and a 64 output
expanded user function board... all homebrewed on
perfboards! The empty space in the homebrew controller is for the DVR
that went on-line 3-1-2001 after this picture was taken.
Duplexer - KB8MFV/R uses a
Sinclair Labs 4 cavity band pass/band reject duplexer.
Insertion loss is measured at 1.3 db. 100 watts input
produces 75 watts RF output at the antenna port.
Antennas - The KB8MFV main
repeater site in Salem uses a Hustler model G6 vertical
with 6 db gain fed with 1/2 inch Heliax. Link RX and TX
antennas are homebrew 7 element yagis fed with 1/2 inch
hardline.
Emergency
power - KB8MFV/R
uses battery back-up for the entire system. A pair of 35
amp power supplies with their control voltages strapped
provide operating power and ensure that the battery
(stack of 6) stays fully charged at all times. If the AC
power mains fail, the batteries take over automatically
and the courtesy tone and hang timers are changed to
alert the users. The 12 volt battery backed power supply
also powers the Packet BBS computer, TNC, disk drive and
monitor. Two homebrew gas generators are available to
keep the power up during extended outages. The Youngstown
area receiver also has battery back-up that will provide
several hours of operation without AC power. I am perfecting a control
circuit for the generator system that may soon appear on the projects
page.