Cathlamet
Wahkiakum County, WA
46.202916, -123.36305
420 Feet
Call: WA6TTR
444.300 +5MHz 118.8Hz
Cathlamet UHF Repeater
The Cathlamet Repeater
is the newest in the system
and received its WWARA
Coordination on 4/4/2018
in its present location.
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Location: The Cathlamet repeater is situated on the
hill just north of downtown Cathlamet (Wahkiakum County, WA). The site is on the
north side of Highway 4, overlooking
the city, Puget Island and the shores of the
Columbia River to the east and west.
The site elevation is about 100-feet.
Coverage: The Cathlamet repeater provides local
coverage to most of the area immediately surrounding the city
of Cathlament, the County Seat of Wahkiakum County, from County Line Park
on the east, west along Hwy 4 to Skamokawa, including Puget Island.
It also covers
the Oregon shore
of the Columbia River along Oregon Hwy 30 from Bradly Overlook
almost to Clatskanie.
In addition to providing local coverage
in this under-served community as part of their ARES resources,
the link to other
BeachNet,
repeaters provides connectivity with the broader Amateur community.
Linking: Normally linked to the rest of
BeachNet,
this machine can be separated to operate stand-alone
or linked to the 444.500 Nicolai repeater, as desired
for ARES/RACES operations in Wahkiakum County. It provides a link
to the State ECC at Camp Murray, through the network, and acts as
a focus for Emergency Communications in this rural county.
Hardware: The
repeater consists of a
GE Mastr-II
20-watt continuous-duty
base station. The receiver
features a factory-option pre-amplifier,
and the duplexer is a 4-cavity Motorola
Band-pass/reject unit. The link radio
is a GE-Rangr, with the entire station
in a 30-inch GE cabinet.
While this repeater is normally used for
casual operations by the local Amateurs, it's
primary focus is to support emergency operations
out of the County EOC in the Court House only
a short distance away. Like most small rural counties,
Wahkiakum County depends upon volunteers to
fill gaps in service during emergency situations.
Communications is a big part of this and
the local Amateur operators are
part of the response team. So, while they may
seem to be just playing around with radios, when
push comes to shove, they may be the only
line of communication with adjacent counties and
the State EOC at Camp Murray.
History: This repeater went on the air on
February 13, 2017. During the initial testing period
operation may be intermittent and some features,
including linking, may not be operational.
08/16/17 - Repeater moved to its permanent home on
higher ground than during the initial testing. Official
testing period for Coordination began this date.
04/04/18 - Repeater received its permanent Coordination
at this location. Feel free to use it when in the area.
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