History of the Parsons Repeater
by Eugene Roy, N8ER
The Parsons repeater was started in 1973 by K8CHW
(John Gribble),
WA8ZGX (now N8ER, Eugene Roy, WB8GJE (Andy Thomson{sk}), and WB8DKM
(Delbert Roy). The Echo III repeater was purchased by John and the
duplexer and antennas by the rest of us. The duplexer was a North Shore
RF Technology Kit which I built. It is currently in use on the Rich
Mountain Remote Receiver site to reduce some of the IMD.
The repeater was installed on Turkey Knob up behind my house in 1973
for testing. In 1974 it was moved to the top of Olson Tower, in the
cabin at 100 feet above ground. We started out using a frequency of
146.16/76. At that time we had no CERA to guide us and we thought the
frequency was a good one for us. As soon as we put it up realized that
the repeater north of us near Waynesburg, Pa was a problem so we
changed frequency to 146.13/73. This was a clear frequency at that
time.Then a fellow by the name of Andy Pato (WA3PBD) got permission
from the
Western Pennsylvania Repeater Council to try his machine on the same
frequency, he had agreed to move it if there was a problem. As you can
guess, he never did. We made several trips up there to talk with them
to no avail. Finally Andy agreed to change frequency on his machine at
the last meeting we had with the repeater council ( if you want to call
it that). Then he found a reason not to change it and the interference
continued and of course we were getting the worst of the deal. For
every single operator we had here they had 10 or more, we were greatly
outnumbered.
At that time CTCSS (continuous tone coded squelch system) was not being
used by hams. So in an attempt to live with the situation we started
using a tone of 118.8 on our receiver. The only other machines in this
area were Morgantown , Fairmont and Terra Alta. There were no others
and even those had what we would consider poor coverage. None of these
were using tone. Some hams wanted to call our machine a closed
repeater, even though we publishing the tone a lot. At that time hams
just did not like tone. Look at it now though.
The use of tone helped but finally we were forced to change our
frequency and about the same time the FCC came up with the new band
plan, the use of the so called sub-band. We changed our frequency to
145.33/144/73. It worked well for us and by this time John had managed
to lease the old Military Radar site, above Centenial Park and we used
it for a remote receiver site.
The repeater was quite active in those days since there just
wasn’t many repeaters around and Parsons had wide coverage.
The four of us plus KA8JTH (Tom), WD8LNB (Stan) and WD8LWI (Rich)
decided to put us a link system in this area. We purchased VHF
Engineering Kits and changed things over to the new equipment. We had
five machines in this area linked up. Parsons, Bridgeport, Grafton,
Webster Springs, and Mount Storm. The system worked good and we had
really good coverage of the area.
In the summer of 1984 the club decided to build a building at the base
of the tower so it would be easier to service the equipment. There were
about 45 members at the time. We were able to get permission from the
local Government to build so we put up the present block building. We
had excellent help, even some who were not club members or hams. Darney
Stevens laid the block and my oldest son, Pooch, watched over the
supplies at night for us. He was Deputy Sheriff in Grant County at that
time. I made a list and framed it for in the building that shows the
persons that were involved in the building project. Hope I
didn’t miss anyone.
About this time a new ham came along, the result of a class KA8JTH (
Tom DiBacco) and myself had conducted in Thomas. His name was George
Grubr (KE8QC).George was very active on 2m and soon I sold the Parsons
repeater, which was mine by that time, to George and the Mt Storm
repeater to Tom. I Was inactive in the club now and soon the link
system was resolved and just Parsons and Mt Storm left working. Next
the club broke up and George moved his repeater somewhere out of
country and Tom took his down. The Mountain State Transmitters, Inc was
no longer active.
In 1991 the folks in Elkins were going to start a new club. I thought
it would be a good idea if we were to start the old club, The Mountain
State Transmitters Inc., back up instead. That is what happened and we
were able to find the frequency of 145.37/144.77 which we still use. I
was able to get the paperwork done with the Forest Service so that we
have a lease on the tower and building. The equipment now belongs to
the Club with the exception of the Wacom duplexer which is the property
of KA8JTH and two Wacom filters which belong to N8ER. The machine is
working good, and the remote receiver at Rich Mountain is a great help
to us in that area. The radio’s are converted GE Master II
mobile units which are powered by a large bank of batteries. The system
will operate for weeks without power. The controller is a CAT 1000,
with serial interface card and voice recorder. Also an audio delay
board that helps remove the TT audio from the transmitted signal. The
Autopatch works well also and has local 911 access.
This is to the best I can remember although I know I have missed some
things, sorry about that.
73 Gene N8ER
March 6, 2005
I purchased the 145.370 Mhz Parsons Repeater from the Mountain State
Transmitters today. I have reduced the complex things the controller
does, no autopatch, no scheduler activity, ect. The main equipment for
the Parsons Repeater is listed below.
1. One Decibel Products DB224 antenna, top at 3850 feet on the tower
rail.
2. 170 foot of 5/8 inch hard line.
3. Wacom model WP641 duplexer and two Wacom bandpass filters
4. One GE Master II mobile radio modified for Ham and used as
transmitter providing 200W ERP.
5. One GE Master II mobile radio modified for ham using Communications
Specialists TS-32 encode/decode.
6. Cat 1000 repeater controller with audio delay.
7. Commercial 12 v battery bank providing days of use in case of power
outages with anouncement on the air.
8. Motorola uhf radio for primary control of the transmitter.
N8ER
Today, May 6, 2009, the new
owner/trustee of the Parsons Repeater is
Mike Pritt, N8UNJ
Good luck to Mike. N8ER
Thanks to Gene, N8ER for his many years of service to the ham
community. I will try to follow in his footsteps.
As to the machine: it works well, and I have no
intention of making any changes as none are needed.
It will continue to be the place for technically minded hams to "hang
out".
Mike, N8UNJ
HOME