BeachNet Repeater System

BeachNet Repeater System

Pacific, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Thurston & Wahkiakum Counties, Washington

145.170 |  145.310 |  145.390 |  147.020 |  147.180 |  147.340 |  224.040 |  224.820 |  440.675 |  441.675 |  442.675 |  444.050 |  444.200 |  444.300 |  444.400 |  444.500 |  444.700 |  444.800 |  444.925 |  444.950
 

 

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Megler Mountain

Pacific County, WA
46.2863, -123.89699
1320 Feet
Call: NM7R

147.180  +600kHz  82.5Hz


Megler VHF Repeater


Note the 82.5 Hz CTCSS (PL)
Tone on the 147.180 repeater

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 solidly to the county line, and then nearly to Longview, WA. These repeaters can be used 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, and share an antenna, 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. The UHF repeater is not linked to BeachNet and operates "stand-alone". Follow this link for more information on the Megler 444.925 IRLP repeater.




Linking: The 147.180 Megler Repeater operates full-time as a part of the
BeachNet system of linked repeaters. It can be disconnected to operate as a stand-alone resource, or in other configurations to address particular needs. The only "regular" instance of this is two days at the end of August each year, when the Megler 147.180 and 444.925 repeaters are split off in support of the Hood-To-Coast relay race.

Hardware: The 147.180 repeater consists of a GE Mastr-II 110-watt continuous duty base station and matching power supply, running 75-watts out, through a circulator, a bandpass cavity, a four-cavity Band-Pass/Band-Reject (BpBr) duplexer, a VHF/UHF diplexer, and 50-feet of half-inch hardline to a Comet x510 dual-band antenna on the roof of the building. The VHF repeater shares this antenna with the UHF repeater. The main VHF repeater receiver is duplexed to share this same antenna. The receive signal passes through two BpBr cavities and a DCI 2-meter 4-section filter. The resultant audio is routed to the LDG RVS-8 receiver voter.

There are four additional remote receivers, in addition to the local repeater receiver at the site itself, supporting the "Megler" 147.180 repeater. These fill coverage in areas from which it would otherwise be difficult for users to access the repeater. The audio from each of these is routed to a "receiver voter", which continuously evaluates each of the five channels for signal-to-noise-ratio. The best of the lot is "voted" and sent to the transmitter. Follow this link for more information on the remote receivers that support the Megler VHF repeater, and the network.

Each of the four remote receiver packages consists of a VHF GE Rangr mobile radio (modified to work in the Amateur 2-meter band), a UHF GE Rangr mobile radio (modified to work in the 430-MHz band), a DTMF decoder, a Communications Specialists ID-8 Morse code identifier, and in two cases, a high-gain ARR VHF preamp and VHF/UHF diplexer. These two stations (Warrenton and Cape D) are in "cosmetically sensitive" areas where a single antenna is called for. They use Hustler G6-270 dual-band antennas. The third receiver package (Naselle) shares the Comet x510 main repeater antenna for VHF receive and uses a Cushcraft 6-element yagi for the UHF link. The fourth package (Seaside) uses a Hustler G6-144B 6 dBd gain 2-meter vertical for VHF receive and a Diamond 10-element, 13 dBi yagi for the UHF link to Megler. The four remote receiver channels are picked up at the Megler repeater site on a Hustler UHF vertical, split four ways with a home-brew constant-impedance divider, and routed to four GE Rangr UHF mobile radios (also modified to work at 430-MHz) used as link receivers. The recovered audio signals are routed to the LDG receiver voter along with the main repeater receiver and the best of the five signals is fed to the transmitter through a GE Audio Card.

The
BeachNet system link is supported by a GE Rangr UHF transceiver hung off the back of the repeater transmitter to conserve space, running 5-watts through a DCI Filter and 60-feet of LMR-400 coax to a 6-element, 10dB Cushcraft Yagi mounted low on the tower between two microwave dishes. The controller is a CAT-200B from Computer Automated Technology.

 

 

 

 




 

145.170 |  145.310 |  145.390 |  147.020 |  147.180 |  147.340 |  224.040 |  224.820 |  440.675 |  441.675 |  442.675 |  444.050 |  444.200 |  444.300 |  444.400 |  444.500 |  444.700 |  444.800 |  444.925 |  444.950
 

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This Page Last Updated: 11/25/18.