Minot Peak
Grays Harbor County, WA
46.891874, -123.416634
1800 Feet
Call: W7EOC
444.050 +5MHz 118.8Hz
Minot UHF Repeater
Minot VHF Packet
|
Location: Minot Peak is south of Elma, WA,
southeast of the towers at Satsop,
and west of Centralia, WA.
Coverage: Minot covers most of southern Grays Harbor
County. It is accessible from the EOC in Montesano,
as well as most of Aberdeen, Hoquiam and the other major towns. This repeater provides
coverage on Highways 8 and 12 from Aberdeen on the west to McCleary on the north,
and most of the Centralia/Chehalis area.
The coverage to the north is more spotty than the site plot would indicate,
and local obstacles can influence the quality of coverage greatly, particularly
in wooded or hilly areas.
Normally linked to the rest of the
BeachNet
system, this repeater solidifies coverage for those passing through,
between the coastal areas and Puget Sound.
Minot provides back country coverage in mountainous southeastern
Grays Harbor,
northeastern Pacific, and northwestern Lewis Counties.
During an emergency, this
repeater will probably be disconnected
from the network, and linked to the
Cosmopolis (145.390),
Neilton (444.700), and
Ocean
Shores (444.200) repeaters, to allow
communications within Grays Harbor County. This arrangement
allows all these repeaters to be simultaneously monitored on a single
radio from the Grays Harbor EOC in Montesano.
Hardware: The
repeater
consists of a
GE
Mastr-II 110-watt continuous duty
base station (running 60-watts)
using a CAT-200B controller in a
30-inch GE cabinet with a
Mastr-II power supply. The duplexer
is a Phelps-Dodge 6-cavity
bandpass-notch type feeding a
dual
band antenna
stood off the side of the
tower through
70 feet of LDF5-50
7/8-inch hardline. There
is a UHF GE
Mastr-II mobile used as a
link transceiver
and a VHF Mastr-II mobile
used for the packet station.
Both are mounted to the sides
of the cabinet. Each of the
three transmitters is
fitted with a dual-section
isolator and bandpass filter cavity.
The packet station and
repeater share the main antenna on the tower
through a diplexer, while the
link uses
a
pair of phased yagis
on the roof of the building.
History:
07/31/04: The Minot Repeater originally went on the air from the
Minot site, but on the 444.700 frequency.
08/07/04: Frequencies swapped between Minot and Neilton stations.
Neilton now on 444.950. This was an interference mitigation measure.
10/22/05: Replaced power supply and link radio.
04/28/06: Antennas relocated for improved performance.
05/27/06: Link antenna upgrade.
08/27/06: Link repairs and replace packet station.
09/29/06: Packet Node repair.
04/07/07: Frequency swap between Minot (to 444.050) and Capitol Peak (to 444.950).
08/07/08: Rehab link receiver.
11/17/08: Replaced Phoenix link radio with Mastr-II mobile.
11/26/08: Replaced IF board in Mastr-II mobile link radio.
04/20/09: Installed VHF Circulator on Link transceiver.
04/24/09: Installed dual-section isolator and DCI filter on repeater transmitter.
05/12/09: Doyle attended DNR Inspection of the Minot site. Station passed quickly with only positive comments.
05/28/09: Doyle installed a low-pass filter on the Minot repeater.
05/20/10 surveyed site for feedline replacement (hardline to replace coax).
09/14/10: Replaced 1/2-inch coax with 7/8-inch hardline in mounting cushions and grounding. Added poly-phaser arrester.
06/17/14: Replaced transmitter power amplifier.
10/12/15: Rat had made nest in repeater cabinet, chewing through power supply wires. A little splicing brought the repeater back on the air, thanks to Doyle.
12/18/15: Found some other wires that had been chewed, affecting the audio. Easily repaired.
06/19-21/16: Moved entire station from PUD building to County building.
11/28/16: Doyle investigate repeater off-air, found a tripped breaker and power level too high on transmitter. Reset power level and breaker.
06/15/17: Isolator failure, unit replaced.
05/19/19: Power Amplifier replaced after failure
Packet Radio: The
"MINOT" packet radio node is co-located
with the UHF repeater and shares the antenna.
This is part of the 145.630 MHz
1200-Baud Washington District Three
EOC Packet Network. The packet station is
accessible from most of southern Grays
Harbor County as well as the northern portion
of Pacific County, and also provides
coverage into the Centralia area.
|
