224.280 -, PL 162.2 Hz Repeater Back On The Air!

The Nixa ARC Technical Committee went out to the 224.280 repeater site today and installed a 4-cavity Sinclair bandpass filter, which would normally cost about $1500, but it was donated to the club by Dennis Laughlin, N0OEV-SK, who recently passed away.



The filter was tuned to 222.680 MHz, and installed after the duplexers. Before the filter was installed, I could not even hook up my service monitor to the repeater's antenna (and it can handle 200 Watts!) because too much RF was being induced back into the antenna. After the filter was installed, the 72 MHz GPS transmitter was not even able to be seen on the spectrum analyzer, and the 2000-Watt ERP paging transmitter on 152.690 was just a little blip on the screen.

It does appear that the duplexers need to be "tweaked" a little bit as well, so the repeater was put back on the air without the amplifier. This will allow us to evaluate whether or not the interference is completely gone. Then, we'll add the amplifier back in and re-tune the duplexers for optimum efficiency.

So, if you have 220 gear, please try out the repeater and let us know if you hear the paging noise or the GPS data noise that was there previously. The repeater will be linked into the Thursday night Nixa ARC nets once again, marking the first time in over a year that all of the club's repeaters will be linked in and operational.

Maybe you have 220 gear, but haven't programmed it yet for the repeater. The frequency is 224.280 with a negative (-) offset. The repeater also requires a PL of 162.2 Hz, but it is open for any licensed amateur to use.



The coverage will be limited on how well you'll hear it with it only running 6.26-Watts out of the duplexers, but I think you'll be surprised! And, when we get the 200-Watt amplifier back in line, this machine will really rock n roll again.

E-mail your findings to James Adkins at [email protected] or to the Technical Committee at [email protected]

73 & enjoy the "Forgotten Band" of 220 MHz.