Club Repeaters
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Bowling Green, Ohio |
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K8TIH/R
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K8TIH/R
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K8TIH/R
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K8TIH
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Repeaters
The Wood County Amateur Radio Club maintains open repeaters that use the club's call sign - K8TIH. All of our repeaters are open to all properly licensed Amateur Radio operators. We ask those who make use of our repeaters to consider supporting the club by becoming a member.
Our repeaters & APRS IGate are located at Offenhauer West on the campus of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio about 20 miles south of Toledo, Ohio. Antennas are located about 150 feet above ground level. Huge thanks to BGSU and BGSU ITS for providing the space and Internet access.
The repeaters can be found in the Repeaterbook repeater directory: K8TIH listing. Our nets can be found on Meeting & Events.
147.180 & 444.475 Repeaters
With approximately 50 watts transmitter output per band, these repeaters are linked together full-time. A PL of 67.0 Hz is required to access the repeater and is broadcast by the repeater for Tone Squelch operation.
Battery backup provides several hours of emergency power for the system. When there is a power failure: 444.475 will be disabled, only 147.180 will transmit. There will be a voice announcement saying "AC Power Failure - On Battery Backup Power." Please limit your transmissions during this time to allow emergency traffic to pass and to conserve battery power.
2 Meters
The 2-meter repeater operates on an output frequency of 147.180 MHz with an input frequency of 147.780 MHz (+600 KHz).
440 (70 Centimeters)
The 440 (70 cm) repeater operates on an output frequency of 444.475 MHz with an input frequency of 449.475 MHz (+5 MHz).
No PL?
If you have a radio that cannot transmit PL, you can still use the system. Key your radio, using your DTMF keypad slowly press "1 - 2 - 3," and unkey. The repeater will respond with "OK UP." Then ID with your call sign.
Deactivate by entering the same sequence and the repeater will respond with "OK DOWN."
442.125 Repeater
Obtaining this repeater and putting on the air serves as a memorial to Club member Brett Luna-KC8UMN (SK), who bequeathed his personally owned 70 cm repeater on this frequency pair to WCARC. Unfortunately, it was not possible to put Brett's original equipment on the air with any reasonable footprint. When the opportunity to obtain a new digital repeater arose, it was only natural for the Club to use Brett's old frequency pair and to dedicate it to his memory.
The repeater is on Brett's original frequency of 442.125+ MHz with an input frequency of 447.125 MHz (+5 MHz).
This repeater is a Yaesu System Fusion digital repeater operating in C4FM mode only. A C4FM capable radio is required to operate this digital repeater. No digital squelch or digital code options are required, DG-ID is 00.
C4FM is capable of using the full 12.5 kHz bandwidth for:
- Voice/Data simultaneous communication mode (audio communications with error correction).
- Voice Full Rate Mode (high quality voice communications).
- High Speed Data Communication Mode (transmissions of images and data).
For more information about System Fusion technology, FAQ, forums, customer support, and available radio products, head over to the Yaesu System Fusion website.
Wires-X Linking
"WIRES (Wide-coverage Internet Repeater Enhancement System) is an Internet communication system which expands the range of amateur radio communication. For WIRES-X, an amateur node station connecting to the Internet is used as the access point and connects the wireless communication to the Internet. Users' stations can communicate with other amateur stations all over the world using a node within the radio wave range."
Our Fusion repeater has the Wires-X system installed. A Fusion Digital radio is required to access these features.
Wires-X node lists:
- Node Lists: "ID List" is a list of all Wires-X nodes and rooms, regardless of online or offline status. "Active ID List" displays online nodes and rooms.
Wires-X Linking Etiquette
Remote connections into our repeater:
Remote stations must use "K8TIH-ROOM" / DTMF ID: 40960 to access the Fusion repeater. Local users, repeater must be linked to K8TIH-ROOM.
Local repeater users:
Local uses must have a Fusion Digital radio. Call sign must be programmed into the radio (usually at initial setup) and DG-ID set to 00. Lists of Wires-X nodes can be found at the links above. Follow the Instruction Manual (WIRES-X Edition) provided with the radio.
If the Wires-X instruction manual is not available, the latest PDF can be found on Yaesu's product page. Go to Yaesu Digital Products or Yaesu Digital Products Archive (older models), scroll and click the radio model, click the "Files" tab, download the "Instruction Manual (WIRES-X Edition)".
General steps:
- Tune to the 442.125+ Fusion repeater
- When the repeater is not being used, press the Wires-X "X" button on the radio
- The radio will transmit and establish connection to the repeater. If in range of the repeater, the node name and city appear.
- Disconnect from the node or room (if desired)
- Link to desired remote node
- Listen before transmitting - at least 30 seconds
- When finished, disconnect from the node or room
- Then, return the Fusion repeater to K8TIH-ROOM / 40960 when done
APRS
The club's APRS IGate operates on the standard APRS frequency of 144.390 MHz. Stations near, stations heard, stations that heard K8TIH are available on the station information page. The computer is interfaced with Kantronics KPC-9612 TNC.
APRS is a system which uses Amateur Radio to transmit position reports, weather reports, and messages between users. The VHF propagation map is a real-time map compiled from APRS data.
WCARES & WCARC Live Audio Stream
Live stream was shutdown September 1, 2017.
Equipment Pictures
These pictures are somewhat dated as the repeater is single-site as of 5/2019.
Repeater Directories
Repeater directories and locators for finding repeaters are in our links section.