As the first repeater that the club put on the air, this machine
is
the anchor of the W4BS Repeater System. This repeater is well
known
for it's great coverage pattern in the tri-state area. It resides
at approximatley the 500ft. level of the new 1200ft. WPTY TV tower,
compliments
of WPTY and Clear Channel
Television,
Inc., and is located in Brunswick, TN in the northeastern part of
Shelby
County, TN. This is a new location for the ".82" machine.
The
move to this site occured in July 1999. Antenna and heliax were
upgraded
at the time of the move and the location on the tower was changed to
West
as opposed to South side on the old site. This has greatly
increased
the range of the repeater to the North and West. The repeater has
recently been upgraded to a Motorola Micor unit and still features an
ACC-850
Repeater Controller. The Micor is fed thru commercial grade
duplexers
and 1-5/8" hardline to a Sinclair SA-224 Antenna. The ACC-850
controller,
although no longer available, was THE state of the art controller at
the
time it was first put on the air for the club and has served us
faithfully
for many years. It offers a closed autopatch, emergency speed
dial,
personal speed dial, mailboxes and an audio test funtion thanks to a
digital
voice recorder integrated into the controller (out of service at this
time
until new DVR is installed), plus several other funtions available to
members
of the club. The coverage and reliability of this repeater is the
primary reason that, in 1994, the National
Weather Service - Memphis office asked the club's permission to use
the 146.82 repeater as the primary repeater for their newly organized Skywarn
Program. The Memphis NWS office is responsible for watches
and
warnings for 56 counties in four states, and we are proud that they
chose
our repeater as the one they felt was best capable of reaching most of
the coverage area. Note: This repeater requires a 107.2 PL
tone. Click the frequency link at the beginning of this paragraph
to see pictures from the site.
147.360+ (107.2 PL)
This repeater was put on the air about seven years ago in an
effort
to take some of the normal chit-chat traffic off the popular 146.82
machine.
It is a "no frills" repeater located atop Methodist Hospital
North.
There was an enormous amount of paging intermod at the original
location
but the Methodist North location seems to be relatively free from that
type of interferance. The 147.36 repeater may, at some time in
the
future, be linked to the 224.42 machine which is also located at the
hospital.
The "36" repeater uses a Spectrum transmitter and receiver. Check
back here for updates on location changes. This repeater requires
a 107.2 PL tone.
224.420-
Through the generosity of Methodist Hospital North, the 224.42
W4BS
repeater has a new home. Methodist North is located at one of the
highest
geographical locations in Shelby County. While the building
itself
is not that tall, we feel that the location, due to it's ground
elevation,
will afford great coverage for this repeater. The 220 machine is
one of only a few available on this band in the Mid-South area.
Although
there aren't as many amateurs in the area that use the 1.25 meter band
anymore, the club feels that it's important to keep the repeater in
service
to help preserve and maintain this portion of the amateur spectrum.
443.200+ (107.2 PL)
This is our other multi-function repeater and is
centrally located in
Memphis in the area around the University of Memphis main campus.
It originally had an ACC-85 controller, the forerunner of the 850,
until
a lightning strike made it unrepairable a few years ago. It is
now
running a CAT 1000 controller that, coupled with a Motarola MSR2000
repeater,
and Phelps Dodge Station Master Antenna, provides club members with
another
autopatch, audio test feature, emergency and personal speed
dials.
Note: This repeater requires a 107.2 PL tone.
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