The .03 story

The Brainerd Amateur Area Radio Club has been talking about installing a VHF repeater in the Crosslake area for several years.  There has been increased population and more hams living in the Crosslake area, which is on the fringe of the Brainerd 147.225 MHz + repeater.

It was decided to use the old Brainerd frequency of 147.03 MHz + because it would be far enough from the St. Cloud 147.015 machine and would not cause a problem.  Although a good location for it was not yet determined, it was decided to purchase a repeater and duplexer and have it ready when a suitable location was secured.

In late 2003, a VHF repeater was purchased on eBay for a reasonable price. It was received, complete but in separate components, which needed to be assembled into a complete and working repeater.  Martin Communications Inc. of Brainerd was hired to complete the assembly and testing of the repeater.

In December of 2003, an 8 Cavity Duplexer was also purchased on eBay for a reasonable price.  Roger WØWUG, Mark WØMH and I tuned up the duplexer with Mark’s spectrum analyzer and found no problems.  We assembled and tested the complete repeater and duplexer and found them ready for installation.

Jack WØJEM, a resident of Crosslake, offered to let us install it at his home QTH.  The club purchased a Diamond X500HNA antenna and had a local crane company install the antenna on Jack’s 64 ft. tower. The repeater worked very well at this location. However, the coverage was not all that good.

Thanks to Jim WØYA, John WØJGY, Terry KIØFW, and Jim WØIRE for their political and public relations work with the city of Crosslake and Crosslake Communications Company.  We were given permission to install the repeater at Crosslake Communications and install an antenna on their 200 ft. tower.  Roger WØWUG helped us purchase 200 ft. of  new 7/8 in. hard line coax and connectors from his friend.

On February 13, 2006, was the big day.  Jim WØYA, Jim WØJDS, Roger WØWUG, Terry KIØFW, Al WØRC, and the contracted services of Dietz Brothers Tower Company, the antenna, feed line, and repeater were installed at Crosslake Communications in downtown Crosslake. The antenna is about 160 ft. above average terrain.

So far the testing and coverage of this installation seems to be very good.