Harrison UHF Amateur Radio Association
Harrison UHF Amateur Radio Association
Founded back in 1985, our goal was to provide a quality UHF repeater system for the Harrison Amateur Radio Club members to use. The original self assembled Hamtronics repeater was placed on Building 1 (US Finance & Accounting Center) on Fort Harrison. Obviously, the RF package has been upgraded over the many years of operation to its current configuration. It was later moved to the Lawrence Fire Tower at 45th & McCoy St in Lawrence with voting receivers at St. Francis, St. Vincent, and Methodist Hospitals. Unfortunately, we were advised by City of Lawrence officials our site would be demolished in Spring of 2020.
New SIte Located
When word got out that we that we were losing our site, I was contacted by the W9ICE Group. At this time, they had decided to pull nearly all of their 14 repeaters off the air. Their group was aging, and after 40 years of providing the best systems in town, they just wanted to enjoy their lives without the responsibility of maintaining & cost of these machines.
Originally we were offered the 442.65/R site to relocate the 443.25/R. After much discussion with all parties involved & the IRC President, it was decided to keep 442.65 in place. The 443.25/R would be moved to a new site on the far Eastside of Indy.
Plan executed
Once the agreements had been reached, a plan was formulated to build two completely new repeater RF packages centered around the Kenwood NextEdge NXR-810K2 & Arcom RC-210 repeater controlIn November, the old 443.25/R was realigned on 442.65 and it replaced the old 442.65/R RF package temporarily while equipment was purchased & the new repeater was designed & built.
Over the next month & a half, the twin systems were designed & built in a rack mount system. A pullout keyboard tray was used to mount all the control circuitry so as to allow test points for every signal in the system. In early to mid December, the new 443.25/R & 442.65/R were completed and placed on the air with spectacular results. Total cost of the two new packages amounted to about $11-12,000.
The Build Process
442.65 & 443.25 Repeaters Linked on May 10, 2020 to Improve Coverage
On Sunday, May 10, 2020, the two systems were linked together. Several factors came into play in making this decision.
1. Lack of activity on 443.25
2. Potential to greatly improve & increase the handheld/mobile coverage of the systems.
3. Minimal cost to link, as all hardware was in place to link the two systems together.