OKLAHOMA REPEATER COORDINATION RECENT NEWS Revised 7/29/14

We just received an update from K5NOV that the KF5RDI 146.865 in Perry NE district, is now an Echo Link node, the repeater is accessed using a 141.3 PL tone and is open to all.

In the SE district coming soon to Stigler, a repeater on 145.25 PL 141.3 and 442.650 also 141.3 PL.

In Central Oklahoma it is now confirmed that N5KUK 444.75 repeater is now dead, and has been reborn as W5TC 444.75 D-Star operated by the OUARC, W5JA is the trustee.

Tulsa now has a 920 MHz repeater on the air from Cityplex towers, it transmits on 927.7, receives on 902.7 and is running around 60 watts out of the duplexer from a HAAT of 550 ft. you will need a DCS code of 074 to wake it up. It has little or no squelch tale so if you give it a kerchunk you might not hear anything come back to you. It operates under the call sign of Rick WD5ETD, who provided the repeater. While it is a TRO Club machine, the official trustee for TRO Merlin WB5OSM has no equipment that will monitor that frequency so it was decided to have Rick server as the primary control operator of that machine. The machine is open for the use of all radio amateurs when operating in the Tulsa area, if you have equipment for the 900 MHz band. This is a standard FM repeater.

The Tulsa District has a new 222 repeater on the air in the area, AE5RH/R is on the air from a tower on Keetonville hill between Claremore and Owasso. It is operating on 222.94 with a standard + 1.6 offset. No Pl tone of record so it runs carrier squelch and is open to all to use.

More happening in Tulsa; after being down for several years, we were able to re-obtain access to a 10 story building on a ridge-line in Midtown Tulsa. Plus a member donated a like new Kenwood 70 cm repeater so the TRO's 444.1 repeater lives again. While it only puts about 15 watts out of the duplexer, the site owners had left our DB-420 antenna in place all this time and it still tested out very good. So the coverage is better than expected an added benefit is that Kenwood's reputation for excellent audio quality on SSB below 30 MHz extends also to the world running FM above 50 MHz. The machine sounds great. This replaced an ancient GE Mastr II that we had been trying to get back up an running for about 3-4 years. We had put a new controller on the Mastr II and the transmitter would still hang up for reasons we still don't fully understand. Bob W5RAB said it is a common problem with those radios. The machine requires an 88.5 PL tone to wake up, but all are welcome to use it. Future plans call for linking it with the 444.725 in Skiatook and then moving the 444.95 machine to site in southern Tulsa county or northern Okmulgee county, adding it to the mix and form a metro area UHF link. While we were there we found an abandoned low band remote base, looked like a 1/4 kilowatt transmitter that could easily be returned to the six meter band. So we are working on getting this donated to the club(s) and possibly get a six meter machine going in Tulsa again after many years. Probably as a joint venture between Tulsa Repeater Organization and Tulsa Amateur Radio Club.

The Tulsa Repeater Organization (TRO) finally has WA5LVT 146.940 in Tulsa back on the air from a new site. The building management for a 14 story office building in downtown Tulsa graciously donated some space and allowed us to put the 146.94 machine there. Also it's newer equipment a Motorola MSR-2000 running into a Hustler G7 antenna. You will need an 88.5 tone to key the repeater, but everybody is welcome to use it.

A new Newtronics/Hustler G7 antenna was installed for 146.88 and a separate dual band omni-directional antenna was place at the site for receive only both for 146.280 and the two UHF link frequencies used to connect it with its two remote receivers. Several 100' plus lengths of LMR-600 feed-line were donated to the TRO by a telecom provider that shares the site with us. They had merged with a major cell phone company and would no longer be needing their antennas or feed-lines on the building. Eventually two of the LMR-600 runs will be used with 146.88 replacing a run of 1/2" heliax that is supplemented by some aging 9913 Coax because the hard-line run was not long enough to reach the antennas. Then the heliax will which is still quite viable will be re-purposed for a 900 MHz amateur repeater going in at the site. Subsequently the new transmit antenna was damaged by a storm. It's still working, but the SWR is rather high. It is not throwing spurious radiation anymore probably because even though the antenna is damaged, Bob W5RAB donated an isolator that keeps any RF from coming back down the tube and mixing in the transmitters PA.

The TRO's WA5LVT 146.88 repeater is down temporarily. It's been observed to be emitting spurious signals in the Tulsa area. A check up a the transmitter site revealed problems with a hard-line connector just out of the duplexer. Also it was discovered that they were operating into a high VSWR indicating possible additional antenna or feed-line problems. Because of UHF television transmitter located at the site, Tulsa's 60 story Cityplex Tower, special arrangements must be made to access the roof of the building. TRO's engineering committee has ordered a replacement connector and will be working with the building management to inspect the feed-line and antenna soon.

The KX5RW 444.0 machine in Mid-West City has been acquired by the new Mid-Dell City ARC. It is now on the air from a new site near the Mid-West City water treatment plant. It is now operating under their club-call W5MWC the PL Tone was changed to 151.4 Hz. This is a standard analog FM repeater. The new trustee is Tim W5TAH.

A CDMA/DMR repeater AE5DN/D on 444.325 is coming soon to Grady County near Tuttle. I believe CDMA/DMR is generic for the Moto-TRBO mode that the FCC recently approved for use in the amateur bands, at least for now. The trustee Mark AE5DN says he will establish more of these machines in the OKC area.

Pending approval from the Arkansas coordinator a Moto-TRBO (digital audio & data) repeater will be coming to the Muskogee area. WA5VMS/D will more than likely operate on 442.125 MHz from a tower near Lake Ft. Gibson. A P25 mode machine is also coming to the same tower.

TARC encountered a problem with their new 147.18 machine in east Tulsa. Their is an FM Broadcast Translator station owned by the Educational Media Foundation of Rockland Cs. Operating from the same tower along with much other stuff. The tower is owned by a division of AT&T. The translator receives a signal from the parent transmitter near Bartlesville on 89.1 MHz and re-transmits it on 98.9 MHz to improve their coverage of SE Tulsa and Broken Arrow. For reasons that are not clearly understood their is mutual harmful interference between 147.18 and the translator station. TARC requested that I provide them with a list of available pairs at the tower site and they would test them and see if any avoided the interference problem. When we moved them down to the bottom of the band the problem went away. However our first attempt down in the 145 segment landed on a pair used by a repeater a little ways over the Arkansas border. The Arkansas coordinator asked us politely to not use that pair. So it looks like they will be going on 145.17. We are still waiting for the official word from Bob in Ar., Ks and Mo are both on board. Tests by TARC so far have found no problems from anybody, anything, anywhere on 145.17. So the plan is now for them to relinquish the 147.18 pair and move to 145.17.

Peter KF5RD the former trustee of the American Airlines ARC has acquired the 147.345 machine from the AAARC and is returning it to the airwaves from a site in east Tulsa near his QTH.

Tulsa Repeater Organization's new voter receiver site on Keetonville hill a few miles west of Claremore is now fully operational. A PL tone of 88.5 is needed to access it.

Tulsa Amateur Radio Club's 145.11 )PL 88.5) repeater is back on the air from it's new west Tulsa site as of December 2012.

Welcome the following repeaters to the air-waves: K5FVL 444.475 Stillwater is now on the air, but not yet linked to Oklahoma City.

Ken WB5Y has assumed responsibility as trustee, caretaker, and control operator of three repeaters in the NE and Tulsa Districts. These are 147.06 and 444.675 at Pryor (Mayes County) and the 442.075 near Claremore (Rogers County). The current trustees Larry KB5ZB, and Mark KB5TVA said that health issues are making it more difficult for them to take care of the equipment and they asked Ken WB5Y to take over for them. There is a 444.8 machine coordinated to Mark KB5TVA, but it is not believed to be on the air anymore, and will most likely be de-coordinated.

The KF5IUL repeater 443.025 @ Clarita, Coal County SE District is now fully operational from its permanent site.

Progress is being made on K5NOV/R 146.865 to be located in Perry OK. We understand that all equipment has been ordered and a building to house it is being built. They are also waiting upon a professional tower climber to install antennas and feed-line.

Dan K5FVL has applied to construct a repeater in north Stillwater on 444.475 MHz with a link to the 442.575 machine in OKC. It will be located on the same tower as his 444.525 repeater which is part of the TARC Supersystem, linking much of the eastern part of the state and portions of Western Arkansas together. 444.475 is a good pair here in Oklahoma, but we are awaiting clearance from surrounding states, especially Kansas. Clearance from the three adjacent states was received and the construction permit for this machine was issued.

A new D-Star machine is coming to West Central Oklahoma. A construction permit is issued to Marv KC9VF to establish a D-Star repeater on 146.685 operating from the Elk City area. He is also planning to add a 70 CM D-star machine at the same location. We are awaiting approval from Texas before issuing a construction permit for the UHF machine.

A construction permit was just issued to Roy KD5OMB to put a standard FM voice repeater on 448.4/443.4 (TX) on the air from Atoka. It will be linked into the TARC Supersystem.

Don KE9XB is now the trustee for the Bartlesville Amateur Radio Club machines. Replacing Ann WB5SZQ who is retiring after many years of dedicated service to the Bartlesville Club and the Washington County ARES program.

W5ALZ/R 444.9 Alva NW District is now operational, and linked to 147.180 PL 103.5 full time for Skywarn Operations.
Log in to statelineskywarn.org for more information.

KD5YUL/R formerly K5GDE/R (K5GDE now SK)is now on the air from a new location north of Calumet,about 170 ft HAAT it should provide solid coverage for Canadian County. By the way this is a green machine, powered by batteries charged by solar cells. No tone required.

KD5OK/R pl 141.3 145.29 is now on the air from Tecumseh (SE District) greater Shawnee area.
AF5Q/R pl 123 442.175 is now fully operational in Lawton (SW District).

KI5KC/R PL 114.8 444.925 coming soon to Antlers in Pushmataha county in the SE District at 33 ft HAAT it will provide local coverage to the Pushmataha county area.

NM5I/D 443.025 D-STAR is now on the air from Tulsa. It is Tulsa's first D-Star machine. It is not connected to the gateway yet, but the control-op hopes to have it connected within the month.

NZ5W/R 223.4 MHz PL 123 Hz is now on the air from OKC. With an HAAT about 64 ft this will be a local coverage machine.