Sangamon Valley Radio Club Repeaters
I recently became interested in repeaters and working on them and am now part of the unofficial repeater committee for the club. I put this page together as a detailed description of the club's repeaters.
The club currently owns/operates 7 repeaters: 4 analog only repeaters, 1 C4FM/Analog repeater, 1 DMR repeater and 1 D-Star repeater.
The "443" repeater
The "443" repeater is a Yaesu DR-1X running in Auto/Auto mode. The repeater frequency is 443MHz with a +5 MHz offset and a tone squelch of 94.8Hz on the analog side. The repeater is internet linked for System Fusion. The antenna is a DB-420 and sits atop Memorial Hospital at roughly 155 feet, giving the repeater roughly a 30 mile mobile coverage. The repeater puts out 20 watts and has a receive pre-amp on the receive side. The repeater was moved here from St. Johns in November of 2020 to fix an intermod problem with a public service repeater. The biggest loss of coverage is to the south.
Coverage of repeaters at St. Johns, roughly the same for repeaters at Memorial Hospital
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D-Star repeater
The club's D-Star repeater has a DB-420 for an antenna at the same height giving it a 30 mile mobile coverage. The repeater frequency is 443.78125 MHz with a +5 MHz offset. The repeater is internet linked and is always connected to REF051D. Users can relink to a different reflector if they choose but after a period of inactivity, the repeater will automatically relink to REF051D. DPLUS Dashboard
DMR Repeater
* As of April 7, 2020, the repeater is still offline to the masses, more below *
The club operates a Motorola XPR8300 DMR repeater on 443.70625 MHz with a +5MHz offset and a color code of 5. The repeater is located at St. Johns and is equipped with a DB-420. The repeater is internet linked to the Brandmeister network. There is a code plug for TYT dual-band DMR radios available as a template for people to import into their radios.
In June of 2019, the repeater mysteriously went off the air. We were having issues with it for some time before where it would lock up and not respond and someone would have to power cycle the repeater to come back up. This would usually fix it for several months but just before it went offline, it was having these issues more frequently. After it died, the repeater was dragged to the Red Cross where we all scratched our heads about the problem. When we turned the repeater on, there were no front panel lights, only the fan would turn on. We replaced both control boards and that at least got us the green power light to come on. All the signs then pointed to the transmit radio having gone bad as when we switched the receive and transmit radios around, we were able to get the disabled light to blink. We attempted to source a new transmit radio but that went nowhere so we eventually purchased a used Motorola XPR8300 repeater in early 2020. The original repeater was a Motorola DR3000. We were in the process of getting internet to the repeater at Memorial but that project halted when the repeater died. Right now, the new repeater is on the air at one of the club members house so it is on the air but this person lives in a valley so only 1 or 2 people can actually hit it. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, poking the hospital's IT department to get us internet is not a high priority for them so until then, the repeater will be offline for the masses.
Up until early October of 2019, the club only owned/operated 3 repeaters. Little did we know, by the end of October, the club would aqcuire 4 more repeaters.
The "045" repeater
In early October 2019, the club purchased the former WS9V repeater in Athens, IL from Macoupin County club. Skip, WS9V owned and operated this repeater and another in Gillespie, IL but wanted to get out of the repeaters and sold both to the Macoupin County club. However, the Macoupin club had no desire to drive well over an hour to work on the Athens repeater if it had an issue but the 2 repeaters were sold together. SVRC decided to help them out and purchase the Athens repeater from them and we gained a 2M repeater in the process.
The "045" repeater is located on a commercial FM tower just north of Athens, IL. The repeater frequency is 147.045 MHz with a +0.6MHz offset and a 103.5Hz tone and the antenna, a DB-224E, is located roughyly 240 feet up the tower. The repeater puts out 12 watts. This repeater is linked to the Central Illinois Linked Repeater system and uses a DB-420 to link back to the main repeater in Gillespie. The link radio is an Icom IC-F221S while the repeater itself uses 2 Icom IC-F121S radios and a CAT400 controller. * At the moment, the link is having quality issues, it's suspected the link antenna is bad. No idea if/when we are going to work on it. *
The tower itself is 330 feet tall with our 70CM antenna being at roughly 250 feet and the 2M antenna right below it.
This repeater will get you as far north as McLean, IL while mobile north on I-55.
The Tallula Repeaters
In late October of 2019, the Sangamon Valley Radio Club took over operations of 3 repeaters from Bob McNeal, K9KGO(SK). Bob operated the repeaters in the Tallula area.
Bob operated 3 analog repeaters: one 220MHz repeater and two 440MHz repeaters.
* 224.480 MHz: -1.6MHz offset and a tone of 94.8Hz. There is a problem with either an antenna or the transmitter as it only covers a 1/4 mile radius. Jared (KD9KOO) aka me can hit it from his house on Springfield's west side while holding the HT at a certain angle and only late at night. If you are in the market for a handheld with 220MHz, the Baofeng UV-5RX3 fits the bill.
* 442.675 MHz: + 5MHz offset and a tone of 151.4Hz.
* 444.900 MHz: + 5MHz offset and a tone of 151.4Hz. This repeater is used for public service events in the area as well as storm spotting operations for the area. There is also an Echolink node on this repeater.
The antennas are on a tower that's roughly 90-120 feet high. The club got the repeaters ID changed over in November of 2019 and we were going to work on the repeaters in the spring but Covid-19 stopped those plans.
