Other Repeaters of Historical Insignificance

 

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While every repeater owner would like to think that their repeater was the most important piece of electronic equipment on the planet, reality would place their repeater at the other end of the spectrum of significance.

This page is a small collection of fine repeaters that the author (KF8KK) has happened upon and taken photos of. These are presented here for the amusement and curiosity of those who ponder what a representative  'ham repeater' looks like.

This repeater  is from the Buckeye state and circa 1993 (+/-).  It is still in use today and blankets the area with UHF energy like you wouldn't believe.

From this view I can see a Cellwave compact base station duplexer on the right side of the rack beneath two Motorola bandpass cavity filters.

Somewhere in there is a GasFET preamp, it's just to the left of the bandpass filters-- in amongst the double shielded coax cabling.

 
The front view of the "Classic Machine" shows at the top the Motorola Motrac M series base station UHF receiver.

Below the receiver is some custom control panels and then the S-Com 7K 'super whiz bang' repeater controller.  This is the one that has enough bells and whistles to make a high school marching band blush with envy.

Below the controllers is a shelf which houses the Mirage 100w UHF Power amp that gives this repeater plenty of oooooomph!

To the right of the power amp is a Kenwood TR8300 UHF transceiver which is a crystal controlled unit and is the repeater transmitter.  This has been tuned back to 5 watts to drive the Mirage amp to 60w output (cut back from 100 for 'continuous duty').

At the bottom of the rack is the DC power supply that make it all sing.

To the right of the rack, and normally residing in the repeater closet, is a set of coveralls that the owner uses to keep himself clean when guys like KF8KK come by and start shoveling it deep... 
Here is a view of the Motorola Motrac 'M' series base station receiver that the repeater uses.   These still are considered to be fine receivers.

 

CLICK HERE for a more recent photo collage of this notable repeater.   The photo shows the Advanced Receiver Research GasFet preamp and other aspects in greater detail.  It even shows that the owner has employed some 'feng shui' and is now orienting his repeater in its closet to face Michigan-- obviously for better performance.

 
This is a former repeater controller that is used on this repeater. I belive this one got the 'blue flame award' a few years back and was replaced with the S-Com 7K unit.  

 

I don't know the model or brand, but I can say it is loaded with neat features.... and it sure can crank out the beeps and boops!   I believe the guy who came up with this controller design was a CW fanatic!  It didn't have the modern 'bells and whistles' it had woodwinds and percussion devices.

 
This is another typical ham repeater, it even says so on a tape label at the top of the rack.

It consists of a Motorola MSR2000 series (I think) transmitter and receiver.

The controller is an ACC RC85 or RC850 which were top of the line controllers a few years back.  

Above the ACC controller is a combination packet TNC ty-wrapped to a 2mtr ham transceiver which apparently is a local packet node.

At the bottom of the rack is an old 2400 baud modem used for control purposes.

 
This is another view of the typical Motorola repeater.

In the photo below you will note the red telephone on the wall, this is a direct line to the white house for national security purposes.
This impressive stand of racks sure looks the part of what people expect a ham repeater to look like... lots of racks and plenty of meters, buttons, and lights.   What a far cry from reality. 

This is what was the Medford NY 442.000 MHz WB2VTN repeater and remote base system.
This is the rearview of those impressive blue racks.

Note how all the wires are neatly bundled and color coded.

That too is a far cry from reality.