The local repeaters are tied together thru a "hub" located about half
way between Placerville and Tahoe at 4600'.
After doing some frequency and Part-15 tests, I have determined that the Part-15 trash is EVERYWHERE! Even in the most rural locations! Because of this, mostPl's all of the repeaters on the system will be running 902.0125 for an input frequency. The Pl's will all be different. Some, will have "dual inputs" meaning you can use the 902.0125 or the standard 25 MHz offset input. ALL repeaters will have TX PL.
Because of the links and the scanning receivers at some sites, please wait a minimum of 1 second after keying the mic to allow time for all the links to come up.
SACRAMENTO (EDH)
Hazy view from site
The Sacramento machine is located just East of the Sacramento/El Dorado county line at 1400'. The repeater runs about 30W to the antenna, a Scala OGB9-900 9dbd 900 MHz omni antenna. It is built from a Motorola Maxtrac receiver and a Motorola GTX transmitter running 1.3W into a surplus cellular amp with 50W output, thru a surplus cellular duplexer and BPF. Also running an N6CA (Angle Linear) 13db preamp resulting in a 0.17uV sensitivity at the antenna port! Mobile coverage is I-80 West to Benecia, I-5 South to Modesto, I-5 North to Corning and US-50 East to Pollock Pines. I-80 coverage East of Auburn is spotty.
BAY AREA (Oakland)
The Bay Area machine is located above the Caldecott Tunnel at about 1700'. Power is standard about 30W to a 8.5dbd 3deg downtilt antenna to keep the signal out of the valley. It has excellent coverage of the entire Bay area and Concord, Walnut Creek and surrounding areas. There is significant interference on the 902.65 input, so if your radio is capable of non-standard splits, we suggest you use the 902.0125 input. Both are 131.8 pl.
FRESNO
Google Earth view from site
The Fresno machine is located at about 2000' on the West side of the valley South of the San Luis reservoir, West of Fresno. Configuration is standard at about 30W to a 9dbd antenna and should cover hwy 99 from just south of Stockton to around Tipton. Hwy 5 from around Patterson to Kettleman City. The repeater is up and running and linked in!
TAHOE
Google Earth view from site
The Tahoe machine is at 8700' at Echo Summit and overlooks the entire Tahoe Basin. It even get's into parts of Carson City also! HWY 50 coverage is fair from Kyburz into Meyers and all around the lake.
* The receiver is only operating on the .0125 input due to an extended power outage. Will not have access to fix until late June/July.
CORNING
View from site
The Corning machine is located at about 4000'el West of Corning. Configuration is about 15W into a 9dbd antenna and covers from about Arbuckle north to Shasta! There is a reduced coverage area between the north end of Red Bluff and Anderson. This is a SOLAR powered site, that's why the low output power. In the near future, we may raise the antenna and power to get better coverage North of Red Bluff.
** SUNOL (Mt. Allison)....NEW! **
The Sunol site is located at 2650' on Mt. Allison just East of Milpitas. Thanks to all that helped getting this location! The Sunol machine will cover the Livermore/ Pleasanton area and the 680 corridor from just south of Danville to Fremont and the South Bay area into San Jose and south possibly as far as Gilroy! Pictures coming soon! *NOTE: As of 1/10/10, the 25MHz input is NOT operational. Only the 902.0125 input is working. This will be fixed later down the road.
** NEW....Mt. Vaca **
Thanks to Tim, KI6SSF, who has dedicated some time and equipment, there is now a machine on Mt. Vaca! The machine is located on the Eastern slope of the hill so there is no coverage West of the hill. It does improve the coverage in the Vacaville area and up the 505 corridor. It is on 927.3375 with the standard "dual" inputs of 902.3375 and 902.0125. PL of 162.2.
**RENO/CARSON!....Coming Later This Year!**
There will be a site installed on Slide Mountain late next year (after the snow melts)! This will cover a LARGE portion of Reno, Washoe, Carson City and points East! It will share Sacramento's frequency pair but with a PL of 88.5. This site is BRUTAL on antennas, so there will be some custom antennas built and used here. It is at 9700' so you can imagine!! Pictures coming soon!
Bishop.....coming this summer!!??
Plans are underway for a 900 repeater in Bishop, Ca!
If all goes well, it will be located in the Bishop Amateur Radio Club's building on Silver Peak at 10,800'. Coverage should be along US 395 from around Lone Pine north to Conway summit North of Mono Lake and into Mammoth and Crowley Lake! It should cover to various locations into parts of NW Nevada such as spots along US 95 near Goldfield. The repeater will be linked into the rest of the NC9RS system via Echolink as the RF path is just too far and would create much more maintenance! Freq and PL will be the same as Sacramento.
Ridgecrest...coming this summer??
This will be a low level machine covering the town of Ridgecrest, Ca and a short section of US395, HWY 178 and HWY 14 in the Indian Wells Valley. If a better mountaintop site in the area can be found, it may be moved up for better coverage later. Freq and PL will be the same as Reno.
Stockton and Visalia!
We are currently trying to secure sites for a repeater in Visalia to cover the entire southern San Joaquin Valley to the "Grapevine" and a repeater in downtown Stockton to fill in a gap between the Sacramento and Fresno repeaters.
The Link HUB
The first link hub is located at about 4600'el West of Kyburz along HWY 50 and is nothing more than a point to tie the first five repeaters together. Site is up and running and ready for the other repeaters to be linked in! Later, this may also include another 900 rptr to cover the gaps between Sacramento and Tahoe.
We are looking for a site on the West side of the valley, South of Mt Oso for a second link HUB so we can link into the South end of the valley. Still looking!
