October 14, 2005: The 147.030 MHz Repeater will be taken off the air on Friday, October 14, 2005 for repairs from a recent lighting strike. During this downtime, we will be replacing the antenna that was damaged at the sametime. While repairs are being made, we intend on installing a ComSpec TS-64 Tone Board as well. More information will be released on the use of Tones when the Repeater is returned back on the air. The Rockingham County Amateur Radio Club's 147.345 MHz (PL103.5) Repeater will be used to serve our Rockingham County ARES Group and Skywarn while the 147.030 MHz machine is off the air. The 443.975 MHz Repeater will remain on the air and serve as a backup for the W4BJF Repeater System.
October 10, 2005: The 443.975 MHz Repeater is now back on the air. With this being done, we have taken the 442.100MHz Repeater down after the testing was completed. There was some concern that the 443.975 Repeater had drifted a little off frequency. After several measure test we have found that both Transmitt and Receive Frequencies are right on target. It appears that the repeater may be over driven/modulated which is causing the distortion. We will be addressing this problem over the next couple of weeks. For now, all stations using the 443.975 may back off their Mic a little and this will remedy the problem.
June 1, 2005: Our newest addition, the 442.100 MHz Repeater is now on the air for testing. We have taken down the 443.975 MHz Repeater in order to test this new addition for a few days. The 442.100 MHz is identical to our 443.975 MHz machine with the exception of the NHRC-4 Controller for future Linking. We are working on a location in the North Western part of the County to place the 442.100 MHz to be a vital part of the ARES and Skywarn Network. Feel free to try this new machine out and give us your feedback. Please note that the 442.100 MHz is only on for testing at this time and may be taken down without notice.
May 29, 2005: New 147.030 MHz Repeater installed. We have just upgraded the 147.030 MHz repeater with a GE Mastr Exec running approx 80 watts. The new machine has a built in Pre-amp to help pull in those weak stations. More fine tuning will be done over the next couple weeks for further improvements in our coverage area.
May 20, 2005: The Rockingham County Repeater Association will host the VHF QSO Party June 11 & 12, 2005. This will be a Rockingham County Amateur Radio Club event and will be open to all Amateur Radio Operators. A cook-out is planned so be sure to let us know if you will be there so we may figure in for food. Start time will be 1:00PM on Saturday, 6/11/05. Stations will be set up for 2 Meters SSB and Simplex, 6 Meters and 70CM.