Welcome to the Chappell Hill Community GMRS Repeater WRAK606
462.650 / 467.650 PL110.9
Setting the airwaves ablaze with 22.5 watts of RF power, high atop a 110 ft. tower, towering over the Brazos river bottoms of Chappell Hill, TX.
Running on a Motorola RKR1225 UHF repeater and Decibel Products UHF notch duplexer using a 9db antenna with 125 ft. of LMR400.
Current Weather Underground TowerCam1 view of the farm...
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GMRS Repeater system monitor - The local repeater monitoring page
GMRS Node Status - The local repeater node status page
Texas GMRS Network - The Texas GMRS repeater network page
Texas GMRS Repeater Network audio feed - Listen to our streaming audio
MyGMRS.com - The MyGMRS.com web site page
MyGMRS.com Forums - The MyGMRS.com forums web site page
N5MBM.net - The N5MBM main web site
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Status update: 01/17/2018
Updated live streaming audio feed on the web page for the Texas GMRS Repeater Network.
Status update: 01/01/2018
We updated the web page, yet again, adding the myGMRS.com status banner, Weather Underground widgets and constantly updated TowerCam1 image.
Status update: 12/31/2017
We updated the web pages a bit. We also received a brand spanking new Chinese duplexer we found on eBay for a good price. At less than 100 bucks and 10 days of shipping time, we thought it a good value. We installed the new notch style duplexer and got a few more watts out towards the antenna - so we count the upgrade as justified. Initial range testing along US HWY 290 towards Houston, puts the mobile to repeater range at just about 18-20 miles depending on terrain.
Status update: 12/26/2017
I installed the repeater onto a tri-band antenna that had acceptable SWR up at 110 ft. for testing purposes... We will see how it goes... The antenna is a 2m/440/23cm tri-band antenna and the SWR sits at 1.8:1 at 462.650 MHz but it seems to be working OK.
We are NOW connected to the TexasGMRS.net !
Status update: 12/25/2017
I started talking with the TexasGMRS.net folks about possibly connecting up to their network in the Houston area via their hub in Dallas.
Status update: 12/24/2017
The new patch cables arrived in the mail today! Now I can get rid of the old and fraying cables that I pulled out of the junk box! I am replacing them with brand new, double shielded, silver plated, ultra-low-loss cables that are of the proper length to reach the duplexer with very little "extra" to spare. Now we have 20w out of the duplexer and into the antenna, instead of 15w like we had with the old cables - which basically means, LESS LOSS!!!
The new feedline arrived too! Which will enable me to put the new 7db antenna way up high instead of on a 20 ft. pole outside the guest house...
Status update: 12/23/2017
A Lot has happened in the past couple of days... I swapped out the transmitter for a higher power unit. We were running 8w out of the radio, now we are running 25w out of the radio. I will be doing further testing to see if I really need to go higher. But I think I will wait until we get the good 7db antenna in place and THEN do some range testing...
We upgraded the power supply to handle the additional power and installed a higher CFM fan in the repeater cabinet to improve cooling.
Status update: 12/20/2017
A Lot has happened in the past couple of months. After many decades of being a ham, and holding a radio telephone license, I decided to apply for my GMRS license and got it. I figured it would add another facet to the emergency communications for ARES of Washington County. Not to mention being able to talk to my non-ham family members when they are out and about mobile.
I pulled a bunch of spare repeater parts from my ham radio repeaters out of my spares collection and built a GMRS repeater. Complete with an old Decibel Products notch duplexer and a Raspberry Pi computer running Doug Cromptons image for Asterisk/AllStarLink. It is in "test mode" on a 1/4 wave whip on a 20 ft. piece of pipe outside of my guest house. We will be moving to a 7db professional repeater antenna and placing it on one of my towers soon, to cover a 15-30 mile radius around Chappell Hill as well as up and down the Brazos River bottoms.
Stay "tuned" for further updates!