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.
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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 - Texas GMRS Network Status
Texas GMRS Website - Texas GMRS Website Page
N5MBM.net - The N5MBM main web site
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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!