is a
wide area linked system available in the following communities on
Colorado's Western Slope...
Aspen
- Snowmass Village - Old Snowmass - Basalt - El Jebel -
Carbondale - Red Stone - Glenwood Springs - Noname - New Castle -
Silt - Rifle - Parachute - DeBeque - Grand Junction - Fruita -
Mack
-
COLORADO -
Who
we are...
The Roaring Fork Amateur
Radio "Co-operative" in association with the Mesa View
Repeater Association in Grand Junction operates and maintains
numerous repeaters and remote bases utilizing IRLP for
interconnection to Roaring Fork, Upper Colorado River and Grand
Valleys of Western Colorado.
These repeaters and remotes
are "Co-Operatively" owned, operated and linked
together by several amateur radio operators who wish to provide a
public service to their fellow amateurs and the community at
large. Since use of this system is provided freely without dues,
in order to offset its operational cost to its owners, donations
of time (to repair and maintain the system), equipment donations
and financial support are always welcome (and would be graciously
appreciated). If you should wish to make a donation of funds or
equipment, please send it to: A.R.S. K0VQ, C/O Tracy Dillingham,
PO Box 283, Basalt, CO 81621-0283
The
Participants...
We wish to thank the
following people who have helped design, fund and/or maintain the
system:
Fred Scully, K0VK, Larry
Gerbaz, K0CL, Bill Eakins, KB0PNG, Cody Landon, N0MZ, Richard
Thomas, WD0BBW, Steve Brent, KD0NU, Steve Hach, N0OKV, Marty
Ames, N0SDI, Sy Coleman, AE1V, Kevin Milner, KD0MA, Trent
Bronson, N20BM, Rick Doyal, KB0AHR, Bill Mohrman, N0MID, Greg
Banks, N0NL and Carl Hubbell, W0RPX. Hopefully, we've recognized
everyone! If not, I apologize in advance. Just drop me a line and
I'll make sure you're recognized. And a very special thanks to
Ted Witzel, KE0TY, who acts as RFARC's and Mesa View's Linux/IRLP
node administrator and resident technical engineer.
A
special note for system users: Due to the vast number of linked
repeaters and remote bases, please be sure to allow enough time
between transmissions to let the entire system to completely
reset. This can easily be accomplished by allowing a five count
between transmissions. This allows all the equipment to clear its
related links and be ready to receive traffic coming back down
the link. If you don't follow this operating procedure, you will
most likely be cut off or only partial bit and pieces will be
received on the other end. So, PLEASE... after you hear the
courtesy beep, take a slow deep breath, key the mic and then
talk. That being said, read on...
The 449.725 MHz Hub
Repeater is located on 4- Mile Ridge above Glenwood
Springs. The repeater consists of a GE
Mastr II UHF Rack Mount Deck, NHRC Integrated Controller
With Real Voice Storage, DB Products Duplexers and 3
element UHF beam. This repeater serves as the
"hub" of the system connecting the VHF
"spoke" repeaters together and providing for
IRLP throughout the system. This repeater can be accessed
in Rifle, Silt, Carbondale, El Jebel, Basalt and Aspen
via its UHF input or throughout the entire network via
the "spoke" VHF machines. There is no squelch
tail or coutesy tone.
The 147.390 MHz
Repeater is co-located with the above UHF hub repeater.
The repeater is constructed of a Motorola Micor Repeater
and Motorola Maxtrac UHF link radio utilizing a MCC
RC-100 controller with REMEC WACOM WP-639 duplexers
feeding a Diamond F-22 Antenna at about 60' above the
ground. The output power is approximately 12 Watts out of
the antenna. The UHF link connects this repeater to the
rest of the RFARC System via the UHF Hub Repeater. The
service area is Rifle, Carbondale, El Jebel, Glenwood
Springs, Basalt and Aspen. We wish to thank Richard
Thomas, WD0BBW, Westron Comm Sites and Mark Felson at
Fones West Digital Systems for the gracious use of their
building and tower! This repeater has a double beep tone
when linked and a single beep when unlinked.
The 147.300 MHz
Repeater is located atop 3-Mile Ridge above Glenwood
Springs at 8500 feet. The site overlooks the confluence
of the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers. The site is seen
from the famous Hot Springs Pool above the Christmas
Cross up and to the right (looking southwest). The
repeater consists of a R144 Hamtronics Receiver, Icom 2AT
being used as an excitor and Mirage B23 as the PA, MCC
RC-100 Controller, ICOM 4AT used as a Remote Base
Transceiver, Wacom WP639A Duplexer, Diamond
F22A Repeater Antenna, 1/4 wave remote base/link
antenna. The VHF antenna is located approximately 150' up
hill from the site and is perched atop a custom 30'
foldover mast. Output power is approximately 20 Watts at
the antenna when on High power and approximately 1.5
watts on low. This site is completely
solar powered
utilizing four Siemens, 51 Watt and three, 75 Watt solar
panels and ASC-12 /16 solar charge controllers. Storage
is provided by 4 - 6 Volt Tojan T-105 deep cycle
batteries used a series/parallel configuration housed in
a steel battery box. All other equipment is housed in a
retired deep freezer. Service area includes Glenwood
Springs (excellent HT coverage!), Glenwood Canyon, South
Canyon, Carbondale and surrounding areas. This repeater
has single beep courtesy tone when linked and none when
unlinked.
The 146.760 MHz
Repeater is located on a high mesa south of Rifle. The
repeater consists of a Hamtronics R144 Receiver,
Hamtronics Exciter, PA, DB Products Duplexers feeding a
Diamond X510 at about 30'. The controller is a Micro
Computer Concepts RC-100. This repeater is located at the
home (QTH) of Andre, N0SWE and runs on solar power.
Service area includes New Castle, Silt, Rifle and Rulison
and areas around Parachute. This repeater has an
assending courtesy tone. Andre is running
this repeater linked to his Echolink node # 241559
(N0SWE-R). Please contact Andre for conditional linking
to the rest of the system.
The 147.555 MHz
crossband remote base linked to the system hub is located
at Dave's (K0SNO) residence on Missouri Hts, near El
Jebel. It is composed of two motorola maxtrac mobiles
operating in a crossbanding configuration (info at www.batlabs.com). This station provides
additional "fill in" coverage around the
Carbondale and Basalt Areas of the valley. It should also
be useful up the Crystal River Valley toward Red Stone
and Marble on Hwy 133. Signal reports should be sent to
K0VQ.
Aspen - Woody Creek -
Snowmass Village (K0ELK)-- 447.050 MHz (- 5 MHz Input)
136.5 CTCSS Access Required
The 447.050 repeater is
located atop Aspen Mountain near the Sundeck. It is
composed of a Uniden ARU-251 desktop repeater with self
contained duplexers and a maxtrac vhf remote base linking
it to the 147.390 repeater near Glenwood Springs. The
antenna is a Diamond X-50 Base Station Antenna atop 40'
tower running about 20 watts ERP. This repeater provides
coverage aound the Aspen-Snowmass Areas. Signal reports
should be sent to K0VQ.
IRLP & Echolink
Links
IRLP Node #
3722 (K0ELK) is linked to the 449.725 hub
repeater on Sunlight via a link transceiver located at
the QTH of K0VQ. Information and protocol for use of IRLP
can be obtained at www.irlp.net. Contact Tracy, K0VQ
for more information on how to use this special system
feature prior to using it. The node is typically
connected to the Denver Reflector SubChannel 4 which
allows linking to KE0TY (Grand Junction), NA0US
(Longmont) and K5GF (Kountze, TX) and others on a full
time basis.
Echolink Node #
243117 (N0SWE-R Rifle) can be conditionally
linked to the entire linked RFARC system from N0SWE's QTH
on Grass Mesa just South of Rifle. Coverage is from
Parachute to Eagle along I-70 and from Glenwood Springs
south to Carbondale, Basalt and Aspen along Hwy 82
utilizing the linked repeaters listed above. Please
contact Andre, N0SWE for more information or help using
it. It is on-line 24/7. If you are connecting from
outside the area, please be aware that you may be on a
wide-area repeater system. Please pause several seconds
between transmissions to allow for repeater timer resets.
Also, please pause a second before speaking to allow the
audio time to pass through the system. Otherwise, your
first words may be chopped off. Lastly, terminal users
please SET your voice and receive levels at the Echotest
Channel PRIOR to connecting our system. We have many
instances lately where ECHOLINK terminal users are
drastically overmodulated and cannot be understood. This
high level of audio "blows" over the passband
on the transmitters and is clipped by the limiters.
Louder is not always better!
