is a
wide area linked, multi-faceted system available in the following
communities on Colorado's Western Slope...
Aspen
- Snowmass Village - Old Snowmass - Basalt - El Jebel - Missouri
Heights - Carbondale - Red Stone - Glenwood Springs - Noname -
New Castle - Silt - Rifle - Parachute
-
COLORADO -
Who
we are...
The Roaring Fork Amateur
Radio "Co-operative" operates and maintains numerous
repeaters, remote bases and several IRLP/ECHOLINK Nodes in the
Roaring Fork and Upper Colorado River Valleys of Western Colorado
(serving the communities of: Aspen - Snowmass Village - Woody
Creek - Old Snowmass - Basalt - El Jebel - Missouri Heights -
Carbondale - Redstone - Glenwood Springs - Noname - New Castle -
Silt - Rifle - Parachute).
These repeaters and nodes
are "Co-Operatively" owned, operated and linked
together by several amateur radio operators (Tracy, K0VQ - Dave,
K0SNO and Andre, N0SWE, the control 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 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, Kirvin Hodges, KF0SI, Rick Doyal, KB0AHR, Ted
Witzel, KE0TY, Bill Mohrman, N0MID, Greg Banks, N0NL, Don Taylor,
W0DET 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
Dan Ferris, KB0LRR, who acts as RFARC's Linux/IRLP node
administrator.
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, Echolink and autopatch service 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 VHF GE Mastr II Rack
Mount 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 an
assending 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 Hamtronics R144 Receiver, Midland
73-005 HT 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, Dual
Band 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 11 Watts at the antenna. This site is also 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). It can access both the El Jebel and/or
Glenwood Springs Echolink nodes for additional wide area
coverage as well as support any other Echolink Network
Station. Please check with Andre for current status and
information about using it.
The 446.050 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 -- 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 6 dB gain Hygain Fiberglass 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) on a full time basis.
Echolink Node #
8150 (K0VQ-L Basalt) is operating at times when
a control operator is present on 147.435 Mhz
Simplex from my QTH in El Jebel-Basalt. Times of
operation may vary. Coverage is approximately from South
Glenwood Springs to the middle of Snowmass Canyon along
Hwy 82. More information about Echolink can be obtained
at www.echolink.org The rig is a motorola
maxtrac 25 watt mobile converted to amateur use. The node
is using a modified West Mountain 'nomic' specially
adapted for use with the maxtrac mobile radio's RJ-45 mic
connector. Conferences are set to 2 to conserve
bandwidth. Contact Tracy, K0VQ for information.
Echolink Node #
266359 (KD0NU-L Glenwood Springs) is operating
on the 147.300 Mhz Repeater (107.2 Hz CTCSS)
from West Glenwood Springs in a Sub-division North of the
Glenwood Springs Mall. The rig is Kenwood TW-4000A
running 5 watts into a 7 dB Crushcraft Dual Band
Fiberglass Omni Antenna. It is on-line 24/7 and
conferences are set to 2 to conserve bandwidth. Contact
Steve, KD0NU for specific information.
Echolink Node #
243117 (N0SWE-R Rifle) is operational on 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 are 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!
