wI0OK/r 444.90 Lake Ann Repeater

 

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The wI0OK/r 444.90 MHz repeater formerly covered southern Leelanau and northwest Benzie counties, with some coverage into Grand Traverse county. 

This repeater was located at the home of Mike, N7LMJ, and is equipped with a remote base transceiver on 52.92 that functions to tie it into the 52.92/444.725 Glen Arbor repeater.  Additionally, this repeater operates an Echolink node making it available for worldwide connectivity.  HF remote base operation is also possible if desired.

The 444.90 machine was intended to be a 'low-level' repeater, with primary coverage throughout the Lake Ann area.  Coverage did extend into southern Leelanau and western Grand Traverse counties, in addition to portions of Benzie county.   It provided Mike, N7LMJ solid HT coverage around his neighborhood, which is rather nice.

The repeater operates has been off the air for a few months and may return to operation is Mike deems it desireable.

The repeater is situated in the kitty litter closet, and hence, it has a stinky signal.   

 

Parts of the repeater equipment was originally put to service as the 444.95 KB8FJB repeater in Benzonia, MI.   The KB8FJB repeater heralded about 1995 and had considerable coverage from its vantage point at the top of the hill in Benzonia.

On the shelf to the left is the Compaq computer which is used to tie the repeater into Echolink via a high speed cablemodem internet connection.

The main repeater transmitter/receiver consists of a Motorola Mitrek setup for repeater use that feeds a TX-RX four cavity base station duplexer.   On the receiver side is an Advanced Receiver Research GasFET preamp.   

 
This view shows the 444.9/449.9 repeater Mitrek on the upper left, with the 52.92/52.42 six meter Mitrek remote base transceiver on the right.

The GasFet preamp is out of view to the left of the UHF Mitrek.

The repeater controller hangs on the shelving brackets just in front of the TX/RX duplexer. 

The controller is a Micro Computer Concepts RC100 which is mounted in the black box to the left of the cavity filters.  A few modifications have been made to the controller to accommodate the Echolink connection (as if it was another UHF receiver/transmitter).

Out of view is the homebrew Echolink interface box which makes the computer appear to the control unit as if it was another piece of radio gear.
This is Scooter.

Scooter has his own special entry door into the repeater room, and he keeps a close watch over the repeater whenever he feels the urge.

That glow in his eyes is the glow of contentment after having a successful visit to the kitty litter.

Scooter is famous!... he's had plenty more than his fifteen minutes of fame....

Go to Google and search for 'the cats ass' and hit 'I feel lucky'...   or, visit The Cats Ass Page directly.  While you're there, visit Jimbo's Appliance Showroom-- for some real bargains.
Here are some schematics for the repeater control system. These are put here so that when the time comes to work on the system we can always find the schematics (as they are 'online').  If we didn't put these on here, they might get lost--- where all important papers end up (in the hands of Murphy).

LMJ-rpt-ctrl-box
LMJ-HF-vox-rb-box
LMJ-Echolink-PC-box

Please note... if the schematics look like something you might want to build, do so at your own risk.  There are no guarantees that something isn't shown incorrectly (likely all LED's are backwards, etc).  There are no guarantees at all... view at your own risk! de KF8KK