This privately-owned site is located in the town of Monkton, Vermont. At an elevation of 1,250 feet, this site offers a commanding view up and down the Lake Champlain Valley. Located at this site are two-way radio, cellular telephone, several paging systems, a microwave relay system, and a TV translator. The amateur UHF repeater located here was first put into operation in 1993. The equipment used for this first station was a General Electric Masta Pro. In 2000 the original station was replaced by a Motorola Micor repeater. The station operates on 444.650 / 449.650 MHz. Tone-coded squelch frequency is 110.9 cps. A dB Products Model 40165 band pass band reject duplexer is used. Transmitter power output from the duplexer is maintained at about 40 to 50 watts, which is fed to an old Andrew 5.8 dB gain antenna. Transmit and receive audio, keying, tone squelch logic and control is accomplished with a Link-Comm RLC-1 repeater controller.
In the process of re-engineering some of the communications systems, antennas, and feed lines at this site, NFMRA was invited by the site owner to move its equipment to a different building and relocate its antenna to a new and higher location on another tower at the site. We jumped at the chance since this was a move that would enhance coverage of the repeater and also provide a location for a link antenna. In early December, 2002, the station was moved. A DB Products Model 404, four-bay antenna replaced the old Andrew “stick”. This antenna was placed at the 100 foot level and fed with 7/8 inch heliax cable. A GE Phoenix SX dash mount radio was added and used as the link connection to Killington Peak. The antenna used at this time was a single dipole antenna that was already in place on the tower. This antenna is located at the 175 foot level. From this height, although not 100 percent reliable, it provides a marginal to fair RF path to the Killington hub station. Replacing the dipole antenna with a directional antenna and replacing the feed line with some low loss heliax should make a remarkable improvement on the path to Killington. These changes are planned for the future.
A 5 dB gain yagi antenna fed with 7/8 inch helax was installed in October of 2003 for use by the link. This improvement did add considerable gain to the path but did not improve the situation as well as expected. However, a reliable path to Killington is available most of the time.
Soon after the equipment was moved to its new location, a packet station was put into operation at the site. This system operates on a UHF frequency and uses the antenna that was previously used for the link unit. More info on the packet system will be forth coming.
An APRS station was put into operation here during the summer of 2009. The intent here is to improve APRS coverage southerly down Route 116 to the Middlebury area, as well as along the eastern New York border.
In 2016 the site owner requested that the NFMRA remove its antennas from the tower (see picture #3). Luckily, use of the location where the repeater first resided was available, so now it’s back at its original location. The Motorola Micor equipment was replaced with a Motorola MSF-5000 station. Other than replacement of the main repeater, all other equipment remains approximately the same as previously described.
Here is a picture of the site looking toward the south where the repeater was first located and is now located once again. The tower, which was at one time an old AM broadcast tower, is about 165 feet high. The repeater is now housed in the small white building at the left side of the picture. This building was once the body of an old delivery truck. The first antenna was originaly located on the end of the building. When the station was returned back to this spot, the antenna previously used by the W1EU (now W1ICW) repeater was put back in service. It can be seen on the left side of the tower about one third of the way up.
This is a picture of the equipment cabinet as it was at it’s original location. At the top of the rack can be seen the dB Products duplexer. Next in line is the Motorola Micor PA and below the PA is the Micor unified chassis, which contains the transmitter exciter, multiplier, PA control boards and receiver. Below this is the RLC-1 controller cabinet and, at the bottom of the rack, is the power supply. There was no linking equipment here at this time. The cabinet seen to the right is the WE1U repeater which has been recently removed from service.
Seen in the picture to the left is the building and tower where the repeater was moved in 2003. The antenna now located at the 100 foot level has remarkably and understandably improved system performance. The link antenna, which is not quite visible in this photo, is located at the 175 foot level.
Here is a picture of the equipment cabinet as seen in its new location. All looks about the same as in the previous picture except the addition of the linking transmitter and receiver located at the bottom of the rack. The unit used for the link connection is a GE Phoenix SX dash mount radio. This station is now linked to the hub station at Killington Peak.
The picture to the right shows the repeater back in the exact location it was in when first installed at this site. The difference being that now a Motorola MSF-5000 has replaced the older Micor. Also located at this site is a packet and an APRS station.
The picture on the right can be seen the antenna that was origianly used by The W1ICW repeater and reused by NFMRA. It is located on the northeast side of the tower. N1EQP is shown working on the feed line to the repeater antenna which is a lenth of 7/8″ helax.