On Friday March 1st 2024 the Clearfield County Amateur Radio Club’s GMRS service repeater changed frequencies. The repeater was previously operating on 462.675 MHz.  After activating the repeater it was discovered that a group of GMRS enthusiasts were operating another repeater on Pine Grove Mountain near State College on the same frequency. Their repeater was a private repeater, meaning you had to have permission from the owners to use the repeater, and not very active. The area of coverage overlap was relatively small and it was hoped that the two repeaters could coexist.

In February individuals from the Pine Grove group were heard on our Clearfield repeater discussing how much better the coverage of their Pine Grove repeater had mysteriously become. They were unaware that they were using the benefits of the Clearfield repeater mistakenly assuming they were still on the Pine Grove machine. That incident in itself was not an issue, but
when a third station attempted to join in it became contentious. The Pine Grove operators chased the third station off the Clearfield repeater, informing them that this was “a private repeater and they needed permission to use it”. After this incident it was apparent that something needed to change. After a brief discussion at the February CCARC meeting it was decided to change frequencies.

The new frequency is 462.650 MHz transmit, 467.650 MHz receive with a PL tone of 141.3 Hz. The nearest GMRS repeater on this frequency is in Butler PA, well beyond the intended coverage area of our repeater. The repeater has been operating on this
new frequency since March 1st without incident.

CCARC wishes to extend our thanks to Allen K3HOC for his efforts in changing the repeater frequency.