On Friday October 25th 2024 the Clearfield County Amateur Radio Club has placed a new DMR digital mode repeater into service. The repeater is currently located on a temporary tower at about 1,680 feet AMSL elevation overlooking the Borough of Clearfield. Plans are to operate the repeater for a short time from this location as a “burn-in” period to allow easier access should changes or maintenance become necessary.
CCARC is making preparations to re-locate the repeater to a location on Rockton Mountain which will greatly improve the coverage area. The map shown shows the predicted coverage area from the temporary tower site. The expected coverage from the Rockton Mountain location is shown in the map at the bottom of this article.
The repeater is constructed from a Motorola R100 repeater which has been heavily modified to fit our purposes. The R100’s 10 watt output is driving a 100 watt amplifier and the duplexers are a standard 4 can rack mount assembly. Controlling the repeater is a Raspberry Pi 4 micro-computer with Repeater Builder Inc. MMDVM hat style board. All needed programming settings for your radio are included in the box on page 2.
Instrumental to the success of this project were several CCARC members including Allen N3HOC and Scott W3EOD, as well as all members who supported the project with their time and financial contributions.