New DMR Repeater On Air

Map showing the repeater coverage from the temporary site overlooking Clearfield.
Map showing the repeater coverage from the temporary site overlooking Clearfield.

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.

Radio Configuration Guidance:

Predicted coverage map of the CCARC DMR repeater after being relocated to the Rockton Mountain site. Efforts to clear the way to move the repeater to this site are under way.
Predicted coverage map of the CCARC DMR repeater after being relocated to the Rockton Mountain site. Efforts to clear the way to move the repeater to this site are under way.
444.625+
Color Code 1
Timeslot 1 is generally wide-area and longer QSOs
PA 3142 (Static)
PEMA Statewide 31420
TAC 310-319
Worldwide 91
North America 93
USA 3100
All other talkgroups
Timeslot 2 is Local and regional
314287 — This is the local repeater only and can be accessed from anywhere (Static)
West PA 31422 (Static)
PA TAC 31421
Parrot 9998
Other talkgroups if TS1 is unavailable
This repeater is on the Brandmeister network. You have the ability to use any group on either slot but please try to stick to this plan for efficient use of the repeater. We only have the ability to control what groups are static (always being received) on a specific slot, so there aren’t any restrictions–only suggestions. A DMR repeater can have two completely different conversations happening on different talkgroups at the same time. This advantage is lost if two people are using the same talkgroup on different slots.