FOOTHILLS ARC

We Communicate

About


 

Just A Little History of the Repeater


     
      Way back in 1977, October 7 to be accurate, a small group of hams from the rural county of Wilkes, in northwestern North Carolina along with Danny Hampton and friends from Raleigh, assembled at a point on the Blue Ridge Mountains, just to the east of Highway 18 where it crosses the mountain.  That day the 145.37 repeater was put on the air with the call sign of N4AGN.

   The original repeater hardware was a GE Master Pro feeding a Hustler G7 antenna.  Also included was a 220 link to the Asheboro, NC repeater and then on to Raleigh.  The duplexers were purchased from a military surplus dealer in Hickory and were tuned by Danny Hampton and his crew.  The first contact was between N4AGN and W4YSB (now a silent key).  Later on, the Foothills Amateur Radio Club was in need of an autopatch on the repeater and since the location was out of the county long distance calls would be required, the decision as made to move to the present location on Pores Knob on the Brushy Mountains, just south of Wilkesboro, NC.

   After the move, the old GE Master Pro was replaced with an excellent GE Master  II which had been used for a short time in a military activity.  The Hustler G7 antenna was replaced by a 21 foot 4 dipole Phelps Dodge commercial grade antenna which was mounted on a 50 foot Rohn 25 tower.  A new ACC85 controller and autopatch system was incorporated into the repeater system. 

   About 10 years ago the repeater was moved into a common building and the antenna was placed at 80 feet on a 150 foot commercial tower.  2 years ago the antenna was moved again to the top of a 90 foot tower standing beside the commercial tower.

   Except for a few day's after the devastating hurricane Hugo slammed our county, the 145.37 machine has been doing it's repeating business!