The
[Ed.Note: I've added a few headings throughout the text. Otherwise, the material is unchanged from the original.]
Beginnings of the LRRA
I would like to thank Tom Bates (AA1NZ) and Dan Morgan (W1UR) for inviting me here today to talk with you about the first days of the LRRA and some of the events that evolved.
From 2-Meter AM to FM
1. Back in the Late 1950's and early 1960's, there was a group in the Lakes region that held regular roundtable transmissions on a daily basis using 2 meter AM transmission. This activity became popular, as near as I can tell, by the availability of the Benton Harbor Lunch Boxes manufactured in kit form by HeathKit, Inc. For roughly $50 you could get on two meters. There were no repeaters in those days so anyone on two meters sported some form of beam antenna. Polarization was horizontal so there was relatively no mobile operation on two meters. It wasn't until the 1970's that HAM FM repeaters were introduced to the area. The most successful was probably the Concord Repeater under the sponsorship of Ted Everett. Most of the Lakes Region Hams who had 2 meter FM equipment monitored the Concord Repeater at that time.
2. Conditions of the time - Difficult to get licensed - FCC Requirements - Technology limited.
3. Saddleback Repeater - Tom Vinton(K1CEU), a technician, had a drive to build repeaters. He was probably the most knowledgeable person in the area regarding the technical requirements of the then current Repeater technology. If there was a mountain top available, Tom wanted to put a repeater there.
Doc Steady W1BST
4. I personally got involved with 2 meter FM and repeaters through my acquaintance with Tom. Fred (Bing) Miller(W1IIQ) had been a long time friend of mine and he was very active with the Lakes Region Hams on the Concord Repeater and through working Bing I made acquaintances with Doc Steady and his crew. I also worked the Saddleback repeater with Tom, in fact Tom and I both worked for NHN and saw each other almost on a daily basis. Eventually we all got together and Tom heard Doc speculating on a "someday Lakes Region Repeater". This fit right into Tom's agenda, and I, as the middleman, became somewhat of a liaison.
The LRRA
5. It wasn't long before a meeting was set up between
Doc's crew and Bing, Tom and I. As Tom lived in
Cotton Mountain
6.
Needless to say, the membership grew to over twenty member's overnight.
A technical committee made up of Tom, myself, Bing and Bob? (WA1KVW)
were selected. Bob was a natural choice as he lived on top of
From Modified Motorolas to HeathKits
7.
Most repeaters at this point in time were made out of modified
commercial two-way radios. Old Motorola and GE 2-Way radios (boat
anchors) were very scarce even though most of the tube type gear was
being replaced with the new transistor equipment by the public service
organizations. The
Early Repeater Licensing and the FCC
8. Up until this point in time, the FCC was very wary of repeaters. They did not have clear cut rules and were very cautious about giving out repeater licenses. The monitoring requirements by the license holder were very ambiguous and it seemed that every license holder had their own idea regarding them. Some insisted that there had to be someone sitting by a switch and ready to turn the repeater off if a perceived usage was not exactly within the guidelines that they thought to be good amateur practice. Most hams agreed that in order to license a repeater one had to present to the FCC a broadcast license type of presentation. The Saddleback repeater license application consisted of over 50 pages and included propagation studies, graphs, along with detailed descriptions of equipment, antennas, etc. It took weeks of work and considerable amount of technical expertise to prepare one of these applications. At the time the Lakes Region Repeater Association was about to submit a license application, it was generally accepted that this was the route that had to be taken. It was also pretty much the rule that it took about 3 to 6 months to have an application acted upon by the FCC.
License Application
9. I was the one elected to prepare and submit the application for a license for the Lakes Region Repeater Association. It was agreed that Bob (WA1KVW) would be the designated license holder as the repeater was to be located at his residence. Fred (Bing) Miller(W1IIQ) and myself (WA1APL) were to be designated as control stations. That meant that Bing and I, along with Bob, were the ones to pull the switch if we were to accept the more radical interpretation of the almost non-existent rules and regulations of the FCC. Actually, we didn't think too much about control at this point, as we were sure the repeater would take about six months to get licensed. This was the average time frame so far.
Enter the ARRL
10. The ARRL was very much aware of the consternation among the hams and the lack of any realistic guidelines
governing all aspects of the relations between the Hams and the FCC. Unknown to us at this time, the ARRL had a man in
Building the First LRRA Repeater
11. Now we were in a dilemma. We had a repeater license but no repeater. We fully expected that we had at least six months to get it all together. We knew we wanted to go low power (1 or 2 watts), we had a Tower to put two antenna's up, but we hadn't made any decisions regarding what actual equipment we wanted to use. At the time, there was a company over in NY state called VHF Engineering that put out a line of kits for 2-Meter transmitters and receivers. Tom had built a couple of these units and they appeared to work quite well. They were inexpensive, so if we couldn't get them to work together using dual antennas as a repeater, it wouldn't be a financial disaster. We ordered a transmitter and a receiver. I think the total cost was less than $100.00. Tom went to work putting it together. He was super at this type of activity and when he finished, it looked like a commercial rig. We were fortunate, as both Tom and I worked for the NHN; we had good picking from a great deal of discarded commercial equipment and some of the best test gear around. We also had Charlie Tamm as our chief engineer and boss, who was a devoted ham, and who I believe became a member of the LRRA.
Antenna Up, and Running
12.
Now we had a location, and a repeater, but we didn't as yet have nor
had we decided upon an antenna pair for the repeater. Andy Nuttle(), a
member of the association came to our rescue. Andy owned the GAM
Antenna Co. in
WR1ADX Begins with the First Beep
13.
There was a lot of activity at this time. All of the existing repeaters
were busy most of the time. WR1ADX (LRRA Call sign) was no exception.
Even though it was only one watt, there must have been 35 or 40
regulars on and there was seldom a time when you couldn't raise
someone. Keeping in mind that the existence of repeaters, and all of
ham radio, for that matter, was to provide service in an emergency.
There were no cell phones at this time, so there was an obvious need
for some kind of reliable mobile communications. This fed the
popularity of repeaters and their support and provided a challenge to
all of the hams using the repeater. In my experience, hams are very
much aware of this responsibility, and were generally on the lookout
for someone who might be in trouble on the roadside and need help.
Hardly a day went by when there wasn't at least one "911" call by one
of the hams on the repeater. In order of facilitate this emergency
need, the "beep" was introduced. As far as I know, this repeater was
the first in the country to have this feature. In practice, when an
operator turns over transmission to another operator, there is a tail
on the repeater when it is released before the repeater drops out.
There were timers built into the control systems of repeaters that
timed out a transmission if someone was too long winded or captured the
repeater before the tail dropped out. Very few operators can say they
never timed out a repeater. If one came back on a transmission too
quickly, the timer would not reset and subsequently the time left would
be the accumulated time between the previous transmission and the
current one. Timers were usually set around two minutes, which was long
enough for a single transmission but rarely long enough for two
transmissions. By setting the timer a few seconds into the tail, this
forced a period of time for someone with an emergency, or for that
matter someone to break in for any reason. Operators quickly learned
that this was borrowed time and if they wanted to make a transmission,
such as in a roundtable, they had better wait until the timer was
reset. The beep indicated the resetting of the timer. To my knowledge,
this feature was first introduced on this repeater. It is a feature
that has been copied throughout the country. In fact, the control
system, which was designed and built by the technical committee, was
replicated and used in several other computers throughout
Duplexers
14. Whenever a repeater operates on two antennas, there is always a discrepancy. There are spots that you can hear the repeater but can't get in, or you can get in but you can't hear the repeater. Also, though we were pleased with the operation of our one watt repeater, it soon became obvious that it really didn't serve the mobile operators very well, as there were many dead spots throughout the region. After a couple of months, we had pretty much decided that we should up the power. We also decided that we should get a hold of a duplexer and go to a single antenna. The repeater was easy. Standard Communications had come out with a very nice package of a self-contained ten watt repeater. We had a good healthy membership and had no trouble raising the funds to purchase the Standard Repeater.
Duplexers
were another problem. There were no commercial duplexers available in
the market at this time for ham repeaters. There were commercial
duplexers out there but the cost was prohibitive. Tom Vinton had a
friend in
A Tower and a Shed
15. Shortly after the completion of the duplexes, we learned that Bob Thomas, our host, was going to be moving out of the area. Don MacBeth, who lived in the same area as Bob, with an equally desirable site, offered us the opportunity to put the repeater at his residence. This meant we had to find a tower and some sort of a building to house the repeater. Again, through the generosity of many members of the association, we were able to assemble about sixty feet of Rohn tower. We also purchased a tool shed that was very adequate for our needs. A couple of Saturdays and all kinds of assistance from the membership, we were able to install the shack, equipment, raise the tower, run electrical power, and get on the air.
Tech's Call Sign and a Laconia Site
16.
It wasn't long after this that the FCC changed it licensing
requirements and repeaters used the call signs of the tech that
maintained them. Also, my work assignments changed, and I became
unavailable to help out on the tech committee. Roughly around this
time, a decision was made to move the repeater again, this time to the