VE3FRG Repeater Install

Sunday the 1st of May was brilliant day, the weather was great - blue skies and no wind or rain. Perfect for getting the VE3FRG repeater installed in the John Orr Tower here in Kingston. This is the end of a lot of hard work and testing to get us to this point, and it's all thanks to Don-VE3MNE.


Don VE3MNE

Eleven hams showed up at 1330 hours and by 1530 it was all installed and operational. The John Orr Tower is near the intersection of Union Street and Sir John A. MacDonald. The tower is 16 stories high with another two floors of mechanical rooms above that.

The repeater is in the electrical room on the roof with the antenna mounted 30 feet above that. So the antenna is about 230 feet above ground.

It seems to have a large footprint - Belleville and Trenton in the west to Brockville in the east and south to Watertown. We haven't figured out how far north it will go yet, but we plan on a few road trips over the next few weekends to see how far we can get.


Bill VE3CLQ and George VE3SIQ
Put the pieces back together again
after they had been transported to the site

 Over the past two years we have had IRLP Node 2088 set up on 146.205 with a 151.4 hertz tone.  We had a lot of problem with interference from the N2HLT Bath, NY, repeater, which is on the same frequency, and is amazing when you realize that it is over 250 kms from Kingston, Ontario to Bath, NY in a straight line. We have had to change the PL tone to 203.5 hertz, but due to the interference issuses with the repeater in Bath.

VE3FRG will be able to operate as a 2m repeater, and will also be able to operate crossband from 70 cm to 6m at the same time without interfering with the 2m operation. Or, alternately you will be able to link the 2m, 6m, and 70cm radios together and operate as a crossband repeater on all frequencies.

Tim VA3TIC getting ready
to install the 70cm antenna

This repeater now has IRLP Node 2088 operating on it, which will be available on all the repeater frequencies. The frequency and tone details are as follows:

The 2m frequency is 146.805 (-) with a 203.5 hertz tone;
The 6m Frequency is 53.130 (-) with a 203.5 hertz tone; and
The 70 cm frequency is 434.800 simplex with a 203.5 hertz tone.

The codes to turn the crossband capabilities on and off will be made available over the next few days.

Thanks to VE3SIQ, VE3MNE, VE3DZE, VE3DNR, VA3AKY, VE3GO, VE3OCC, VE3ZDG, VA3TIC and VE3VJF for coming out and getting the job done.

Thanks to Martin VA3AKY for taking the photo's used on this article.

Footprint of VE3FRG