Red Oak, Iowa,The Heartland of America.
The system was originally built out of a Regency MX3000 scanner and a Relm business band transceiver. The scanner had to be wrapped in tin foil to keep noise out and the transmitter had to have the cover off to keep it cool. Not a real professional looking system to say the least. But it worked.
The repeater's first home was my parents business on the north side of Red Oak in a metal shed. No climate control and mice, but the rent was free and was pretty secure for the most part. It was not the best location for getting a signal out. Red Oak is kind of in a basin type area, so it is hard to get a signal out.
In mid 1992 the Red Oak City council agreed to allow the repeater to go on the water tower. Thanks to Drue Powers, we finally had a spot that would help us get that signal.
After receiving donated heliax from Russ (KG0BK), an Aerotron base station repeater from Don (N0HCV), and all the other stuff, we got the machine up and running.
It was discovered shortly after the installation that we were causing interference problems for the Sheriffs Dept. As a result it all came down. Over the next 8 years, the machine has been in various locations in around Red Oak. Some locations were good, some were not. Most of the moves came as a result of property owners moving, dying, or some security reason that made it too easy to tamper with the equipment.
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Pat-N0NHB - Control operator
Drue-N0OSC
Ed-KF4BNL
Rob-KB0RHV
Bob-KC0MUX
Adam-KB0NWB
Steve-KC0TMN
Greg-KC0OJZ
Well,we're losing our web page here at the end of October.There are no plans at this time to build anymore pages.You can listen live to the repeater at radio reference dot com.Thanks.
73
ROAR
