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BERKELEY
COUNTY, SC - ARES®/RACES
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Backup
Repeater
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The primary repeater for emergency communications in Berkeley County, SC, is the 147.150 (no tone) repeater located at approximately 250 feet up on a 500 ft. tower at the land fill in the city of Goose Creek, SC. |
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This repeater was donated, some years ago, by Vince Ott, WD4NUN (SK) who was a well known business owner from Berkeley County. Upon his death, he donated the repeater, to the Amateur Radio Operators of Berkeley County, for their use. |
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| Prior to installation of this repeater, it was tuned and aligned by Mike Abbott, KM4ID, the senior technician for Radio Communications of Charleston, located in Goose Creek, SC. RCC and Mike maintain that repeater to this day. | |
| The previous repeater, used on the same frequency pair, was removed and maintained by RCC and kept at their location. That previous repeater and duplexers were recently offered to BCARES. | |
| It was decided by our group to install this repeater as a backup to the existing repeater. Since locating a backup piece of EMCOMM gear at the same location seemed tactically impractical, we decided to place the backup at a location approximately 14 miles away from the primary, feeling this would enhance the chance of one or the other surviving a disaster. | |
| The backup has been placed on a 150 ft. tower at the EOC in Berkeley County where it is accessible by Berkeley County ARES personnel in the event of a problem with the primary site. | |
| The backup has Auto CW ID capability installed by BCARES AEC Dennis Zabawa, KG4RUL, and will provide full county coverage for base and mobile 2M radio and somewhat limited-distance direct access by HT. We believe that in all but the most extreme of circumstances, having this backup will allow us to maintain repeater capability and reduce the need to resort to 2M simplex communications and relays in the event of an emergency/disaster. | |
| We prefer to think of BCARES as a forward-thinking organization and believe this is a great stride forward in our preparedness and ability to provide for the citizens of Berkeley County. | |
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Last Modified: 20-Sep-2011
© Berkeley County, SC ARES®
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ARES® is a registered Service Mark of the American
Radio Relay League (ARRL), Inc
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