W8CWO Repeater

The repeater is located atop the WVU Medicine Weirton Medical Center, in Weirton, WV (near the PA state line). The transmit antenna is a Com-Spec (Decibel products) DB224-E, 4 bay folded dipole unit. The receive antenna is a Celwave (Phelps-Dodge) Station Master unit mounted below and horizontally away from the transmit antenna. This split antenna system connects to a Wacom WP-639 BpBr 4 cavity duplexer. The dual antenna setup is utilized to minimize receiver de-sensing experienced when using a single antenna plus duplexer for repeater transmit/receive.

SWARC maintains the W8CWO repeater for use by all radio amateurs within the range of the machine.

Call: W8CWO/R

Frequency: 146.340 MHz input, 146.940 MHz output (-600 KHz offset).
Set your VHF FM transceiver to a frequency of 146.940 MHz with a minus (-) offset (of 600 KHz, which is standard for the 2 Meter band) so that when your radio is in transmit mode, it will transmit on 146.340 MHz, the repeater’s input frequency, and when it is in receive, you will hear the repeater on 146.940 MHz.

PL Tone Access: 114.8 Hz full CTCSS access, encode & decode – the repeater requires the PL tone for access and transmits the same frequency tone to your receiver – this considered to be FULL CTCSS access).

Yaesu “System Fusion”: The repeater is a Yaesu DR-1X “System Fusion” analog/digital repeater, utilizing normal narrow band (5 KHz deviation) FM modulation for the analog mode, and Yaesu’s C4FM digital mode for the digital mode. The repeater utilizes “Automatic Mode Select” (AMS) to switch between analog and digital modes. FM stations will always switch the repeater to the analog FM mode, whereas those stations transmitting in the C4FM digital mode will cause the repeater to switch to the digital mode. Whenever digital stations are in the C4FM digital mode, any FM signal that brings up the repeater will cause it and all the current digital mode users to switch to analog FM mode (provided the users have AMS enabled on their transceivers – a Yaesu-only feature).

Analog Mode: The .94 machine functions as a traditional analog voice repeater (in addition to its digital capabilities – see below). The repeater has NO courtesy beep/tone at the end of any user transmission. The voice ID will talk over any current in progress conversation.

Digital Mode: As mentioned above, the repeater utilizes a Yaesu “System Fusion” DR-1X analog/digital repeater. When in digital mode, as selected by the user’s transceiver transmitting into the repeater, the repeater will be in C4FM digital mode. At this time, only Yaesu transceivers equipped with the Yaesu “System Fusion” C4FM digital capabilities will be able to utilize the repeater’s digital mode. If you utilize the 114.8 Hz PL decode on your receiver when in analog mode (PL squelch), you will not hear any of the digital transmissions (which are essentially a lot of noise to analog receivers). This is why we encourage you to utilize full CTCSS encode and decode when programming your transceivers for this repeater.

Note: The current Yaesu transceiver models that support the Yaesu “System Fusion” C4FM digital mode are the FT1DR/XDR, FT2DR, FTM-100DR, FTM-300DR, FTM-400DR/XDR, FTM-3200DR, FTM-7250, and FT-991/FT-991A models (and any other “System Fusion” transceivers that operate in C4FM mode). All of these radios will utilize the digital capabilities of the W8CWO repeater.

Location: WVU Medicine Weirton Medical Center, Colliers Way, Hancock County, Weirton, WV – Eastern edge of Hancock County, just off U.S. Route 22.

Antenna Height: Approximately 1310′ AMSL.

Power Output: 20 watts out of the duplexer into the feedline, approximately 100 watts ERP at the antenna.

Equipment:
Repeater: Yaesu DR-1X “System Fusion” analog/digital repeater, FM (analog)/C4FM+FDMA (digital)
Controller: Built-in to the Yaesu DR-1X repeater
Duplexer: Wacom WP-639 BpBr 4 cavity unit
Feedline: 1/2″ 50 ohm hardline
Antennas: Transmit – Com-Spec (Decibel products) DB224-E, 4 bay folded dipole antenna at 8.1 db gain; Receive – Celwave (Phelps-Dodge) Station Master fiberglass collinear antenna at 7.4 db gain