The purpose of this repeater is to provide regional coverage throughout the team's main operational area and beyond.  All amateur radio operators are welcome and encouraged to use the repeater for any and all amateur radio uses, but priority is given to official team business during drills, activations, nets, public service events or other team sponsored events.

This repeater is made up of separate transmitter and five receiver components in a voted configuration, meaning when an incoming signal is heard by one or more of the receivers, the receiver with the strongest signal is selected to be transmitted by the repeater system.  This is done automatically without knowledge or control by the repeater users, so no special equipment or procedures are needed to use the machine.

The five Motorola ASTRO-TAC receivers are located at various sites throughout Worcester County and are tied back to a Motorola Spectra-TAC voting system located on Skyline Drive.  The transmitter is a Motorola Quantro which is set to 100 watts out of a single cavity filter.  The antenna is about 100 feet above ground level (site is ~775 feet above sea level).  There is no receiver co-located with the transmitter, so no duplexer is needed.  The transmitter is located on Skyline Drive.

The system is running mixed mode (analog FM and P25 digital), meaning when the system receives an analog FM signal with the appropriate PL tone, it will repeat the signal in analog FM, and when it receives a P25 digital signal with the appropriate NAC, it will repeat the signal in P25 digital.

The transmitter and some of the receivers are covered by both UPS and generator power in the event of a power outage.

Due to the configuration of the multiple voted receivers, this repeater system has impressive coverage throughout Worcester County and far beyond.  Please note that unlike most repeater systems which transmit better than they receive, this repeater system receives better it than transmits.  Generally, if you can receive this repeater system at all, you can transmit into it without issue.

A prediction plot of the coverage of this repeater to handheld radios (i.e. worse case scenario) is shown below or click on the photo to see the full size image.