On Friday, May 13th after several months of testing the 443.6500 BCARA repeater was finally taken to its new home northwest of Dallas. Mike K9MLS and Paul KB9TYC were able to transport and install the equipment into the shelter after morning rain showers. After clearing some brush from the site and a quick run into Barron to the hardware store the repeater was put on the air around 10:30 a.m.
The repeater is a Yaesu DR-1X System Fusion repeater running 20 watts to a 4 bay folded dipole antenna at 200 feet. The repeater runs in AMS mode and automatically can switch between digital and analog. On analog the repeater requires a DCS Tone of 351. On digital no DSQ code is required. A 100 watt amplifier will be added in the future.
This repeater system was made possible by Barron County Emergency Management, AC9LG, K9MLS, KB9TYC, KC9JIK, and KD9DFB.
