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The W7SRZ repeater system in Seattle (multiple band, sites, and linking) has been in flux for the last few years. However - I just discovered that It's still on the air:

The 444.825 (103.5) side of it has been relocated to Northwest Hospital (near Northgate Mall).
The 443.550 (103.5) repeater is on the VA Hospital - Beacon Hill.

There used to be a 6m port (53.550, 100hz) and 2m port (146.900) - however I can't seem to bring them up from here, and did not notice those frequencies active when I brought up the UHF repeaters.

These two repeaters seem to be linked full time - so, between the two of them, they could probably provide some real good portable coverage throughout the core of Seattle.

It looks like it's used by a medical service team for their nets and probably for emergency usage - however, it appears pretty quiet otherwise.

Brad/N7JGX
Whidbey Island, WA

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Whatever.....

SRZ was the first repeater I ever hung out on. It used to have an autopatch. One of the repeaters in it's "system" was supposed to be on Finn Hill and years ago I could access it but haven't been able to for a while now.

_________________
I taste copper.
Comments, views, opinions - and trails of destruction - are my own.

Yes - the 444.825 and 53.55 repeaters used to be on Finn Hill (a water tower there), and were relocated to NW Hospital. The 443.550 and 146.900 repeaters were (and I believe still are) on the VA Hospital.

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Whatever.....

Have you tried the 146.900 lately Brad? Seems it may have been relocated and returned to service. I can bring it up with my handheld from the eastside (tone of 103.5) with a strong return. It locked up my radio last Sunday with a dead carrier and some audible tones when I left to head for LFP. It was real strong from Issy to north of Bellevue where I quit listening to it and changed to simplex. Jim said it locked up his radio just out of Bellingham. I may be wrong but, I don't believe Beacon Hill has the elevation nor is the geography between Issy and there conducive to that good of a path.

The 146.900 / 224.680 / 443.550 system is still at VA.
Recent upgrades have boosted TX power on all bands.

The system is currently being expanded to multiple counties, linked through the 224.680 repeater at VA.

Currently we have:
440.550 (103.5) at St. Peters in Olympia
443.675 (103.5) at Tacoma General in - Tacoma
444.825 (103.5) at NW Hospital in Northgate

Soon we will have a site up north near Skagit County.

A few of these sites are still being worked on, however you should see all of these UHF remote sites linked full time.

The Western Washington Medical Services Team has been funding the expansion of this system, however the primary site at the VA is still coordinated to W7SRZ and still is the Select Radio Zone.

Auto patch is down and has been for some time, although there have been some rumblings of the occasional benefits of reimplementing one.

Interested in being a control / system operator? Please PM me.

There are many of you who listen to the system, and some caught the "lockup" last week before the tech crew did. A simple over the air reset resolved the problem.

We are retrofitting new controllers sytem wide, including replacing the RLC-3 that currently runs the VA site. We are using the Arcom RC810 controller system wide.

One final note for you 220 fans. Currently the 224.680 is running 100.0 hz CTCSS. This will likely be changed back to 103.5 when all sites are up on the new controllers. For now you will need 100.0 for 224.680.

Well they have done a good job with it because I would never believe that I could get that good of a path from downtown Issaquah to the VA with a handheld! Do you know what caused it to lock up last Sunday (the 20th)?

The controller was feeling lonely.
Perhaps it knows it is being put to pasture...

I've got my crossband repeater parked on this one today while at work. I like that it's quiet, no chatter. The repeater tones are nifty too. boop boop BOOP

_________________
I taste copper.
Comments, views, opinions - and trails of destruction - are my own.

Thanks for the info on this - makes sense now, and it's great to see more repeater linking projects happening around here.

Brad.

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Whatever.....

I gotta say, I'm a little bummed. The system went back to using voice greetings and announcements. Nothing terribly wrong with using that, it just makes it a lot harder to keep it on in the background when non-hams are around. They don't really appreciate hearing the voices but for some reason they tolerate the morse code.

_________________
I taste copper.
Comments, views, opinions - and trails of destruction - are my own.

Good input.

Some of the sites may be beaconing voice right now, but we can change that.
Otherwise it should only speak voice during activity, like a kerchunk or ongoing QSO.
I myself don't like a lot of chatter...

The new controllers (theoreticaly) do all CTCSS functions in the controller, so another option, once swapouts are complete, would be to supress tone on ID.

Thanks for the input.

That sounds really slick. If the morse ID went out without a PL that would make for very clean monitoring.

_________________
I taste copper.
Comments, views, opinions - and trails of destruction - are my own.

That's the way it's 'supposed' to work.

Controller has been a bit buggy, even at a basic level.
Latest firmware came in and I'm still testing.

Provided all works as advertised, it will also run macros based on received CTCSS tone.

So I assume you're aware that the UHF VA site was beeping all weekend? ;) In Redmond, I had open carrier on the Northgate site, too.

Seriously though, I'm jazzed that this system is getting attention. My first QSO was on it. Anything I can do to help, let me know.

_________________
I taste copper.
Comments, views, opinions - and trails of destruction - are my own.

ok, I'm going to program all these into my radios tonight and give it a try from the Sammamish area....

-Dog (WA7RLW)