146.94 is 42 years young!

146.94 is 42 YEARS YOUNG!!

 

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while since my last “blog.” I hope everyone is enjoying the new 146.94 antenna. Speaking of .94, I have been on a bit of a mission lately to find out exactly when .94 went on the air. For those of you who are recent additions to our great hobby, you might not know that the 146.94 repeater was the very first two meter repeater in East Tennessee. Its history is that of great and continuous service. I am VERY proud to be carrying on the tradition started by George, K4HXD, who was the creator and founder of this repeater. We lost George in 1992. He was of my mentors. Please read the article about K4HXD on my website if you haven’t already.

 

Lately, I have been attempting to learn more about .94’s history, which started before I received my license in 1973. Thanks to conversations with great hams like Gene (W4UVR),  Charles aka “Digger”  (WA4QGX), Jerry (N4SH),  Lee (WA4QXC), Bill (WB4YPO),  Jim (WA4HQP), Bob (W4ZTV), and others, I am starting to piece together some of the history of this great repeater that I am now proud to own and operate. As of today, I have been able to determine with some accuracy that 146.94 is 42 years young this year.   The repeater started out in George’s basement in Maryville, Tennessee, before it went to its long-time home atop Chilhowee Mountain near Walland. I am told that in 1967, Ed (ex WA4GKN, now WF4H), moved to Knoxville from Nashville, and was one of the first users of .94 from his RCA tube-type dynamotor mobile as he came into the area. Note that this commercial radio, state-of-the-art in its day, was capable of only ONE channel.  Look how far we have come in just a few short years!!

 

I hope to be finding out more about .94’s storied history, and I will be adding a few details to its service record before 1985, when I was able to take over for George as .94’s owner and caretaker.  I can readily share about the post 1985 years, including a story about how my then-girlfriend, who knew very little about what she was getting into, helped me pay for the repeater. I guess that’s why I might have married her…J

 

If you or anyone you know can share anything about .94’s early years, PLEASE contact me. I would love to include your information about .94’s history as I share it with everyone.

 

What’s going on elsewhere? I’m sure you have noticed some of the problems that I have been having with 146.73. Something has been “mixing” with the repeater transmitter’s signal and appearing as a signal in the receiver input. The result is a nasty “squealing” sound similar to what happened on 145.47 when I was experiencing the problem with the high-powered UHF TV station. I hope to travel to English Mountain next week to at least install a 118.8 Hz tone board on the repeater receiver, again similar to that of 145.47. I chose 118.8 as it is an SERA- recommended tone for East Tennessee. Please note that this is NOT a permanent solution. I will be attempting to find the source of the problem and removing its capability to “mix.” This could be as easy as finding a transmitter on the mountain that has gone astray, or it could be as expensive as adding a $600 isolator to .73’s transmitter. It’s almost a two-hour trip to English Mountain, as I am a renter on a site and I must go to the office of my “landlord” and get the keys before I can access the site. I am VERY fortunate to have .73 on the site that it calls home, and these are the rules I must abide by. I am also working toward improving the antenna situation on .73, as it is low to the ground at this time. Stay tuned and please be patient as I attempt to get .73 back to the service it provided when Sam (WB4HAP, SK) and Matt (WB4IOB) placed it on the air around 1973. And if you know anything about .73’s history, I would love to hear from you as well! I do remember the great .73 picnics!

 

THANK YOU for reading. If you like what you see, please tell others. If you have a comment or even a complaint, please tell me. I can be reached via the email link on the website…www.wb4gbi.com.

 

73 de Tim WB4GBI

 

 

 

 

Tim Berry WB4GBI  (check out my website at www.wb4gbi.com)

Chief Engineer

Citadel Broadcasting of Knoxville, TN

WIVK-FM  WNOX-FM   WNML AM/FM  WNRX-FM  WOKI-FM

 

Chief Engineer

Vol Radio Network

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University of Tennessee