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The Houston Radio Repeater club has a long history. This organization started
its roots from early efforts to put a 2 meter FM repeater on the air in Houston
area in the mid 1960's. The first 146.880 repeater went on the air on the old
Gulf building in downtown Houston. After a few months the availablilty for the
repeater to go the tallest tower around appeared. With the help of many
amateurs around Houston the 146.88 repeater was moved to the 1450 foot tall
television tower for Channel 2. The 146.88 repeater was on the tower from 1965
to 2000. The UHF repeater of the Houston Radio Repeater club, the 444.600 came
on the air in the 70's but unfortunately it came down at the same time as the
146.88.
The two repeaters covered the greater Houston area with with up to a 65 mile
radius. With both repeaters located on the 1450 foot level/platform on tower
also known as the Dewalt or Blue Ridge Tower, they became very popular for area
public service events, back-ups for local EOC machines as well as a Thursday
night swap net. Both repeaters have always been open but now have PL on at all
times to prevent interference issues. Here is some basic information on the
last repeaters that were on the Blue Ridge tower.
VHF 146.880 -600 KHz offset using a 103.5 tone, dual antennas, 30 watts output
from a 75 watt GE Mastr ExecII mobile radio.
UHF 444.600 +5 MHz offset using a 71.9 tone, singel antenna, about 48 watts
output from a 75 watt GE Mastr ExecII mobile radio.
Today both repeaters are located in downtown Houston on one of the tall
buildings. The equipment has been updated and will change even more in the
future.
The current repeaters are:
VHF 146.880 -600 KHz offset with a 103.5 tone and a single antenna. The
repeater is a 50 watt Motorola GR500 operating at 20 watts.
UHF 444.600 +5 MHz offset with a 71.9 tone and a single antenna. The repeater
is a 100 watt Motorola MTR2000 operating at 60 watts.
Keep up with the web site as more will change with the repeaters in the near
future.
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