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.