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2-meter Repeater Issues (Resolved)

November Resolution: We determined that the source of all the problems we were having was a PTZ camera that was installed on the water tower in August. The camera has been removed which put us back at our original equipment setup. The interference has been completely removed at this time.


September 10th Update: The receiver desensitizing issue has returned. We are back at it trying to find out what is going on. We will update you here as to the status as we learn more.


September 5th Update: We have discovered what the issue was and the receive issues seem to have gone away. We discovered two problems:

  • First, a digital advertisement sign, highway-sized, just down the road a sign was experiencing major spurious emissions directly on our repeater input of 147.700 along with other frequencies from 144-162 MHz, including the NOAA weather bands. This was the sign creating spurious emissions. We want to thank iHeartCommunications, Inc./iHeart Radio for accepting our report and jumping on this problem very quickly once we identified and reported it.
    Clear Channel digital sign that was transmitting spurious emissions.
  • Second, some waterproofing material used on top of the water tower was causing RF reflection and desensitizing the repeater’s receiver when in use.

Thank you to the HurstARC team that worked very hard to find it. They ran nets, purchased equipment, ran surveys, etc. on their own time and money which led to us finding the problem(s). Go forth and utilize the repeater once again.


TCC water tower repeater site picture.

TCC Water Tower

August 5th Original Information Release: Dear Club family, friends, and all other users of our repeater, thank you for notifying us of some repeater issues we are having on our 147.100 machine. We are trying to figure out what exactly happened recently to cause us reception issues.

We have spent some time out at the repeater site doing inspections and testing all of the equipment. We will find out what the problem is shortly and we ask that you not abandon us. Whether it is an antenna issue, coax issue, or maybe even something with the repeater itself, we’re gonna figure it out.

We will update this post once we finally figure out what is happening. Thank you for the reports and thank everyone who uses our 2m repeater. You are all welcome still.


Please let us know if you have problems going forward by emailing us at [email protected]

Found Some Old Friends at Belton

So . . . we’re hanging out at Belton, and a Life Member drops by to say hello. Charles Penry WA5VHU and his wife Cindy KD5CCB were visiting the HamExpo and visited with us for a while.

Charles is holding a radio we brought for sale that was once owned by Betty Roden and donated to the club some years ago!

We set up next to Jason KC5HWB (Ham Radio 2.0). The weather was perfect! Several club members stopped by to say hello.

2023 Winter Field Day

Our 2023 Winter Field Day was great fun!! We operated as 3-Oscar (three stations, outdoors). We used independent power (generator and battery) for the entire event! Three stations operated continuously throughout the night. The bands were pretty good. We operated 10 and 20 meters until early evening, then 40 meters, and finally 80 meters for the last few contacts.

For a few hours, we shared the park with a church group of nearly 100 kids who seemed to be using our antennas as goals for their football game. After they left, our antennas were still standing and we continued to operate.
Jeremy, N5KKE brought a smoker and prepared chickens and hot dogs. We ate well and enjoyed moderate temperatures throughout the night, until about 6:00 am.

In the early morning, the thermometer plunged and the wind picked up. We got a taste of real winter and decided that some kind of tent or shelter with sides would have been a great idea! Great spirits and good fun kept us warm and we operated until about 9:00 am on Sunday. After filling ourselves with doughnuts and hot coffee we packed up and headed for home and warm beds.

These events are a ton of fun. If you haven’t been lately you’re missing out. Our next field day is at the end of June. I hope you’ll join us.