(from richmond-900 yahoo group, courtesy of WB4KXS)

The second 900 MHz Richmond repeater is on the air from south side right now. It is on 927.0250 / 902.0250 MHz. It is a mixed mode repeater, that is it can work in analog mode using 100 Hz PL, OR it will work in P25 digital mode using NAC $293.

The repeater output (after the duplexer) is 60 watts. The antenna is fed by about 500 feet of 7/8 inch hardline. The antenna is one that was already mounted on the PBS tower. However, it is NOT a 900 MHz antenna. In fact we do not really know what the antenna is, but we suspect that it is a UHF (450 MHz) antenna. We have a 900 MHz Super StationMaster antenna ready to go, but are trying to find a way to cover the cost of having a commercial tower crew (that is approved by PBS) put the 900 MHz antenna up on the tower. When the Super StationMaster antenna is in place, this repeater’s range should improve greatly. Then again, even with the current antenna, it works surprisingly well.

If you have one of the Kenwood TK-981 radios that N4MW and I have set up and distributed in Virginia, mainly in the Richmond metro area, this repeater is just two channels down from the downtown Richmond repeater you have been using.

If you have one of the P25 EFJ 5100 handheld radios that were recently available on eBay, you are ready to go on analog. You will need to get the very latest version of the software configuration for it to work on P25. Any 5100 programmed at the last Tailgate Fest (or since then) is programmed for P25 on this repeater. If you need a 5100 update, let me know and we can fix you up with the newest configuration.

Thanks to N4MW for the engineering, metal work, duplexer, time, and sweat to put together this repeater, a Motorola Quantar. Thanks to K3WRY for the Bird meter panel we are using in this repeater. Thanks to RATS for getting permission to put this repeater at the PBS site, and thanks to PBS for giving that permission.