2 - Meters 220 440 6-Meters

News Flash:  the 146.625 Machine now has a 100hz Tone! As of late Thursday, January 31st, the 146.625 (-) Repeater is operating with a 100hz tone.  This is due to a persistent problem with some errant RF getting into the machine, and opening up the squelch.  It has always been our policy to keep all the WB4GBI Repeaters completely open, with no tones, so anyone can use them... and hopefully this tone situation will be a temporary one! So for now... make sure you are sending a 100hz tone along with your audio, in order to use this machine! The 146.625 (-) repeater is located on Chilhowee Mountain in Blount County, TN.  near a community known as the "top of the world".  This is a very beautiful place in east Tennessee... but just as you might imagine, it is in a very rugged area, where access to this area is not very easy.  The troubles are worth it though... as the high elevation of the terrain makes for a perfect Repeater site!   The image to the left is the actual cabinet with the repeater installed... while the tower on the right is the main support structure of this facility.  It holds both the 146.625 repeater antenna... as well as the 224.340 repeater antenna.(See below)            This photo is of the repeater receiver and exciter in the swing-out enclosure. The 100 watt power amplifier is visible thru the shield in the back, as is the control shelf with the plug in control cards. The bottom of the ID unit (gray box) is also visible.      There are several other commercial & non commercial repeaters located at this site, along with the amateur radio service machines.    This repeater is another of many relay repeaters for SKYWARN, where weather spotters can contact the National Weather Service, directly, during inclement weather, to officially log in weather observations.  It is also used by many other amateur groups for emergency communications, nets and general club uses.        A brief history of 146.625...     This machine utilizes a Factory-Stock 132-150Mhz GE Mastr II Repeater combo... which was acquired back in 1982.. This machine originally went on the air in 1988, on Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville.  Later, it was moved to Chilhowee Mountain (the original 146.940 site).  It remained there until that site was abandoned in 2004.  This forced the repeater's move to it's present location near the Top of the World Community in Blount County. EQUIPMENT LIST FOR THE 146.625 REPEATER:  GE Mastr II Factory-Stock 132-150Mhz repeater  Phelps Dodge (now Celwave) six cavity duplexer  1/2" foam heliax  Decibel Products DB-224 antenna (@ approx.140 feet at the top of the tower) Hamtronics ID Kit (Built by Tim) Below is the VIEW from this repeater site... so you can see why this repeater site is such a great one....

2 - Meters 440 6-Meters

2-Meters isn't the ONLY type of service the WB4GBI repeater system has to offer. In addition to 2-Meters let us not forget there is a machine on the 220 band!           This is the 224.340 repeater... located at it's newest home on Sharp's Ridge, near Broadway in North Knoxville.  The antenna is on the WJXB-FM Tower (B-97.5), which also holds the antenna for WMAK-TV (Digital). For you "Old Timers", it's the old "Channel 26" tower on Sharp's Ridge... the first REALLY TALL tower in Knoxville!  On the left you will see that in the top of the repeater cabinet there is another machine.  This is W4KEV's 6-Meter Repeater, on 53.150.  (W4KEV - formerly KB5HFM - is the chief Engineer of the Commercial Broadcast Radio Station there.  It is thanks to him, and fellow Engineer W4ZTV, that the 224.340 machine has found such a great new home!)  Below that is the 224.340 machine, and you can see the duplexer in the very bottom of the cabinet. A brief history of 224.340...      This machine is the newest addition to the WB4GBI repeater system... going into service in late1997.  This is the only 220-band repeater in the system.      The transceiver was bought from Jim Sayne (K4IBW) and a controller was scavanged from an out of service machine to complete the package  This machine only features a maximum output power of 20 watts, but thanks to great propogation on the 220 band, this repeater performs as well as a 100-watt 2-meter system.  It made it's way to it's current location on Sharp's Ridge in late 2007.     EQUIPMENT LIST FOR THE 224.340 REPEATER:  Motorola "Micor" series receiver - modified for 220 from VHF Motroola "Micor" series exciter (output 100 milliwatts) Modified for 220 from VHF 25 watt PA chip, installed inside the transceiver Micro Computer Concepts RC-1000 control panel WACOM four cavity 220Mhz duplexer  1/2" foam heliax  4-element antenna (Similar to a DB-224) on the tower