The 147.140 Repeater is a G.E. Mastr II running near 85 watts and the Antenna is a Sinclair SRC-229 at 6.2db gain.

The Plains Repeater has seen many changes since the permit was granted in 1989 and the original system was a G.E. Mastr Pro. To be honest it was probably the best receiver that was ever installed up at the sight.  But due to a goof from the Power Company and a major Lightning Strike the system took a major hit and had to be replaced.

The current Mastr II is a 134-149Mhz system with a UHS Preamp and a PLL Exciter. As you can see we also have a Wacom 4 Cavity Duplexer and it has very little insertion loss. The PA is running 85 watts out and the actual duplexer has about 78 watts going to the antenna.

Last year in 2008 we upgraded the Antenna from a Hustler to the Sinclair and that was one of the best purchases the paid users of the Plains Repeater have made. There is a link on the main page on the Antenna or you can view the acrobat pdf file here on how rugged the antenna is. The antenna standoff kit was an additional $600. and it was worth every dollar. I again thank the paid users for their help in it's purchase along with the new antenna.

June is usually the time (we) accept dues and you can be sure that every dime goes to the upkeep of the repeater and the additional links whether the link is to Browning, or to the Echolink system (remote) Internet fee's or to the KC7MRQ-10 APRS node. Corey, KC7MRQ has put a lot of his own money into the APRS and for those that use APRS here in Western Montana, You can tell our Node is down right now.  When it was working it was covering a very large area just like the 14 Repeater and hopefully on this Sunday, the 23rd of March we have a planned trip to Pat's Knob to get the APRS back on the air and to tweak the 14 receiver.

John, KA5LXG is again letting Corey and I use his Sled's to get up to the mountain top.  John has also been a major supporter of the Plains repeater even though he himself has his own repeaters to maintain. 146.620 Bigfork /145.270 Big Mountain /145.350 in Polson on Jetty Hill. I personally wish there were more Amateurs around that were as dedicated to ham radio as Mr. Blair is and has always been.

Last year the U.S.F.S. that manages Pat's Knob gave us permission to move all the antennas to the 80 foot tower and the additional height has made a good increase in the coverage of the repeater.

This year, Corey and I plan on updating the 3rd Link radio to a 15 channel UHF link and we hope to be able to steer the uhf radio to include 15 uhf links to other repeaters all over the area. Additionally, We also will upgrade the current S-com 7K to hopefully the  S-Com 7330 Controller.

Corey and I also plan to extend the coverage by adding soon another repeater to the system and  possibly another APRS into the Flathead Valley.

On April 17th 2009, KC7MRQ and I - K7KTR with the help of the use of Snowmobiles from KA5LXG scaled the mountain to replace the Antenna for the APRS System and We also retuned the 147.740 Receiver and additionally raised the output of 147.140 from 85 watts to 100watts.

The Antenna for the APRS System is a converted Hustler Repeater antenna that now houses inside it a Ladder Line J-Pole. This J-pole seems to be doing a wonderful job and the APRS is back working to the 5+ Counties it serves.

A Special thank you to John Blair, KA5LXG for his lending of his snowmobiles.

Just get me Out of Here

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