145.270

145.270 Repeater - Nixa, MO

On-Air Date:                   May 2003

Repeater Transmit:         145.270

Repeater Receive:           144.670               (-600 kHz)

Modes:                              Analog 25 kHz Wideband Analog OR P25 Digital

PL Tone:                             162.2 Hz

PL Direction:                      Encode & Decode

P25 NAC                             656

NAC Direction                   Encode & Decode

All Star                                Node 565504 – Ham VoIP – Raspberry Pi 4

Transmit Power:               125-Watts

Antenna System:              Comprod 874F-70TM-1/4 - 160' AGL

Link antennas:                   Commscope DB-436 - 10' AGL

Coax Cable:                        Commscope LDF6-50 - 1-1/4" Heliax

Controller:                         SCOM 7330

Repeater                            Motorola Quantar

Duplexer:                           DB Products DB-4060

Link Radios:                       Motorola CDM-1250 403-470 MHz UHF

Power Converter:             Samlex 50a, 48vdc to 12vdc stop down convertor

Backup power:                  Verizon 48vdc Power Plant

Router:                               Ubiquiti EdgerouterX

Internet:                             Yes – Total Highspeed Wireless Internet

Nets:                                  Thursdays @ 7:30 p.m.  - Nixa ARC Check-in Net

The 145.270 repeater is the flagship repeater for the Nixa ARC.  The repeater went on the air with the original callsign of KC0LUN in May 2003.  James Adkins, KB0NHX, Jeff Morrissey, KB0WVT and Chris Cochran, KB0WZC, were in attendance at a SMARC meeting in the late 1990's when then President of SMARC Karen Thorpe, N0TDW, began talking about a group of young new renegade hams from Nixa and encouraged the club members NOT to talk to them on the radio.  Not being welcome at the SMARC club, this group would become the nucleus of the Nixa ARC which would form their own club which was simply focused on people interested in amateur radio having fun "doing amateur radio together and learning about the hobby."  The club exploded and in 2001, Bill Chambers, W8KIR-SK (former N0MBW) urged the club to move away from their simplex frequency of 146.565 and apply for a repeater frequency to help the club expand.  The club did so and was granted 145.270 MHz by Mac McKenzie of the Missouri Repeater Council.  One day James noticed some tower work being completed on the Nixa Water Tower at 911 W Mt. Vernon Church behind the Lutheran Church.  There, James met Jeremy Tannehill, who would later get his license - KC0UJZ - and Jeremy worked with his boss, Mike Sewell, to obtain permission for us to place our repeater in the Alltel cellular building at the water tower.  Unfortunately, working with the City of Nixa was slow.  The Church was upset that the City was allowing Alltel to put a cellular site atop the water tower and told us we'd have to get permission in writing from the Pastor of the Church.  James, KB0NHX, met with the pastor a couple of times with no luck.  They were afraid our signal would contaminate the water supply and interfere with their wireless microphones.  Fast forward a year and James and his wife, Kim, KC0GKP, had a child and found a local child care provider, Carolyn Deke.  In passing, she mentioned her and her husband were members at the Church.  James mentioned to her what the club was trying to do and they spoke with their Pastor and soon another meeting was arranged.  This time, the Church gave us a letter to give to the City of Nixa stating they approved of us installing our equipment atop the water tower and gave us rights to use the easement to the building through their parking lot.  So, in late 2002, we received permission to complete the install and in May 2003 James and Kim used $1200 from a home equity loan to pay PDQ towers of Grain Valley, MO for the coax and antenna installation.

To purchase the repeater, antenna, and duplexer the club members made private "start up" donations at the January 2002 club meeting, sold Krispy Kreme fundraiser cards, Pizza Hut fundraiser cards and Entertainment coupon books.  Not having the $3600 needed to purchase the duplexer, James Adkins contacted DB Products and asked for a donation - they ended up selling the duplexer to the club for $900 tuned and shipped!  This was the first donation from a corporate donor the club received.

The club still needed coax cable for the project.  James Adkins, KB0NHX, had been made aware of some coax that Sprint PCS had available for sale in Indiana - we just had to get it to Nixa.  Kevin Hunter, KA0I, had an acquaintance, Clayton Watson, KB0WZI, who drove for Dollar General at the time.  Clayton's boss agreed to haul the coax for us if we'd buy him a nice supper.  So, James, Kevin and their wives met him at the Applebees at Kearney & Glenstone and paid for a nice steak dinner and the coax exchange was complete.

The original repeater was a Motorola Micor tone-remote base station converted to repeater use by Scott Zimmerman and Kevin Custer of Repeater Builder.  Over the years the club had an EchoLink node, #113667, which is now on the SMLRS, and also a Peet Brothers UT-100 weather station to provide weather conditions at the repeater site.

The repeater was re-built and aligned in 2009 to work on 12vdc 100% so the problematic power supply could be abandoned.  In July 2011, the repeater callsign was changed to K0NXA.  On July 9, 2017, the repeater was replaced with a Motorola Quantar dual mode analog / P25 repeater donated to the club by Jack Holzer and the Johnson County, KS communications division. 

In January 2023, the club was given a grant from the Nixa Community Foundation to purchase a new Comprod antenna to replace the 20 year old DB224E antenna.  In July 2023, Hayden Tower replaced the antenna and installed the wireless Internet radio atop the water tower.  The coax jumper that ran underground in conduit was also replaced after we found that squirrels had eaten the jacket off the coax in several spots near the shelter.

The repeater is generally a stand alone repeater operating in analog mode with a PL tone of 162.2 Hz but it is mixed mode and can operate on P25 digital with a NAC of 656.  It links up to the 442.425 on Thursday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. for the Thursday Night Nixa ARC Check-in net

Hints for use:  If you want to try the repeater out in P25 digital mode, there are no special codes needed to change the repeater from analog to digital - the Motorola Quantar repeater does this for you!  Simply program your P25 Phase I capable radio for the 145.270 / 144.670 frequency pair, set it for C4FM digital operation and program a NAC of 656.  The NAC is the P25 equivalent of a PL tone.