29.680

29.680 Repeater - Nixa, MO

On-Air Date:                   November 20, 2021

Repeater Transmit:         29.680

Repeater Receive:           29.580   (-100 kHz)

PL Tone:                            123.0 Hz

PL Direction:                      Encode & Decode

Bandwidth:                        Wideband – 25 kHz

MODE:                                FM

Transmit Power:               40-Watts

Antenna System:              Commscope DB-201L (transmit site & receive site) - 160' AGL

Link antennas:                   Commscope DB-436 - 160' AGL

Coax Cable:                        Receive site:  Commscope AVA5-50 for link antenna & LDF5-50 for 10m RX

                                           Transmit site:  Commscope AVA7-50 for link antennas & 10-meter TX

Controller:                         SCOM 7330

Repeater                            Motorola CDM-750 for receive; Motorola CDM1250 for Transmit

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

Backup power:                  Generator Only

Router:                               Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X

Internet:                             Yes  - Total Highspeed

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

The 29.680 repeater is installed on two water towers in Nixa, MO. The transmit site was installed first in March 2021 on the City of Nixa water tower on Hwy 14 on the East side of Nixa. After over a year of discussions with the City of Nixa, the co-locate was approved. At the same time, Verizon was abandoning their antenna systems on the site and having them removed. After some discussion with Verizon, we were able to have them leave (5) runs of 1-5/8" heliax on the tower for amateur use. The tower crew that did the work provided the club with new 1-5/8" connectors at the base of the tower and build 7/8" jumpers atop the tower and installed our DB-201L transmit antenna along with a DB436 to link the repeater to the receive site, a second DB436 to link the repeater to the Forgotten Bands Network of the Ozarks and the wireless Internet radio.

The receive site was installed in August 2021 courtesy of Rick Robison, K0VEL, of Velocity Wireless in Ozark. The City of Nixa Fire Department had abandoned their DB224 VHF antenna and allowed the club to use their coax for our DB201L receive antenna. We simply had to add a second run of AVA5-50 7/8" coax for our UHF link radio to communicate with the transmit site.

The 29.680 repeater started out as a joke - the club already had repeaters on all bands up through 33cm, why not 10m? Commscope donated the DB201L 10-meter ground plane antennas and 500' of 7/8" heliax to the project to make this a reality. Companies like Verizon and Velocity Wireless provided the tower work to hang the antennas and without their assistance the repeater would not be operational.

Hints for use: The 29.680 repeater uses vertically polarized antennas. You will maximize your ability to talk to and hear the repeater with a vertically polarized antenna system. If you are using an HF radio, you can remove any PL tone "hum" by running decode to strip the PL tone before it reaches your speaker.