BoxCar

The WCARS repeater W4MOE (146.91, -.6, 91.5) on Mt. Spivey did a wonderful job collecting information and disseminating it. I helped what I could from my location in S. Asheville before leaving because of no electricity or water. My power will be on by midnight Friday, but no word on water. The storm washed out roads and bridges, undermined pipes which caused breakage and damaged the water/sewer treatment plants. Makes me proud that I was able to contribute to the information flow in my little corner of S. Asheville.

We aim to please

The only protocols mentioned in the last expired EXTRA question pool were PACTOR and one other. Nothing about what they were or how they were formatted, just about what equipment was needed.

Don't worry about knowing about DMR or any of the other modes for the ham tests until you reach the Extra level. DMR is not an easy protocol to program as there are 3 elements to sync for every contact you want to use.

The repeater is supposed to be under the owner's control whenever its powered up. The owner would then be able (provided they configured the option) to shut the repeater down and reinitialize it later,

It can also be your microphone. If its an electret (powered) mic, the whine can come from the mic element itself. This sounds like a better scenario as it happens with the engine off.

They were in the Land of Fruits and Nuts. What did you expect? Intelligence?

I'm running Mean Well LMRs with a 30 and 50A outputs

High out, low in is easier to remember.

Repeaters are normally listed by their output frequency, you receive channel. Repeater channels set in your radio have the correct output channel (5 MHz higher) coded into the channel selected. Repeater input frequencies are all at 467 MHz while all the other channels are 462 MHz.

Antenna height.

Repurpose a part 90 radio for those conditions but any radio meeting FCC requirements is all you need in Asheville.

A 50 AH battery is overkill. Use the 80/20 rule that 80% of the on time is receive only. Calculate the amps used for an hour of on time and multiply that by the expected number of hours of operation. That will give you the size (in AH) battery needed. The excess power supplied by the solar system deep charges the battery providing even more operating cushion.

Dale's brother.

I would put the antenna where its not obvious from the street if possible. It's also best to mount it while doing something else such as hanging lights or cleaning gutters. People don't pay attention if they see an expected task.