NavyBOFH Posted June 14, 2021 Report Share Posted June 14, 2021 Just moved from SC to NC and I am more than slightly disappointed. I see plenty of repeaters out in the mountains, and plenty around the beach... but where are my middle-state repeaters? Specifically the Johnston/Wake County area! Only listing I see is "Raleigh Fairgrounds"... and its long gone! And before anyone says "just put one up if you're that mad"... I will. If someone has a good spot in the Clayton area I think I could easy span Princeton to Raleigh without breaking a sweat. Show me the tower site, I'll buy the repeater and duplexer today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacJack Posted June 15, 2021 Report Share Posted June 15, 2021 Let me help you.... attached is a list of GMRS license holders in Clayton, NC... Pick some of the newer guys and reach out to them. Put a bill board up... Have fun. License Search - Search Results.pdf NavyBOFH 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuySagi Posted June 15, 2021 Report Share Posted June 15, 2021 The lack of repeaters in the Raleigh metro area shocked me, too. I'm down south of Fayetteville in NC and on a good day with the wind at my back can hit one in South Carolina...with my base station, barely. I'm heading up to RDU tomorrow and it would be nice to hit a repeater on my way up, that's for sure (and all the times I drive by with my camper/trailer). Good luck, dang it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacJack Posted June 15, 2021 Report Share Posted June 15, 2021 1 hour ago, GuySagi said: The lack of repeaters in the Raleigh metro area shocked me, too. I'm down south of Fayetteville in NC and on a good day with the wind at my back can hit one in South Carolina...with my base station, barely. I'm heading up to RDU tomorrow and it would be nice to hit a repeater on my way up, that's for sure (and all the times I drive by with my camper/trailer). Good luck, dang it. You are going to have to outreach... repeaters are not going to come to you.... You have to find a family repeater like I have and ask if you can join in... We have one repeater in our area is open IF you are the right type of person and what you want to do... I did put up my own repeater for the family/kids and we have so much fun. Change your focus and think of how you can help the repeater community/family. An example is the repeater owner who has the best location and the highest tower on the higes mounty covers 30 miles and we became best friends and he helped me get my Ham ticket. You have to work at it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyBOFH Posted June 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2021 My issue is making contacts in the area. When I was in SC it was easy to find a tower spot for free and put up a repeater... sometimes with a feedline and antenna already there. In the RDU area - not so lucky. I am trying to use contacts at my work to make an introduction, but with me constantly traveling getting to ham meetings and such to possibly make other connections is limited. Ideally it would be nice to get a repeater up on one of the building rooftops, or one of the many water towers in the area. Getting there is the hard part. Otherwise I already have the repeater and duplexer ready, and would gladly spend on antenna/feedline/NEMA outdoor enclosure to make it a reality. I want it up for family/friend use - but as an open repeater as well for community use. My goal reaching out on here was to make that introduction if there is one to be made. Otherwise it is a 50/50 split for me to just toss up a VHF Quantar on my Part 90 frequencies and run that instead... but I enjoy having the community use a GMRS repeater would provide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuySagi Posted June 17, 2021 Report Share Posted June 17, 2021 On 6/15/2021 at 6:04 PM, MacJack said: You are going to have to outreach... repeaters are not going to come to you.... You have to find a family repeater like I have and ask if you can join in... We have one repeater in our area is open IF you are the right type of person and what you want to do... I did put up my own repeater for the family/kids and we have so much fun. Change your focus and think of how you can help the repeater community/family. An example is the repeater owner who has the best location and the highest tower on the higes mounty covers 30 miles and we became best friends and he helped me get my Ham ticket. You have to work at it... You're right Mac Jack....my problem (OK, excuse) is lack of time. The only repeater I've secured permission to use (or asked for the privilege) is owned by a very thoughtful and decent person, in my estimation, and I'm pretty sure almost all of them are. The moment he learned my use was to stay in touch with the family when we're traveling by and during those annoying hurricanes he was eager and willing to let me log on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyBOFH Posted June 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2021 That is essentially where I am at right now - except if you look at an NC map I have Garner/Raleigh, Smithfield, and Princeton to cover at minimum. I have one family member in Smithfield (almost towards Clayton) that I could bribe to throw a repeater in the attic and mount an antenna to like a 10ft piece of conduit, but that still likely will not cover the area appropriately... otherwise it would already be done. I work full-time in RF systems integrations and have every bit of infrastructure, test, and subscriber equipment I could ever need for either a GMRS repeater or Part 90... but without a decent spot to put it up it seems pointless. As I said before - I chose to go GMRS instead of my Part 90 license just because I feel like it would provide a better service to my family and surrounding community. Otherwise, I will just set it to a coordinated pair and run P25 with AES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyBOFH Posted January 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 Raising this thread from the dead - RDU-area NC folks chime in! I have seen there's a wonderful "Raleigh 700" repeater finally up - I would love to see some more repeater density in the area! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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