quarterwave Posted October 21 Report Posted October 21 As a hobbyist in radio I like to keep track of what's going on in radio-land around me. There is a utility company repeater near me that is basically abandoned. I used to work for the company, so when I was still there I did the narrow band and re-license. At that time, basically anyone that knew anything about the radio system had retired or got laid off. So the knowledge of the system or it's use was essentially drying up. Fast forward 10 years and there is virtually no one there that knows anything about it. The mobiles are no longer installed, trucks have been rotated or sold, some got sold with radios still mounted in them! There is 1 control base in the main office, but I guarantee it got shut off, because when I worked there people would go where it was (a CDM1250) and turn it off because it made a noise, again lack of knowledge. I had told an executive that we needed to keep the system up for emergency backup in case of the big disaster. At that time, we owned the site, it had backup power and I suggested at the very least we keep some portables ready to go in case we needed them. They used cell phones for everything, and like most modern "tech" people think, it's always going to work. Wrong. That executive is now gone, the company sold, the tower site sold. But, the repeater is still on the air. And, with a lack of real understanding, they just recently renewed the license. Again, probably because they are not sure what it is, but figured they'd be safe and renew. I know how these folks operate. So the repeater is VHF, it has an old school license - it's licensed for voice and data, 250 watts, and a 75 MIRA. I left it at 100 watts. It is on a premiere tower site, Rx at 275 feet and Tx at 200 feet. It talks, the coverage is amazing. I can hit it with my H3 from anywhere around here, and I know no one is using it, because anytime I hit it, the ID goes off, which it is set to only go off if used, and then every 15 minutes. It's not mine, I won't use it, but a person could easily talk on it occasionally and no one would know. Anyone else have any instances like this? I find them fascinating. Quote
Socalgmrs Posted October 21 Report Posted October 21 Yup. We have a huge old public safety uhf repeater. It’s on a massive mountain and giant commercial tower. After local public safety went to digital it was abandoned. Some one was kind enough to program it to a gmrs repeater pair and put in an input tone. It has no output tone unfortunately but it works really well and very few people know it exists. It gets used all the time by those in the know. WSDM599 1 Quote
amaff Posted October 21 Report Posted October 21 Similar thing with a GMRS repeater that has incredible coverage of the Salt Lake valley (colloquially named the Capitol Repeater as it sits on a mountain overlooking the State Capitol building) Anecdotally, the owner passed away years ago. The equipment and site are still active. It's on a site with, IIRC, FAA radio gear, as it's near the SLC airport. No one seems to know why or how it got there, it's just 'always been there' for most of us, and a ton of folks use it. Some of the more stalwart members of the GMRS community in northern Utah have tried making contact with the family to see what it would take for someone to take over stewardship of that repeater, but so far, to my knowledge, haven't gotten very far. Quote
SteveShannon Posted October 21 Report Posted October 21 There’s a 2 meter repeater in a town near me that is still operating, even though the trustee (person who held the repeater license for the club) allowed the repeater license to expire two years ago and the license has now been cancelled (cancellation is automatic two years after expiration). Next month his personal license expires as well. The club is mostly defunct but there are some new hams there now interested in resurrecting it. Quote
WRXB215 Posted October 21 Report Posted October 21 It would be quite interesting to see a map of all the abandoned repeaters around the country. WSDM599 and amaff 2 Quote
quarterwave Posted October 21 Author Report Posted October 21 Yes, a map would be cool. I figured if I wanted to use the one around me for something special, I would just turn on scrambling on the H3's and go for it. But, again, it's not mine and I like to respect the rules. Quote
dosw Posted October 21 Report Posted October 21 1 hour ago, amaff said: Similar thing with a GMRS repeater that has incredible coverage of the Salt Lake valley (colloquially named the Capitol Repeater as it sits on a mountain overlooking the State Capitol building) Anecdotally, the owner passed away years ago. The equipment and site are still active. It's on a site with, IIRC, FAA radio gear, as it's near the SLC airport. No one seems to know why or how it got there, it's just 'always been there' for most of us, and a ton of folks use it. Some of the more stalwart members of the GMRS community in northern Utah have tried making contact with the family to see what it would take for someone to take over stewardship of that repeater, but so far, to my knowledge, haven't gotten very far. I use this repeater, too. I thought it was on Ensign Peak; didn't realize it's located out by the airport. The propagation is amazing for not being on a mountain peak. ...or I guess I'm confused. You mentioned on a mountain peak overlooking the state capitol; that's Ensign peak, but the airport is 6 miles to the west of there. It's a shame that its status is so fragile at the moment. Quote
amaff Posted October 21 Report Posted October 21 34 minutes ago, dosw said: I use this repeater, too. I thought it was on Ensign Peak; didn't realize it's located out by the airport. The propagation is amazing for not being on a mountain peak. ...or I guess I'm confused. You mentioned on a mountain peak overlooking the state capitol; that's Ensign peak, but the airport is 6 miles to the west of there. It's a shame that its status is so fragile at the moment. It is. Ensign Peak's less than 5 miles from the airport, and far and away the closest mountain-top. dosw 1 Quote
WRYZ926 Posted October 22 Report Posted October 22 There is a 6m repeater close to me that the owner passed away years ago. The repeater sat there running this whole time. Another club is in the process of getting it all legal again. We got lucky when it came to antennas for our GMRS repeater. There were some abandoned antennas at 400 feet that happen to have good SWR on GMRS frequencies. Plus there was already some 1 1/2" hard line ran into the building from those antennas. Quote
radiozip Posted October 22 Report Posted October 22 How about retired Navy satellites acting as abandoned repeaters? Coverage is hard to beat! https://vapor95.com/blogs/darknet/satcom-pirates Quote
WRXB215 Posted October 22 Report Posted October 22 @radiozip that's interesting although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Quote
Guest Posted October 22 Report Posted October 22 "Though as improbable as it may seem, mmmmm... POP, he got an idea!" I just had a thought, an activity of a GMRS user to get some personal time with their equipment and improve the repeater map and listings. Use your directional rig and go find and test then enter all the repeaters you can identify into the database! Then ask the users of mygmrs to qualify tour "find" and if you get a qualified repeater, you get the praise and adulation of your peers! I think my Ramsey DF-1 is coming out of retirement. Quote
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