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Other Repeaters
of the Intermountain
Intertie
Utah Repeaters
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Scott's
Hill, near Brighton, Utah - Elevation 10,000 Feet (3049 Meters) ASL
145.27 (-) 100.0 Hz
tone
The location of the Scott's Hill site is a bit hard to describe if
you
haven't been there: It is north of Brighton Utah, not too far
away
from Guardsman Pass. Most of the equipment on site has to do with
relaying TV signals in to SouthWest Wyoming and extreme NorthEastern
Utah,
and there are various other radio services as well. The coverage
of the 145.27 (negative offset, 100.0 Hz tone) is nearly identical to
that
of the Hidden
Peak
repeater - except that it doesn't cover as well to the south. It,
too, is tied full-time to the Intermountain
Intertie.
There is also a UHF repeater on-site (it is not linked to any other system) on 449.525 (131.8 Hz tone) that is also available for all amateurs to use.
For more pictures from Scott's Hill, click here.
Farnsworth Peak, 18 miles SW of Salt Lake City - Elevation
8950 Feet (2729 Meters) ASL
147.12 (+) 100.0 Hz
tone
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The Oquirrh (prounounced "Oh-Kerr") mountains are those that bound the
west side of the Salt Lake valley. In the northern half of the
range (approximately even with 50th south) is one of several broadcast
sites in this range - this one owned by one of the local TV stations.
At this site is installed several amateur repeaters, including the
147.12 repeater. Because of its location, it provides coverage
all along the Wasatch Front, from the southern end of Utah county up
north to the Idaho border along Interstate 15. Due to local
geography, however, there are a few "weak" spots in the Weber/Box Elder
county area - this due to blockage from the tower itself as well as a
larger transmitter facility located just north of this site, along the
ridgetop. More recently, the output power of the 147.12 repeater
was increased allowing it to be "heard" a bit better along the Wasatch
Front.
The location of this repeater also allows it to act as a link site
to other Intertie repeaters in southern and central Utah. For
several years now, it has been used to link to Frisco peak (near
Milford, Utah) via 70cm. This path, however, is somewhat
difficult as it grazes the Sheeprock mountains near Vernon, causing the
70cm signals to and from Frisco Peak to vary somewhat and requiring
fairly large antennas and higher power to maintain a solid link.
More recently, with the installation of the Levan Peak repeater, a
superior, alternate link - through Levan Peak - is possible:
Levan Peak, being line-of-sight to both Frisco Peak and Farnsworth Peak
is now used as the primary relay point into the southern Intertie
repeaters, although the direct link to Frisco is still maintained as a
backup.
This repeater is linked to the Hidden Peak repeater at the top of
the Snowbird tram which, in turn, is the "hub" repeater to many other
repeaters and links into Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.
For more pictures from Farnsworth, click here.
Levan Peak, - Elevation 8350 Feet (2546 Meters) ASL
145.27 (-) 103.5 Hz
tone
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For many years, the Intertie had a "dead spot" in the middle of
Utah: While it provided coverage along the Wasatch Front,
southwestern Wyoming and into Idaho as well as into the southwestern
corner of Utah, it didn't cover well in centeral Utah - until recently.
Several years ago, permission was obtained to place a new intertie
repeater on Levan Peak in the central portion of Utah, but it wasn't
until near the end of 2007 before all of the necessary work (mountain
of antennas on towers, running feedline, preparing radios for the site,
and making modifications to other sites to interface with the new site
at Levan Peak) was finally completed.
This repeater re-uses a frequency pair also used in two other places
on the Intertie (Scott's Hill near Brighton, UT and Mt. Harrison near
Burley, ID) but because the primary coverage areas of these other
repeaters are so distant, interference is unlikely. Nevertheless,
Levan Peak's subaudible tone is 103.5 Hz - a departure from the normal
100.0 Hz tone used elsewhere on the Intertie. Why was this
done? It was noted that it was possible to use the Levan Peak
repeater into Utah County (where coverage of the 147.12 repeater is
much better) and get some interference from the Scott's Hill
repeater on the same frequency: If the same tone had been used, a
user could have brought up both repeaters at once, possibly causing
problems to those listening on the Intertie.
Levan Peak fills in a large coverage gap in central Utah, providing
cover in much of the Sevier River Valley (including Monroe, Richfield,
Gunnison and Moroni) as well as much of the Interstate 15 corridor that
passes through Juab county down near Fillmore, into the coverage area
of the Frisco Peak repeater on 146.94.
For more pictures from Levan Peak, click here.
Laketown,
South of Bear Lake - Elevation 7575 Feet (2310 Meters) ASL
147.020 (+) 100.0 Hz
tone
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Laketown, Utah is a small community along the southern edge of Bear Lake in Rich county. On a ridge near town is the 147.02 repeater (positive offset, 100.0 Hz tone.) This repeater, permanently tied into the Intermountain Intertie hub repeater on Hidden Peak provides coverage of Bear Lake and surrounding communities as well as some coverage into the extreme southwest corner of Wyoming.
This repeater is located on at a site that is primarily used for TV translator service - that is, to relay TV signals into the Bear Lake communities. Having numerous TV receive and transmit systems on-site makes for a site with a lot of antennas - as the picture shows.
Bear Lake is a long, narrow freshwater lake that extends north into
Idaho. Due to geography, it is not in the coverage range of any
other
populated area and in that respect, it is very isolated: Only
those
repeaters located in the area have any sort of reasonable coverage.
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Thus, after a year or so, it was on the air! For several years the NOAA transmitter used commercial GE radio gear - functioning as a simple repeater, taking the 410 MHz feed from Mt. Logan and retransmitting it on 162.500 MHz to cover Bear Lake with the callsign of WXL-63 and more recently, it was upgraded by the NWS with a more powerful transmitter. From its first day, this system has provided good coverage of Bear Lake and the surrounding communities.
As far as is known, this is the first instance where Hams had actually provided equipment for and a home to a National Weather Radio transmitter, providing a community service as well as allowing the scarce NWS budget to be used elsewhere.
For more pictures from Bear Lake, click here.
Idaho Repeaters
Jumpoff
Peak - Elevation 9045 Feet (2758 meters) ASL
146.850 (-) 100.0 Hz
tone
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Jumpoff peak may be found along the north edge of south-central Snake River basin in Southern Idaho - about 57 miles (91 km) west-northwest of Idaho Falls. This repeater (on 146.850 MHz, - offset, 100.0 Hz tone) easily covers Pocatello, Idaho Falls, and much of the rest of the southern portion of Idaho. This portion of the Intermountain Intertie could be considered to be the "Idaho Hub" as it connects to the Malad Pass site (to the south - which, in turn, is connected to the Hidden Peak hub) as well as to Mount Harrison (also to the south and west) and to the Sawtelle Peak site.
Among the many challenges associated with mountaintop sites are those of reliability and durability: Mother nature seems to throw her worst at such sites - trying constantly to break antennas and destroy radios. Jumpoff is no exception, requiring both refinement and reinforcement of the original installation. For example, the original UHF yagi link antennas were mounted near the bottom of the tower. This had two problems that, in retrospect, should have been expected:
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If you have ever visited a typical high mountaintop, you'll know that one simply doesn't dig a hole. This simple fact was reinforced upon installation of this link antenna mast: A jackhammer was used to put the hole into solid rock, and the heavy steel pipe had to be set into concrete (water to mix the concrete had to be brought on-site, of course) and all of these materials had to be hauled to the top of the mountain. All of this makes for a long days' work - only to return later to finish mounting the antennas, running the cables, etc. etc...
The 146.850 repeater antenna system consists of two folded dipoles, each located behind a single director (with the 1/4 wave spacing to the tower acting as a sort of reflector element. If you look carefully at the large picture showing the tower, one can just see the two antennas - one located just above the curved reflector antenna and another located just below, both oriented to direct the signal southwards. Why do this? Owing to the geography, it was decided that there was little reason to provide extensive coverage to the north as signals were blocked by the high mountains in that direction: Redirection of the signals southwards provides better coverage of and receiver sensitivity to stations in those directions than might otherwise be obtained with a typical omni (nondirectional) pattern.
As mentioned previously, this site also links the Sawtelle Peak site. Not shown in any of the pictures, this link utilizes a Telewave folded dipole (the other folded dipoles are also made by Telewave) antenna mounted on a separate pole, also away from the tower and its falling ice.
For more pictures from Jumpoff, click here.
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Located just south and west of West Yellowstone, Montana (but actually in Idaho... barely) the Sawtelle Peak repeater (on 145.230 MHz, - offset, 100.0 Hz tone) covers much of Yellowstone National Park and down toward the South and Southwest toward Rexbug, Idaho Falls, and much of the Upper Snake River Basin.
Sawtelle Peak (also known as "Sawtell" Peak or Mount Sawtell) is the home of one of the FAA Long-Range RADAR sites. When the 2 meter repeater was originally installed atop Sawtelle on its original frequency of 147.12, the presence of the RADAR proved to be a problem: A "buzz" would appear in the audio - not only an annoying artifact or RADAR interference, but it tended to effectively reduce the sensitivity of the repeater.
On August 18, 2000, Vance, WA7FDR (the trustee) got together with John, K7JL and they went to Sawtelle to see if they could solve this problem. Once on the site, they determined that the buzzing noise did, in fact, cover most of the 2 meter band - but there seemed to be less interference below 146 MHz.
At this point it was decided that an "impromptu" frequency change
was
necessary. Dwight, K6LOV graciously offered to bring the
programmer
from Idaho Falls (a 3 hour round-trip) to a meeting point somewhere
closer
to Sawtelle - so while Vance went to meet Dwight, John, with the
help of the on-site FAA engineer, determined that a low 145 MHz
repeater
frequency pair was the best choice.
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With the aid of an ARRL repeater directory and a few phone calls to the Idaho, Montana and Wyoming coordinators, it turned out that the 145.23 pair was available (a distinct advantage of being in the middle of nowhere... where there are still some pairs available.) After meeting Dwight and returning to the site, Vance reprogrammed the repeater (thank goodness that it is synthesized...) and John retuned the cavities for the new frequencies.
When all was said and done, the RADAR interference was no longer a major problem - only noticeable on weaker signals. The exact cause of the interference? It is hard to tell: The "buzz" (from the RADAR's modulation) seemed to come from everywhere on site. It is possible that some nonlinear junctions are present with resonances that happen to be in the 2 meter band. It could be radiation from some equipment (such as the power supply or pulse modulator) or even re-radiation from something else entirely. Fortunately, whatever is doing the re-radiation hasn't "drifted" down in frequency: The 145.23 pair remains relatively clear to this day.
The Sawtelle Peak repeater is almost always linked with the other repeaters in Southern Idaho - and these are usually linked into the Intermountain Intertie.
For more pictures from Sawtelle, click here.
Note: As of 7/11/03, the 2 meter antenna was replaced,
putting
this repeater back into service.
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This repeater operates from Mount Harrison, about 16 miles (26 km) south-Southeast of Burley, Idaho on 145.27 (- offset, 100.0 Hz tone) and covers much of southern Idaho and parts of northern Utah and northern Nevada. This repeater should not be confused with another repeater, also in the Intertie and also on 145.27 located on Scott's Hill near Brighton (at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, between Salt Lake and Park City, Utah.) These repeaters are far enough apart and geographically separated such that they do not interfere with each other to a significant degree. Anyway, because both of these repeaters are usually linked to the same system and carry the same audio, potential interference issues are mitigated.
The Mount Harrison site is linked to the Intertie via Jumpoff Peak and provides a relay to the War Eagle Mountain repeater that, in turn, provides connectivity into the Boise area. In looking at the map on the Intertie page, you might notice that the link to Harrison (via Jumpoff) would seem to be a roundabout way of going. While this path works quite well, having the hub repeater at Jumpoff simplifies system design and increases flexibility.
For more pictures from Harrison, click here.
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Located on a site approximately 11 miles (17 km) west of Malad, Idaho, the Malad "remote" site serves several functions:
The "Simplex Remote" operates much like a remote radio - mostly
because it is! This radio can be remotely steered to other 2
meter
frequencies as necessary, but it is usually "parked" on its normal
146.430
frequency. When using this remote (when it is active) there are
several
things that one must keep in mind:
For more pictures from the Malad site, click here.
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For more pictures from War Eagle site, click
here.
Other pages of possible interest:
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Occasionally, we get some pictures of and information about other repeaters affiliated in some way or another with the Intermountain Intertie. While we may not have enough information to devote an entire web page to that repeater, we feel that it may be of some general interest: After all, some of you are interested in how all of this goes together... |
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Questions, updates, or comments pertaining to this web page may be directed to: uvhfs@utahvhfs.org
This page was last updated on 20080225