LOARC has added a DMR repeater to the clubs public arsenal of repeaters. Just recently one of our members Scott Poest (KB8KGU) has donated his time and equipment to enable the club to have a DMR repeater. Pertinent information about the repeater is listed in blue below.

In addition, in the near future the club will be offering a generic “code plug” for Anytone radios courtesy of Fred Groce (K0FG).

From Larry Cicchineli (K3PTO) here is a link to a DMR beginner’s guide.

For those that are interested in other forms of digital format the repeater is capable of handing not only DMR but also System Fusion and D-Star.

BTW, there will be NO Training this coming Wednesday (Nov 17th)

The Osage Beach DMR repeater is located near the center of town.  Here is some important information about the repeater:

Repeater DMR Number:  312583

Network: Brandmeister

Repeater Callsign: KB8KGU

Hardware: Motorola VRM-850 with MMDVM, approximately 35 watts ERP

Transmit: 442.200

Receive: 447.200

Color Code (CC): 1

Current Slot Details:

Static Talkgroups:

Timeslot 1:

3100  (All USA)

3180  (Missouri Lakes)

31201 (BYRG)

31290 (MO ARES)

31291 (SW Missouri)

31292 (STL Metro)

Timeslot 2:

312583 (Local mode)

3129 (MO Statewide – Scheduled Wednesdays 7:30PM Net only)

With DMR there are two timeslots.  Two QSOs can happen simultaneously.

You are able to bring up any talk group programmed into your radio.  Keying up a non-static talk group will establish a link to that talk group, and will expire after approximately 10 minutes of inactivity.

Currently, talk group 3100 is static on time slot 1, mainly for proof of concept testing to generate traffic.  It keeps the repeater very busy and is good to verify your radio, and the repeater, are working.  Eventually this group may be removed from static because of its chattiness. 

Works begins at our new club location. Here we see Al, a friend of Ralli (W9TPA, yea I was surprised he had a friend, Ralli told me he has to pay Al) anyway Al was measuring the tower for the mounts we need to install the antenna we want. BTW, was told that the tower is about 160 feet.

Received the following from Scott (KB8KGU) via Gary (KE5JTL)

From: Scott Poest
Date: September 19, 2021 at 20:31:03 CDT
To: Gary Sundstrom
Subject: Re: DMR Update

Sounds good. 

On Sun, Sep 19, 2021 at 20:06 Gary Sundstrom  wrote:

Thanks for the update and all the effort getting this working. Hopefully the coordinators and the frequencies you have will agree. I’d like to send this on to Jack to post on the website if that works for you. Thanks
Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 19, 2021, at 11:00, Scott Poest wrote:
 
  Hi all,
  I received the repaired radios  yesterday and I have everything working now.  The “repeater” consists of two Motorola mobile radios.  At present the transmit radio puts out 10 watts with a fan so it can have a higher duty cycle.  I have my Anytone radio programmed and the system is working well.
  
  If 10 watts isn’t enough we may need to consider an external amplifier for the system. 
  
  I’m still waiting on the repeater coordinators to finish up.  It has been almost 2 months and they haven’t finished it yet.  I don’t know when it will be done at this point.  If we do need to change frequencies I would probably send the radios back to the person I got them from for proper alignment and programming.
  
  I gave up on the Kenwood TKR850.  I think the PA is bad and it is not aligned to the ham bands.  If we have anyone who knows of a place to service it, it would be worth having as a backup analog repeater perhaps.
  
  The repeater is on my call with number 312583.  You may be able to program that ID in your radio and reach it if you have a hotspot or something already.  I will also have some static talk groups on like 3100 North America, 31291 SW MO, 31292 STL Metro.  We can decide if we want more later.
  
  With the raspberry pi setup it will also do Yaesu system fusion, DSTAR, P25, NXDN.  I only have DMR enabled and the more you turn on, the busier the repeater will be of course.  I don’t know much about anything but DMR but I think Yeasu is popular too*.
  
  See ya!
  Scott

* (Webmaster note: According to Repeaterbook.com System Fusion has the most repeaters in Missouri.)

Last year FCC announced that the license fee for Amateur Radio would be increase to $50 and GMRS license would be reduced to $35. In December of 2020 FCC announced that Amateur  Radio would be reduced to $35, this was after FCC received massive feed back against the $50 increase. As of the date of this notice FCC has not announce an effective date. Normally, notification should be 30 days before the effective date.

For you Parks on the Air folks there is some good news. There has been over 1,000 parks added and POTA has established a POTA support desk (send email to [email protected] air.com), you can still get help at the POTA facebook group. For more information on POTA go to www.parksontheair.com. Also Vance Martin (N3VEM) does a monthly podcast update on POTA at his website check it out here https://www.hamradioworkbench.com/podcast. BTW, Vance also has a relatively new YOUTUBE site, simply search for N3VEM.

Lastly some exciting news from ARRL. ARRL board is considering plans to cover the new $35 FCC fee (effective date not set yet for this increase) for applicants under 18 years old. For more information please go to ARRL’s website; http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-board-considers-plan-to-cover-new-35-fcc-fee-for-some-young-applicants.

C’ya at the meeting . . . Oh, don’t forget it’s at the new building in Osage Beach. See directions in post below.

LOARC’s last meeting at the Mid-County Fire Protection District building was held August 11, 2021. Starting on September 8, 2021 LOARC will be holding our meetings in the new Club house at 1081 Osage Beach Rd in Osage Beach, meeting will start at 7PM. See map below. If you have any questions send email to the webmaster at the address above.

Two position have be created, Antenna Coordinator [Larry Cichinelli (K3PTO)] and Operations Coordinator [Fred Groce (K0FG)]. Antenna Coordinator will be responsible for maintaining the tower and coordinating installation of antennas on the tower. Operations Coordinator is responsible for setting up and operation of radios to include HF, VHF, and UHF radios. If you are interested in assisting in these position send an email to the club’s email listed in the header of each page and webmaster will forward it to the appropriate individual.

Claimed Score =(QSOxpower muilt)=552×2=1104
Preliminary Score=(Claimed Score+Bonus Points)=1104+750=1854