Rich Zack, K1RJZ writes on FraminghamARA-L:
This evening we placed into service the southern link to the Gunstock Mountain 6M repeater which natively covers north to Franconia Notch, NH and south to the Mass Pike. Tonight we just placed into service the “Hopkinton Node” with the antenna height at 734ft AMSL and is one mile south of the start of the Boston Marathon.
Bottom line: We now have continuous mobile-mobile coverage from Franconia Notch, NH to the Cape Cod Canal (max) with only two full-time linked repeaters. This system was actually designed from day-1 to allow NOAA Grey Maine to talk to NOAA in Taunton, MA and that was a key premiss for us to obtain site access.
Sponsor: Central NH ARC
Gunstock Mtn, NH User RX 53.77 PL 100.0
Gusstock Mtn, NH user TX 53.07 PL 71.9
Hopkinton, MA User RX 51.74 PL 100.0
Hopkinton, MA user TX 51.24 PL 71.9
Important Notes:
* The Hopkinton 6M freqs may seem odd but they are not. All 6M repeaters below 52 MHz are at a 500KHz offset and not 1MHz offset as above 52 MHz
* To clarify, this system does not link to Mt Uncanoonuc 6M as originally planned because Gunstock all by itself exceeds Unc’s coverage
* When using Hopkinton MA, commercially converted radios with “squelch tail elimination” will have a very pleasing drop sound upon TX unkey while ham radios that just happen to cover six-meters will have a much longer noise burst. That’s just the way that they work.
Please do join CNHARC’s regular 6M net this Thursday at 8AM so we can see how this system plays. Freqs are above. Thanks.
Rick Zach, K1RJZ