Grant Date: May 2021
Amount: $11,752

OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Society Repeaters
The OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Society is one of the most active amateur radio clubs in the Cincinnati, Ohio tri-state area. They operate multiple open Yaesu System Fusion repeaters, including a repeater housed on the Channel 5 WLWT commercial television tower. This repeater hosts the daily Tri-State Amateur Traffic Net (part of the NTS network) and it is also used by Hamilton County ARES for their monthly net and the Amateur Radio Public Service Corps for a weekly net. They maintain two additional 2 meter repeaters, one housed atop a fire station to the west of Cincinnati and one on top of a hospital in Northern Kentucky.

Repeater Site Internet Connectivity
Due to the nature of where the repeaters are located, the OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Society is not able to provide traditional internet connectivity to the sites. The terrain of the tri-state area and restrictions at the repeater sites make microwave links challenging if not impossible. Instead, the Radio Scoiety will utilize cellular internet connections for the three repeater sites in order to accomplish three key goals:

• Enabling experimenting with WIRES-X capabilities at the sites
• Providing reliable remote computer access to the repeater controllers at each site for reprogramming as needed without a site visit
• Enhancing their ability to remotely operate an SDR at the sites as needed to assist with interference troubleshooting

ARDC grant funds will be used to purchase three computers (with required peripherals), three cellular routers, two years of data service for those routers and two Yaesu WIRES-X HRI-200 interface boxes. Since they will be operating the cellular routers on a 24/7 basis in commercial (and in at least one case, high-RF) environments, they plan to use commercial-grade cellular routers with ethernet connections to the computers instead of relying on consumer-grade “hotspot” devices.

Update

The club successfully installed WIRES-X capable repeaters in the Greater Cincinnati area, along with remote programming capabilities and SDR receivers at each site to monitor signals and troubleshoot issues. The project reached roughly 150 members as well as other amateur radio operators in the surrounding area.

During the project, the team encountered challenges including equipment repairs and restrictions on how the repeaters could be configured. To address this, they implemented WIRES-X using link radios, which preserved controller functionality but required operating in either fixed analog or fixed digital mode. The final setup now provides one repeater in analog mode and another in digital mode.

Through adjustments to their plan and problem-solving, the team overcame these challenges and delivered a system that met their goals while expanding analog and digital repeater access for the community.

Find out more about the OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Society at ohkyin.org/wp/