CHANGE IN TIME NOTICE!!!

Some outlets had the closing time listed later than 1:00 PM, it is now 1:00 so starts at 9:00AM, runs to 1:00PM

[b]Multi-Club Amateur Radio Swap – $3 Cost
[/b]
Where: 42103 Wilson Memorial Drive (US 41) (Chassell VFW Hall)
When: April 22, 2017  9 AM 1 PM
[b]Contact: stukauppila@chartermi.net
[/b]

STATUS: Grant requests are being sent out as of this time.
 
ABOUT US:
Welcome to the Baraga County Repeater Association (BCRA), we are a local group of ham radio operators working in Amateur Radio in the western UP.  The Club’s mission is to advance knowledge of and interest in amateur radio and wireless communication to the community–especially area youth. We offer training and ham licensing opportunities to interested community members and provide public service communications support for a variety of area activities. However, BCRA’s most important role is to provide an effective level of communications in emergency situations or times of disaster that can be put to use immediately or deployed very quickly when necessary.
 
Radio equipment used in local emergencies involves “line of sight” transmission of radio signals. Line of sight communications means geographic obstacles like hills between two radios will block communication.  To overcome geography, radio repeaters are placed on the highest available locations.  Repeaters pick up the signal from radios in difficult areas and repeat those communications over a far larger area overcoming line of sight and geographic limitations.
 
Baraga County is home to the highest geographic points in the state and so is uniquely situated to fulfill a primary communications role for the western UP. It is for that reason commercial radio towers were established in the Herman area in order to cover Baraga County (as well as much of the Western Upper Peninsula). No other county in the state is as well situated as Baraga to provide wide area radio coverage. Unfortunately, Baraga County has had very limited ham radio infrastructure and the highest locations in the county are almost totally un-utilized. BCRA hopes to change that!  We are already testing private locations in the Herman area in backyards of BCRA members.
 
Ham History — From the 1980’s until 2009, a ham radio repeater (similar to what we propose) was located on an older DNR tower in Herman.  It was maintained by a ham club in Houghton County, the Copper Country Radio Amateur Association (CCRAA).  In 2009 the old DNR tower came down and was replaced by the new Michigan State Tower.  And at that time, lack of local support resulted in CCRAA moving the former Herman ham radio repeater to Houghton County near Donken.  Baraga County has subsequently suffered from a near total lack of reliable back up radio coverage since 2009.
 
In 2016, several local ham operators got together to fill the void created by the loss of the Herman radio repeater by founding the Baraga County Repeater Association. Dedicated to communication and community service focused on the county, the BCRA is committed to re-establishing a high profile and quality ham radio presence in the county, maintaining it, and keeping its base of control in the county it primarily serves.
 
Ham radio organizations provide communications support for a wide variety of events, ranging from emergency to recreational. These include search-&-rescue, disaster relief, weather alerts, monitoring wildfires or floods – as well as public safety for dog sled races, road rallies or other community events — wherever communication services are needed but not available.  Also, when normal means of communications fail (in a power outage), or when disaster relief is ongoing, the network of ham radio operators offers critical back-up communications.
 
BCRA’s Mission – is to spread interest and knowledge in radio communications and technology to others in the county — especially area youth.  Getting young people involved in ham radio gives them a stepping stone to high tech jobs in the future.  In the field of communications nearly anyone you ask is a licensed ham and in most cases, that early interest and experience led to the jobs that got them where they are today.
 
In March 2017 we hosted ham radio classes at KBIC (Wabanung) Ojibwa College in L’Anse. The 6 hour class was designed to get community members trained and licensed to operate ham radios.  And in the fall, BCRA would like to put on an additional course at the college and we are currently working towards that.
 
BCRA’s very ambitious goals are supported by dedicated club members who put in long hours of work and make significant personal & financial sacrifices to make things happen.  In the past year we’ve established a radio repeater that covers a large area of NE Baraga County installed on an old Baraga Telephone Co. tower west of Baraga near M-38. We’ve established an Internet site for the club, and club members have started a U.P. wide web site to help ham radio clubs across the U.P. coordinate their efforts.
 
Our primary goal at this point is to reestablish a VHF repeater on a tower in the Herman area.  VHF equipment provides the best bang-for-the-buck and would deliver the best wide-area radio coverage.  Our Herman project goals also include installation of UHF equipment to expand functionality and options for the county and surrounding areas.
 
Currently we are taking steps to get space and authorization to install equipment on the Michigan State tower in Herman.  This has not been an easy process and we are facing serious financial hurdles to utilizing the state tower. Only certain state certified climbing crews are allowed to do tower work on those towers (all located down state). Very high standards are set for what can be done on these towers, which puts this project out of bounds for a small club like BCRA without significant financial aid.
 
This repeater will serve (primarily bolded), Baraga, Houghton, Gogebic, Marquette, Iron, Keweenaw, Ontonagon, parts of Dickinson, Alger and Menominee Counties. In Wisconsin, we could see additional coverages in Iron, Vilas, Forest and Florence Counties.
(See RF Print Below)
This repeater will also provide added services in the Lake Superior shoreline, as well as additional extended coverage out to Isle Royal.
[img=860x0]https://i1.wp.com/bcra.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/400.png?resize=860%2C911[/img]
BCRA has membership overlap with other area clubs, shares member expertise and coordinates ham communications efforts with them very effectively to best serve the western U.P.
 
OPTIONS:
For the sake of understandable discussion we will keep the narrative as simple and logical as we can. Quotations on equipment and required contracting services for work at the state tower have been received and the full quote documents are available.
Obtaining space and authorization to use the Michigan State tower in Herman would provide the quickest means to get a high quality VHF repeater in operation at a prime location.  To satisfy state safety requirements, tower climbing costs themselves are extremely high, so it makes sense for the long run to include installation of a second cable and antenna for the UHF system (mentioned a few paragraphs earlier). Doing both concurrently would eliminate very expensive additional climbing costs at a later date.

1. Quotes on tower climbing, cabling, antennas, and related hardware have been obtained for the VHF and UHF antenna systems combined and they came in at – $23,679.00. This portion of funding is all but mandatory to meeting initial system requirements on the state tower in Herman. There are no other options there.
   
   
2. If at all possible we’d like to install new radio repeaters for advanced functions and long term reliability, VHF and UHF repeaters, hardware and installation cost quotes came in at – $5,325.00 for VHF and at – $2,800.00 for UHF equipment. VHF and UHF radio repeaters would be all the electronics attached to the outdoor tower equipment in item (1.) above.
   

Baraga County Repeater Association Inc

Baraga County Repeater Association will be hosting ham radio classes at the Ojibwa Community College in L'Anse.
Michigan Tech University Ham Club (HARC) will be instructing for the Technician level (entry) license.
March 21,22,23 and test session on Friday the 24th. 7pm, class will run roughly an hour a night. All are free to come.
The test cost is $15.00 on the testing day. VE's will be available to allow exams for all license types. Technician, General, and Extra.

Please RSVP by e-mailing education@bcra.us, or call 906-524-2247.


Directions and or more information will be posted at www.bcra.us

This information came from the U.P. Ham Directory, 2016, put together up in the Copper Country by the KCRA club. Did we miss your club? Let us know, best way is to Private Message me through UPHams web site.

I was going to include camouflaged email addresses for the clubs without web sites something like--   notanemailaddress(((a.t)))hotdog(decimal)com  --but decided against it. Cyberspace is full of bad players waiting to spam you. So if you want an email address published here, pm me and I'll edit this thread and hide it in camo as described above. At your own risk!



Alger Amateur Radio Club, Alger County

AARC  LINK HERE

Alger CW Marauders, Alger County

Algoma Chippewa ARES/RACES Network, Chippewa County

Baraga County Repeater Association

BCRA LINK HERE

Blackjack Amateur Radio Association, Gogebic County

BARA LINK HERE

Copper Country Radio Amateur Association, Houghton County

CCRAA LINK HERE

Central Upper Peninsula Radio Association, Marquette County

Delta County Amateur Radio Society

DCARS LINK HERE

Eastern Upper Peninsula Amateur Radio, Chippewa County

Eastern Upper Peninsula Amateur Radio Society, Chippewa County

Gogebic Iron Range Emergency Amateur Radio CLub, Ironwood, MI

Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association, Inc, Marquette County

HARA LINK HERE

Husky Amateur Radio Club, Houghton County

Iron Range Amateur Radio Club, Iron County

Keweenaw County Repeater Association, Inc

KCRA LINK HERE

Lake Effect Amateur Radio Club, Marquette County

Luce Amateur Radio Society

LARS LINK HERE

Mackinac Area Digital Amateur Radio Club, Mackinac County

Manistique Amateur Radio Association, Schoolcraft County

Marinette and Menominee A.R.C., Menominee County

Marquette Repeater Association

Menominee DAR Radio Club, Menominee County

Menominee River Radio Club, Menominee County

Mich-A-Con Amateur Radio Club, Dickinson County

Ontonagon County Amateur Radio Association

Sault Area Contesting Club, Chippewa County

Superior Amateur Radio Association, Ontonagon County

Trap Hills Amateur Radio Club, Ontonagon County

Trenary Amateur Radio Association, Alger County

Tri-Cities Contest Club, Menominee County

Tri-County Emergency Operators Association, Alger County

Upper Peninsula DX and Contest Club, Marquette County

Young Amateur Contest Club, Menominee County

There are several software's available. 

Radio Mobile:

You can download the complicated version of radio mobile -- with lots of features: http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html

OR 

You can use this same system with less functions online at: http://www.cplus.org/rmw/rmonline.html

Upon Talking to AA8YF, he mentioned the 147.300 repeater is in Whitepine.. So I ran some numbers at this location and after churning the processor.. we came up with this UHF generation for RF coverage for 70CM.

This would be 100' on the tower, and at 30 watts power. We factored in about 4DB loss, for control / wiggle room.
   


^^^ UHF




This is what we figured out to be a rough estimate at perfect conditions for the VHF repeater 147.300
   

There is a new UHF hub around the Wisconsin area.. providing a link to Escanaba...

http://www.ne-wi-aresraces.org/frequenci...r-network/

It appears they are looking at linking Iron Mountain into this system as well.

NEW Voice Network Frequencies

Suring
442.550
PL 146.2
Network Hub
Wausau
444.4250
PL 114.8
Main Network Hub
Wausau (Mosinee Hill)
443.424
PL 114.8

Waupaca
444.900
PL 114.8

Plover
442.050
PL 114.8

Marinette
444.500
PL 146.2

Green Bay
444.750
PL 107.2

Irma
442.775
PL 114.8

Abbotsford



Starks



High Falls



Iron Mountain



Escanaba, MI
442.625
PL 141.3

A ham in Silver city has asked us to see if we can sell off some last items for him. Hes winding down from the hobby.

This is all of KC8WJ equipment. You may call him 906-885-5235 Wesley Hoover.
                               

As many of us know most of Ontonagon is a challenge to provide adequate communications in the event of an emergency. There is a lots of repeaters in the vicinity but none of them are 100% perfect for the terrain that Ontonagon county has. I'm actively looking in the Ontonagon area for a new repeater site, that will be more centrally placed, and should provide better coverage. From what I can tell this is unused and as been unused for many years. I'm going to ask around and get to the bottom as far as who owns it, and if we can use it so if we deem.

Update: 1/26/2017 

I put in a call to Ontonagon County REA, to see if they would be willing to waive the service charge for the purpose of Emergency Communications, and they said no. This was a shot in the dark of course but was worth a shot.