[FADCA] Request for assistance

[Freeman Crosby]

This came to the FADCA.org mailbox today.

73/Free
W1npr




Greetings,
As President of the Amateur Radio Club Bradford Area, sponsors of the 
K4BAR repeater in Starke Fl, I am writing to request assistance in 
locating a station, or stations which have been transmitting 
(possibly D-Star) on our repeaters frequency (145.150). The 
transmissions are NOT going through the repeater, and vary in 
strength, depending on the listener. We have had reports from members 
of full scale transmissions from Middleburg, Orange Park, Keystone 
Heights, and sometimes Jacksonville. Half scale or lower have been 
heard in Waldo, Green Cove, Hampton, Interlachen, and Ocala.
We have had our repeater serviced, aligned, re-tuned, and installed 
the PL tone of 127.3, thinking that would help in reducing the 
'interference', but it hasn't seemed to reduce it much.
A month ago or so, we did locate some operators near Orange 
Park/Middleburg, who had arbitrarily picked the frequency of 145.150 
to experiment with their D-Star radios. They were contacted and at 
that time ceased transmitting, apparently moving away to other 
frequencies, including 145.450 (another repeater near Cresent City). 
But recently have been hearing it again, some in the mornings(6-7), 
off and on during the day, and a lot beginning around 9pm. Typically 
more so on the weekends.

I do realize we can expect, and do get some "propagation", "ground 
wave", etc., IE: Macon, Ga group, Tampa, Fl., that are also on 
145.150, however, it is getting more and more irritating to have the 
transmissions interfere with local communications.

Our Repeater Coordinator has contacted other Clubs in our area, we've 
put out pleas to Amateurs to try to locate a source, and have also 
tried to 'fox hunt' the signals. So far we've not had much luck.

Thus, I am writing to ask if there is any possible help we could get 
from your group, or to point us in a direction to resolve this issue. 
I do realize the FADCA is a busy group and our request may not be of 
a high priority, but, we are trying to access any available resources 
that can help.

I may be reached on the K4BAR machine(145.150/PL 127.3), by landline 
- 352-473-7589, or by cell - 904-238-2809, If there is a need for 
more information.
Even if the group cannot get involved with this, we'd appreciate any 
"Go TO's" you may know of that could assist.

Thank you for your time, we appreciate the work the FADCA does.

Paul Christensen (aka Chris), w4iok
Keystone Heights
ARCBA President