[NCARC] Rawhide/625 repeater

[Chris Kelly]

Thanks for all the replies on my inquiry into the status of this repeater.
And, thanks to the NCARC for putting it up, and especially for
locating it in a place that covers the mountain valleys so well.

This repeater has been quite useful over the past few summers, because
it provides good coverage into the area where the Ben Delatour Scout Ranch 
is located, east of Red Feather Lakes. This is the 4th largest Boy Scout camp 
in the US (in acres) and Ted Black (WB0TSX), my son Joseph (K0PFT)
and I have been actively working to build up the ham radio program 
at the camp for several years.

The scout ham radio club (with the prestigious call of W0BSA, thanks to
Jack's family) has a nice shack now, with a tower, 3 element beam, 
HF through UHF gear, and a computer. From the camp, cell phones won't
work, but we have talked all over the world with ham radio.
We have taught many young scouts, and the program is still building up.
Thanks to the generous donations of Bill Tucker, we now have a nice HF
rig, and we are trying to convert a low-band UHF repeater to ham band
use on 440 MHz.

The Rawhide repeater has served well to link into the front range,
and I once used it live with an HT to talk to the parents of a scout 
with symptoms of appendicitis from our campsite. It is also a good
demonstration during merit badge classes, of how repeaters work.
It helps us keep in touch generally during the summer season.

If you need a hand setting it back up, I an willing to assist, and
I can also get access to some test equipment in case the duplexer 
needs tuning, etc. I have also offered a large diameter high Q 
cavity resonator in case the receiver is having interference 
problems, as we heard once in a while last year.

Please keep me in mind if you need a hand, and thanks again for 
the use of this machine during the summers.

73,
Chris Kelly
K0PF, Loveland