As you may be aware the Vertex VXR-5000 repeater on 147.735 MHz, Kregor Peak has been failing for several months.  Trevor, WA6JAU and I have made several trips to troubleshoot and attempt to repair the receiver. It appears the PLL on the receiver is no longer able to lock onto the reference crystal and at best will work for hours and sometimes weeks at a time before once again failing for days.  The Vertex was bought about 20 years ago, is no longer repairable, has served the CCRA well, and needs to be replaced.

John Glass, NU6P and I have been in communication with several vendors to see if they have an analog replacement repeater available.
We looked at and requested quotes from the various vendors for the Motorola Mototrbo SLR5700 repeater, BridgeCom Systems BCR-50V VHF repeater, and Kenwood NXR-710 VHF repeater which is similar to our existing Kenwood UHF repeater we bought years ago.

Based on discussions with Trevor, John and myself we recommended to the Executive board the purchase of the Kenwood repeater. The CCRA Executive Board agreed and a replacement repeater is now on order.  We expect the Kenwood repeater should be delivered to the CCRA in 2-3 weeks. Our plan is to immediately install it once we get it.

We appreciate your patience as we wait and go through the replacement of the 147.735 MHz repeater on Kregor Peak.

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73…Steve

Steve Overacker, WA6HAM