Cape Meares
John Schneidecker, KA7AHV
Memorial Repeater and
APRS Weather/Digi
On-line
04/12/06 - Lt. John Schneidecker of the Tillamook County Sheriff's office was respected and appreciated county wide. As a regular at the Tillamook Emergency Amateur Radio Services club meeting, John was always supportive and helpful. His background in computer engineering provided substantial assistance to his employer and his interest in Amateur Radio was no secret to anyone who knew John.
John's life was taken in a motorcycle accident just south of Tillamook in 2005. Losing John put a big dent in the Amateur Radio community. It is taking time for those who knew John to come to terms with the loss. Several ideas were considered to memorialize John and the work he had done for Tillamook. The suggestion was made to put his call-sign on one of the repeaters.
The project started with the opportunity for a VHF repeater on Cape Meares. The Oregon Coast Repeater Group took on the challenge of gaining another VHF repeater for Tillamook County. The OCRG is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. Because the OCRG is funding and overseeing the project, donations made for the project can be marked as such and the donor will receive a receipt for tax purposes.
The application for a VHF repeater pair in Oregon is complicated. To receive coordination, one must apply to the repeater council and get the other repeater owners in the state that are on the same frequency to agree that you will not cause them interference. We started with an application for one pair, and had to change to a second pair due to complications. We tested and tried for months to get cooperation on the second pair, but finally had to try a third pair. All of the other owners have now signed off with co-channel letters of approval. At the ORRC meeting in April we will submit the final paperwork to be granted coordination on 147.160 for Cape Meares.
The John Schneidecker Memorial Repeater Club was formed with the task of managing the repeater and obtaining John's call-sign for it. The club consists of John's sister, Heidi Schneidecker McCraw KB5SRL, Gordon McCraw KA5YDJ, Carl Somdahl W7LI, Roger Lincoln W7HH and Daron Wilson N7HQR.
Roger Lincoln provided a GE Master II repeater and cabinet, the cabinet was refurbished by Daron Wilson and lettered with John's call-sign. Two different sets of expensive crystals were funded by Roger and Carl. The system is operating with a temporary controller and will be upgraded to a digital controller capable of having a suitable voice identification. We want to put a full featured controller on the system that will allow recorded voice announcements such as "this is the John Schneidecker Memorial repeater, KA7AHV". All of the equipment installation and tower work have been completed. To round out the installation, an APRS weather station is going to be added to provide live weather data from Cape Meares. It will also appear on the OCRG weather synopsis web page.
To keep users informed of weather emergencies, an automatic WX-200 weather receiver will be installed. This receiver listens to the NOAA weather station and automatically rebroadcasts any weather warnings over the repeater.
To meet FCC requirements a UHF control radio will be added on the OCRG linking frequency. This will allow control operators to maintain the repeater, as well as selectively linking the repeater to other services (HEARTnet, IRLP, etc.) if requested. The repeater will operate as a stand alone open repeater and will be linkable if needed for emergency communications. The John Schneidecker Memorial Repeater Club will be administering the operations of the repeater.
So now we need your help. In order to purchase the rest of the equipment outright (Repeater Controller, Weather Station, APRS equipment, NOAA receiver, etc.) the total at this time adds up to about $2,000.00. The OCRG is committed to this project and we have ordered some of the components hoping to raise the funds for the rest of our expenses. Any persons or organizations within the community are invited to participate.
You may support this worthwhile project by sending a contribution to OCRG, PO Box 212, Neotsu, Oregon 97364 and mark it KA7AHV. You will receive a receipt for your taxes.
Questions about the project can be directed to Carl, W7LI at carl@oregoncoast,com or he will forward your comments to the appropriate person in the repeater club for a response.
Carl is the Secretary of the John Schneidecker Memorial Repeater Club. Gordon McCraw is the repeater license trustee.
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