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The
first local repeater in modern times (circa 1989) was owned
by Jim Brooks, KY4Z. This homebrew repeater was picked up
from the 3898 Trader's Net, and featured a Hamtronics receiver
and VHF Engineering transmitter and controller. This repeater
first went in operation at KY4Z's home in Bardstown on a
frequency of 147.39 MHz. The repeater was later moved to
the roof of Bardstown High School.
Once
in place at the high school, it was discovered that the
repeater coordinator assigned a frequency that had not been
vacated.
A
LaGrange ham was control operator of a repeater on 147.39
prior to the Bardstown repeater's existence, but this ham
was leaving the area and taking his repeater with him. The
coordinator assumed incorrectly no repeater would replace
the LaGrange one, as no one had contacted him yet. As we
found out, this assumption was incorrect, and this fact
came to light once the Bardstown repeater was running atop
the high school — and hams operating in the north end
of Nelson County were able to bring up both repeaters simultaneously.
The
repeater was soon re-coordinated for its current frequency
by the Southeast Repeater Assocation. Thanks to the help
of the hams in LaGrange (who helped retune the transmitter
to the new frequency), the repeater was back on the air
in short order.
Sometime
about 1993, the repeater was replaced with a converted GE
commercial unit. Rather than use the existing duplexers,
it was decided that separating the receive and transmit
sites would work best for the new repeater and its substantially
higher output power.
The
receive and transmit sites are linked by a 440 MHz link;
the receive site is at N4PEI's home in the Botland community;
the transmit site is located on a farm he owns a few miles
away.
The
repeater worked well for a good many years, but the receiver
was and the transmit link equipment was upgraded some years
later by Tom, AE4NU, who also added a better controller.
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