Repeater, NET and Communications Protocol
The Valley Center ARC repeater is located on Palomar Mountain just north of Valley Center. Two digital/analog format (Fusion) repeaters cover a much larger area than their former location on Paradise Mountain. The coverage area includes Escondido, Valley Center, La Jolla Reservation, Pala Reservation and, of course, Palomar Mountain.
Our communications NET is held on Tuesday evening at 1900 hours (7:00 p.m.) using the VCARC analog repeater, immediately followed by our DMR net. The Net is open to everyone. You do not need to be a member of Valley Center ARC to participate. The frequencies and PL are as follows:
Receive frequency: 146.235 MHz
Offset: +600 KHz
PL (CTCSS): 118.8 Hz** We also recommend you set your BANDWIDTH to 25kHz and not 12.5kHz.
DMR Repeater
Valley Center ARC's DMR repeater is open to all HAM radio operators with a DMR ID. Our repeater is listed as "N6VCC" and is transmitting at 25 watts on the Southern slope of Palomar Mountain located at approximately 5600 feet.| Repeater DMR ID | 311129 |
| Receive Frequency | 449.92000 |
| Transmit Frequency | 444.92000 |
| Color Code | 1 |
| Time Slot | 1 |
Click HERE to access additional information and our Code Plugs.
Winlink
We also have a growing contingency of Winlink operators in Valley Center. To get involved with Winlink or learn more about it you can go directly to the Winlink site by clicking HERE. You may also download the Winlink Express software from that site. Additionally, you may go directly to the official Winlink Express download page.
Ed Sack, W3NRG, has put together several great documents including a "Getting Started on WinLink" paper and a WinLink PowerPoint presentation. Click the appropriate link to view and download.
To learn more or participate in the Valley Center Winlink group contact Gary, N6GLS (see the "Contact Us" page).
We have found the most effective RMS Direct Packet stations which cover Valley Center are as follows:
| STATION | FREQUENCY | OTHER |
|---|---|---|
KG6HSQ-10 |
145.050 MHz |
Simplex, NO PL |
XE2BNC-13 |
146.700 MHz |
- Offset, NO PL |
KG6HSQ-13 |
146.700 MHz |
- Offset, NO PL |
There are others, but we can not easily reach them from Valley Center.
VARA FM Winlink
We have two VARA FM gateways located on Palomar Mountain. We are using an Alinco DR-435t radio with a Master's Communications DRA-50 sound card interface for N2DDS-10 and a Motorola CDM-750 radio with a RIM-MAXTRAC USB 9600 sound card interface for N2DDS-11. The radios are set at 20 watts with a 3dB gain mono-band antenna. Just like our repeaters, the gateways are on battery backup with solar.
N2DDS-10 : Rx and Tx frequency: 431.070 MHz
N2DDS-11 : Rx and Tx frequency: 431.050 MHz
N2DDS-12 : Rx and Tx frequency: 431.100 MHz
Bandwidth: accepts both WIDE (9600 BAUD) and NARROW (1200 BAUD)
*** For anyone wanting to set up a VARA FM gateway, please note the Alinco DR-435t radios are now EXTREMELY difficult to find and used ones sell at a premium. A number of other radios work very well, but are considerably more expensive (Kenwood, Yaesu, etc.). In many places the Alinco radios were kind-of the "go-to" radios for VARA FM gateways. Thanks to Scott, NS7C of the Seattle ACS, we were turned on to using surplus Motorola CDM-750 UHF radios with an attached Repeater Builder RIM-MAXTRAC USB (9600) Audio Interface. This is a plug-n-play interface requiring no direct tuning. This combination also allows for the fastest VARA FM communications speed at 9600 BAUD.
We did find, however, all the information required to make this work was quite difficult to find as it was spread out over quite a number of sites requiring much research. Do not despair ... we have done our best to compile all the information required to make this system work. Please click HERE to learn how to set up a VARA FM gateway using a Motorola CDM-750.
For information as to setting up the computer, software, and everything else click HERE.
Several of the VCARC members are experimenting with the AREDN (Amateur Radio Data Network) communications mesh network. We will keep you posted as we expand the network. You can learn more about AREDN by clicking HERE to reach the site.
Other protocol information can be found on the VC ARC page.