Loveland Repeater Association
History

It was the fall of 1978, and Dave K0IPH, and Bob KB0CY, were heading back down from a day of mountain topping on Storm Mountain. As they bounced around on their way down the four-wheel drive road, somehow they ended up talking to OJ, K0OJ, from Greeley, on 2 meters. He mentioned that they had a repeater available for anyone who would supply and autopatch to go with it; this was his way of encouraging autopatch repeaters in the area. Dave and Bob kicked the idea around and decided it might be a useful thing to have in Loveland.

Well, there were two things needed in the way of personnel: a good RF jock to help with the technical problems and a figurehead/leader type whose credibility was good enough so that people might consider donating to the cause. Enter Virgil, W0INK. Virgil was an electrical engineer at Hewlett Packard, and had an excellent technical reputation with the local amateurs. Virgil had previously been president of the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club, so we met both our needs in one shot.

When approached about the possibility, Virgil began relating his previous experience with this sort of task, and, well, "He didn't want to get too involved with such a project." But he was assured that someone was just needed for occasional consulting and with a reputation to lend some credibility to this outfit. He agreed that he could handle that (little did he know what he was getting into). About this time, the group became aware of another amateur who was interested in getting an autopatch repeater going in Loveland, Frank WD0HQA (last seen in Alaska). So began the effort which resulted in the Loveland Repeater Association.

Right away, Virgil pointed out that, sure, we had a repeater available, but just as important (maybe more important) was a duplexer. "Oh yeah, I guess we need one of those. No problem, can't cost much. What?!? $450.00??" Back to the drawing board. Someone comes up with idea of building one. OK, great, how much will the copper pipe cost? Well, forget that. As has happened time after time with this organization, a little patience got us what we needed at little or no cost. Just by chance, Dick, W0ZGR, found out that Duane, WA0WWO, in Greeley, had some 4' copper pipe that he might part with.

Well that got us our copper. Virgil and a couple of other guys (Charlie, AC0Y was one of them) visited Duane and after the customary tour of the fiddle factory, returned with the goods. The duplexer construction was done mainly by Dave, K0IPH, with help from Marion, W0KPL, and Bill, WB0YYJ (now KC0QW), and a few other turkeys who got roped into scrubbing the green gunk off of the 4" pipe. Virgil took the duplexer design out of QST and added some improvements.

This all took quite some time and much had taken place concurrently. When this first started out, we didn't know quite how to handle the organizational end of it. Northern Colorado didn't seem to be hurting for another ham club and we all turned our noses at the thought of going through the hassle of a constitution, by-laws, and incorporation, etc. But because of the utility bills (electric and phone), we needed some sort of continued cash flow. OK, first let's see if there is any support for this thing before we jump into it. A meeting was called of all interested hams in Loveland and also invited were a few fellows from Greeley (which happened to have the use of OJ's repeater) to give their inputs.

The first meeting (no club at this time) was held at the Skylark Buffet (later, the China Dragon, then Mr. Steve's Rentals) on a Saturday morning, where coffee and doughnuts were enjoyed. That started the very successful practice of Saturday morning coffee and doughnuts meeting. Which now has turned into Saturday morning breakfast meeting. The turnout was fairly reasonable, perhaps 15 including the 4 guys from Greeley. It wasn't too clear at this time about going ahead, but things proceeded on the assumption that if too much money wasn't spent (there wasn't any money), then all that could be lost was some time.

There was a couple more "unofficial" meetings at the Skylark and it was finally decided that it was time to write a constitution and become a bona fide organization. Our resident expert on constitution drafting (there was a resident expert on almost everything) was Gil, WB0WWQ (now VE6CXE), who led us through the mess of drafting it with hardly a single "no" vote. Not much later, Virgil was elected to the position of president, Gil became the vice-president, and John, WD0DJU (now KD0DG) became Secretary/Treasurer.

One of the things that came up early in the feasibility study were the legal problems of operating an autopatch, Clyde, N0CG, suggested we contact one of the Denver repeater groups and see how they operated. Frank contacted the Aurora Repeater Association and a group went down for a visit. The group left with a pretty good feeling toward the concept of autopatch use and Virgil picked up a few design ideas for the duplexer. Also visited was the Longmont Amateur Radio Club with similar results.

At this point, it's worth commenting that we shall always remember the hams in the Greeley area (particularly OJ), Aurora and Longmont for helping us out in one way or another. Along the same line, we were often told by another group, who shall remain nameless (and callsignless), that many of the things we were planing just couldn't be done. Well, it's amazing how much can be accomplished if you don't know that it can't be done.

Back to the repeater. The repeater was initially installed at Frank's house with separate receive and transmit antennas. We had borrowed the infamous paint can cavities from the Buckhorn Repeater Association to help isolate the transmitter and receiver. The performance was nothing to get excited about, but it was up and running. So what if it burped and growled occasionally, and so what if almost everybody in town could work just as far simplex; we still thought it was great.

So we had something that occupied 147.795/147.195 and could be loosely called a repeater. Next project was to get an autopatch going. Somehow Bob got volunteered for the job. The first version of the patch was a relatively simple collection of TTL chips and op-amps. Clyde came up with a pair of PC boards for the PLL based tone decoder. Later the autopatch/control circuit was revised and became microprocessor based (Bob later had an article published in Ham Radio describing the system). The program was fairly straightforward. Many evenings later, we had an autopatch system that was basically operational. Over the next few months, each small bug was carefully removed.

Not long after the repeater was operational at Frank's house, it became clear that a better location was needed. It turned out that John knew of a newly licensed amateur, Fred, KB0GQ, who owned a piece of land around the Christmas star in Namaqua Hills. Virgil and Bob meet Fred there and had a look around. They were pleased to find that the electric power was conveniently available due to the presence of the star. The other problem of the telephone line was pursued by Dick, W0ZGR, and we determined that Ma Bell would be more than happy to run a line up there (and with only the normal installation fee). Just for the record, we did explain what we were doing with a phone up there (but we didn't think they really understood). We were really fortunate to find three things essential to an autopatch repeater in one place: height, electricity and telephone line.

So now we have a site, a repeater, and an autopatch. One problem: no building. We checked into buying a utility shed, but the cost looked a little high. Then Jack, W0NJD, says "Why can't we build one - I can get a bunch of lumber from my brother." So we decided to build a shack.

John, WB0VIQ, headed up the building effort. Someone suggested that we needed a building permit. John checked into it, and sure enough, to be legal we needed a permit. So John set out after one. He drew up a rough sketch of what we intended to build. After visiting approximately five different government agencies (including the EPA of Larimer County), John got our permit. Remember, this is for a 7' x 9' shack. In order to keep things simple, John told the agencies that the shack was to "store some equipment." Never lie to a bureaucrat, but you don't have to tell the whole truth.

Every building needs a foundation, so one evening John and Jerry, AA0R, set out to start digging for the foundation. You've probably heard the term "Rocky Mountains." Well, John and Jerry discovered the true meaning first hand. So did others who helped finish off the rock breaking job (literally). The realtors call that area Namaqua Hill; the old-timers around here call it "Rattlesnake Ridge." Dave discovered that the old-timers were right when they were joined by two rattlers one night (may they rest in peace - the rattlers, that is).

The ground was leveled and the footings poured (with the help of Virgil's calibrated bucket). Plywood and 2x4's were hauled to the site using the now famous K0IPH El Camino (usually referred to as the "El"). Dave always needed someone to ride in the back for the added weight and to hold the wood down. This was not an easy task - due to the steepness of the road, he almost had to reach escape velocity to make it.

One Saturday, the largest of all the work crews formed, and literally built the shack from the ground up in one day. We still needed to do some finishing touches, but it was basically up. Over the next few months, we finished the interior, built up a workbench and put the shack in good order.

Then there was the electricity. In order to get Public Service Company of Colorado to install a meter, we needed to have the wiring inspected. It turns out that this is totally separate from the wiring permit. So John, WD0DJU, set out to get the electrical permit. Then we failed the inspection (this from a bunch of EE's?). So to quote Tim Allen, "We rewired it" and passed the second time.

Public Service came and hooked up the power, Ma Bell installed the phone and we were in business. Over the next year, many small improvements were made in the building, the repeater and the autopatch. In fact it may never get finished.

Additional note: The above describes the very early years of the LRA. In the late eighties, of course, the venerable home-brew repeater controller was replaced by an S-Com 7K, a 220 control link was added (and removed when the FCC eliminated the first two MHz of the 220 amateur band), and in the early 90's a 440 rig and S-Com 5K controller were added, along with a packet digipeater (which has been taken out). In late 1992, the antennas were removed from the shack and placed on two 30 foot towers. A packet node was added in 1993 (W6PQS 144.91).