Hi Jerry, The repeater was located on a farmer's silo on a ridge somewhere between Trempealeau, WI and Winona, MN from what I recall. I did not have any problem hitting it with modest power and antenna from Onalaska, WI. It had pretty good coverage.
The one thing about regenerative repeaters is that they are mode specific. If you had an RTTY regenerative repeater today, not that I would remotely recommend such a thing anymore, you would not be able to use any other digital modes, such as PSK31, MFSK16, Olivia, etc., since it would only regenerate the tones close to 2125/2295 Hz. I too had a Model 15. I paid $45 for it in the early 1980's and only had it for a few years and sold it with a homebrew TU for $5 (including the power supply loop for the teleprinter) due to the complete collapse of the older technology. One of my diehard teleprinter friends, who is still active, but won't try any new digital modes if it is not SSTV on 40 meters, used to have a Model 33 and he swore he would never get rid of it. Well, after a few years of taking up so much space in his shack, he somehow managed to get it downstairs and took it to the only place possible ... the local landfill. I'm sure it was very painful to do this. VHF RTTY would truly be an anachronistic mode today since it has been eclipsed by the weak signal modes that would work so much better on VHF. The weakest signal modes that have been tested to work deep into AWGN work well on VHF and higher frequencies. You don't see any RTTY "art" anymore come to think of it. It used to be fairly popular on VHF, because you could operate for long periods of time with no hits and it made for a nice picture. I especially liked the Abraham Lincoln and the Einstein ones:) 73, Rick, KV9U Jerry W wrote: >Rick, > >Was that regenerative repeater in the Chicago area? > >I remember someone used to send text "pictures" on one night. I have >one left that I sent to my father, it was a semi-truck and the title >was "Keep On Trucking". But the paper is getting brittle and falling >apart. Had a Teletype Model 15 and a TU I built from RTTY Journal, >was before the "ST-600" or "Mainliner", all tubes. I lived in North >Riverside, IL and had to get a eight elemet beam, aimed it west to get >good quieting on the receiver. > >Jerry - K0HZI > > > >
