A little about us…

Formerly the W5MOT repeater, sponsored by Motorola, and in operation since the mid-eighties, this aged repeater and club needed an infusion of new equipment and members.  

In 2015 OHARC was constituted for this purpose and assumed the repeater equipment, site, and repeater pair license from the former club membership.  The repeater was rebuilt and upgraded with a new Yeasu DR-1X System Fusion repeater, Waycom Duplexer, and a full-wave vertical dipole antenna.  So while our club and the repeater equipment is new, our 147.320 MHz frequency pair has been active in Austin for over 30 years.

N5OAK Radio Tower

(Our antenna is located on the second nest of antennas from the top)

 

All about “The Oak” Repeater

OHARC operates a Yaesu DR-1X System Fusion repeater in analog only mode. The system uses a  PL tone of 114.8 Hz on both transmit and receive with a courtesy tone for an exceptionally clean and quiet signal.

Repeater Details – The repeater is transmitting 50 watts to an antenna on a hill whose base elevation is 912 feet above sea level. The antenna is up 350 feet on the tower for a total of 1,262 feet above sea level. It covers all of metropolitan Austin and beyond. The repeater has a backup generator that starts automatically if commercial power is lost.

Coverage Area – With a basic 50 watt mobile radio and a good antenna, N5OAK coverage extends as far north as Georgetown, as Far East as Bastrop, well South of San Marcos and as far west as Johnson City.  With a 5 watt HT and a relatively unobstructed line-of-sight path to the repeater, 10 – 15 miles is easily achievable.  And since the RF environment on our tower is relatively low, our repeater has “good ears”.   It can pick up those weak signals with ease. Click here to view the coverage maps for all of our club repeaters.

The location of the repeater antenna is on the NXP Semiconductor Campus (formerly Freescale) in Oak Hill. If driving west on 290 by the 290/71 “Y” in SW Austin, look to your right. You can’t miss it! You can see the exact location on Google Maps by clicking here.