Note From Your Director
Mike Bishop
Tennessee has the distinction of bordering all but West Virginia and South Carolina as members of the SERA. In fact, the state is almost 500 miles wide, east to west, and less than 200 miles long north & south. With this unique shape the state we have divided coordination duties into three sections.
If you have a repeater in Tennessee and aren’t a member of the SERA, you should consider becoming a member. If you’re a ham and don’t have a repeater, you can become an associate member and receive our quarterly publication, the SERA Repeater Journal. It is one of the finest amateur radio related magazines in the country. The Journal will keep you up to date with news about ongoing FM repeater activity in your district and the surrounding SERA districts, as well as other amateur radio news. You can contact me, or your local coordinator, or use the “SERA Membership Page” for membership information and instructions.
Due to the abundance of two meter repeaters in Tennessee, I do not know of any frequencies available for two meter repeater coordination. If you are contemplating repeater construction and coordination, I strongly urge you to consider 222 MHz or 440 MHz. The propagation characteristics of 222 MHz are very similar to the 144 – 148 MHz band. Further, the noise floor is much lower, resulting in better signal receive and transmit distances. Due to the proliferation of dual band radios, the 440 MHz band is also becoming more active.
If you’re still hung up on owning and operating your own two meter repeater, about the only way we will be able to coordinate one for you is for you to purchase one that is already in existence and properly coordinated. Additionally, you would also have to file for re-coordination in your name, or your club’s name, at the same location that the repeater is located. So, in short, if you want to move it to another location or increase it’s coverage area, you most likely will not be able to re-coordinate the repeater.
I also want to encourage every repeater operator in Tennessee to make sure your SERA Datasheets are returned to us and updated yearly. We are going to aggressively pursue paper repeaters in Tennessee, so we can attempt to open up some new frequencies for hams that are willing to put repeaters on the air. It is not fair to sit on frequencies and deny the rest of the ham population a working repeater. We will soon begin a literal verification of all repeaters in TN. If your repeater is not on the air, now would be good time to send me an email explaining why. The more accurate SERA’s database is, the better we can serve the hams of Tennessee by allowing new repeaters to come on the air. If you know of a paper repeater or one that is off the air, I want to know about it. Please email me with the details and I will pursue it. I would like all existing repeater owners to review the revised SERA Policy 17- Repeater De-Coordination, with special attention paid to Section 7 where it applies to SERA Datasheets.
In any case, feel free to contact any of us, if you wish to explore repeater construction and coordination, in the Volunteer State. We’ll be glad to help and please consult the map below and determine the respective coordinator to contact.
Thank You
Mike Bishop, WM4RB
SERA Tennessee Director
State Director & Vice Director – Your Frequency Coordinators
TN SERA DirectorMichael Bishop, WM4RB
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Assistant Directors
| Randy Bennett, W4RFB SERA TN Assistant Director West TN Frequency Coordinator 178 Bakers Chapel Road Medina, TN 38355-8607 (731) 783-5233 w4rfb@sera.org |
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Repeater Journal Correspondent
| Repeater Journal Correspondent
Bob Gault, KD4NEC |
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