Our primary severe weather repeater for Amateur Radio is the 146.940 repeater operated by the Viking Amateur Radio Society (VARS) under the call sign WA0CJU.

In case of a failure of 146.940 repeater, our backup repeater will be the 146.715. The announcement will be made over 146.940 simplex announcing that we will be changing repeaters.

The net control operator will be in the EOC and may be contacted by calling KB0UJL.

On the public safety side of things, we operate on a frequency of 155.775 under the call sign KJE314. The system is a voted repeater system with two receive sites located in Waseca and on the central tower site. The central tower site is the primary transmit site for the system, although we have the capability to force the system to transmit from the Waseca tower if needed. This repeater system gives us fairly complete coverage of the county and surrounding areas with a handheld radio connected to a magnetic mount 1/4 wave antenna on the vehicle roof.

Our net control operator in the EOC goes by the tactical call sign 7100.

During severe weather, the 147.240 repeater in Mankato will be used as a hub repeater by the NWS office in Chanhassen. This net will be used to handle net-control to net-control traffic only. The 146.715 will be primary backup in case of a failure of the 147.240 repeater during these combined operations.

Please do not use the 147.240 repeater to contact the NWS directly. Always go through the net control operator, who will either relay the traffic, or grant you permission to talk to the NWS radio operator directly. Remember, the 147.240 repeater will also be used for Blue Earth County's SkyWarn net in addition to the NWS net.

Last modified: June 02, 2006 @ 19:26