MT KEARSARGE 

K1JY/R 

447.675 88.5Hz PL

The Mt Kearsarge repeater is located on the very summit of the mountain at an overall elevation of somewhere around 2937 AMSL. Access to the summit is obtained from hiking either from Winslow State Park, or Rollins State Park on the other side. The hike from Rollins is about half the distance, but may be a little steeper. 

So, this equates to the fact that ALL of the repeater equipment went up on somebody's back!  Mt Kearsarge is located in the Town of Warner, NH which is about eighteen miles northwest of Concord via Interstate 89 in Merrimack County.

The equipment is located in the NHPTV microwave building and the antenna is mounted on the side of that structure. WA1ZYX used to work full time for them as a TV transmitter tech and Mt Kearsarge was one of the mountains that he was responsible for maintaining, and that allowed access into the building.

If you'd like to see more really pretty pictures of the summit during the winter, check out the Winter Wonderland page.

The Mt Kearsarge Equipment consists of a Motorola Micor repeater which is being controlled by an NHRC-4 controller. The Micor is putting out about 75 watts into a set of TX/RX duplexers through about 25 feet of 1/2 heliax feedline to a Diamond dual-band antenna. Mt Kearsarge is also linked full time to two other K1JY repeaters. The primary "hub" repeater is the Henniker, NH 442.35 machine. The other repeater is on 447.775 in Loudon, NH on Oak Hill.

The Mt Kearsarge Repeater provides outstanding coverage along I93 & I89. Coverage along 93 extends from into Boston up to around Plymouth, NH. In fact, from the summit, you can see the Boston Skyline. There are spots that are flaky North of Plymouth. I89 coverage is almost 100% from Concord to the point that it drops down toward the Upper Valley (Lebanon/Hanover) and then picks up again after crossing the Connecticut River into Vermont. The repeater does not cover over toward the coast very well at all. As soon as mobiles drop down into Epson along RT4, they disappear.

The winter pictures were taken Jan '95 after several days of low cloud cover, high winds and freezing temperatures. The summer picture at the top of the page is for comparison.

Monday, September 10, 2007 10:05 AM