The Aurora Repeater Association had a long run. Incorporated in May 1977, at it’s height it had 300+ members and was noted for its linked repeater system on Guy Hill. Following the directive below, the assets of the club were transferred to Rocky Mountain Ham Radio. This site has been left intact for reference. The Swaplist and The Swapfest are still going strong with the support of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio.

On February 28, 2023, the ARA Board of Directors sent an email to all eligible members which began with the following paragraph:

The Board of Directors of the Aurora Repeater Association has recently had a discussion concerning the future of the Club. With our aging membership and no interest in what activities we have had, it seems that it would be in our best interest to dissolve the corporation and donate our assets to another 501(c)(3) organization.

Of the 31 eligible members, whose current email did not bounce, we received 20 responses by email and by phone. No one was happy to hear of the impending demise, but most understood that it would be unavoidable given that we have no addition members to draw on and that the member support of our activities including the Wednesday night net and the Swapfest have been negligible.

At this time, we will follow up on our plans to turn the assets of the Aurora Repeater Association over to Rocky Mountain Ham Radio, a qualified 501(c)(3) organization, so that they may continue to carry out their work which has always been in the spirit of what the ARA stood for. Innovation and the forefront of technology.

In this agreement the repeaters will continue to be run under the trusteeship of the current trustees and a sum of money will be earmarked for the maintenance of the Guy Hill and Critchell sites and repeaters.

Thank you for your support.

President Steve Cearley K0IBM, Vice President Ken Zylla KD0MGQ, Secy/Treasurer Wayne Heinen N0POH, Director/Trustee Scott Brauer N0OWY, Director/Trustee Emit Hurdlebrink W0UAW

After more than 50 years, the weekly ARA net has ended after low check in rates and scheduling conflicts for net control operators. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi all

Many sites in Colorado that relied on the generosity of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio were hacked and held for ransom recently… No ransom was paid and we are all rebuilding, Please thank Rocky Mountain Ham Radio and have patience while we rebuild

73

Wayne N0POH

ARA Treasurer & web dude

October 12, 2014

Effective the week of October 13 the ARA is discontinuing the auto-patch at Guy Hill. Over the years. the use of the auto-patch for both personal phone calls by members and Emergency phone calls by the general amateur radio community has decline to virtually no calls per year.  Meanwhile the cost of keeping the phone line at the site has been rising over the years.  The Board of Directors, led in the this instance by the Treasurer and Trustee of the 224.74/R Wayne N0POH and concurred by President and Trustee of the 448.85/R Steve K0IBM and Trustee of the 147.15/R David W0CBI we’ll be discontinuing the phone line and conserving some $800 per year that can be devoted to other projects.

In an expansion of the cooperative agreement between the Aurora Repeater Association and Rocky Mountain Ham Radio, the 447.500 repeater is now a few miles south of its original location at a site known as Critchell. At 8,400 feet it is not quite as high as the old Conifer Mountain site but it does enjoy coverage of the southern portion of the metro area. The repeater was placed on Critchell Monday December 29 by Steve KØIBM and Scott NØOWY. There was a flurry of activity as people who had been regular users of the machine found it lighting up their rigs in the scan mode. As we go forward we’ll learn more about the coverage that the machine will enjoy using the ARA’s configuration. Here is what the estimated coverage was before. Rocky Mountain Ham Radio has relinquished their 447.225 pair back to the Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Club’s frequency pair pool at this time and is preparing to re-purpose the equipment that was at the site. The parameters of the 447.500 (-) repeater remain the same with a 88.5 Hz CTCSS tone.

Thanks to some generous donations by Nate WYØX and Doug K2AD, the 224.74 repeater is sounding much better. Nate had always wanted to put up a 222 MHz repeater and at one time even had a 222 MHz repeater pair coordinated through the Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs but the project never materialized. He had acquired a set of duplexers and a front end filter cavity for the project and was trying to find a place to store them when he learned that we were looking for some duplexers to replace the WA-Com’s that had become rather difficult to tune. Nate graciously donated the cans and the filter cavities to ARA for the 224.74. Doug K2AD offered to put everything on the bench and tweak it up for us. Wayne NØPOH, the 224.74 trustee, and his wife Joan KBØYRX made a trip up to Guy Hill and brought down the repeater on a Friday. Wayne went up to Doug’s the next day and we looked at the entire setup.

First Doug tuned up the WA-Com’s and they seemed to tune fairly well however, on key up, there was two to three dB of desence. Next the Sinclair cans where tuned and they had better peaks and notches and exhibited no desence on key up. Looking at the unit, Doug remembered that he had a spare 222 MHz preamp sitting idly around and offered to add one of those the receiver. The tweaking was complete.

The next Tuesday Wayne and John KØZA made the trip back to Guy Hill with the repeater and cans and reinstalled everything. The repeater is useful with an HT from the back deck of Wayne’s house in Aurora. Thanks to one and all for the generosity of materials, equipment and time. If you have 222 capabilities give the 224.74 repeater a visit…

After trying all summer to find and fix the problem with the mobile station that has been rebroadcasting Comedy 103.1 FM, ARA has, as a last resort, changed the CTCSS (PL) tone from our normal 88.5 Hz to 100 Hz. This change was effective at 11 AM this morning September 26. Those who have migrated away from the repeater because of the noise and interference are invited to reprogram your rigs with the new tone and once again join us on the 147.15 repeater…

The 147.120 is up at Critchell. Our thanks to The crew was Scott N0OWY, Susie N0TMO, Scott’s Dad Arnie, and Tracy KI0HC for doing the honors on Saturday April 11!