WWI operates wide coverage repeaters located in eastern Prince William County, Virginia. They are particularly active during morning and evening rush hours as up-to-the-minute traffic information is exchanged along the length of Shirley Highway and parallel roads between Woodbridge, VA and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The 147.24 MHz repeater hosts the Monday night WWI information net at 8 PM EST (9 PM EDT). The 224.78 MHz and 444.900 repeater are cross linked to the 147.24 MHz repeater during the net.
The 147.24 MHz repeater can also be accessed using EchoLink. Address is W7IY-L
147.24, 224.78 and 444.90 MHz Repeaters
by: Dale Carlsen – WA2IKI (way-too-iky)
Operating under the W4IY/R callsign. They are located on a water tower in Lake Ridge, Virginia with antennas 420 feet above sea level. The 440 (444.9 MHz) repeater has an Effective Radiated Power (ERP) of about 20 watts while the 220 (224.78 MHz) and 2 meter (147.24 MHz) repeaters have about 40 watts ERP. You are welcome to use these “open” repeaters, however, regular users are expected to become WWI members to help defray operating and maintenance expenses. See W4IY/R REPEATER GUIDELINES for membership information, operating procedures, and tone-pad testing.
WWI has operated the 2 meter repeater for more than 20 years. It’s input is on 147.84 MHz, and is carrier-squelch operated with PL tone of 107.2 Hz .
The 444.90 repeater has a PL Tone of 127.3 Hz and supports Yaesu Fusion. Wires-X.
The default operation of the repeater remains Automatic Mode Select (AMS) in and out, which means that the repeater will follow analog FM or digital Fusion signals as needed when operating standard repeater operation and no other transmissions are being keyed from the X-Wires operation when activated. Set tone squelch on TX/RX 127.3 to insure that you don’t get hash when digital transmission occurs. FM analog operations should work normally (a plus for the Fusion system and one reason why we selected it).
For those of you that have a Yaesu Fusion radio (or will be getting one soon), your Dx button will now work when pressed to establish a digital Wires-X link with the 70cm machine. Analog FM operation in Wires-X is not being enabled as doing so prevents the data transfer functionality of Wires-X operation.
The information for the Wires-X operation is:
WIRES-X DTMF Node ID : 73418 Node Name: W4IY-ND
WIRES-X DTMF Room ID : 83418 Room Name: W4IY-ROOM
We are operating DG-ID = 00 and the node and room are open rooms that anyone can connect to. The news function is set to download only and a few short local news messages are posted on W4IY-ND if you want to try reading them. There is a 3 minute time out on transmissions and a room timeout timer which will disconnect from a room after 10 minutes to prevent leaving a room linked for an indeterminate time.
Operationally, the Wires-X repeater will be online with exception of Monday night from 6P-10P to accommodate linking our analog FM repeaters for the Monday Net.
So it’s time to find that Wires-X manual (or download it from Yaesu.com) that came with your Fusion radios and find out how to use it! Note: every Fusion radio that I have seen thus far has subtle differences from each other and reading the manual is pretty important to make best use of your radio.
More information on Wires-X is available from Yaesu at: https://www.yaesu.com/jp/en/wires-x/index.php
The repeater has excellent coverage along I-95 from the Virginia I-95/I-495 beltway intersection down to the Quantico area. Inside the Washington Beltway and around it, and south of Quantico, the coverage deteriorates somewhat in low spots and higher power (25 watts plus) may be required from these areas.
The 2 meter controller provides a voice and/or CW identification at ten minute intervals as well as voice announcements of meetings, nets and special activities.
Informative slide set for quick overview of Wires-X operation.
