The Google Earth Repeaters Overlay Project for the Entire United States and Territories

KD8TTE,

Awesome! I will be throwing this in the toolbox! Yeah there's a lot of applications Google Earth can be used. For example I used it on the "High Side" to plan ISR missions, talk to ISR assets in real-time, track troops on door-kicking, so on and so forth. This can be done in Ham world but typically you need a Google Earth Enterprise account with the servers and whatnot. That's well beyond the scope of my little effort. I simply couldn't find anything that was all inclusive and able to store locally. There's also all sorts of 3D ground mapping and terrain planning that can be done with ESRI and similar products, but with as fast as technology it moving, I'd think it would be better for Ham Maintainers to band together and buy and/or contract a LIDAR Mapping Drone for new placement. The natural placement of repeaters on the standard radio towers is fine, but for a not traditional approach, especially with solar kits, repeaters could be placed anywhere, given the proper terrain and planning. Perhaps more useful for a private ham with land, but teamwork makes the dream work.

I do love your concept, however as it makes perfect sense to me. But for the HF contacts, I would think something similar to the real-time lightning strike trackers could be open-sourced to essentially apply it to DXing and HF. Really, for any band if enough receiver antennas could be linked together. Especially with SDR being a proven technology.

Anyways, I'm rambling. Thanks again for the useful information and look forward to all that the Ham Multiverse has to offer!

73's
Ryan, AE0TO
o7

 

ND5Y,

You have valid concerns as obviously several people have experienced inaccurate data for their respective areas. I am a former National Level Incident On-Scene Commander, among many other things in the Federal Emergency Response world. So my time wasn't wasted as I now have what I wanted for an offline archive of Repeaters nationwide. Regardless of the data being good or not, when the SHTF and everyone is running around with their hair on fire, testing and evaluation of existing infrastructure is necessary to develop situational awareness for anyone seeking to know. Additionally, there will be MANY repeaters going from operational to hot garbage in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. But since the overall Ham Radio Band/Spectrum has been deconflicted, i.e. Baked Into the Cake" over many years, this will be essential to not reinvent the entire wheel. As well as many of whatever surviving radios will likely have many of their respective nearby repeaters still programmed into them. The old crust Senior Noncommissioned Officer in me is like Sam Elliot in We Were Soldiers... "Aren't you going to grab a Ham Radio Sarge? Naw... There'll Be Enough of Them Lying Around"...

As far as Repeater Book goes, if they only work with the Repeater Owners, I understand that from a Management Perspective as an essential gatekeeper function. So I'd recommend you go find your local Ham Repeater Owner(s) and help them fix the situation. Or... take over that function yourself.

Great input all the way around ND5Y.

73's
Ryan, AE0TO
o7

 

Mel, WA6JBD,

Well that's not cool! I know there's about 20,000+ different variables out there with all these repeaters. I'm a new ham who wanted a simple product and wanted to share. I've found with my humble little Baofeng 8W I can quiet repeaters 40 miles away with a tuned tiger tail. Everyone's situation is different, I wouldn't expect this level of performance in say my Elk Hunting site 9,000 ft ASL in Eagle County Colorado. I learned my first day of radio use in the USAF was that if my signal was a NO-GO, then it was relocate/retransmit.

As far as Repeater Book jacking up your repeater specs, I'll defer back my original disclaimer...

Good info Mel!

73's
Ryan, AE0TO
o7

 

N6SPP,

I am waiting on my HF rig to get here, which is literally sitting on a long-boat from China, so I haven't had the privilege of working HF yet. Got my ticket on 4 Feb 2023. From what I've seen, the 6M & 10M repeaters are so sparse and vertically FM polarized that it's kind of an outlier except for those that rely on them. For example we have only one 10M repeater in the whole state of Missouri and nothing else within a 500 mile radius, which makes perfect sense given the band. For emergency use, being the primary purpose of my effort here is that of the most prevalent repeaters used. When a bad day comes, then I'd think that HF would become the no kidding long distance communication arena regardless of the VHF/UHF/SHF realm. But... I'll caveat that I am merely a Green Horn Ham, with the benefit of a unique career behind me. So please if I am completely off-base, let me know. Again, looking forward to learning more about the HF environment as I improve my Ham experience by degrees.

Thank you for the valuable information N6SPP.

73's
Ryan, AE0TO
o7

 

Terse, and to the point. I like it. Thank you N7WR.
o7
Ryan

 

I can't dig up somebody who died 30 years ago and make him remove the RepeaterBook listing of his repeater that he sold before he died and I can't do anything about the zombie repeaters that are still on the air (for who knows how long) after the owners died recently and still ID with a no longer valid callsign.

I already tried that. RepeaterBook doesn't allow it. Neither does the state frequency coordinator.

 

There is no simple way to do that because of the multiple data sources involved.
Since you are new you probably don't know about repeater wars, repeater terrorism, paper repeaters, frequency coordinators that for various reasons don't do their job properly and don't publish all their data, frequency coordination waiting lists for thee but not for me, etc.

 

Fantastic effort, thank you!

 

New to the hobby, just got my Tech and Gen ticket last week. Already finding such awesome info is really amazing. Thanks for all of the hard work you put into this.

 

ND5Y,

Ok... What are all those things? I know there are always people who cause problems in any community...

Thanks for the tutelage in advance.

Ryan, AE0TO
o7

 

KI5ZRQ,

You're Welcome!

Ryan, AE0TO
o7

 

KI5ZWF,

I appreciate the kind words. I got my ticket at the beginning of February, so I understand. This was one of the first things I looked for, and couldn't find. I found a bunch of deadlinks and archaic websites with really outdated info, more so than Repeater Book, so I discovered the Map View on Repeater Book, and then the Google Earth KML files option. I simply hope it helps those who can use it. Apparently, the upkeep of the database is sporadic or poor in some places, but I can't control that. Welcome to the Hobby, however, and I hope you find it as exciting as I do.

73's

Ryan, AE0TO
o7

 

Thank You!

 

AWESOME....Very Nice....

 

KC5NGX,

You're Welcome!

Hope it's useful for you.

Ryan, AE0TO
o7