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Welcome to the KG4MRA

  Metropolitan Repeater Association (MRA) Web Site

Last update January 10, 2024


The MRA annual Board of Directors meeting was held Friday December 1, 2023

See the Documents tab for meeting minutes and reports

In that meeting, a new Director was elected, David Thomas WD3O, to replace Jim Bates K8OI, who has moved to Northern Virginia.  MRA thanks Jim Bates for his excellent work over the years, in the transition and rebuilding of the MRA as it became KG4MRA, from it's predecessor W4SQT.  David Thomas is a big contributor to many Virginia Amateur Radio clubs and associations, including Volunteer Examiner for the KC4TS testing group.

Also, during the 2023 operating year, Director Ed Bryce stepped down after many years on the MRA BoD, and was replaced by BoD action/vote, by Dave White W4IIA, who has been a great contributor for several of the Central Virginia and Richmond area clubs and associations.

MRA thanks both of these fine gentlemen for their service.


PLEASE SUPPORT THE MRA:

If you enjoy and use either of the MRA Repeaters (145.430, 224.420) please consider joining the MRA and contributing annual dues of $15.00.  To do so, simply pull a copy of the Membership Application (from this site, in the Documents tab) and mail your check for $15 (per year) dues, to the NEW MRA address:

Metropolitan Repeater Association (MRA)

P.O.Box 553

Chesterfield, VA 23832

The KG4MRA 145.430 repeater antenna is located at 730 feet AGL, with dual support arms, as shown in this photo

The photo above shows one of the challenges to the MRA repeaters

The Metropolitan Repeater Association, MRA, is a group of Amateur Radio Operators dedicated to providing a high quality, wide coverage area two meter repeater for the Richmond Virginia metro area and surrounding counties.  The MRA is not a club, rather, it's an association of people interested in ensuring the repeaters remain maintained, supported and most importantly, used!

MRA operates two repeaters in Richmond Virginia, the 145.430 and 224.420 MHz.

The KG4MRA 145.430 MHz repeater uses a standard -600 KHz offset uplink, and requires a CTCSS tone of 74.4 Hz on the uplink.  The KG4MRA is now operating with Yaesu DR-2X repeaters, and therefore APCO 25 (P25) is no longer an available service on the repeater.  Currently KG4MRA is operating in split Fusion mode, C4FM or NBFM Automatic Mode Selection (AMS) on the uplink, and NBFM only on the downlink.  This split mode of Fusion service allows for NBFM (Analog) only radios to hear all traffic and communications when receiving KG4MRA, and use of 74.4 Hz CTCSS Tone Squelch (to block C4FM on the downlink) is no longer necessary.

The repeater transmits a CTCSS tone of 74.4 Hz on the 145.43 MHz output, to enable using 74.4 Hz RX tone squelch on users radios to block whatever noise and interference they may experience receiving the 145.43 MHz downlink.  Use of the 74.4 Hz RX tone squelch on users radios is optional.  The occurrence of interference on 145.43 MHz in central VA is rare, but there is a repeater in the Washington DC area running full Fusion on 145.43 MHz, and occasionally propagation will cause that repeater being received in the Richmond area.  The vast majority of users of 145.430 use analog NBFM.  But there are a significant number of hams in the Richmond area with Yaesu Fusion mobiles and HT's, so there may be more C4FM traffic on the repeater, versus the very low usage of P25 when that was supported.

The MRA also operates the KG4MRA 224.420 MHz repeater which uses a standard -1.60 MHz offset uplink, requires a CTCSS tone of 74.4 Hz on the uplink, and transmits with a CTCSS tone of 74.4 Hz on the downlink.  Use of the 74.4 Hz RX tone squelch on users radios is optional.  The 224.420 is analog NBFM only, uplink and downlink, and the antenna is mounted at 400 feet.  This repeater is connected full time to the KG4HOT 220 MHz repeater network node, and that connection includes carrying the "Boredom Breakers Net" between 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM every day, a world wide AllStar (and other interconnection methods) net.

The KG4MRA 145.430 repeater was located on the WRLH Channel 35 Analog TV tower in north Chesterfield County (intersection of Routes 288 & 60) from 1982 to 2016.  Original call sign of the repeater was W4SQT (Trustee Rod Kieper W4SQT/SK).  In 2014 the call sign of the repeater was changed to KG4MRA.  On December 28, 2016, the entire KG4MRA repeater was moved to its new location on the WTVR TV Channel 6 tower, when the old WRLH Channel 35 TV tower was scheduled for demolition in 2017.  The WTVR TV Channel 6 tower is located in central Richmond (intersection of I-195 & Broad Street), ~13 miles ENE of it's prior location at WRLH.

The KG4MRA antenna at the new WTVR site is a Sinclair SD-224, 4 bay stacked folded dipoles, centered on 730 feet AGL, on the north tower leg of the WTVR tower.

The Metropolitan Repeater Association owes it's continued operation to the gracious hosting of WTVR TV CBS6, on the iconic free standing 849 foot AGL (1053 foot ASL) tower erected in 1953.