This patch also serves phone numbers in Staunton, Verona, Mt. Sidney, New Hope, and Mt. Solon in Augusta County.

This repeater uses an offset of -0.600 MHz, and requires transmission of a CTCSS (PL) tone of 88.1 Hz.

This repeater covers most of Rockingham County, and a good portion of Shenandoah, Page, and Augusta Counties also.  This includes Elkton, Weyers Cave, Grottoes, Fulks Run, Bergton, Hinton, Bridgewater, Broadway, Timberville, Mt. Crawford, Mt. Sidney, Mt. Solon, Staunton, Verona, New Hope, and Fort Defiance.

The coverage area does not include New Market, Luray, Woodstock, Fishersville, Waynesboro or Crimora.

The patch itself is remote to the repeater, and is physically located in Weyers Cave, Virginia.

The equipment is not a normal repeater autopatch, and does not operate the same as other  patches in the valley or most patches in the amateur service.  In general, those patches are an integral part of their respective repeaters.  On those patches, the ham could "override" the patch audio.

This patch system, however, is different.  This patch is merely using the repeater as a range extender.  This patch's transmitter is driven by the phone audio, but has safety control features that enable the ham to take control if the called party begins breaking the Part 97 rules.

It takes a little getting used to, but this patch is just as easy to operate as the previous ones.

Hams in the area wishing telephone interconnect service are asked to help defray the cost of the monthly phone bill.  A subscription of $15 per year is being asked.  Families with more than one ham can obtain a family subscription for $25 per year.

A complete operating manual for the patch system is available in PDF format.  Simply click HERE to download your copy of the manual.

To subscribe and obtain the access code to bring the patch up, contact David R. Fordham, KD9LA, at (home) 540-234-0448;  (work) 540-568-3024;  (email) fordhadr@jmu.edu  or on the 145.130 repeater during morning or afternoon drive time.

KD9LA wishes to thank the Shenandoah Valley Repeater Group for the use of the 145.130 repeater, and the JMU Wireless Experimenters Group for assistance with the interface equipment.