Mingus Mountain Repeater Group Inc.

K7MRG/R Mingus Mountain 147.000 + 600 with a PL of 162.2

And WA7UID/R Downtown Phoenix 147.280 + 600 with a PL of 162.2

Serving Central and Northern Arizona since 1974

 

 

 

 

 

 

MMRG Celebrates it’s 46th year in 2020

History of Mingus Mountain Repeater Group, Inc.

This group was founded in early 1974 by about 10 hams who believed a need for good communication existed between most of Phoenix and the north central mountains of out great state. With this thought in mind, the push began with members donating gear, money, and time (lots of time).

The struggle began with an old Motorola tube type base station radio that was set up  in the home of Oliver Grieve, W7WGW. The first call letters assigned the machine  were WR7ABL, licensed to Gabe Romero, K7NOK.

Late in 1974 the call letters WR7AFC were issued to the site and we became known as “Arizona’s Finest Channels”. Months later, repeater call signs issued by the Federal Communications Commission  were no longer required. The FCC permitted individual call signs on each site.

The site then became W7WGW/R.

Our repeater was established at the KOOL translator building on Mingus Mountain  and not long afterward it was stolen. A year passed before we were able to acquire  our own site, and on Father’s Day 1977 the group installed our first repeater on Mingus Mountain at a different location than the KOOL building. The building and the tower were homemade and assembled and welded in Phoenix by WA7WAH, WA7ZDZ, WA7VDZ and WA7UID.

In October 1977 the frequency pair of 147.270/147.870  was acquired by the group, and a second machine was installed atop the Financial Center, Central and Osborne in downtown Phoenix. In June of 1985  the frequency was changed to 147.280/147.880 to conform to the Arizona Band Plan of a 20 KHZ separation.

In 1979 a UHF repeater operating on 442.150/447.150 MHZ was installed at the Mingus site, ushering the group into the UHF era. Later this repeater located on Mingus became a part of the Northlink system. The Northlink system is no longer on this repeater, however the 442.150 repeater is operational from the MMRG building with the call sign of K7MRG/R and has the IRLP Node 3600 on it at this time (2-5-2018). 

In 1988 a new building was added to the site on Mingus to house the radio equipment owned by MMRG. The old building now houses the battery system and chargers which operate the systems daily on the mountain. In 2010 the Vanity Club Call of K7MRG was obtained and put on the Mingus Mountain repeater which now signs as K7MRG/R. The downtown Phoenix repeater signs as WA7UID/R.

 

Corporation Officer

President Bob Sitterley  K7POF

Vice President  Ray Tyrrell  N6MY

Secretary  Lori Cripps  WA7EDI

Treasurer  Bob Sitterley K7POF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                    K7MRG                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      mmrginc@gmail.com

                                Kilo Seven Mingus Repeater Group

Board of Directors

Phil Hazlett WA7UID

Sonja Hazlett WB7CWW

Jerry Roberts KB7CN Tech

Gary Hamman K7GH

Butch Merrill K7JOG

Ken Rasbach KK7KEN

Tom Raczykowski N7MMC Tech

Board member tech committee emeritus

Hartley Gardner W1OQ 

 

Group Historian

OPEN

Founder and former Presidents

 

Oliver Grieve W7WGW / W7AFC (SK) Director / Founder Emeritus

 

Ernie Hawran WA7VWG, Emeritus,

Past President 1976—1994

 

 

Bill Lieske, Emeritus,

Tech Committee 1974– 2003

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