A W4RAL BBS Node in Clayton, NC

This is one of the W4RAL BBS nodes, located in Clayton NC. It's SSID is W4RAL-4. It currently consists of an Kantronics Data Radio running about 5 watts, followed by a 35 watt vhf brick, and finally a 150 watt VHF brick. The TNC is a Kantronics KPC-3 TNC. It is full time battery powered.

W4RAL-4 shares the same site as the 147.39 WB4IUY Repeater in Clayton. The bank of brown cavities, seen in the photo to the left, are used to combine the 145.01 mhz signals to and from this node with the 147.39/99 mhz signals of the voice repeater. Both systems use the same antenna, and even share the same 1 5/8" feedline!

W4RAL-4 is primarily a "backbone" node used for BBS to BBS forwarding, however when a distant user can't access a conventional user node, this node is an acceptable path. There are more nodes in the works for the Clayton site to allow a 1200 baud user node on 147.54 mhz, a 220 mhz 9600 user port, and a 6 meter gateway to the west.

The node's primary antenna is a Sinclair 4 bay folded dipole array, shared with the 147.39 voice repeater. The tower structure is about 200 feet tall, and the repeater/node antenna occupies the top perch. It's fed through about 300' of 1 5/8" Andrews heliax. The Clayton site is about 335 feet above sea level, and the antenna is about 535 feet above sea level!

This digipeater's primary coverage area is Johnston, southern Franklin and Nash, and western Wilson and Wayne counties. It provides a coverage radius of about 50 miles in all directions with considerably more range to the S.E. through the S.W.