A W4RAL BBS Node in Zebulon, NC

This is one of the W4RAL BBS nodes, located in Zebulon NC. It's SSID is W4RAL-7. It currently consists of an Alinco DR-592 running about 50 watts, and a Kantronics KPC-3 TNC. It is full time battery powered.

W4RAL-7 occupies part of the 5CRG Cabinet in Zebulon, as seen on the left. The bank of brown cavities, installed horizontally on the upper shelf, are used to combine the 147.54 mhz signal from this node with the 144.39 mhz signal of an APRS node in the same cabinet. Both nodes use the same antenna, and even share the feedline with a voice repeater on 442.400 mhz!

The node's primary antenna is a 4 bay folded dipole array, shared with the APRS system. It's fed through about 200' of 1 5/8" Andrews heliax. Zebulon is about 300 feet above sea level, and has a pretty good radio path to southeast. Note the custom "top-hat", designed by Steve KD4WIW, on the tower to support up to 4 antennas.

This digipeater's primary coverage area is Eastern Wake, Southern Franklin, Western Wilson, Nash, and most of Johnston county. It provides a coverage radius of about 30 miles in all directions with considerably more range to the S.E. through the S.W.