Patricia, TX is now online and linked to the rest of the PermNet system. The frequency is 443.250, positive offset, and requires a 162.2 tone. The below coverage map shows what the footprint will be. For a list of all the PermNet sites go to the Area Repeaters on the menu.

The 2022 St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest and ARRL West Texas Section Convention will be held March 19, 2022, at the MLK Community Center in Midland, TX.

For details please visit the hamfest website at https://hamfest.w5qgg.org/.

The Midland Amateur Radio Club’s remote station is set up and available for use via remotehams.com.  Look for W5QGG.

The rig is an Elecraft K3 with a KPA500 amplifier.  Current and planned antennas include a 160m off center fed dipole, a 40 meter dipole at approximately 80’, and a hex beam at approximately 40’.

Transmit privileges will be granted for one year to those who make a $100 donation. Club members may make an $80 donation for one year of transmit privileges. The donation may be refunded within 30 days if requested, resulting in loss of transmit privileges.

For questions email: KG5KUQ@gmail.com.

For more information and to make your donation for remote station access please visit the Remote Station page or click the picture of the K3 on the upper left of the website.

Congratulations to Larry Keene, W5LWK, from Midland for winning the MARC Icom IC-705 raffle! The drawing was held on June 12 at the tailgate swapmeet. You can view the raffle drawing below on YouTube.

From Andrew, N5RGH…

Good evening, all. As many of you are already aware, B John McDaniel (KE5PL) and I have been in the process of building a new regional linked radio system that we have decided to call PermNet. Before the ice storms, we had the following sites online; Midland, Odessa, Notrees, Big Spring, Sterling City, Marathon, Kent. During the recent ice storm, we lost the towers at Notrees and Big Spring. The Notrees site will be rebuilt in the months to come, and we are awaiting word from the Big Spring tower owner as to his intent to rebuild before proceeding. Del Rio, TX is also online. Several of the frequent PermNet users frequent the area of Del Rio, TX. This repeater serves those users with ease and provides coverage on as as-needed basis. All of the sites can be disabled, enabled, linked, un-linked, and separated into individual groups. This is all accomplished with the click of a mouse and is very user friendly.

As of yesterday, Brady, TX is now online with coverage of much of McCullough County. We anticipate San Angelo being brought online next weekend. The San Angelo site will provide coverage for >95% of Tom Green County and will overlap with the Sterling City Site.

If you have not given the PermNet linked system a try, you should. There is always somebody monitoring the system and willing to help you in any way that they can. All sites are linked with a full duplex ROIP link and provide exceptional audio quality. The system currently has the ability to link to the Big Bend Amateur Radio Club’s linked repeater system on an as-needed basis. If you are aware of any other existing/underutilized repeater sites that are primarily in the Permian Basin where we do not currently have coverage that you would like to see connected to PermNet, please have the repeater trustee contact me. I currently have multiple VHF Motorola Quantar repeaters (the PermNet standard) that can be allocated for those sites.

We are currently reviewing potential sites for Hobbs, Snyder, Rankin, and Iraan. Stay tuned!

Current ACTIVE site list:

Midland:

147.220 + 88.5

443.125 + 162.2

Odessa

147.100 + 88.5

443.100 + 162.2

Sterling City

147.200 (Soon to be changed to 146.640 – the old WTC frequency)

Del Rio

443.250 + 162.2

Brady 443.350 + 162.2

Marathon

147.120 + 88.5

443.200 + 162.2

Kent

443.325 + 162.2

de N5RGH & KE5PL