(pronounced "g-e-moto" as in GE and Motorola)
 

Welcome!  GEMOTO is not a club.  GEMOTO may be thought-of as a quasi-social networking group or consortium made up from members and officers from several New England radio clubs with common interests.   This is a central depository area for New England hams who share an interest in:



Mike Giovannucci, N1OMJ with his seed stock of 50 Motorola MTX9250
900MHz  portables. Mike and K1BOS purchased these to resell at a low
price to help increase 900 MHz activity in the Boston area.  It worked!


And one year later with 52 MCS2000's  (quickly sold out within days)

  • Conversions of surplus commercial GE/Harris and Motorola gear to ham operation... from P25, NXDN and DMR digital to tube type!
     
  • VHF-FM operation on less-than-mainstream bands such as 10 meters, 6 meters & 440
     
  • A pioneering effort at 900 MHz  (see left)
     
  • VHF and UHF digital (P25, DMR, NXDN & D-Star)
     
  • Kenwood, Vertex and ICOM commercial gear is also being converted to ham operation
     
  • Building and operating ham repeaters
     
  • Preservation of the great engineering heritage from legacy products in their previous dominant eras.
     
  • Lately, even large group buys of 900 MHz portables, mobiles and repeaters to convert.  
     
  • List of active 900 MHz repeaters here
     
  • Map of IRLP-linked 900 MHz repeaters here
     
  • Codeplugs downloadable  here

     

SHOW US YOUR GEMOTO!

 



 

The very first 900 MHz repeater stakeholders meeting at NearFest May 3, 2008.
 


Operation Wolfpack-I

Operation Wolfpack-II

Operation Wolfpack-IV


We're also realists so we admit to occasionally using traditional multi-band Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood ham appliances.  But again we aren't a formal club, we are just a group of hams with common interests..

FYI:  If you are interested in using commercial gear and building ham repeaters, be sure not to miss this great site by Kevin Custer:   http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/

NEW ->Surplus 1kW 6-meter solid-state amplifiers by Larcan (click here)

              Summer trip to the Boston Harbor Islands (click here)

              Boston 900 MHz repeater on the air  (click here)

              Cumberland, RI  900 MHz repeater on the air  (click here)

              6-meter repeater from Gunstock Mountain now ON THE AIR!  (click here)

              Operation Wolfpack-2 (click here)

              Pictures from NearFest-II HearFest-III NearFest-V

              6-meter repeater at NH's Mt. Uncanoonuc  (click here)              

              Dayton update 2007 (click here)


Local knowledge

Members of this group tend to help each other via equipment contributions, skills, time, etc.  We are not a formal club, we are just a group of approximately 100 local, active hams with common interests.  Due to a sudden surge of low-cast surplus gear, operations on 900MHz is currently the hot growth topic.  When in the area, members can often be found on:

  • 29.60 simplex  TX PL 151.4    vertical antenna polarity 
  • 53.07 MHz  Mt. Uncanoonuc, NH  W1DC   (large system, link to details)
  • 53.77  MHz PL 71.9 now on the air central New Hampshire
  • 51.74 MHz PL 71`.9  Hopkinton, MA linked to Gunstock
  • 53.27 MHz  PL 71.9  Framingham, MA   WA1NVC
  • 53.65 MHz  PL 71.9  Windham, NH    N1WPN
  • 448.175 MHz   PL 88.5  Framingham, MA    WA1NVC  IRLP node 461
  • 900 MHz:   List is now too large.  click here

Interestingly, members of this ad-hoc group are often not local to Framingham or even Massachusetts.  Due to the wide area six-meter coverage, additional participants come from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island.  A wide-area 900 MHz repeater link-up seems to be gaining traction.  Aside from on-air sharing of knowledge, the group meets every month for lunch at restaurants in diverse  geographic locations.  We typically swap war stories on how to acquire, convert and operate GE,  Motorola and Kenwood commercial gear and build ham repeaters.  The restaurant table is usually littered with both nachos and walkies of the commercial variety.  Several of our 100+ participants have previously worked for two-way radio dealers in past lives although only three are currently employed in that field .

Others simply enjoy the less crowded bands, the occasional technical conversation and the opportunity to meet new friends with similar interests.

Typically on the third Thursday of the month, we have been meeting for 11:30AM luncheons at Rte-128 area restaurants.  An evening dinner group has also been started further south and west.  Monthly breakfasts are in Northboro, MA.  Turnouts now seem to exceed "real club" meetings even though we do not want to become a large group that requires some form of formal management.

Click here for breakfast meeting shots.

....and some newer breakfast shots

 

Click here to listen to an MP3 that better describes our group's heritage and demographics.


If you get a twinkle in your eye when someone mentions a Delta, 41V,
MASTR-II, TK690, Spectra, ORION, MTX or an Astro Saber, you'll fit right in!


MTX9250's for 900 MHz ham use
 


MASTR-II with NHRC controller


click for the
Portable Clinic



In the 70's,  a souped-up 2m HT220 was used by the BMOC's.  In fact, that MADE them a BMOC !
 


 

The Motorola MCS2000 series is now used on
many new 900 MHz ham repeater systems.



MICOR 1/4 kW repeaters
(and their story is here)



GE/Harris Orion family
available from 10M to 900 MHz as surplus on eBay
(More info)



MASTR-II repeater 70's & 80's  (and still today!)

 


Local content contributions by:


Rick Zach, K1RJZ

Al Muise, K1NZQ

Kim Peck, WA1PBU

Will Bartlett, N1PXA and Claire Bartlett
(new 900 mHz technical support person)


Roger Coulson, WA1NVC

Wayne Nakata, N1WPN

 





Bar schmoozing at Dayton.
 


Evening dinners at local restaurants,

or monthly breakfasts with the walkies.  >


 


 


 Monthly luncheons at The Great Wall.
 


The common theme among participants:
Real radios hurt
when you drop them on your foot.

 

 

 


 

 

 


Just GE Delta,  really fast.  (RANGR too)

One of our newest projects is to compile links to certain rare documentation on the GE Delta and GE Rangr series of radios.  Due to the demise of the former GE Land Mobile empire, this information is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.  This section has links guiding you to radio combination/model numbers, control head variants, cable part numbers, and more. 

Delta intro page:
http://www.gemoto.com/delta.htm




A bit of vintage ham radio history              

                                                                                                      http://www.gemoto/FM.htm



Other links of interest for those who appreciate the finer things in life:

 

Roger Coulson, WA1NVC
info on Roger's repeaters

Roger working on FARA's new 440 machine
 
Kim Peck, WA1PBU
WARA 449.075 repeater
Rick Zach, K1RJZ
Rick's Hopkinton tower site  (FARA's 448.025)
dog sleds and hams
haming it up on snowmobiles

 
Bryan Cerqua, W1BRI  (MMRA repeater guru)
53.81 repeater pix
146.61 repeater pix
The ultimate cure for spare time
http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/
 
APCO  Land Mobile Museum
Everything needed for hams using
Motorola gear
http://www.batlabs.com/

or GE
http://www.hallelectronics.com/getech/

(you may need to dig, but it is there!)

 

Two very accurate local freq lists
www.nerepeaters.com  (by K1IW)
http://nesmc.org/nesmc/rptr.html
    (The NESMC database is as official as it gets)
 
Operation Wolfpack
Dumpster diving for repeaters anyone?


 
Out of print GEMOTO manuals
MDM Radio
Vintage Manuals

Ted Jansen Manuals
 
HT220's anyone?
http://www.batnet.com/mfwright/HT220.html

http://www.theportableclinic.com/
 

(others to follow)

  .


 

 

 

NEW non-mainstream repeaters worth noting.

These folks have worked long and hard to provide new services so please take the effort to reprogram your radios
and check them out!

6M:
53.65  Windham, NH  rptr RX PL 71.9  TX PL 100.0 by Wayne Nakata, N1WPN
53.07  Mt. Uncanoonuc in NH  
(large system, link to details)
53.77  Lakes Region of NH  rptr RX PL 71.9  TX PL 100.0
51.74   Hopkinton, MA link to Lakes Region (TX on 51.24)  rptr RX PL 71.9  TX PL 100.0

927:
The list is now too large.  click here

 

 

 


last revised: 10/07/2012