Speaker

January 27, 2026: Allen Wolff, KC7O: Bringing a repeater to life

PLEASE NOTE: Our in-person meeting location at Kaiser Permanente is currently not available, so THIS MONTH’S MEETING WILL BE ZOOM ONLY. If you are a member of our Group at groups.io, look for an invitation email via that Group. Or you can contact aa6qi (at) arrl (dot) net for the Zoom link.

This month Allen, KC7O, who has made several presentations to the Pasadena Radio Club over the years, will present something different that probably has never been presented to the Club before. Bringing a repeater to life! Being in the quality assurance world and dealing with equipment failures and life expectancy, he has been concerned with the local TELCO repeater due to its age and reliability. To that end, he felt that a new replacement or backup repeater would be a reasonable thing for the Club to pursue. After a few years with no interest from the Club, he decided to see if he could find a machine that could act as an emergency backup for TELCO. This is a presentation of how he found a machine, including assistance from Ham friends in three states, and the process of making it work.

AllenWolff, KC7O, is an ARRL Life Member, Extra class licensee, and earned his First-Class FCC Radio Telephone License (now General Radio Telephone) in 1974. He was first licensed as WN2NTL/ WB2NTL in New York in 1964, then as WB2NTL in New Jersey, WB9TXP in Indiana, KA7CGN and KC7O in Utah, and KC7O in California. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, RF Communications from Drexel University, Philadelphia PA. Allen has over 45 years’ experience in aerospace manufacturing operations and quality management. He has worked on Apollo missions 9 through 14 as a communications interface engineer on the Lunar Module, military airborne communications systems, the MX missile guidance system, commercial and military aircraft hydraulic actuators, spacecraft deployment systems, titanium fuel and pressure tanks for satellites and launch vehicles, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, and is a management, engineering and quality assurance consultant.

Allen is currently retired. He supports the local police by leading the Sierra Madre Emergency Communications Team and has been a member of the Pasadena Radio Club for 41 years. He enjoys travel and photography and has been in over 50 Field Days and been a 1B Field Day station from 2007 to 2014 and a 1E, emergency power station, from his home QTH from 2015-2025 making around 250 contacts each year. In 1999 he was awarded the Herb Brier Instructor of the Year award, from the ARRL, for 17 years of teaching Novice and Technician classes accounting for at least 450 new Ham Radio licenses. Over the years, his articles have appeared in QST, CQ, and 73 magazines.