KA2OTD.org

Lt. Robert D. Cirri Memorial Repeater Group

Serving Northern NJ and the New York City Metropolitan Area on

441.250 MHz and 53.77 MHz

Our History

441.250 MHz has been on the air serving Northern NJ and the New York City Metropolitan Area continuously since 1983.

The repeater was originally built by Dave Gravel, K2EE (ex-WA2VKH) as a twin for the 224.06 repeater and was operational from Dave’s home in East Rutherford, NJ. It was a Motorola Motrac receiver strip and a Readicom mobile as its transmitter. Soon after, the repeater was moved to Steve Makky’s (KA2AYR) home in nearby Cliffside Park where it gained 250 feet of elevation.

Eventually, Dave focused on the implementation of 224.06 MHz, which became the popular “Boost-A-Go-Go” repeater located in West Paterson, NJ. Steve focused on developing 441.250 and replaced the Motrac/ Readicom repeater with an RCA-1000 repeater built by Tony Campanale, KA2RGS. A Sinclair Radio Labs SRL-320B 10 dBd coaxial collinear antenna was added in 1985 and we actually began hearing the people who heard the repeater. At the time, the repeater was powered by two car batteries and a trickle charger because of the current draw. Bob Cirri, KA2OTD (SK) went to a hamfest in northern Bergen County with Steve and helped find (and carry) a gigantic 80 Amp NCR power supply that was apparently converted from a 5 Volt computer mainframe. At about this time, the repeater callsign was changed to KA2AYR/R and continued to operate from Cliffside Park.

Bob became a Jersey City paramedic and was promoted to Chief paramedic. A while later, Steve, a New York City paramedic, gained reciprocity and left NYC*EMS to join him. The two were given authorization to place the repeater atop the Jersey City Medical Center’s Medical Building. On the day authorization was given, Bob and Steve dropped 200 feet of rope down the side of the building and hoisted the 22 ft. long Sinclair antenna up the side of the Medical Building. The repeater was upgraded to a GE MASTR-PRO. The users noticed an immediate change in audio for the better. A second repeater on GMRS was placed at the “MC,” where they both remained until 1987.

Bob became a Port Authority Police officer sometime around 1985. Steve eventually left EMS and entered the wonderful world of communications and the public sector. The repeater had to come down and when it did, it had to come down quickly! They earned the nickname “the Midnight Refrigerator Moving Company” for their stealthy and expeditious removal of 100+ pounds of repeater, hardline and 22 ft. long stick.

The dilemma soon became apparent. Where does it go next? With the help of Bob Adler, N5NY (ex-NZ2T) the repeater was moved to midtown Manhattan where it lived for a while. It was also changed to a Regency commercial repeater. Because of extremely high intermod, the repeater was moved to Fort Lee, NJ and was eventually changed out for a commercially made Icom RP-3010 repeater and external amplifier.

It became apparent that site hopping was ridiculous and we were at the caprices of people’s jobs and word of mouth agreements to keep the repeater operational. In 1988, the repeater was moved from Fort Lee to a commercial site in Cliffside Park, NJ atop a 32 story high-rise building. 441.250 Associates was formed to pay the repeater site rent (Yes, to keep the repeater in a stable place and guaranty access to the site, we paid rent! Every single month for years!). Initially, 441.250 Associates was a partnership between Steve Makky and Bob Adler. Partnerships are a great way to divide two friends. Later, Steve Makky bought the repeater completely from Bob Adler when Bob moved to Texas. The repeater was decreed to be a “non-club.” The regular users all felt that Ham radio clubs have dues, power struggles and long meetings with Roberts Rules of Order. It became, instead, a benevolent autocracy.

All the while, Bob Cirri was still a Novice. He would only talk on the GMRS repeater. He finally set his mind to upgrading and then, when he did, he became a regular fixture on the repeater. You could always catch Bob going to or coming home from work at the Port Authority or Hackensack University Medical Center. Sometimes, if things weren’t busy, he would get on and chat for a while. The conversations were never trite and inane, but always thoughtful and honest – sometimes brutal. Those were the ground rules. Nobody cared about “Q signals” or “fine business” stuff. The conversations spanned everything from politics, to joking around about our personal lives, to jobs, to problems to actually using the repeater at emergencies to deal with the situation at hand. The repeater had far better coverage than the UHF “Med Channels” did and once in a while it was not uncommon to call a medical control doctor on the autopatch to tell him about a patient’s deteriorating condition on scene or request the use of a certain drug to save the person’s life.

The repeater lived at the Cliffside Park, NJ commercial site, which overlooked upper Manhattan for 11 years. It also underwent a number of changes that included voting receivers (there was even a voting receiver on top of the Empire State Building that allowed it to have portable coverage into Long Island!) and various equipment change-outs and upgrades.

During this time, the regular users changed jobs, had kids, moved a few times, went through divorces, got married, etc. The repeater was there to help us stay in touch and get through things. In 1996, Steve Makky accepted a job in Missouri and moved out of the area. Unable to fulfill the role of trustee, he asked Bob, KA2OTD, to “take over” on pretty short notice. Bob continued to keep the repeater on the commercial site with the help of others, but, in 1999, site rental costs eventually prevailed and, faced with the imminent costs of a mortgage, the repeater was moved to Nutley, NJ.

After many years of having a friend who acted as the resident technician, once Steve moved, Bob was forced to take on many of the technical projects himself. There was a brief period of long distance telephone calls where Bob cursed the day Steve moved to Elvis country, and Steve would occasionally make a trip “back home” to do some tweaking and repairs, but Bob discovered he had a natural aptitude for working on the repeater and had eventually purchased a Micor repeater that is presently used on 440.

With the help of Rod, N2UFQ, and Scott, KC2CQM, Bob moved the repeater to its present site, where it has been for the past several years.

The split-site 6 meter repeater system was not affected by all of the moves of the 440 system.

The 440 Micor repeater has Bob’s voice stored on its identifier. It’s what home sounds like.