Background:
Like a lot of clubs, a lot of our on-air activity (as a group) used to be on the club 2 meter repeater, 146.955. Morning & afternoon drive, most evenings & weekends, you could always find someone to talk to. The machine at the time was located (along with a companion 440 machine) on top of an apartment building in next-door Mount Lebanon, using rack space and a tower owned/controlled by the municipal's 911 center.
Until about 4 years ago. The County had started consolidating the local/regional 911 centers (which should have been done in the first place, but that's another story), and eventually had absorbed the Mt. Lebanon facility, which also served nearby communities (including mine). Which also meant they took over the radio room, rack, and tower. They gave the repeater owners (at the time, W3SRL & N3RNX -- N3RNX has since retired, and gave his share of the machines to the club, W3SRL is busy with family & life and has given control of his share to the club as well) a vague early warning, and then 2 weeks notice to clear out.
It's getting a little harder to find homes for repeaters these days, especially at low cost or for free. So the system was down for almost a year until we made arrangements with WPGH-TV Channel 53 to use a dual-band antenna on their tower. (The antenna had been used by the now-defunct WPa DX Association for their now-defunct 2 meter packet cluster... arranged by the Chief Enginner at the time, AD8J). Problem was, that put the repeater roughly 8 miles NE of it's previous location. So the coverage map moved. Doesn't sound like a lot, but remember that this is a very hilly area. Suffice to say, I went from full-quieting on my HT to can't-break-the-squelch on high power.
Price was right, but... we kept looking.
Now: We have gotten an offer from one of the local hospitals, St. Clair Memorial, to locate 955 on their buidling, using their tower. It moves the machine back into our 'membership zone', the hospital is roughly a mile and a half from the apartment building. Plus we gain some height.
There will be some costs involved... the old antenna was in bad shape, and we're leaving the 440 at Channel 53 for now, so we have to buy a new antenna. And a new controller (the two machines currently share one), and some other related odds & ends. But at least, these are all one time costs, and we have a nice war chest from the last few years of our hamfest, so we won't go broke.
No cost to us for the rack space, power, telephone, internet. There will be an MOI drawn up; we will be expected to officially become part of the hospital emergency management scenario, and be available to provide backup communications if something goes kaflooey. In time, we will be asked to provide a dual-band radio to put in their in-house emergency communications room. In time, we may also be offered the hospital's meeting rooms for club meetings. And we may be asked to provide Amateur Radio classes... piece of cake.
So why do I feel uneasy? It's almost too good to be true... but there doesn't seem to be a downside. Oh, if things fall apart, we're going to have clauses in the MOI to make it clear that the club owns the repeater & we take it with us if we're asked to leave (there's also a vague offer that the hospital may be willing to buy some gear for the machine, but personally, unless it's an outright donation to the club, I don't think that would be wise).
Outside of that, though... what am I missing?
