KK7DFL
South Mountain Peak — Shelton, WA

KK7DFL is a D-STAR + analog FM repeater located on South Mountain Peak near Shelton, Washington. It is an Icom G3 system, sponsored by the South Puget Sound D-Star Club, serving Mason and Thurston counties.

Quick Reference

Location

South Mountain Peak is located approximately 5 miles west of downtown Shelton in Mason County, overlooking the Olympic Mountains to the north and the Capitol State Forest to the west. The site provides solid coverage of the Shelton, Olympia, and Tumwater areas, as well as portions of the Hood Canal and the Olympic Peninsula shoreline.

Programming Your Radio

To use KK7DFL for D-STAR, configure your radio as follows:

• MYCALL: Your callsign
• URCALL: CQCQCQ
• RPT1: KK7DFL C (repeater callsign + module C)
• RPT2: KK7DFL G (gateway)

Callsign field width — 8 characters

D-STAR callsign fields are exactly 8 characters wide. In the examples above, KK7DFL C uses all 8 characters: 6 letters for the callsign, one space, then C in position 8. If a callsign is shorter — say N7QQU (5 letters) — you still need the module letter in position 8, with spaces filling the middle: N7QQU A. Check your radio’s programming software — some handle this automatically, others do not.

URCALL: Local vs. Reflector traffic

Setting URCALL to CQCQCQ as shown above reaches only stations listening on the local repeater module — it does not link to a reflector. Your audio stays on this machine.

To talk beyond this repeater to the wider D-STAR network, you need to link the repeater to a reflector first. This is done by sending a link command in the URCALL field (check the repeater's linking commands), or by programming the reflector callsign directly. Once linked, set URCALL to CQCQCQ to call anyone on the linked reflector.

Key difference:

• CQCQCQ on a local module = local traffic only
• CQCQCQ on a reflector-linked module = goes out to the D-STAR world
• REFLECTOR C (or similar) in URCALL = routes directly to that reflector

For analog FM use, set the frequency to 145.275 MHz with a -0.600 MHz offset and a PL tone of 100.0 Hz.

Gateway & Resources

• Gateway: kk7dfl.dstargateway.org ↗
• D-StarUsers: dstarusers.org/viewrepeater.php?system=KK7DFL
• RepeaterBook: repeaterbook.com
• APRS.fi: aprs.fi KK7DFL-C
• jFindu: jfindu KK7DFL

FM vs. D-STAR on This Repeater

KK7DFL runs both analog FM (narrow, 12.5 kHz) and D-STAR simultaneously. FM users hear analog; D-STAR users hear digital. The repeater does not cross-mode between them. Note the 100.0 Hz PL tone is required for analog access, though D-STAR access does not require it.

Range

From South Mountain Peak, the repeater provides solid coverage of the Shelton, Olympia, and Tumwater areas, plus portions of the southern Hood Canal and the eastern Olympic Peninsula. Mobile coverage is reliable along US 101 and in much of Mason County.

Always Connected to XLX159

KK7DFL is permanently linked to the XLX159 multi-mode reflector. When you key up on this repeater, your traffic routes through XLX159 and can be heard on any other module connected to the reflector. This means you have immediate access to the wider D-STAR network without manually linking.

View the live dashboard at kk7dfl.dstargateway.org ↗ for real-time status, last heard, and gateway connection info.

Sponsoring Club

The South Puget Sound D-Star Club maintains both KK7DFL and KK7DFM as a linked D-STAR system. Contact them for registration, questions, or to report issues.