History of the 200HMz repeater in Wells, VT

The history of the 200MHz repeater in Wells, VT

Wells, VT -  The 200MHz repeater atop North East Mountain has quite a unique story that goes along with it! I took over ownership of the repeater in the fall of 2025, and in doing that, I got to learn a lot about the repeater, the mountain and it’s history.

Let’s start with the mountain itself! Northeast Mountain, situated in eastern Wells sits at around 2115 feet making it the Highest point in Wells, but only sits a little less than half of the elevation of Killington. The current tower is owned by VELCO and there was quite the legal battle with the former owners of the property. VELCO often refers to it as “the most expensive radio site we own”. VTDigger article on the legal battle

The repeaters original owner, WB2MIC Jozef was a resident of Wells, a pound veteran, and a gifted CW operator. The equipment was given to him for use by K1MOQ Frank for use. Frank Duffy was an Olympic athlete competed in eventing at the 1956 Olympics in Stockholm. At the time he was a student at the University of Michigan. After college, Duffy attended Harvard Medical School and obtained his medical degree in 1963. He then did his residency training in neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and neurosurgery at Massachusetts General and the Lahey Clinic, followed by fellowship training at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Duffy practiced pediatric neurology in Boston for over 50 years.

Jozef passed away in 2015, and after that the repeater changed hands a few times. It was kept alive by many local hams that had ties to the local club, the Green Mountain Wireless Society. At one point the repeater adopted the callsign N1VT after WA1ZMS Brian allowed it to use that callsign, Brian built and donated the current dipole antenna in use at N.E. Mountain.

Before I took over ownership, the repeater was un-officially in the hand of the North East Repeater association after founder Warren Severance took it over (Around the same time they took over the N1VT callsign).

In the fall of the 2025, I had the wonderful privilege of talking to Jozef’s widow Jeanne, who told many wonderful stories of Jozef’s work and CW operations. I am very thankful for Jeanne signing over the repeater to me to help keep it alive.

There are plans in the works to link the repeater to the W1GMW repeater in West Rutland Vermont for expanded coverage on both machines! More to come on that soon!

GMWS Website – www.gmws.net

NFMRA Website – www.nfmra.org

WB2MIC QRZ Page - https://www.qrz.com/db/WB2MIC