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On a repeater I frequently listen to there are a handful of expected automated messages. Namely, at the top of the hour it tells the time and the callsign, and every 10 minutes it sends out it's callsign in morse code. The voice for the top-of-the-hour call is typically an automated female voice.

Recently, at seemingly random times a male automated voice comes in and says something along the lines of

O-N-I-X HOLT(?) ANALOG XX.XX - WELCOME TO THE (CALLSIGN) REPEATER

I've been googling and I can't seem to find what this means. In particular the XX.XX that is listed off changes each time. 2 minutes ago it was 13.8, a few hours ago it was 12.8. There were a few numbers last night too.

I'm guessing this is just another part of the technology stack this particular ham's repeater is running. I'm intrigued by the numbers though and what this actually is. Is it sending a message about signal strength or something?

Hopefully this isn't too obscure. Thank you!

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  • $\begingroup$ What city and state is this in? $\endgroup$ – Mike Waters♦ Feb 11 '18 at 2:21
  • $\begingroup$ The repeater is 447.225 MHz, Nevada @MikeWaters. Low Potosi, Nevada seems to be it's location upon further inspection. $\endgroup$ – user11031 Feb 11 '18 at 2:40
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    $\begingroup$ 447.225 in Nevada would make it part of the N6LXX system, which also has a repeater on Onyx Peak in California. Perhaps no coincidence? $\endgroup$ – hobbs - KC2G Feb 12 '18 at 7:54
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I agree with Kevin Reid that this is probably a telemetry readout for a battery, but here's a little bit more guesswork:

  1. Another repeater in the same linked repeater system is installed at Onyx Peak in California. Perhaps the readout is O-N-Y-X (probably the text-to-speech system doesn't have the word Onyx in its dictionary).
  2. It's not "Holt", it's "volts".
  3. My guess is that "analog" doesn't relate to the fact that it's an analog repeater, but instead is the readout for what type of telemetry it is -- probably the package has several digital inputs (which are either not used in this case, or only read out if they're in an unexpected state) and one or two ADCs for monitoring batteries or temperatures.

In this scenario, "Onyx volts" is the name of the measurement, "analog" is the type, and 12.8 is the value.

If you want a more definitive answer, then you might consider contacting someone associated with the N6LXX repeater system and asking them.

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13.8 and 12.8 are plausible as battery voltages. It is possible that this repeater is solar-powered; to test this theory, notice if the number varies consistently with the time of day (and weather).

I do not know what “O-N-I-X HOLT(?)” might mean. “ANALOG” could mean that this is associated with (or is also) a digital-voice repeater in some way.

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The message is generated by the N6LXX controller at Onyx peak. The "ANALOG" portion of the message is identifying which analog port is being reported on the controller and as suspected, the readout is the measured analog voltage of the solar charged battery stack. It was decided on the day we brought Onyx on line to monitor the status/condition of the battery system.

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