PNWDigital is a very large open repeater network is completely free to use by all of the hams in our region. We support public service, SAR and other community benefit needs wherever and whenever possible. We do not charge fees, club dues nor is there any requirement that anyone contribute to our organization. But what we do provide to our ham community in this region does cost a few of us more than $1,400 a month. So we have created this page to enable those who wish to support PNWDigital to contribute funds.
DTLT come in many forms; Dollars are convenient, Talent is quite handy, Labor is helpful and Time is precious. If you choose to donate funds, please include your call sign so we know who you are and provide attribution.
Paypal is: Paypal@PNWDigital.Net
Freefunder is: PNWDigital Organization
Zelle is: Donation-Zelle@PNWDigital.net
We update the donation list with every donation made. We also acknowledge every donation via Email and provide the password to the donation list. The password is listed in the members only forum at: Topic: Donations – Detailed and will be provided to members on request via an Email sent to donations@pnwdigital.net
We appreciate the support of our cash donors over the years. If you wish your donation to go to a specific individual, task or project, provide that information in the comments or memo line and we will try to comply. If you prefer to send a bill pay or paper check, please write to the address below for additional details.
If you need assistance from our team, please send an Email to: donations@pnwdigital.net
Donation details for members: <Member Info> or directly <Donations List> (PW changed 1-1-24)
PNWDigital.net is a regional association of individuals who collectively, provide the repeaters, networking and ongoing operational, maintenance and subscription costs to keep our DMR network in service.
This page is meant to publicly acknowledge those individuals, groups and businesses who are actively supporting PNWDigital.Net’s network growth and maintenance. Our repeater owners are the moving force behind our regional growth and honestly, they go beyond that by donating here as well. Individual support efforts by our users is welcome and will be memorialized here also.
Typically only 5% of a club’s members voluntarily support a club’s efforts when there is no dues structure in place (PNW is at ~6.5% for 1 time donations of more than $5.00), so those who do so voluntarily go above and beyond and are listed below because they merit acknowledgment. If you feel inclined to actively support PNWDigital.net, we suggest a nominal $25 annual donation, about the cost of 1 Starbuck’s drip coffee once a month. If every member were to donate, we could fully cover our ongoing monthly costs as well as fund 1-3 new repeaters each year or better afford the best and most expensive mountaintop sites.
As of November 2023, our monthly ongoing costs are about $1,400 a month for the WA7DMR repeaters and networking. The average donation is about 27 cents per member per month for about $550 per month, so monthly costs alone run about 3 times the amount of our current donation level. This does not take into account the costs by individual repeater owners who shoulder their deployment costs alone. A typical repeater deployment at a commercial site costs $4,500 to $5,500 in hardware and installation costs. The site rent and Internet is another $700-$1,250 at the typical annual rate. There are countless hours for planning, trips, paid tower crews as well as maintenance and upgrades after the initial installations. Some installations have 5 hour one-way drives. Some repeater owners never use their own repeaters as they are located too far away from their home areas. All of this is a significant investment by a very few dedicated repeater owners who shoulder most of the costs for our community repeater growth and network expansion. This is not sustainable in the years ahead but we have no plans currently to change our no cost membership model to more than simply accepting your kind donations.
For those who do not actively support PNWDigital.net, please make an effort to seek out your repeater owners (click on the color code on the repeaters page) and others listed below and extend to them your appreciation for their support and dedication to help to maintain and expand DMR coverage in our region.
Our Commercial Supporters and Sponsors
Bob, KJ6UVT is LGR and is a wonderful vendor with stellar support for the Anytone radios. LGR has supported many PNWDigital training sessions and fundraising events. Our contact is Bob, KJ6UVT
RT Systems Inc
Manufacturer of the multi-platform radio programmer and programming cables. Now with the new “DMR Calculator”. RTS is a supporter of the Summer Gathering 2023 at Valley Camp. Click on the link or logo and use our 10% off coupon code: PNWDMR.
Raven-Net-Systems,-LLC
Manufacturer of the c-Bridge and other DMR networking platforms. Excellent support to TRBO-6, DCI and PNWDigital since 2011
Dylan, KI7SBI at Sunrise provides our CoLo home for our Bremerton c-Bridge and select MMDVM servers
Spokane Service Provider to PNWDigital
Jason, KC7HFM is providing Internet services for the Saint Maries and Lewiston repeaters as well as a major supporting donor
Scott, N6ZEK provided our CoLo home for the 1st and 2nd DCI c-Bridges from 2011 to 2020
Jeff (a ham) provided us (TRBO-6, DCI and now PNWDigital) our first 3 repeaters in 2009, part of the original release Dealer Demo Packages. Since then, we buy our new hardware from Jeff as well as our depot needs and general help and service in our MotoTRBO world.
The following members have made significant contributions to PNWDigital.net
- Rob AF7PR; Many repeaters in Washington, HamWAN expansion!!!
- Loren KB7APU; OR-SAR Affiliate; many repeaters (Oregon & Washington)
- Andy KK7TR, Cougar repeater return (2nd edition), tower climber, tech assist
- Jim N7MAQ; Repeaters (Oregon and Washington)
- Mike N07RF; c-Bridge, Networking, Repeaters (North Central Washington)
- Rod KC7AAD; Repeater & repeater sites (Spokane), Spokane CoLo hosting and HamWAN
- Earl N3EG; Repeaters (Longview Washington and Rainier Oregon with local Day Wireless support)
- Lenny N7MOT, SLR-5700 repeater and repeater installation at the Blossom Hill ID site, donated to PNW in 2019
- Dylan KI7SBI, Colo hosting, Polly/MMDVM server implementation/support and HamWAN
- Steve N9VW, network mapping for users support, database implementation
- Michael KG7HQ, Website creation and transition from the old website to the new website
- Steve N9WV, Database creation for major backend support (TG Picker, Matrices and more)
- Dave W7NCX, our long time lead man and NCS for the PNW weekly Gathering, servers, hardware, programming
- I-84 Group for their work to open up Oregon DMR along the I-84 transportation corridor
- Joel N7LF, Jim KA7AGH and Paul K7PN
- Brad N7ER, repeaters and site, installation trips
- Jason KC7HFM, provider of Internet services for the Saint Maries and Lewiston ID repeaters
- Frank, NO7UP for for Internet at Jump Off Joe and VPS hosting of the PNW-D c-Bridge
- Hilltop acquisitions, Installs, Networking, Labor, Testing, Maintenance & other support:
- Mike N7NFY, repeater sites (Gold, Rattlesnake)
- Jerry Noe at Wiztronics; repeater sites & Internet connections
- Brian K5IN, repeater site (Capital Peak)
- BC-TRBO, Geoff VE7KA, affiliate c-Bridge
- Terence KE7SFF, affiliate repeater (Haystack) & HKS c-Bridge
- Randy K7RHT, Ellensburg site
- Ron KG7LAA and Carl KG7JMI, Ellensburg site support and Internet
- Joey K6BFD, supplied and installed Heliax and Telewave antenna for Moses Lake Site
- Steve N7LNX, important site acquisition on behalf of PNW Digital
- Gary, KJ7LED for hosting a repeater and his very generous donations
- Many more individual repeater owners who have installed 1 or more repeaters and network with PNWDigital
Special Mention: Greg, NF6C who put up the first 2 western Washington repeaters (MTR-3000’s) on Cougar and Baldi in 2013 and got the DMR ball rolling in Western Washington. The repeaters came down when Greg moved to California in 2014 but were replaced within the year with the help of Andy KK7TR (Cougar Mtn) and Rob AF7PR (Baldi Mtn). This was the genesis of PNW Digital truly having lift off in Washington state.
First Published: September 5, 2021 Last Updated: 4 months ago by Mike – NO7RF
Views: 1375