SHRG is pleased to report GB3SH and GB7MT are back on air after temporary 13.8 Volt High current power supplies were fitted to care for GB3SH & GB7MT, for the time being.
The off air causing fault has been put down to a faulty DC relay distribution unit. The unit was built in Feb. 2019. We will take the opportunity of upgrading the unit and DC cable size to improve performance..
The weather station is working again, it needed its batteries changing, we noted 60MPH winds on site early this morning, and will change t hose batteries once a year from now on, its called ISOUTH502, we also have a weather camera on site that can be found on GB3SH.co.uk select "weather cam". or select "weather"
It does seem that fusion can give a considerable improvement in range for mobiles, improvement of range on SH has been noted on the M3 near Baisinstoke and on the A 36 between Wilton and Warminster, as well as towards Ringwood on the A36.
Any one any ideas
how far IV signal goes toward Brighton. Answers as ever on the back of
a £50.00 in pencil please.
WEATHER STATION
Isouth502, located
at our repeater station location, will be off for maintenance.
Weather underground report that They will " be upgrading our systems
from 1500BST local time (10 am EDT) on July 31, 2023 to 2200BST ( 5 pm
EDT ) on August 2, 2023.
During this time you won't be able to sign up for a new account, log in,
or manage a personal weather station. Sorry for any inconvenience."
This also applies to all other stations run by weather underground.
Note: This does not
effect the weather camera as that is run by a firm in Bristol, England.
INTERNET
CONNECTION
We are pleased to announce that we have achieved our best internet connectivity,
this has been achieved by connecting to TOOB, Southampton's fastest and
newest internet provider who provide Optic conductor to the home, with
speeds of around 900 Mb/s.
During the past years We have used a mix of WIFI hopping across the city,
over a distance of 5.5 miles using 3 WIFI repeaters!
Readers will be aware this has been subject to interruption including
contractors scrapping some of the equipment!,.. "interference"
from other WIFI users, and Virgin T Media, turning off the connection
for non payment!
To improve this facility, Our suporters provided Sim Cards, and paid for
the equipment so We can connect directly to the Mobile phone masts at
their own expence, to those Sugar Dadies the rest of us say: Thank you!
For they have kept us going for some time.
Benefiting from the new fast effective connection is GB7IV / Southernfusion;
GB7SU the DMR UHF repeater; Weather station "Isouth502" which
is on top of the tower block; and our weather camera.
The current works were down to the diligent efforts of Jason and Marcus,
Thank You Lads.
We must also thank SCC for their help in this regard.
Andy Repeater Keeper
G4MYS
A general response is MT, SH, SU & 7SU are working very well are giving no or little perceived trouble.
GB7IV our VHF Fusion linked repeater, was not doing as well as we would like, ESP as regards sensitivity ( deafness ) being around 8db down on SH ,,.. and our investigations are ongoing, for instance We investigated the QRM levels yesterday this took IV off air, on and off for hours while the investigation went on, and SH the VHF Fm repeater 112.5 Khz down band had carriers as part of the test from the Repeaters transmitter, although GB3SH was available for use. .
We found that there is an amount of Switch mode power supply interference , from the very tower block were on,, the aerials however hear much less as they are some 25 feet and two floors with thick reinforced concrete above the nearest flats, We checked our own power supplies, and battery chargers and found a weak signal from one of the battery chargers, and more noise coming from the display of the Watson weather station display ( the unit does not work on 433Mhz ! ) Much of this switch mode power supply " noise " effects SH as well, as its extremely broadband over much of the HF and VHF bands.
Turning the display
brightness down on the weather station receiver is not the answer, although
if you have one of these it may be jamming your station too!, as the cause
is to do with the driving of the display.
The answer may well be to move the display which doubles as the receiver
for the Weather station measuring instruments,
We have carried out a change to IV which has improved its sensitively
considerably, and the ability of mobile stations to access it, We will
conduct an experiment later on after parts have been assembled to see
if we can improve its overall performance.
The committee would like to thank Karl and Andy for their efforts and YMUK for the loan of test equipment,
Meanwhile you are
invited to carry on enjoying the repeaters and in particular experiment
with the fusion facilities of GB7MT and its lRF inked twin in Portsmouth
:GB7PO with their enlarged mobile coverage of Hampshire, West Sussex and
the Island.
We turned off GB7IV yesterday as it has behavioral problems, the precise fault is not known, We will return it to service as soon as possible..
Andy G4MYS
GB7IV ON AIR
IM pleased to report
GB7IV has been returned to air.
To achieve this the new filters and the UHF/VHF combiner have all been
checked with a Network analyzer which shows on a display the trace of
the filters, indicating all is well with the duplexers and they did not
need tuning.
The fault with the remote shutdown surfaced again and identifying the
problem this has now been addressed and should give no more grief.
With Graceful thanks to Richard and Andy
Andy Repeater Keeper G4MYS
Our team has been to site and confirmed the problem with IV was the DC female Socket, which the DC tail cable plugs in to, these plugs and sockets can go high resistance thus no volts to the equipment.
Before putting GB7IV back there is further engineering work and cable tidying to be done, but at this stage We feel that GB7IV will be back by midday 30 June 2023.
In addition The team
tackled the loss of the weather station data, ( Isouth 502 ) which had
not been sending for several days, an inspection of the aerials was also
made to ensure their ongoing safe operation, with our grateful thanks
to Nigel G7POC, John 2E0ZBE, Andy G4MYS.
Repeater Keeper Andy G4MYS
GB7IV
OFF AIR
GB7IV our VHF Fusion repeater has been off air since Sunday 4th June,
the problem was found to be the repeater dead in the rack.
The DC cable has 13 volts in it at the supply terminals, and the rear
15 Amp fuse is intact, thus the repeater is now with Yaesu for repairs
and return to site and operational again soonest.
Andy G4MYS
Were pleased to say following the aerial changes, that were now in the position to fit our brand new Amphenol-procomm 145Mhz duplexers. We have been running on a set of brand new low power 600Khz SINCLAIR duplexers obtained from SMC as brand new old stock, at a very good knock down price, and to help us run our legal power output, some second hand time served somewhat unstable filters scrounged from British Gas upon the closedown of their VHF data system some around 15 years ago.... which needed constant adjustment, the cause of the current deafness of GB7IV, and a set of brand new low power 600Khz SINCLAIR duplexers obtained brand new SMC at a very good knock down price.
Due to lack of space at GB7IV this will be a very careful change and should happen week starting 22nd May this time at least We don't need good weather!
When changed GB7IV should perform almost as well as GB3SH the only difference being SH is licensed for around 25 Watts ERP, so look forward and Enjoy IV and the Southerfusion facility at full power soon!
Andy G4MYS Repeater Keeper
AERIAL CHANGES
We had a team of three
to site yesterday to do the bi-yearly aerial change with the thought of
improving the performance of GB3SH and GB7IV.
The fault with GB3SH was found to be the little allen screw that holds
the N socket firmly in the base of the aerial, thus the racket on occasions.
GB7IV has been improved
by work on the links to site which although temporary should do the trick
until our wifi links can be made operational, with grateful thanks to
Alan G8IPG Jason M0MZF and Andy G4MYS for their efforts under a warm sun.
This Easter weekend
saw many power cuts at the repeater site, The problem started off site
during Wednesday afternoon with a 3 phase supply failure which initially
took out much of Sholing & Hightown for a while, automatic switching
brought it down to an area surrounding our block which remained without
power until 1530 ish the next afternoon some 12 hours later,.. by which
time power was restored by bringing in 1,500 Kw of diesel generators,
which were parked in the car park, paired up together, one of which kept
on dying on peak loads,(!) thus the ongoing blackouts!
Our Battery system and its charging system faired well, we noted even
on Monday afternoon after a spat of power cuts during the morning, and
an on going one which meant We had to walk up the 14 flights of stairs,
lugging our kit with us when we had arrived.. We found on arrival at the
top floor power was on yet again and the charger was charging at just
two amps and the volts were well up.
We have introduced a higher current battery for GB3SU & 7IV, and upgraded
support equipment DC supplies. All of this meant that the next power cut
which happened while we were on site meant, everything carried on working
with only the battery fail indicators chirping away being the only way
we knew there was a problem
In an attempt to sort out the semi becoming problem with SH, the repeaters
were swopped around. We are operating again on the first Eclipse repeater
unit with its own switch mode PSU rather then the 10 ton linear PSU, certainly
the repeater is working, however despite Alan efforts the SH noise persists,
we have ruled out SH ( the mobile Taits ) , The aerial, and the duplexers.
We both feel something else is going on and will return to site next week
for another "go".
Note the better performance from SH is that it does beacon every 15 mins!
and that CTCSS is not sent with the CWID meaning it can be monitored with
CTCSS in for silent monitoring.
WEATHER STATION UPDATE
We are sorry to report
the loss of both the weather station "ISouth502" and our camera.
This was due to contractors working in a lift house somewhere in the west
of Southampton removing cables and disposing of equipment which was in
use!
The problem here is that it is practice to remove unneeded kit from lift
houses due to health and safety regulations. Readers may recall GB3PC
of Portsmouth fame, being thrown out of the lift house and a weather proof
cabinet found for it in a hurry a few years back.
The Contractors did not destroy or remove and dispose of our equipment
,..but that of a commercial company. Thus we have to find another way..
The weather station should come back soonest, possibly this week as were
fitting a "4G" link to overcome the problem. Due to the amount
of data of the camera and the monthly cost of around 35 GBP per month
on 4G to run it, were looking for another "route" which we know
is pending... hopefully soon!
Also note: were in the progress of introducing another RF facility to our nest or radio equipment more news soon.
Unfortunately the Internet problem had not been fixed and the Weather Station & Camera are off line. It is hoped the problem will be fixed in a few days
MUG SHOTS
Our weather cam not
always catching the weather or a fly past of birds. But our engineers
do occasionally make a pose hoping someone out there spots them!
M0MZF Jason G4MYS Andy
Click Image To View
GB7 IV ENGINEERING
GB7IV will be off
air for a period of Thursday 15th September for essential maintenance
and upgrading. This work however will have no impact of the Southern Fusion
Room.
We also bring you the sad news of one of the repeater groups silent supporters
Mick who helped Andy G4MYS on several occasions at the repeater site and
also made substantial contributions to the running of the repeater Mick
sadly passed away suddenly last Thursday 8th September. Our thoughts are
with his family.
FRARS RALLY HAM FEST
We are pleased to announce that We took from sales and donations: £293:10 before entry costs, which was £8:00.
Ourselves and other traders reported low sales, and lower then expected attendance, once again We wonder why, and bearing in mind temperatures reached 33*C / 91*F. Added to the road delays caused by overbridge rebuilding on the Ringwood bypass which may have put some off.
We thank our kind donators, and the buyers, and our salesguys for their efforts, in addition to the sales we were able to meet keepers of near by repeaters including GB7SO, GB3IW, GB3DR., and chat to many of our users who came over.
Our
next rally will be the Andover Rally at Wildhern Sunday 4th September
2022, Hopefully by then it will have cooled down somewhat.
Andy G4MYS
We are pleased to announce that our DMR Pheonix Repeater GB7SU has moved to join the rest of our repeaters at Hightown, in Thornhill, Southampton.
The coverage will be slightly better then that of GB3SU, with slightly higher RSSI readings.
The move from the west side of the city will increase the coverge area significantly, and bring Pheonix DMR to most of Hampshire, parts of West Sussex, South east Wiltshire, East Dorset and the nothern half of the Isle of Wight. ( If you can work GB3SU, then you will be able to work GB7SU, as its aerial is clamaped to the top of the '3SU four stack Tetra type antenna .)
GB7SU is on 439.450Mhz, with a - ( minus ) 9Mhz Transmit split, it uses "colour code 8", and is permitted 24.5 Watts ERP,... with an aerial 54M ( 177 feet ) above the leafy suberbs of Hightown, overlooking the City, Southampton Water, The Forest, Portsmouth and much of the Island.
DMR capable amateur
radio equipment needs to be used, or correctly programmed ex-PMR radios:
such as Motorolla or Hytera.
Like the Yaesu Fusion system ( and the Icom d-star system ) Proof that
you hold an amateur radio licence is required before your radio can be
unlocked, this is done by sending a PDF copy of your licence off to get
an unlock code. ( Details elsewhere on our website under GB7SU )
GB7SU is a Motorolla comercial repeater which is internet connected to gain acess to the Local, National and World wide pheonix system of Repeaters. It's on a temporary connection due to the low thoughput of our existing facility which we are working on to upgrade to handle all our needs.
Thus our DMR repeater
can handle two QSOs completely separately at the same time, using a time
multiplex system ( see the notes elsewhere on how this works) There is
a number of "rooms" where We call,.. for example, each region
of the UK has its own number , many prefur to call on the national calling
channel of 235, We then QSY to the national working channels called 81,
82, 83 & 84. the local number is 9/1 and 9/2 where you'll only be
heard in the service area of GB7SU.
much more detail is on the GB7SU section of our website
GB7IV is on
air, at full power,.. after very careful realignment of filters by Alan
G8IPG, this means that GB7IV is working very well, it is no longer suffering
blocking or desense ( jamming ) from GB3SH.
GB7IV is however slightly deaf, this means that you hear it for instance
between Wilton on the A36 and the A303, but cannot get in even if running
50 watts from the transceiver. This is where our new duplexers come in,
as they are designed to be used in the amateur band, unlike the Sinclair
ones we use, which are intended for use in the Marine band.
Newbury Rally.
We went, however attendance was down on previous years, this was put down
to the weather forecast, there was a high number of traders / sellers
and not so many buyers, after expences we took£341:10, we thank
our many donators who gave us many materials too sell, including transceivers,
amplifiers, speakers, aerials.
Reading Rally
Once again We went, without a tranny van, so we could only take what we
could get in to two cars with the double attendance fee ( £20:00
) even so like Newbury the forecast possibly put folk off being one of
in Reading the hottest days of the year measuring 30*C / 86*F in the shade
which we were not. Likewise the high cost of duel to get there and the
on going cost of living may of put folk off. Even so with a lot of material
from SMC, enough to cover two back seats and boots... so we had a completely
different table from our Newbury attendance., After costs we made £276.20.
FLIGHT REFUELING
WIMBORNE Sunday 14th August ( the anniversary of the Marine offences
act ) rally at Wimborne, possibly one of the biggest on the south coast,
well worth going to, check it out at:
http://www.frars.co.uk/event/hamfest-2022 , we will be there even if we
have to trade out of two cars again!
ANDOVER RADIO RALLY
Sunday 4th September
opens at 1000,
entry is £2:00, info from www.arac.org.uk
We will be here too.
We hope after the
rally we will have enough to pay for the filters and our own GB7IV as
its owner wants it back soon.
Andy G4 MYS
The Repeater group will be there. If you have anything to donate contact Andy G4MYS gb3shsu@gmail.com If your able to assist on the day please contact us
The rally will be held on Sunday July 17th at 09:30, with car boot setup from 08:30.
The location is:
Reading Rugby Club, Sonning Lane (B4446) - just off the A4 at Sonning, east of Reading, Berkshire.
Postcode: RG4 6ST, NGR SU 753 747
There will be:
Large car boot car boot setup from 08:30. area and plenty of free parking for sellers / buyers
Snack bar and licensed bar
Outdoor barbecue (weather permitting)
Demonstrations and displays by special interest groups
Admission: £3 per person
Car boot sale: £10 per pitch, no booking required
https://mcmichaelrally.org.uk/
The GB7IV Duplexers which enable the transmitter and receiver to share one common aerial have been removed from site pending their replacement.
We will place an order for a set of new duplexers once we have sufficient funding. We very much hope that a lot of sales can be made at Newbury to fill up the "pot" to enable the purchase of the £4,200 duplexers.
The repeater itself will form part of the on air "to a dummy load" display, We will take to The Newbury show on Sunday 26th June at the Newbury showground.
As a result we have
put a beacon on to R7: 145.775Mhz at 7 watts ERP in to the usual aerial,
the beacon is on
24 hours a day, every 7 minutes. The beacon cannot respond to "on
demand" calls. the beacon sends: GB7IV TEST.
ANDY G4MYS
GB7 IV WILL BE OFF AIR TEMPORARILY
GB7 IV is currently on air, 9 AO 30/5/22, with exceptional low power, and very deaf, neither does it have Internet connection.
Southern fusion can
be found on 144.825 Mhz in the Greater Southampton area with grateful
thanks to Paul 2E0PKK, who runs MB7PK.
Meanwhile We have GB7MT using C4FM ( Fusion ) on 439.6625MHz which with
GB7PO give similar coverage to GB3SH, thus no one needs to feel left out
by the short term demise of GB7IV.
We are in the meantime saving up for new duplexers for GB7IV, which are
around £4,200, and donations are welcome! this can be made as goods
or funds by Cheque, cash or bank transfer:
HSBC
Sort code: 40 42 18
Account number 8389 2689... in the name of South Hampshire Repeater Group
Reference GB7IV
To pay in this way
take the above details to your bank and transfer as a one off or regular
payments, which can be made and you have full control, not Us!
Andy G4MYS Keeper
NEWBURY RALLY
We The group are booked
for the Newbury Rally! : Sunday 26th JUNE 2022
We request donations of gear, etc which we can use to raise funds! contact
GB3SHSU@gmail.com for more info!
We can also do with some help on the day at he rally can you help us please!
contact GB3SHSU@gmail.com for more info!
for those who want to visit its free parking, and its near junction 13
of the M4 / A34 junction
www.nadrs.org.uk For info
GB7IV our Fusion repeater is rather deaf following weeks of frustrating adjustments of our second hand filters which were de- tuned from 142Mhz. These filters are used together with the duplexer, which is advertised as workable with adjustments but dont really do the job.
Alan & Myself feel the best way foreward is to remove IV off air as its both Deaf and on low power TX due to loss of RF in the filters.
However the "Southern
fusion" room is operational as usual, and is accessible via the other
repeaters, nodes and hotspots.
We are in the process of selling lots of donated stuff at rallys to obtain
for ourselves a set of new duplexers which allow GB7IV to preform excellently,
while living peaceably with GB3SH.
ANDY G4MYS
ANDOVER RALLY
The Andover Ralley was well supported by Traders, but seemed to be a little down on attendee's, however those who did go reported to us getting stuff they wanted . and certainly we were responsible for some of those excellent finds, included in our sales were 2 colour TVs, never expected to sell them, and 4 almost new mobile phones ( we've still got 4 NOKIA HMD 5.1 at £25:00 each ) We sold lots of aerial wire ( kevlar ), Pye radios, and all sorts of hammy stuff, from 3 pin Yaesu Mic plugs, to N plugs, and did our best yet: £673:50, this take was better then our last two rallys put together! It was also an excellent opportunity to gather information and news..
We'd like to thank our facilitators: The Andover radio club, Malcolm and Marcus.
Our sales were Alan
, Marcus and Andy,
... and all of you who provided material for us to sell, without whom
this great achievement could not of been made:
We thank Alan, Andy, AndyII & Andy, Chris, and the late Chris G4HCL, Father Mc Kenzie, Geoff, Jason, Roger, SMC, for the materials sold.
We are planning on
going to Newbury on Sunday 26th June, this is a big rally one of the best,
and we'd like to go with more gear! so what do you have you bearing in
mind others do buy what we think of as junk, so if its radio related,
Please advise us so we can collect from you!
WEATHER CAM
We are pleased to report t hat our camera and weather station has returned, late friday evening, the fault proved to be in the Shirley area of Southampton, We are grateful to Peter G6GFA for sorting out the wifi link quickly
We are sorry to report that on a beautiful blue sky day like today weve lost Camera and weather station data link at 0425 AM, this morning, Friday 18th March 2022
We are pleased to
say that "GB7IVsouthernfusion" has a short term "private"
arrangement, and will not be disturbed by this data circuit failure. At
this stage we have no idea on how long it will take to restore the link.
We know however there is no power cut on site or the alarms would have
been evident to all users !
We were very pleased
with the fast response from many of our supporters, unfortunately not
enough have volunteered for us to apply to help as a group, to give a
hand, and raise the £250:00 We could of received for our group.
However the Andover Rally will be on the same day, and We will be attending
the rally in order to make ourselves visible amateur community, demonstrate
the C4FM mode, and sell a lot of stuff to raise funds, so we look forward
to seeing you there:
on SUNDAY 24th April
more details later!
CAUGHT
ON CAM
The GB7PO & GB7MT link has been restored,The
problem was caused by a malfunction with the UPS machine which powers
the Microwave link between the two repeaters. The UPS machine has been
reset and hopefully this is a one off problem.
We thank Alan G8IPG & Andy G4MYS, who went to site, and in particular Wes G7CHO the keeper of GB7SO in Gosport for his in depth knowledge of UPS machines.
Our engineers on site
today caught on cam doing their inspections and restoring the link to
GB7MT / PO
G4MYS Andy (Left) G8IPG Alan (Right)
GB7MT GB7PO LINK
The GB7MT & PO
Link has failed together with the Camera and weather station as a result
of mains voltage low dips at the Southampton end, the first voltage dip
was at 0930 this morning Sunday 6th Feb.
Our engineers will attend on Monday to investigate and hopefully correct
the problem. Our speech repeaters are operating normally as is GB7IV and
Southern Fusion, Were grateful to Wes the keeper of GB7SOP for reporting
this problem.
Andy G4MYS
We all have a golden opportunity to help get £250 for the repeater group funds by helping at the "ABP Southampton Marathon" on Sunday 24th April 2022.
The event backers Associated British Ports - Southampton, are keen to help groups like ourselves by giving us £250,... if We can let them have 20+ Volunteers!
quote their Website:
... why not be a volunteer!
The Volunteer "Mile Maker" roles vary from cheering and clapping
runners around the route, to handing out water or welcoming our runners
back across the finish line with a well earned medal and fantastic Finisher
tee!
Find
out more about how to become a volunteer.
We would like to know if You
are up for helping! Please respond to me not them!,.. so I can go to them
and say "The repeater Group has 20+ volunteers" where would
you like us! Hi Viz vests will be available for your protection!
Im sure a common goal sprit between us as hams, and an opportunity to
play on our repeaters when not busy will give us all a good day out while
we help the runners.
Please email me your committed support soonest and join us at the run...
GB3SHSU@gmail.com
mark it "ABP run" and Ill get back to you!
Andy G4MYS