Repeaters

On Thursday at the Amateur radio club I found out a little more about repeaters, with some emphasis on GB3IR as it was the keeper of this repeater giving the talk.

I found out the purpose of the cavity filters, though I knew already they had some role in allowing the transmitter and receiver to happily operate 600kHz apart, a bit about the repeater logic, in this case from GB3IR mk1, which was the demo repeater for this presentation, GB3IR mk2 was also there though this was not shown and I believe does not transmit, other bits of equipment shown was a cavity filter, which is quite large, and a circulator, which I believe there is one fitted to the current GB3IR,

The logic was also demonstrated to allow the repeater to be shut down remotely, the codes to do this were changed on the logic for obvious reasons, though it was also mentioned that a requirement was that the repeater can be shut down physically as well.

A bit of history in how GB3IR came to be was also explained, as at the time of it's conception as an idea GB3HG had been running for some time and GB3CD had just gone on air, the repeater was unique at the time in having connection to both IRLP and Echolink, CD has since got Echolink and WIRES-X as time and technology moved forward, HG remains unconnected to Echolink and IRLP at this time.

So, I'm not going to bore you with all the technical details on repeaters, it is quite a big topic.

And on the subject of repeaters I monitor GB3IR most of the time, if I am on and I hear you I'll reply if I can, if I am /m be aware that I have not got a handsfree mic yet so may not reply quickly if traffic conditions do not permit.

73 de M6RSQ