As supporters of the Frys Hill Repeater Group we are pleased to report that Matt G4RKY has been undertaking maintenance and upgrades to the Repeaters on both Frys Hill and Dundry.
The analogue 70cm Repeaters GB3ZB (Dundry) and GB3FI (Frys Hill) are now connected via Allstar. Additionally, and not to be outdone, the analogue 6m Repeaters GB3ZY (Dundry) and GB3FH (Frys Hill) are also connected via Allstar.
The links should be permanent, and have been implemented to increase coverage and hopefully increase the usability and popularity of these valuable resources. You can tell if the repeaters are linked because the second “pip” will be the letter “K” in Morse (dah-di-dah). It is still possible for the repeaters to be connected with the wider Allstar network whereupon the second “pip” will switch to the letter “R” in Morse (di-dah-dit) indicating a remote connection. In the event of a link failure the traditional plain two pips will return.
Accessing GB3ZB when the link is active (which should be the normal condition) will also activate GB3FI increasing the footprint of your signal, similarly accessing GB3FI when the link is active will also activate GB3ZB. The same applies if accessing either GB3ZY or GB3FH, where a signal on GB3ZY will also be on GB3FH and vice versa when the link is active.
Below are maps from the UKRepeater website showing the coverage of each of the 70cm analogue repeaters GB3FI on the left and GB3ZB on the right. Clicking on either map will take you to the Repeater details at UKRepeater.net.
Unfortunately UKRepeater.net does not currently contain coverage maps for GB3FH or GB3ZY, so until they do below are images of the masts at Frys Hill (left) and Dundry (right), clicking on either image will bring up the details of GB3FH (Frys Hill) or GB3ZY (Dundry).
Chatting with Matt G4RKY the linkage is handled by a Raspberry Pi which makes a very neat low power and low space requirement solution to providing the links. Our thanks go to Matt G4RKY for providing these upgrades which we hope will result in greater usage of these analogue repeaters.
