The construction of Yaesu VXR-5000
The Portsmouth and S.E. Hants area has had a VHF 145MHz GB3PC repeater for 10 years, but a couple of years ago a new unit was constructed and installed at our repeater site. This section details the work that was carried out in order to complete the project.
The Solent Repeater Group purchased a Yaesu VXR-5000 repeater which appeared to suit our purposes, Andy Blagg G4JXL began to set up the unit. The bulk of the work to be done consisted of interfacing the repeater to the logic board which controls it. The reasons for this are that the VXR-5000 is not an amateur repeater as such, so external logic is required to make it perform to amateur licensing regulations.
The logic board used is a GB3US Mark II unit, designed by G3RKL. The board was obtained from Andy, G3UEQ, in a semi-completed state. Construction of the board was completed by Andy, G4JXL. The unit was tested at Andy's home for several weeks before it was mounted in it's rack at the current site, and it's been there since. Virtually untouched apart from a couple of small tweaks from time to time. It is due an overhaul now, which should be done in the very near future we hope.
After the sad news of Grahams (G4NAO) passing in May 2004, Brian (G6FLX) agreed to be the NoV holder for GB3PC.
|
|
Graham had been working with Dave G8UCY on replacing the logic controller board for the repeater as a whole, after Graham passed on in May 2004 a lot of information and PCB files were lost on his computer, which we had no access to after his passing. Graham was in the process of building the PCB's required for the new Logic Controller.
************************
We are aware that some users have been having problems accessing and using GB3PC and this is being looked into.
The current repeater does need an overhaul and this cannot be done overnight unfortunately. Be patient, it will be rectified very soon. The Tait unit which the group purchased in November 04 will replace the current Yaesu unit around Easter 2006. Thank you to Dave G8UCY and Arthur G8PGF for their hard work on the Logic Controller board for this project on behalf of the repeater group.
|
