CTCSS Changes in North Essex, UK

The Martello Tower Group have recently invested in a new TSF2025 Simoco base station to upgrade their three analogue voice repeaters, GB3TE on 2m (Thorpe-le-Soken), GB3CL (Clacton-on-Sea) and GB3CE (Colchester) on 70cms.  

As part of this upgrade, they have taken the opportunity to consolidate the CTCSS tones used for the repeaters so that they’re all the same.  As from Saturday 27th January 2018, all three repeaters are now using 67.0Hz CTCSS (tone A) for access.   It’s also possible to access the repeaters using a 1750Hz tone burst.

The Martello Tower Group provide a wide range of services to radio amateurs in Essex and surrounding areas including three analogue repeaters, a DMR repeater, a D-Star repeater, APRS digipeaters, an SSTV repeater and a number of beacons on the microwave bands.  

More Information - http://martellotowergroup.com

WSPR Beacon En Route to Antarctic

Hardware for the planned WSPR amateur radio beacons are now on their way to the Neumayer III base in Antarctica  

This is a joint project of the Technical University of Munich, University of Bremen and the DARC e.V.

The installation consists of a beacon transmitter for the 160m to 6m bands with a power output of 5 watts and a WSPR multi-band receiver based on a Red Pitaya, which simultaneously monitors all bands from 160m to 15m and can deliver up to 700 WSPR receive reports to the web every hour.

The commissioning of the system at the German research station "Neumayer III" is planned for January 2018.

Bath Repeaters Lose Site

The British Amateur Television Club ATV repeater GB3UT is being removed from its site at the University of Bath, along with FM repeater GB3UB and APRS digipeater MB7UB.

GB3UT, located in a small building on top of an accommodation block at the University of Bath, was one of the first amateur television repeaters in the UK. It can receive both Analogue and Digital TV transmissions.

Further news is expected in relation to the repeaters relocation

The repeater is streamed onto the BATC Internet streamer and can be viewed at - http://batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=2

GB3UT - http://gb3ut.co.uk/

BATC - https://twitter.com/BATCOnline