Blackdown Tablelands DSTAR Upgrade

Posted by Waratah Swinton on June 11, 2017
Posted in: Uncategorized.

VK4RBD-hut

Blackdown Tablelands DSTAR repeater gets new hut

The DSTAR repeater at Blackdown Tableland has been relocated into a new site hut. This is a great waterproof home for all the gear plus room to spare. The VK4RBD DSTAR repeater is located at 940m above sea level and provides coverage to a large area between Rockhampton and Emerald in Central Queensland
147.6375MHz -600KHz VK4RBD C
VK4RBD-tower VK4RBD-view

Helicopter mission sets DSTAR record

Posted by Waratah Swinton on June 11, 2017
Posted in: Uncategorized.

vk4rbmlanded

Australia’s Highest DSTAR Repeater is now operational

439.300MHz -5MHz VK4RBM B

The Blue Mountain repeater site is without any doubt Central
Queensland’s best amateur radio repeater location. Surrounded by
thick tropical rainforest slopes and standing at 1040m, this truly is
a remarkable site.

Having such a picturesque, high elevation site does not come without other
challenges, the main one being access. The answer
is the help of a Jet Ranger helicopter and some superb piloting skills.
Once the weather cleared, we jumped into the chopper and cruised up to
the site. As we approached the site, the tower could be seen poking out above
the thick rainforest. The landing site is a small rocky area with

a tiny patch of grass. As we started to land, the view disappeared and we were
surrounded by trees, then we touched down, unloaded the gear, and the
chopper departed.
We had a short time on site to install the new DSTAR,
APRS, 3G modem and solar regulator. The work was completed in
record time, and the chopper came and picked us up before the clouds
rolled back in.
vk4rbm-tower2-final 20170609_084012

Blue Mountain Site

Our antennas

Our antennas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg_15zSl0io
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drGZmnq0Um0

Check out VK4RBM-3 on aprs.fi

 

Major upgrade at VK3RWN Completed

Posted by Peter Willmott on June 5, 2017
Posted in: G3 Backbone, Victorian News.

Another major upgrade at VK3RWN Mt Dandenong was completed by Richard Hoskin VK3JFK and Peter Willmott VK3TQ. The new Centos OS was installed by Richard VK3JFK , followed by G3 Gateway software. This was done seamlessly and no database reset was required and all registered users saw no change to their usual day to day usage . The G3 Gateway software combined with the new updated and powerful version of Centos will host many new features of the gateway software.  A new upgrade that will be released soon will see the introduction of Icom’s new Terminal and Access Point mode, on the 4100 and ID 51 Plus two Hand Held   As news comes to hand we will notify users of more features that are to be released

Peter modified and installed a new UPS for VK3RWN the UPS will hold power for 30 minutes and then start of shutdown sequence for the repeater in the unlikely event of loss of power. The UPS is connected to the rack server by USB for communications. The existing modem was changed for a commercial ADSL 2 modem. Performance was slightly enhanced but still we await for the NBN.

 

APRS DSTAR site monitor

Posted by Waratah Swinton on May 14, 2017
Posted in: Uncategorized.

The Blue Mountain DSTAR repeater is running on test, ready to be taken up to site. We are using APRS telemetry data to monitor and control the DSTAR repeater using the WX3in1 APRS modem. The analog inputs are being used to measure:

  • Battery voltage
  • Transmitter cooling fan current
  • Raspberry Pi and DVRPTRv1 current
  • DSTAR transmitter temperature.
(see VK4RBM-3 on aprs.fi)
The fan current and transmitter temperature is particularly handy as it shows equipment utilisation. When the repeater is active with users talking on it, the transmitter temperature rises, so the fan cycles in. Another benefit of monitoring the temperature on the transmitter is that a sudden spike in temperature will indicate a fan failure. Our design includes two fans, a main and backup that are both temperature controlled. These fans can be turned on and off independently.
The wxbits output module is being used to control some repeater functions. The repeater transmitter can be disabled using the transmit inhibit function. The repeater output power can also be controlled. The transmitter radio channel table has two channels programmed in; one at 25 watts and the other at 5 watts. The wxbits output module allows the radio transmitter channel to be changed remotely between high and low power. The low power channel uses less current than the high power channel. This is handy when the site battery level falls because you can keep the site operational for longer by changing the transmitter to low output power.
We have also included a selcall activated relay. The 12V bus that supplies the Raspberry Pi is fed via the relay in its relaxed state. When a selcall is sent to the transmit radio the relay is energised, disconnecting the 12V bus for 5 seconds. This feature is used to remotely power cycle the Raspberry Pi in the event that it locks up and becomes unresponsive.
A 3G modem is being used to provide internet access for the Raspberry Pi. The 3G modem has serial ports. These serial ports have been setup to provide a serial tunnel so that we can monitor and control the Plasmatronics solar regulator. The advantage here is that we can closely monitor the solar and battery condition. This also provides yet another method to hard reset the equipment as the load control from the solar regulator can be controlled remotely.
The 3G modem also provides additional functionality using its controllable dry contacts. Each piece of equipment can be individually turned on and off using text messages or the web interface. The benefit of this is that it provides an additional tertiary power cycling feature, should a hard reset of the Raspberry Pi or APRS modem be required. It also allows enabling either the main or backup fan.
vk4rbm_tx_radio1  vk4rbm_tx_radio2
APRS_tele_vk4rbm

VK4RBY 70cm Back Up

Posted by Waratah Swinton on March 13, 2017
Posted in: Uncategorized.

As you may be aware our VK4RBY Black Mountain site was broken into a few months back and some gear was stolen. We are now backup and running on DCS028Q with a 70cm DSTAR repeater. Work is underway to install a 2m multimode repeater at this site in the coming months. Historic data usage shows we use about 1.5GB per month. We are testing a prepaid Optus simcard to provide internet access. The Optus deal is good value, $130 for 22GB with a 2 year expiry.

RBY70cm-3 RBY70cm-2

North West Tasmania Going D-Star

Posted by Peter Willmott on January 20, 2017
Posted in: Uncategorized.

map_of_tasmaniaThe north west coast of Tasmania is set to receive D-Star in the coming weeks. Aaron, VK7AGR has an Icom 70cm repeater and G2/3 gateway on test and is destined for Installation at Table Cape in the town of Wynyard. Final preparations are underway consisting of antennas and a 5.8GHz link to provide NBN internet to the gateway.

The repeaters callsign is VK7RAC and is licensed to operate on 438.700MHz, -7MHz split.   This repeater will be a welcome addition to Tasmania’s D-Star repeaters with VK7RCR in the Lenah Valley serving the south and VK7RAC serving the North, as well as connecting Tasmania to the mainland and the World Wide D-Star community.