October-2023
2023 ERG AGM - Thu Oct-26
The 2023 Essex Repeater Group AGM will be at Danbury Village Hall, near Chelmsford
on Thursday evening Oct-26, 7:30 for 8pm.
Features included Refreshments, a Prize Raffle and Surplus items for sale - You can see photos of last years raffle winners
Note: We still have a vacancy for a Treasurer, and are keen on additional volunteers!
37th Canvey Rally: 4-Feb-2024
|
ERG plan to be at the 37th Canvey Rally on Sunday 4-Feb-2023,
at its (fairly) new venue.
Do pop along and support us, join/renew and pick up the bargains!
Venue: |
|
GB7ZP - On Air
GB7ZP is on air and connected (based on Icom G3 software). A PA driver fault was repaired by Icom-UK in April-2023.
Previously, our 70cm DStar repeater went off air for major maintenance on 1-Sep-2021 at Icom UK. A Site/Keeper change was then undertaken over the winter adding to a lengthy outage. The repeater (and new antenna system) returned on air in the Spring at Joel G0URKs qth, and its gateway with new routing connected in July. Please give it a try!
Remember that DStar requires you to be registered in order to connect to reflectors etc Links on our GB7ZP page faciliiate checking/registering, as well as programming your radio and some popular reflectors
ERGs Echolink gateway system MB7IDA has been upgraded to the latest v2.3 Echolink software. Please be aware that there are some ongoing controller and network updates which may affect audio streaming and connections
GB3ER - Upgraded
Following the upgrade of GB3DA in Dec-2019, a similar Yaesu Fusion repeater was installed for GB3ER on 7-Jul-2021.
Unlike GB3DA, we have set GB3ER to use Automatic Mode Selection (AMS). So whilst FM inputs continue to give FM outputs, any Digital-C4FM inputs
will give Digital Outputs. Analogue users are thus reminded that 110.9Hz Tone Squelch must be set on their receivers for them to ignore digital outputs.
Do not over deviate - as NBFM is in use.
We are grateful to Lamco for responding to our enquiries for the system and optional modules required.
Such investment would not be possible without members support and subs - which will be appreciated if we are ever to cover the cost of a future internet link on site.
ERG Systems and Special Events
ERG has hosted additional nets, especially on GB3DA
More info: See here for details
ERG has also been pleased to support Special Events, GB0MWT, GB100MZX, GB80CH and GB100-2MT during this period
Note: ERG also encourages use of GB3ER and our other systems for such. If any group requires an extra net, please coordinate with the Keeper / ERG Secretary first!
GB3DB - 6m - On Air
GB3DB is on air after undergoing Transmitter/PA maintenance following its antenna replacement on Sun 30-Aug-2020. ERG were pleased to acquire the latest version of a Diamond CP62 antenna at short notice.
ERG Supports Gateway Expansion
Our Systems Menu now includes details of additional gateways set up by ERG and its committee members
MB7IDA - 2m Echolink Upgrade
MB7IDA, formerly at Clive G1EUCs qth in Danbury, is on air from its Chelmsford location with GB7ZP.
A new MS-Windows Gateway controller was installed in March 2021. Brand new Echolink v2.3 software was installed in June 2021 inc a new CQ feature.
Frequency: 145.3375 MHz NBFM, 110.9 Hz CTCSS, Node 265297
GB3DA - Upgrade
On Sunday 8-Dec-2019, DA-2 was changed over to our new Yaesu DR-2XE (now termed DA-4), following a few days of intermittent power settings on DA-2.
This necessitated a number of rapid onsite modifications to accomodate it. It is configured to
accept either FM or C4FM Fusion inputs, whilst always giving out NBFM as usual.
Note thats it internal controller is quite different to the G8CUL logic that has been in use - it has a different style of ident, but unfortunately no 'K'. Our thanks to Moonraker for their help in supplying the kit.
The system will continue to run in standalone mode as there is currently no onsite internet available. If resolved, future plans are to use the new IMRS standard (whereas Wires-X may be used separately by our simplex gateways). Capability has also been retained to fall back to DA-1/2 once their PAs are attended to.
GB7ZP - 70cm D-Star
ERG continues to optimise its Centos-7 Linux gateway along with the Icom G3 software,
succeeding the previous Icom-G2 / Centos-5 system.
The G3 software includes support for extra callsign routing and the new Terminal and Access Point modes (as featured by the Icom ID-51 Plus2, ID-31E Plus and ID-4100E). Got a new IC-9700? - give it a try too!
GB3CMS - 10GHz Beacon
GB3CMS has moved and been re-licensed for the same Chelmsford site as MB7IDA and GB7ZP. Its antenna/radome is being re-engineered. Longer term upgrades will be considered in due course.
ERG Subs/Donations - via Paypal
ERG accepts PayPal for online subs and donations (as well as old fashioned cash):-
Paypal also accepts most well known bank cards if you do not have a PayPal account. New members should ensure that they separately send full details of their address/contact information using the membership form
Click here if you do not see the main menu bar on the left