NEW SARG WEBSITE - LIVE

Visit our new website at:

http://www.sargroup.co.uk/

Don't forget to leave a message (with your callsign) in the sites log book.

We hope you enjoy it.

New SARG Website

Work is underway to get the new and improved SARG website up and running within the next month, so keep an eye on the blog for the offical launch of the new site.

AGM Minutes

The minutes from this years SARG AGM are now ready for download at:

http://www.yaesu.org.uk/resources/Minutes+from+the+2009+SARG+AGM.pdf

Outstanding attendance at SARG AGM

The committee of SARG would like to thank everyone who took the time and effort to attend the AGM held on the 21st April 2009. With 43 radio amateurs and shortwave listeners attending it certainly goes to show that amateur radio is alive and well in East Anglia.

For those who were unable to attend full details of the meeting will be posted on this site shortly.

Just a few of those who attended (further pictures to follow)

SARG AGM Tuesday 21st April - Final reminder

REMINDER

The SARG AGM takes place tonight at 19:30 at:

St John Ambulance (Suffolk) Headquarters
Priory House
Duckamere
Bramford
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP8 4AJ

Directions and a map can be found at: http://www.yaesu.org.uk/resources/SJA_Bramford+col.pdf

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Antenna work GB3EA

On Thursday the 17th April from 09:00 hrs, work will be taking place to the antenna system of GB3EA. To ensure the safety of the riggers and facilitate numerous tests it may be necessary to switch off GB3EZ while this takes place. The purpose of the work it to investigate the antenna & feeder issues on GB3EA and hopefully resolve them.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

SARG AGM Update

As part of the AGM we plan to have the following presentations:

• Amateur TV & amateur radio - Jason Flynn & Chris Irish
• Western technical update - Jake G1yFF
• Internet linking & SARG repeaters - Keith G7DNT
• 10 metre repeater update - Bob M0MUD

Talk in will be on GB3po, listen for the callsign GB2SJA operating on the evening.

We look forward to seeing you all on the 21st April.

SARG AGM - Tuesday 21st April 2009 - 19:30hrs

The Annual General Meeting of the South Anglia Repeater Group will take place on Tuesday 21st April, commencing at 19:30. This year will see a change of venue for the AGM to:

St John Ambulance (Suffolk) Headquarters
Priory House
Duckamere
Bramford
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP8 4AJ

Directions and a map can be found at: http://www.yaesu.org.uk/resources/SJA_Bramford+col.pdf

Remember this is your group and everyone is welcome. Pat (G8VZZ) will be on site with his receipt book for those wishing to donate towards the continued projects within the group.

The committee look forward to seeing everyone on the evening of the 21st.

On site tests of GB3EF

Following reports of noisy audio from weak stations using GB3EF the technical team visited the repeater site and ran a few tests. The noise appears to be generated from the larger broadcast mast adjacent to the repeater mast. When the team switched both notches in line the noise did appear to reduce, however the overall effect of this was at least 3dB of loss to the RX leg. The team are now investigating the use of a good, high quality low pass filter to go between the Aerial and the combiner.

There also appears to be a fair bit of noise around 70MHz which is also where the repeaters RX's image is (51.22 + 21.4 (the IF) = 72.64). The team is also looking at ways to resolve this issue.

New GB3EF on the air

On Sunday 22nd February Jake (G1YFF) installed the new GB3EF 50MHz repeater on site.

First reports appeared satisfactory with the only comments relating to the length of time between the pip tones. This has been rectified this evening by some on site tweaking.

The repeater Logic is of a similar build to that employed on GB3EZ and GB3EA and for this reason is being named the "E"Series logic. The logic is based around the 'PICAXE' pic micro controller with custom software (http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/)

Users of the repeater should note that it is essential to wait for at least one of the four pip tones before replying to other users if they wish to prevent timing out the repeater. Failure to wait for the tone will prevent the time out timer resetting.

The current time out period is set at around 4 minutes. If a user should time out the repeater will send 4 pips, mute the talk through audio then send its CW identifier. The repeater will then sit in a loop until the user drops carrier, once this has happened it will send another identifier and be ready for re access.

If a Beacon is heard with PL/CTCSS it means the logic has been reset / the mains has turned on to the repeater.

Don't worry it's not broken, this is how you retune the cavities of a 50MHz amateur repeater!

So thanks to Jake for more of his hard work, please enjoy the repeater and feel free to report back on its coverage in your area.