Hello All,

Anthony here, quick update on today’s work at Roleystone.

The UHF repeater VK6RUF was found to have almost no output power (no doubt the cause of the poor performance) and was removed, I have the transceiver for repair and will reinstate as soon as fixed, hopefully later this week.

Other antennas were checked and the 2m repeater & diplexer/cavities spec-checked to try & correct the intermittent noise problem. (One suspect coax connector was replaced, we should continue to monitor the repeater performance to see if any improvement). The 6m voice repeater was also checked, all looks OK.

The batteries were removed, cleaned and refitted, allowing timber reinforcing to be placed underneath (not quite enough timber for the whole set, job will be completed next time). The DC system was checked and the power supplies readjusted to compensate for voltage drop (due to diodes in series), so the battery/system
voltage is ~13.6V.

Some of the cells are starting to show signs of age, and while we can probably count on another year or two from these, we need to start looking around for replacements – the existing ones are sealed gel types, heavy duty, around 500AH per cell – if anyone can find some disposal ones like these in reasonable condition, we
are definitely interested! (If the price is right…)

More work is planned in November (date TBA) including the packet system overhaul, Bob VK6ZRT has volunteered his expertise to carry out this work (and hopefully train a few others of us in the ongoing care & feeding of VK6BBR).

Thanks to all who attended today: William VK6KWT, Cliff VK6LZ, Andrew VK6VCG, Matthew VK6KMC, Dennis VK6KAD, Jim VK6JIM, Anthony VK6AXB. My apologies if I have forgotten to mention anyone, all efforts are sincerely appreciated.

BR & 73,
Anthony VK6AXB.