We are underway!

Over the past month we've drunk a lot of tea and made some good progress. We've formed a loose group to co-ordinate and operate the new repeater site.

We've negotiated with the site owners and reached an agreement that we can use the existing mast structure, but place our own cabinet there and pay for metered electricity at cost. We will take a free 1G/s internet connection from Pembs Wifi who are already onsite.

DMR repeater
This will be an MMDVM based repeater. We have acquired two analog Motorola GM360 UHF mobile bodies, a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and importantly an STM32 DVM PiHat. We are going to hold-off obtaining the UHF 4 stack antenna and cavity until the NoV is issued, so they can be tuned to the agreed frequency. Michael Simons (2W0MZS) has been exploring the options for linking the repeater - at the moment we are considering connecting to BrandMeister. Many people already use Wales Chat on TG23570 via local hotspots, there will likely also be a local TG on another time slot too.

APRS
The hardware for this repeater is all in hand, we've got a 2U shelf to hold a Motorola GM340 VHF body, an old Tiny2 TNC, a 12v power supply and a Raspberry Pi. It will use a Diamond X50 antenna (or similar). The radio still needs to be programmed, the Raspberry Pi configured and everything tested.

NoVs
On Saturday 22nd we met to sit down and apply for the two NoVs together in person, but unfortunately the ETTC is not accepting new NoV applications between Dec 21st and Jan 2nd. So these will have to wait till the new year.
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Mike James (GW8PKV) has kindly agreed to be the keeper of the two repeaters.

If you would like to assist in anyway, please get in touch.

73, Nat - MW7NAT