ARCHIVE OF OLD NEWSLETTERS ETC - BEFORE SDRG2000
THE FINAL COMMITTEE OF THE GROUP BEFORE SDRG2000
CHAIRMAN Geoff Watts G0EVW
TREASURER Edward Harland G3VPF
SECRETARY Ron Staniforth G3EGV
COMMITTEE G3RZG and G4VBY
(All of the above except G4VBY were Founder Members of the original Group.)
SDRG - Is there a future? An extract from the 1994 Newsletter!
1997 Newsletter - The last Newsletter of the original SDRG!
The South Dorset Repeater Group will be holding its 1997 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING on Monday May the 19th at the Littlemoor Community Centre, Weymouth at 8pm. This is the same venue as last year and is located just off the main Littlemoor Road near the supermarket. The hall will be open from 7pm to accommodate the BRING AND BUY sale. (details on back page) Talk in will be provided on GB3SD.
We hope users and listeners of GB3SD, GB7SD (WEY2) and GB7SD-1 (WEY23) will try to attend and support us. If you are unable to attend, please send your subscription and or any donation you may care to make, to our treasurer, G3VPF, whose address is at the top of this newsletter. The current subscription is £4.00 per unit. That is £4.00 for the voice repeater GB3SD and £4.00 for the Packet node WEY2/WEY23. The Group is entirely self financed and has to fund all the equipment provision and maintenance plus site rent, electricity and third party insurance. All the contributions to the running costs of our repeaters that are received each year are much appreciated and help to ensure our continued success.
THE STATIONS The Group provides and maintains the 70cms voice repeater GB3SD on RB14 which was switched-on on the 1st of July 1976 as part of the first phase of Amateur UHF repeaters in the UK. It has been remarkably reliable having been out of use for only a few days in total mainly for maintenance of the mast and aerials.
The other station on site is the Packet Radio Node GB7SD. This provides user access to the network on 144.65mHz (WEY2) and network linking on 23cms (WEY23). It was switched-on on the 22nd of November 1986 and forms part of a network in the South West co-ordinated by the SWAX25 group.
The stations are located at Bincombe Barn on the Ridgeway, 6km North of Weymouth. SY678858 530ft ASL. A data sheet giving more details on both stations will be available at the AGM. If you are unable to attend and would like a copy please enclose an SAE with your subscription.
CHAIRMANS REPORT This is the South Dorset Repeater Groups 23rd year. The receiver on the VOICE REPEATER seems to have developed an intermittent 'low gain' fault. This has happened at least twice but in both instances the fault has cleared without intervention. On the last occasion John, G8IKP did have a visual inspection of the receiver but could find nothing wrong although he thought that the local oscillator circuit did seem unusually sensitive to the touch.
We also had two problems with the PACKET RADIO NODE. The clamp fixing the Packet Radio aerials to the mast broke and the aerials fell down. The result was a complete loss of East/West traffic and the local area network failed completly once again showing how important our node is!
Also the GB7SD (WEY2) TNC 'crashed' and had to be re-set. This caused a few hours disruption to local users but network traffic on 23cm via GB7SD-1 (WEY23) continued without interuption.
There can be little doubt that the whole installation needs considerable renovation, though to what extent, how soon and by whom is open to debate!
Geoff ,G0EVW - Chairman SDRG
BRING AND BUY AT THE AGM ! Last year, for the first time, we had a Bring and Buy at our AGM. This was a great success and the committee have decided to make it an annual event. All are welcome to bring along any unwanted Radio or Computer equipment. Tables are available free of charge for members to sell items and of course non members can join on the night from just £4.00 hi! The hall will be open at 7pm to allow time for setting up etc.
For more information please contact Geoff, G0EVW.
TREASURERS REPORT The balance of income over expenditure this year has fallen yet again, from £101.38 in 94-95 to £71.76 this year. This continues the trend of the last four years with an average drop each year of around 30%. The number of subscribers to GB3SD has risen from 43 last year to 49 this year and the subscribers to GB7SD are also well up from 18 last year to 28 this year. Also well up this year has been the level of donations, up from £41.00 last year to £91.00 this year. The raffle at last years AGM also returned a useful £8.50. The interest from the bank account has continued to dwindle in line with interest rates and a change of bank account is now planned. This will pay a similar interest rate, but will be much more convenient for the treasurer, who now works at Winfrith.
On the debit side the site fees have increased to £135.00, and we also had a carry over from last year of £30.00 because of this increase. We have had to replace the main battery at the site and this has cost £36.13. Our other main expenditure, as always, is the electricity bill and this year it came to £96.87. This compares with £61.07 last year but care should be taken in making comparisons as the meter reading cycle has meant that last year had one less reading and this year had one more reading. Also on the debit side we had some new keys cut for the close- down operators to ensure they had continued access to the equipment.
In view of the continued healthy state of the bank balance I recommend that the subscriptions stay as they are at £4.00 per unit. Assuming a reasonable number continue to subscribe for the next three years, that will leave us enough to clear the site at the end of 1999, unless YOU can take on a job on the new SDRG 2000 committee and keep the repeater alive!
Ed Harland, G3VPF Treasurer SDRG - 1996 -97
MEMBERSHIP LIST (1/4/96) Thanks to the following for your support:-
G0EVW G0FIT G0FAJ G0FBS G0HVA G0KYH G0LQI G0NEV G0NRQ G0PLJ G0RWL G0VHS G1NLU G1OZS G1ULZ G1WIK G1WSN G1YRS G2DGB G2FNK G3CFV G3DLG G3EAT G3EGV G3EHP G3GAO G3MRZ G3OEW G3RZG G3SDO G3YUD G4EAS G4MZY G4TRW G4VBY G4XSC G6CZQ G6FBR G6KAC G6MXL G7AIC G7BRU G7JEZ G7JZT G7PCE G7TNO G8DJW G8IKP G8WXC 2E0ABU 2E1AHC 2E1CSR 2E1DGT
Once again it's rather disappointing to note that a number of regular users of GB3SD and the Packet Network locally are not members of the Group. Perhaps we have made a mistake or you have just forgotten? If your call or name is not included in the above list and you think it should be, please contact the treasurer as soon as possible!
SOUTH DORSET REPEATER GROUP - IS THERE A FUTURE ?
This is an extract from the 1994 SDRG newsletter.
The South Dorset Repeater Group was formed over 20 years ago when Amateur Radio Repeaters were a very new innovation. Amateur voice, data and television repeaters are now an every-day part of our hobby. Many of us take them for granted and don't realise how much time and effort is needed to put a repeater on the air and keep it running.
This is GB3SD's 20th year of continuous operation. At a committee meeting prior to the 1994 AGM it was decided that the present committee were unwilling to continue after the end of the present five-year lease.
The current committee consists of all of the original founding members plus one "new" recruit. Under the Groups constitution the Founder Members can't retire so it would be necessary to wind up the SDRG and re-form under a new constitution.
The Committee also decided that if the repeater service is to continue to survive and develop in South Dorset it would be best if new and enthusiastic people could be found to form a new group. The aim being to hand over control of GB3SD, together with all the SDRG's assets to this new group after a period during which the new group will need to negotiate with the site-owners and the RSGB to take over the lease and arrange the transfer of the repeater licence and insurance etc. This period can also be used to familiarise the new group with the equipment currently on site.
Geoff, G0EVW - Chairman SDRG