GB3FW Repeater Site Update March 2022
The Fort Widley, GB3FW DATV repeater, is looking to get on air, very soon.
The transmitter, PA and receivers have been tested and are being built into racks. The PA has taken much longer than planned due to thermal testing and various tweaks to remove the need for any fan use where possible, in order to conserve power and maximise TX uptime – target 24/7.
As the site is running totally on batteries, we have designed and added a new RMIS IoT remote voltage and current monitor and subsequently noted some issues with the wind generator. Despite time spent trying to repair the generator, it was decided to buy a new one, which culminated in a lot of trawling and finally we are now just awaiting delivery so it can be installed ASAP and tested.
We have also increased the battery capacity to over 600Ah and phase installing a comprehensive remote monitoring for the solar, wind and batteries – which is currently partly reporting to our website, alongside the new CWX weather station.
The new coax has now also been purchased for both RXs and TX, so it is hoped to get the antennas mounted on the main mast very soon. A test Portsdown BATC stream was added to site but appears to be misbehaving in configuration, so some remote investigations are needed – pending time.
Posts are now also being added to our new twitter page @ScartATVGroup, which will get automatic Power/RX/TX status updates from the repeater site too when fully operational.