SCART Fort Widley Site Ready for Going Live!
Super news! The SCART Fort Widley site has had a lot of work going on behind the scenes and is now going live!
A considerable amount of work has been completed by the team to prepare the site and get the equipment operational:
- The caravan radio station has been updated to accommodate the equipment. This is complete with an operating area and ATV studio.
- The antenna mast base has been cemented in and reinforced for the fold-over mast.
- The antenna mast has been fully serviced, including new steel pulley ropes.
- An antenna crossbar has been added, with the site antennas fitted and coaxial cables routed into the caravan.
- The wind generator mast base has been cemented in and reinforced, with steel guys and ground anchors added.
- Solar panel frames have been fabricated and fitted to the caravan roof.
- The electrical control panel has been built and installed, together with lead acid and lithium batteries.
- An equipment rack has been incorporated into the interior for the radio equipment and controllers.
- The GB3FW receiver, supporting digital and analogue reception, has been installed together with a Raspberry Pi running BATC Portsdown software for streaming. The RX rack has been built and configuration work is now underway.
- The GB7FW DSTAR repeater is configured and ready to go live.
- The PC controller has been set up to control the DSTAR repeater and provide additional functionality for the Portsdown systems.
- A real time website has been created to display GB3FW, GB7FW and other useful site information.
- A weather station is also being added.
Full details and live information can be found on the SCART Live website: https://scart.ddns.net/
A huge thanks to the team for all the work that has gone into bringing the Fort Widley site together:
G0IEY · G0IUY · G0LFI · G4SAQ · M6UBI · G8PUO