Below are the details of the people or Companies who have made GB3FH possible. Their generosity and dedication is greatly appreciated and this page is dedicated to them.

Kris G8AUU...

 

...through a chance introduction at the Newbury Rally I met Kris. I had gone to the Newbury Rally looking for some 50MHz base station equipment suitable for making a repeater. Kris mentioned he had some units available and he very quickly came up with some Tait equipment which had been used for outside broadcast. This was ideally suited to 50MHz as it was working currently on a nearby frequency already. Without Kris' equipment this repeater wouldn't have had any chance of getting started. As there is no widely used PMR allocation near to 50MHz it is almost impossible to get repeater equipment that is ready to go on this band. I was very lucky indeed to have this equipment donated for the repeater.

Brian G4UTM....

 

.... has kindly offered to construct the duplexer, which is very labour intensive, being made from Andrew's Heliax cable! Brian's technical expertise and experience with the other repeaters he maintains has been of great value during the construction of the repeater. See the technical page for details of Brian's excellent work on the duplexer and some photos.

Chris, G3VEH....

 

... has spent many hours re-designing the Tx Power Amp stage and another one as a spare! Chris has also been a source of much needed technical advice and encouragement. Without Chris' expert technical knowledge and assistance, the repeater would have only about 15w of output power, seriously limiting its useable range. ( And making the 50MHz Tait exciter work really hard! ) Chris also worked out how to make the 47MHz circulators we had, circulate at 50MHz instead, enabling us to protect the RF environment on site ad protect our own PA as well.

Mike EI2DJ...

...operates numerous repeaters in Ireland and has donated loads of equipment, including some enormous air spaced coax cable (its about 8 inches in diameter - ex TV station stuff ) which may develop into a mega duplexer at some stage, some really useful bits of low-band ex PMR kit and filters. Mike visits many radio rallies on the "mainland" every year and it was Mike who found the PAs and band pass filters used in the repeater. He and his wife, Karen  drove many miles out of their  way to deliver them back to me before returning home to Dublin.

Surf Telecoms...

.. own and operate the mast at Fry's Hill. Surf Telecoms have been very kind to allow Amateur operations from their site and we are very lucky to have secured a very competitive rate for our accommodation and electricity. This prime site on the Mendips is widely used by operators on VHF and UHF. There are big signals radiating from this site above and below the 2m band and actually inside the 70cm band, so 6m is really the only option for Amateur operation from this site. Visit their web site here

RSGB Bristol Group...

 

...paid for the aerials for the repeater outright. This was a major step forward for the repeater project. The aerials are not yet installed as professional riggers have to fit the aerials to the mast with approved stainless steel brackets. Keep checking the NEWS page for updates. Visit their Group Web site here.

Taunton and West Somerset Raynet Group...

 

...have supported the repeater by purchasing numerous items of surplus radio equipment I had here, which meant I could boost the funds for the repeater. In fact it was their first purchase which helped to cover the costs of setting up the website . Thanks guys! You can contact Dave, G4XUR who is the secretary of the Group and also secretary of the Somerset Raynet Committee, click here

Ross G4YQY...

 

Ross has printed loads of paperwork for the repeater, the flyers for the rally, the signs for the tent we used at the rally etc. etc. I even made him late home last week when I was delayed in traffic, picking up the printing! (sorry!) Ross also constructed a new vented top for the repeater cabinet, helping to keep the PA cool and also an innovative place to put the laptop when re-programming the repeater controller.

 

James M5AFH

       

        James has kindly donated the cardboard tubes Brian used to finish off the duplexer tops, keeping the spiders from de-tuning the stubs!

       

 

Tony G7DIR

 

Tony is has donated two top notch PC system units in support of our IRLP project. These units will provide the Linux system on which IRLP operates.

 

If you wish to support GB3FH in any way (not always money involved!) then get in touch using the details on the Contacts page.