GB3WR MENDIP HILLS REPEATER - Blog

WR and PM set to return to Somerset!

2/5/2025

GB3WR AND GB7PM ARE RETURNING
We are pleased to advise that GB3WR will shortly be returning on air along with GB7PM
Agreement has been reached with the site owners going forward, however, we do have to clear some outstanding electricity costs before we switch on.
We will now start making preparations to bring the repeater back on air; undertaking any servicing required, along with making provisions to access the site.
We expect this to take a few weeks but hope to be ready to switch on some time during mid to late March 2025.
To help us achieve in bringing GB3WR back, now would be the right time to make any donations, however large or small, any amount would help.
Donations can be made by either of the following:
Directly to our bank account using the following details.
These transactions will not incur any charges to GB3WR.
This is a dedicated bank account in the Treasurers name for the Mendip Repeater Group.
Name of account: Mark Sherrey
Sort Code 60-83-71
Account No 15306128
Or, you can return to our home page and make a donation via our PayPal link.

This has been a long time coming and we are so happy to be able to bring this much loved set of repeaters back to Somerset.

For all of you that have got a Yaesu FT-991 and are struggling with repeater memory loss, please see below.

10/18/2017

Fingers crossed and with the helpful advice from Gary Myers I think I have sorted the repeater shift loss problem on the FT991 when using RT System Software.
Have to fully test but so far so good with no loss of shift using SPLIT option and not Plus or Minus by disabling ARS on 2 & 70…
This is how I’ve done it,
In RT System Software go to SETTINGS, PREFERENCES… MEMORY DEFAULTS TAB and un-tick the CONVERT SPLIT OFFSETS…. box to disable that feature, then click APPLY / OK.
Now go to SETTINGS, RADIO MENU SETTINGS, OPERATING MODE TAB and un-tick ARS 144MHz and ARS 430MHz checkboxes. Click FILE, SAVE then close this screen.
To send memory channels to 991 click COMMUNICATIONS, SEND DATA TO RADIO, tick to enable MEMORY CHANNELS & MENUS under Data To Transfer.
Once uploaded, restart 991 and select MENU, scroll to option 84 & 85 and change ARS to OFF on both 144MHz and 430MHz.
If a firmware update enables the sweep function go to menu option 116 – SCP START CYCLE and turn OFF.
Hopefully, this should work now and put repeater shift loss to bed once and for all or until the next update.
Thanks again for all those that had an input.

All change on the Mendip's.

9/18/2017

As of Sunday 17th of September 2017.

There has been a lot of changes over the last few months up on the hill.When we first installed the dual mode repeater about 2 years ago it was a bit of an experiment.Some would say a bad one, however the demand for fusion grow and it was clear that we needed to expand our service to meet the needs of the modern operator.This meant that Fusion needed its own platform and to be connected via the internet to open up the full features of Fusion.

So in line with that vision we have now permanently put WR back as an FM only repeater and installed a Fusion only repeater on 70 cm's called GB7PM .www.gb7pm.co.uk/

Please feel free to use the new repeater and send in your reports so we can build a users map.

WR used in an emergency.

8/19/2017

One Friday evening, May, her family and some friends were relaxing on a campsite in the Exmoor national park, Somerset.
May who is aged 12 has a history of epilepsy and she suddenly slipped into a fit. Her friends and family were quick to react to the situation and grabbed their mobile phones to call 999, but they weren't getting a signal from any of the networks.

As luck would have it one of May's friends was a licensed radio ham!!

G6ASK Jon like all good radio hams had his radio with him. Jon tried several repeaters on UHF and VHF but to no avail until he tried GB3WR.The repeater is about 40 miles from where they were and there was some higher ground in the way but never the less Jon managed to get a signal through from his handheld. He quickly switched to his Mobile radio as it was apparent that the signal was some what ropey.

Jon then called for emergency assistance and was answered by M6MGE Mike who was very calm and quickly rang 999.Mike with a very cool head took control of the situation and coordinated the response between the emergency operator and Jon on Exmoor. Within 3 minutes of Jon contacting Mike the ambulance service was on its way to help May.

First on the scene was the Fire Co Responder. Gary had been dispatched from Williston Fire Station, and on blue lights he was on the scene quite quickly given where they were. The Ambulance crew took a little longer as the nearest resource at that time was southbound on the M5 heading back to Tiverton when the call came in.

Jon and May's family would like to thank

Both Gary and the Ambulance crew
They were wonderful with May and the family. A credit to their professions.

M6MGE Mike.
I'm not sure how long Mike has been licensed but I have to say how incredibly impressed I was with his professionalism.(Mike was first licensed in 2012 having undertaken his Amateur
Radio Training with South Bristol Amateur Radio Club)

Jon has been licensed since 1981 and so he is a bit of an old hand at this. He has been involved with Raynet in the past and with the Ambulance service as a First Responder. And a radio ham to boot. You couldn't wish to have a better person around when things go wrong.

The story of May shows the importance of radio in our modem age. When all else fails amateur radio will still be there to help.

We at GB3WR and a lot of people that have been touched by May's story wish her well.

WR back on air.

7/14/2017

Some of you may have already noticed that WR is back on the air again.We swapped the repeater and logic controller over yesterday afternoon.We are now using a Simoco TSF2025 FM repeater and the RC210 controller that we purchased last year. This is a long term solution for WR and with the controller that we have on site we can easily switch between repeaters if needed.Thanks for your patience whilst we have made these changes.

WR is off air for a few days due to a fault on site,when we can get access we will investigate what's happened and if necessary swap to our standby repeater.I will update you as soon as we know what has happened.Sorry for the inconvenience.09/07/2017

7/9/2017

GB3WR BACK ON FULL POWER SUNDAY 14/05/2017

5/21/2017

WR back on the air.

4/1/2017

WR is back on the air in fixed FM mode only because we have removed the ADR interface to be sent back to the manufacture to check.
While we were there we did some maintenance and found that there is a fault on the TX cavities causing a 4:1 VSWR!! So we have disconnected the TX cavities and we are running with a band pass filter and the RX cavities only.The RX cavities are ok but will not filter all of the TX signal hence it is a bit noisey.
The repeater is also running on low power to try and keep the interference between TX & RX to a minimum.
It may take up to 2 months to sort out the issues but hopefully get it done sooner. But at leased we have got her back on air.

March 26th, 2017

3/26/2017

The Yaesu has been removed from site to investigate the CTCSS hum and update the software.
The philips repeater is on but very low power as there appears to be a fault with the output stage. We hope to get something in place to use soon.

Site maintenance

3/18/2017

Tomorrow Sunday 18/03/17 we are making some adjustments to the repeaters controller so there will be some disruption to our service from about midday onwards.