Northern Ireland repeaters

摘要

Many amateurs on the UK mainland have little knowledge of the repeater network in Northern Ireland. John McCullagh, GI4BWM, the recently-appointed Chairman of the Repeater Management Committee of the RSGB has written an overview. "The first 2m repeater with the appropriate callsign GB3NI, became operational in the province during 1978. It was built by the NI Repeater Group, formed the previous year with the aim of building a repeater network in Northern Ireland. "A suitable site was found on the hills to the east of Belfast; site-sharing arrangements were negotiated and a licence was applied for. While the site was being arranged, the repeater hardware was built. This consisted of a Storno 600-series base station with control logic by G3RKL. As always, finding suitable filters for single-aerial working was a challenge, but they were eventually obtained from a local engineering firm which had excellent metal-working facilities and happened to have an amateur as a senior manager.