Zepler Amateur Radio Equipment

This page details the Amateur Radio Equipment that is installed, or planned to be installed in Zepler (Building 59).

It is planned that the kit will be installed in Summer 2013 to coincide with the installation of the Antennas on the roof of Zepler.

This equipment will hopefully be located in one of the Server Rooms on Level 4, to minimise the loss incurred in the cable run from the roof.

Preamp + Relays Power Supply

A unit will be required to supply power to the masthead preamp + relays as a DC bias on the coax. This will need to be switched to allow bypass of the pre-amp during Transmission.

Rotator Controller

A network-attached computer will be required to control the rotator, providing indication of it's current position and allowing authenticated users to change the position without a possibility of damaging the rotator.

Receivers

With a single coax feed coming down, the simplest setup would involve a single SDR connected to the coax, with a computer to stream the audio baseband and provide control of the SDR.

We may have multiple receivers, in which case power splitters may be required.

Note that all receivers will be required to be disconnected if any unit is TXing.

SDR

Phil M0DNY has spoken to the author of the popular WebSDR software who is very happy to allow us use of this software. It will work with a Funcube Dongle, however the Centre Frequency of the dongle needs to be controlled by another means (such as qthid). Phil thinks that allowing Club Members to change the centre frequency through an authenticated web interface, but supplying the 96KHz BW to the public, may be a good idea.

An RTL-SDR is the cheapest solution, but not yet supported by any websdr software. The Funcube Pro Plus, with it's wide frequency range and built-in filters, may be better suited to this application.

Mystery Icom Box

It has been heard that there is a mystery Icom rackmount receiver in Zepler Level 2, that has sat unused for quite a while. It could be that this is an R9000 or similar, and would be a great asset to the club. These receivers can be computer-controlled and have a massive frequency range with outstanding sensitivity.

23cm ATV RX

23cm will be de-diplexed from the main coax so as to be seperate to the VHF/UHF operation.

Phil M0DNY has a 23cm DATV receiver that he would be happy to donate to the club for this use. It is RF-in, Composite video out, with a suitable capture interface this could then be streamed from a local server, or through the BATC Streamer. Computer-control of the receiver is not believed to be possible.

Further Cable Drop

It could also be possible to put in a coax drop to a socket in the CLS Room on Level 1 (our normal meeting room) for club operation. The loss in the cable drop and the noise induced from networking cables in the trunking may make this unusable, but it could be worth a try, at least for demonstration purposes if not serious operating.