AARC Repeater, VE3RIB

Features of VE3RIB, Mark III

During the winter of 2009/2010, Warren (VE3FYN) built the third version of the club repeater, VE3RIB. The repeater was installed on 2 Febuary 2010 and is performing well. Shown on the left of the photo, this new and improved repeater includes:

• The radios:
  • A 110 watt Motorola MSR2000 radio.
    • An Advanced Receiver pre-amp with 24dB gain.
  • A 110 watt VHF Motorola Mitrek radio linked to VE3UPP in Upsala.
  • A 40 watt UHF GE-MVS radio (set to 2 watts) for IRLP linking via VE3FYN.
  • An APRS digipeater using a GE-MVS radio and a TNC-X TNC.
• The controller:
  • A six port RLC Club Deluxe II controller.
  • Telephone autopatch and reverse patch.
  • Internal and external temperature sensors with reporting and alarms.
  • Power outage alarm.
  • Modem for remote programming.
• The power supplies:
  • A dedicated power supply for the MSR2000.
  • An Astron RM35A for all auxiliary equipment.
• Backup power:
  • Backup battery power to the MSR2000 via the main power supply.
  • A fold-back circuit built by VE3FYN that reduces power output to 25 watts when on battery power.
  • Over-the-air alarm when operating on battery power, which announces current battery voltage.
  • Backup battery power to all auxiliary equipment via the secondary power supply.
  • A 3000 watt generator for long-term backup power.

On the left, the repeater (left) during the final stages of installation. Our local Weatheradio transmitter (right) shares the tiny shack.

It took ten cavities to make it all work.

You can see the shack is a little crowded. On a rack behind the repeater, there is a second rack of cavities. On the bottom, a hybrid ring duplexer provides the receive/transmit separation for the repeater. Four cavities on the top of the rack split-out 144.390 MHz, allowing us to operate the digipeater on the same antenna. A ninth cavity behind the rack, really a band-pass filter, provides static and lightning protection for the pre-amp. (The incoming signal passes through the band-pass filter first, then through the four notch/pass cavities. A 144.390 signal is sent to the APRS radio, and everything else goes to the hybrid ring, and eventually to the repeater radio.)

A tenth cavity, a 162.400 MHz notch filter, is connected to the Upsala link radio to filter-out the strong signal from the Weatheradio.

On the left, VE3FYN (Warren) installs and aligns the beam antenna to link VE3RIB with VE3UPP in December 2009 (at minus 20 Celcius).

The 3000 watt backup generator is tested monthly.