THE TOWER - on a clear & still day!

Site Power upgrade

VK5RSB power upgrade, with the N+1 redundancy for power supplies as well as the battery charger, a new power circuit was needed.

	A 15 amp 240 volt power circuit has been installed from the hut switch board so that now all AREG equipment runs off that circuit all on our own. There is no fear that our equipment will accidentally trip out a mains circuit breaker putting the other tenants off air etc.
With this circuit in place, we now are able to run the C38 power supplies as well as the Chloride battery charger.	Battery Isolation Diode.
Circuit Breakers for power supplies, batteries and racks.	Terminal blocks for power distribution.

Cloride Charger Circuit including modifications to allow for N+1 PSU redundancy and repeater racks.

The DC Monitor PCB is use in conjunction with a diode and a relay to monitor the output of the C38 PSU. The relay only turns on when the PSU output is within the correct range of voltages set by the ports VR1 and VR2. The diode is used to stop current flowing from the DC bus back into the PSU. The circuit for the DC Monitor PCB and be found by following the link DC Monitor Schematic Version 1.1.PDF

The PCB layout is given below, to obtain a PDF of the layout following the link DC Monitor PCB Documentation Version 1.1.PDF

AREG has spare DC Monitor PCB's for sale, if you are interested please contact us.

With the new circuit in place, we now are able to run the C38 power supplies as well as the Chloride battery charger.

All is now switched on and has been individually tested, the two C38s and the battery supply.

The AREG rack is now effectively running off the 240 via the two C38s in parallel (double redundancy) and in the event of the mains power failing, will run off the batteries. This has all been tested through a process of only running the system on one supply and switching the others on and off in a sequence that demonstrates that one supply can hold the system up. Yep it works!

The VK5RSB site DC Power system has room for one more C38 power supply, once the site has been fully configured. The power system can provide a total of 90Amps continious power at 14volts or 60Amps with N+1 redundancy.

We also checked and topped up water levels on the batteries and changed one cell out and fitted a replacement. This cell was down on water and has consistently been the one that always needs a couple of litres added so the decision was to replace it. Thanks Graham for your extra run home to get the replacement.

70cm Repeater Installation

Also we have refitted the Unilab repeater with the AREG controller. The controller anti - noise filter has been adjusted. So remember when using the repeater, PTT and wait half a second before you start to talk.Also we have refitted the Unilab repeater with the AREG controller. The controller anti - noise filter has been adjusted. So remember when using the repeater, PTT and wait half a second before you start to talk.

The Quantar is still in the rack as a backup if needed.

We have a second Unilab, but it talks to itself when it was connected up so we have taken it out again for more remedial work, probably need to improve internal shielding or grounding. Did not appear to be a problem on the bench, but you know how it is, the problem will only show up when it is the most difficult to fix!

So thanks to all who were able to make it and were able to squeeze in and around those there. It was starting to get a bit crowded, but we got the jobs done relatively quickly and without any issues.

Site before 11 November 2005 at 12:40, when lightning struck the site.

This is our repeater upgrade. We purchased two MSF5000 repeaters and have installed our AREG repeater technology to enable linking and full control. This system served AREG well for many years untill the 11th of November 2005 when the site was struck by lightning. The only thing left was the 6m repeater as detailed below. It has been many years but we are not starting to get the site back on track.

Below Peter VK5TZX is in Adrian's VK5ZBR shack helping in rewiring the new PCB's.

The Six Meter repeater below was also upgraded.  Well it was rebuilt to work with our 4th generation of linking technology.

Page updated on 9 May 2008