The  Origins

The Origins

On Friday May Third 2013 we laid to rest a valued member of ADARC in Roger VK2FGE sk.

On that occasion, four of us, and that is Dean VK2DJD, Les VK2LES, Brian VK2BLP and myself Rick VK4HF found ourselves in conversation about Roger and how his dream was to see the ADARC 2 metre repeater fully operational for all and sundry, had not come about even though some efforts had been made in the past.

We decided then it would be a fitting legacy to the club and travelling hams alike to put some of our energies into making Roger's dream a reality.

To that end, a temporary steering committee was formed with Dean VK2DJD taking responsibility for Secretary/Treasurer, Brian VK2BLP, Vice President and Rick VK4HF-VK2RR accepting the role of President.

A few hours on the keyboard and lots of e-mails back and forth have brought a lot of support from far and wide and we now have the offer of quite a lot of repeater equipment and technical expertise. Our immediate goal is to bring all this new support to a point where ADARC 2 metre repeater will be fully operational in the very near future.

We have been fortunate enough to have received a donation of a fully operational 2 metre and a 70cm repeater complete with power supply, smart controller, a full diplexer for 70cms and an 8 cavity diplexer for 2 metres. This equipment is all neatly housed in a 19 inch rack mount cabinet on castors ready to be installed. Both repeaters are 25 watt Philips FM-828 Mk11's which were originally purchased brand new for this project when it was originally built, so they weren't just some old junkers from a previous commercial vehicle. Echo Link is now operational on the 2 metre repeater. VK2RAD-R or Node 872907.

Antennas are folded dipoles to minimise the effects of a lightning strike. Antennas and LDF4-50 Heliax are already installed on the tower ready to hook up to the repeaters.

Original Repeater cabinet
Original Repeater cabinet
Power Supply at the top powers both repeaters and the controller.
Power Supply at the top powers both repeaters and the controller.
Back view
Back view
Do these 2 metre cavities look brand new or what??
Do these 2 metre cavities look brand new or what??
Our 2m Antenna is at about 70' on the left of the tower
Our 2m Antenna is at about 70' on the left of the tower
Bottom half of the tower
Bottom half of the tower
Antenna Checks out
Antenna Checks out
Cavities Check
Cavities Check
L-R Peter VK4EA, Les VK2LES, Danny VK4KI, James VK2KHJ, Rick VK4HF/2
L-R Peter VK4EA, Les VK2LES, Danny VK4KI, James VK2KHJ, Rick VK4HF/2
Danny & Peter brought the repeaters down from Qld. Thanks heaps guys.
Danny & Peter brought the repeaters down from Qld. Thanks heaps guys.

This article was updated on January 25, 2024