What do you want to know Ron? Clive G3GJA

EY is working from Aldbrough but its performance is severely hampered by the Claxby primary ATC radar which has moved its lower frequency closer to the EY input which is on 1248MHz. The radar is now on 1254.5MHz which is within EY's receiver bandwidth. On the other hand, the upper Claxby frequency has moved further away from EY's 1308MHz output reducing some of the interference. These radar frequency changes are in anticipation of the European version of GPS becoming operational (funds permitting!). This will also affect frequencies that can be used for amateur television repeaters in the UK and it may be that we will have to convert EY to digital so that the bandwidth can be reduced. Ideally we would like to move EY to Weedley but we know that it would not be approved by the CAA and that would cause the loss of the repeater permanently.

Things have moved on since I last posted. Some 23cm ATV repeaters have now been approved and following discussions with Noel G8GTZ we have today applied for a move to Weedley and a change of mode to DVB-S. The predicted coverage map is based on a 10w TX which is about as much as you can get out of the existing PA when using DVB-S before the regeneration of sidebands becomes unacceptable.

We have decided not to take up Phil's kind offer of the use of the Octon site for the following reasons:
1. There is only one active ATV operator near the site and even then it's doubtful whether he would a get line of site path because Octon is to far north of the edge of the hills above Driffield.
2. Octon is too far away from the population centres in the south of the county. This is the same issue that blights Aldbrough causing EY to give good coverage to tens of square miles of empty fields. ATV needs big signals to cope with the wide bandwidths and it's not unusual to need in excess of 20 microvolts to get a usable analogue transmission. That's not compatible with a repeater that's more than twenty miles away.
3. The high ground of the Wolds to the south restricts coverage in that direction protecting the radar at Claxby and reducing the signal from Claxby getting into the receiver. There is no geographical screening to the south at Octon (unless you're in Driffield!) which would not help persuading the CAA to approve the move.
4. We want to use the existing Internet connection at Weedley to stream the receiver's output onto batc.tv

Noel has told us not to hold our breath as it's going to take some time. However, if all goes to plan ATV is set for a big boost in the area with DVB-S inputs on 70cm and 23cm, streaming and a much better service area. We also plan to link in the 3cm co-sited ATV repeater GB3XY.