VK5RHO VHF Repeater

In 2002 the Wireless Institute of Australia announced that it would not continue to financially support the VK5RHO 2m repeater, which it had owned and operated for many years, and offered the repeater to NERC. 
The Club agreed that it did not wish to see the repeater closed down and decided to take up the challenge to continue its' operation. The WIA offered to assist in the re-establishment and some ongoing costs.

A subcommittee was formed to search for a new site with affordable rent, and eventually a new site was found 2 Km due South of the existing. This site was on private property and had a rather dilapidated pipe mast with a suspect UHF CB antenna at the top that was used by the site owner.

After some careful negotiations the landowner was agreeable to a proposal to use the site. We offered to erect a new mast and refurbish the CB antenna for his use. A Hills Telomast was obtained along with surplus Heliax coax, and all this was installed under the supervision of Jim, VK5NB (now SK). Eric VK5BT modified a metal cabinet to house the RF equipment and refurbished the UHF CB antenna, and Gerry VK5ZHE extensively modified an old battery cabinet to house the batteries.

December 2002 saw a working bee arranged to erect the mast with antenna atop, and in January 2003 the repeater was finally moved to its' new location. VK5RHO VHF remains on its original frequency of 146.850 Mhz . 

Coverage is similar to that from the previous site, and the Club is proud of its' achievement in continuing a service to all Adelaide radio amateurs. Our thanks go to all those involved in the project, to the WIA (then SA Division) for its' assistance with re-establishment costs, and especially for the generous cooperation given by the site owner.

In 2006 the original RF equipment was retired and replaced with Tait T375/377 equipment. With the replacement of other metropolitan repeaters with similar equipment a uniform standard has now been established. The choice of use of this equipment has proven a wise one.

 

VK5RNE UHF Repeater
 

In 2007 the VK5RNE UHF repeater was relocated to the VK5RHO site, with the subsequent callsign change to VK5RHO. The original frequency of 439.875 MHz has been maintained. 
Both repeaters will be interlinked at some future time.