Affiliated

South Birmingham Radio Society
Hampstead House Condover Road, West Heath, Birmingham, B31 3QY, England

Loc: IO92AJ45FS * WAB SP07 * Lat 52:23:59N * Lon: 1:57:48W * NGR: SP 025 779

We always welcome signal reports on our beacons so please feel free to email them to reports@gb3ohm.org.uk

3.4 GHz (9cm's)

5.7GHz (6cm's)

24GHz

3.4 GHz (9cm's)

The club 9cm beacon was built by Richard G8KPB, Iain G8WDT, (both now sadly silent key), Bob G8GDZ & Ian G8IFT. It first went QRV in 1989 and has been in in almost continuous service since. It is planned for a rebuild at some stage, to make it more efficient and condense it down in size. At the moment however we have so many other projects on the go there just simply is not enough hours in the day. It will happen someday it's just a question of when!

When originally built it had an output power of just one Watt. This was increased recently to 12 watts with the addition of an external PA that came from the now defunct Ionica phone system, (it is worth noting that with some modification some amateur's have seen up to 22 watts from these).

The only drawback with this arrangement is the complex power supply arrangements, as these amplifiers require a multitude of voltages of +10V (at approx. 4 amps), +12V, -12V and +5V. The easiest way to obtain this is to use an original 'Ionica' power supply however that is not without it's disadvantages as these were designed to run of a standard 50V telecomms line so another power supply is needed then to get the 50V.

The wood & douglas keyer gives a very distinctive warble when sending it's key pattern of callsign plus approx. 45 seconds key down, callsign plus locator every 4th callsign plus approx. 45 seconds key down and repeat.

Specifications:

Click on picture for full size image

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5.7GHz (6cm's)

Our 6cm beacon went QRV at 1200hrs on Sunday 10^th September 2006. This was a momentous occasion for the club as it was the culmination of many hours work by Bob G8GDZ with Assistance from Ian G8IFT and Andy G4JNT.

It keys callsign @ 12 wpm plus 45 seconds key down, callsign plus locator @ 18 wpm plus 45 seconds key down and repeat.

Specifications:

Click on picture for full size image

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24GHz

This is one of those "wouldn't it be nice if"... ideas. Maybe one day it will happen, but at the moment it is so far down on the list of priorities it would take a coal miner to find it!

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© 2007 South Birmingham Radio Society
Designed April 2007 by Paul Eden M3CBC & Elizabeth Shakespeare
Last updated 17/10/2007

RSGB Diamond Logo used with permission of   Radio Society of Great Britain. © 2006  Radio Society of Great Britain, Lambda House, Cranborne Rd, Potters Bar, Herts EN6 3JE, UK