Stenbury to Bournemouth on 10GHz.

I took these pictures hurriedly during tests to assess the path to the proposed Bournemouth repeater.
This QTH was chosen as it is on the same path between Stenbury and the eventual site of the GB3SQ repeater.

The SCART team at Stenbury (GB3IV and GB3IW repeater site) were available for these tests as they had finished other non repeater work near by. They were:

The 60cm dish on a tripod was placed at NE end of the balcony. Hengistbury Head is in the distance, but the IOW is lost in the mist to the Right of the Head. Luckily the early rain kept away until we were packing up! The LNB is the popular one from Bob Platts (9GHz LO)

L to R: Tony G3KTU at shack window, Dave G8AJN (our digital/repeater expert) John M1BAI (builder of all the 10GHz gear) and Norman G3UXR.

This is an off-screen picture of the digibox's 'Info' page superimposed on G3PYB's received colour bar test card.

This is all of us looking in delight at the digital pictures received. Ann M3GPP, Dave G8AJN, John M1BAI and Norman G3UXR

This is the 'S' meter reading whilst receiving the analogue signal; this was used to optimise the dish azimuth and elevation, tripod position and LNB position before attempting digital reception.

This close up shows the dish mounting for his tripod, constructed by John. As he didn't have any 1/8" aluminium at the time he used plywood - resourceful!

On Left John's 23cm ATV RX with 'S' and tuning meters (on L and R) On the Right is the monitor we used, showing Peter at work. At the rear is the +12v PSU.

Here is the label on the digibox used for the tests. Dave programmed it 'on the spot' without hesitation. This digibox is just visible in the picture to the left, standing on top of the red Pye monitor.

Talkback was via GB3IV (433.225MHz) FM repeater, co-sited with GB3IV. We used my old Pye pocketphone, PFX85, visible on the table in the team picture. Unfortunately, it had limited use as it is not fitted with tone burst or CTSS. We therefore also used my TS-2000 which is well embedded in the shack. Hence G3KTU is seen appearing out of the window in the team picture at the top of the page, trying to see what we were receiving.

Here's a picture taken at the Stenbury site showing Peter G3PYB making adjustments to his 10GHz setup. Thank goodness we did not have a high wire fence like that to get over! Thank you, Howard, for passing on the picture for us.