New Stations Added

[PaulRuskin]

I'm pleased to say that PWOrwell2 is now up and running well, and receiving contacts.

Paul

[Keithvinning]

Well done Paul
Thanks for all you are doing in the East of the country.

[PaulRuskin]

And we can now add PWGRL to the list of stations (thanks to Bob Pursey for the help).

GRL (home of Cambridge Gliding Centre - about 20km west of Cambridge) has two OGN stations - one (UKGRL) omnidirectional with a 9 dBi antenna mounted above the clubhouse roof, but with a hanger in the way to the NorthEast.  The second (UKGRL2) a higher and more directional antenna pointing NorthEast to fill in the gap (and assist with coverage in that direction).  Both have active filters on them.  The coverage from UKGRL2 is worth looking at to see what can be done (http://flarmrange.onglide.com/?#UKGRL2,max,all,52.232983_-0.136719,8,#00990000:#009900ff,).

To UKGRL is now added PWUKGRL, with an PAW antenna on the clubhouse roof.  I expect similarly limited coverage to the NorthEast which will need filling in, but coverage should be good in other directions.

Paul

[bnmont]

Great to see another station up and running, good coverage in this area now with PWEverton, PWOrwell and PWGRL 

[Keithvinning]

Well done Paul.
Last night I gave a presentation at Reading from which an antenna was taken to be installed at Chilton Park. Possibly another near Newbury.
I dispatched a co linear antenna to Sweden on Tuesday so another country also added to the list.
Thanks to all for what you are doing great work and a great service to the communities.

[Keithvinning]

Paul
That is phenomenal coverage from UkGRL2

[exfirepro]

Paul,

Extremely impressive coverage - especially UKGRL2.

You say UKGRL2 is directional, which I can see from ognrange by setting it to ‘last 30 days’, though if I look at ‘historical’ range data, it seems to show pretty impressive good coverage all round. What antenna are you using? (can you provide a link) Was this a recent antenna change? Are you running pre-amps? Always interested in comparing notes for the common good!

The PWUKGRL coverage will no doubt build as the weather improves.

Regards

Peter

[PaulRuskin]

I can't claim the credit for this one...

But it's eight stacked yagis plus pre-amp plus filter.

Paul

[PaulRuskin]

And here's a pic of UKGRL2's antenna to give a feel for it

https://www.dropbox.com/s/adwbq0kbhp96zxv/GRL2%20antenna.JPG?dl=0

[Ian Melville]

My eyebrows went up at eight stacked Yagi so was keen to see the piccie. I am fairly sure that there are no Yagis in that picture. Stacked Dipoles most likely.

Yagis are very directional and commonly used for TV reception. Immagine eight TV arials one above the other 

[PaulRuskin]

No, they're yagis.

That was a picture from our club  news letter, and it's lined up with the yagis. I put it on here to show how tall they were. Next time I'm there I'll get one from the side.

Paul

[Ian Melville]

I know you wanted to target a blind spot, just was not expecting such extream measures. Side on photo would be good.

[PaulRuskin]

Here you go.  Eight stacked yagis.  Short yagis admittedly, but yagis none the less.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vxo3bd4ta19ktf/2018-01-13_104924.JPG?dl=0

Paul

[Moffrestorer]

I had wondered about enhancing coverage since setting up PWKingstone when a gliding colleague pointed out the existence of Flarm Preamps with SAW filters such as the Uputronics HPA/FPA868 unit. However this is fine for Flarm reception but the PAW side of the base station is not only a receiver, but transmitter as well, utilising a single antenna. Aside from Eirp considerations (not to exceed 500mW), there seems little scope to enhance PAW coverage in a similar fashion. Better in my view to have similar coverage for Flarm and PAW so the OGN-R function is most efficient. Is this also how others view this?

[exfirepro]

Hi Chris,

I am using an Uputronics Filter/Preamp at the moment on 'Balerno' because of my fairly unique situation - right across the wrong side of the Edinburgh Zone from the gliders, with my antennas in my loft. (Her indoors would have thrown a fit if I had fitted them outside without testing to see if the system would work and I haven't had the time to move them outside yet). Other than that I would totally agree that the principle for rebroadcast is to maximise the local PAW efficiency by optimal antenna positioning and make sure you are seeing as many of the local gliders as possible.

You are correct that we can't 'improve' the basic PAW antenna setup except to overcome any coax / connector losses as we would exceed the maximum allowed ERP.

Paul R,

Impressed by the yagis. Being 'short' the stack will still have a fairly broad radiation pattern in the horizontal plane (reflected in the coverage) while concentrating the signal in the vertical plane to improve the 'reach'. (I used to use 4 x stacked 17 element horizontal yagis at 144 MHz on a 60 foot tall scaffold pole mast for Ham Radio Contests in times past).

Regards

Peter