A proposal has been made to set up a DMR repeater for the Galway area operating from a site near Circular road on the West side of the City. Our group was offered a reasonably priced Hytera 985 repeater which was really not to be refused.
This Repeater is a Commercial system easily programmed to operate on the 70cms band. Once connected into the internet, it will network with the Brandmeister Server located in Waterford giving connectivity o a worldwide basis . The Hytera is capable of running 50 watts but we will reduce this to 30 watts as there is little point in running it to the extremes of its capabilities.
The cavity filters are situated on the chassis. and, unlike an analog repeater, these cavities will operate quite comfortably at 30 watts without warming. As the DMR signal is 50% duty cycle, these will run and remain cool and stable. There is a facility to run an Analog signal from this repeater but this may be a conflict of interest. There is already a 70cm Analog Repeater in the City and also EI7AKR situated in a rural area to the East.
The proposed coverage from site chosen is as follows:
The antenna will be a vertical system which is a 3 x 5/8 colinear antenna giving a reasonable gain over a dipole. This plot was derived assuming 30 watts power and the antenna with a gain of 9dB. over a dipole.
This will be the third DMR repeater to be established in Ireland and will be networked into the existing Brandmeister system.
This Repeater will facilitate those with an interest in DMR and the development of this aspect of the hobby. The networking capabilities are endless and will ensure that any activity in Ireland will be transmitted to our area.
