2023 – 2025
In 2022, GB3YT developed a number of faults and the owners decided that they could no longer maintain the repeater. They announced that it would be closed down unless another group took on the NoV and found a new site.
Two South Yorkshire ATVers, Gary M1EGI and Ken G8VDP approached Kay, the owner of the repeater, along with several other parties that had expressed an interest, but Kay kindly sold the equipment for a nominal sum on the understanding that Gary & Ken would retrieve it from the roof space in the barn at Mirfield and relocate the repeater.
On the 23rd April 2023, Kay formally announced that the repeater had new owners. At the same time, a WhatsApp group was set up by Ken to coordinate the efforts of the ATVers in the South Yorkshire area restore GB3YT. By the 30th April 2023, all of the equipment had been removed and transported to Barnsley where each component would be tested to establish the cause of the repeaters demise. Gary was notified by Ofcom that the NoV holder change had been completed on the 3rd May 2023.
Inspection

The first job was to clean all of the equipment. Having been operated in the roof of a barn for eight years, a lot of ‘sticky’ dust and detritus had accumulated, especially where an air flow was used for cooling.

After a good vac out and dusting, the insides of the cabinet were not too bad. Clearly, the construction had been well laid out with easy access to all main modules.
Repairs
Restoration of the repeater’s hardware has necessitated replacement of or substitution of several modules. The BATC DTX1 encoder/modulator had failed; it was not producing an RF output.
Both of the Tandberg TT1220 professional receivers have failed; Ken G8VDP has loaned a BATC Ryde receiver system which allows DVB-S/S2 at 333kS/s & 1000kS/s inputs on 23cms. There is currently no replacement for the Tandberg TT1220 receiver that was used on 70cms.

Both of the media players that provide beacon and K functions had failed; fortunately similar replacement units are still available.
A streamer, previously used in the GB3EY repeater before it went all digital, has been donated to the GB3YT project by the East Yorkshire Repeater Group. It now feeds the BATC stream page when the repeater is operational.
After eight years subjected to the Yorkshire weather, the radome over the Alford slot antenna had become rather tatty so it has been replaced.

Tx PA heatsink and fans have been stripped and cleaned. At some point it would be good to give the thermal compound a refresh.
Various items have been replaced such as interconnects, coaxial patch leads, brackets etc. All of the above has been financed by Gary and Ken; please consider joining the group and contributing by way of a subscription, a donation or an offer of assistance. See the subscriptions and donations page.
February 2025 update
29/01/25 The form to request both a site change along with NOV holder was sent to the ETCC. This is to request the repeater be operated as GB3YT from the QTH of G8VDP (currently the system is operated as a manned repeater under Ken G8VDP’s callsign).
02/02/25 Gary has tested the GSM remote control rack, as it wasn’t clear if this had failed just before the shutdown at the old QTH or if the problem was with the SIM card. With the use of a loaned SIM card Gary has successfully tested the GSM module, so the Group would just require a new SIM to make use of this facility.
Gary has also run a confidence check on the 70cms bandpass filter to make sure it is fit for purpose and made sure that the two notches still corresponded to the frequencies marked. See the screen grabs below of the filter response. Both of these units can be put back into service.

