Thames Valley Repeater Group Announces Repeater Swap to Boost Activity

The Thames Valley Repeater Group (TVRG) has announced a location swap between two of its repeaters – GB3RU and GB7BK – in an effort to encourage fresh activity and experimentation among local amateur radio operators.

Same Equipment, New Locations

While the hardware and callsigns remain unchanged, the physical sites of the repeaters have been exchanged. GB3RU, an analogue FM repeater, and GB7BK, a digital DMR repeater, will now operate from each other’s previous location. So, GB7BK will be located in Tilehurst, west Reading and GB3RU will be sited at Aldworth on the Berkshire Downs. The repeater antennas will remain the same at each location, these are not being changed. The access requirements for both repeaters remain unchanged.

GB7BK is connected to the DV Scotland Phoenix DMR digital network, supporting features like access to National and International Talkgroup routings and offers clearer audio under low signal conditions.

We hope that by moving to a location with better coverage of population centres, this will give more amateurs access to the DMR Network and possibly hand-held operation.

It is no secret that we have been disappointed by the usage of GB3RU, possibly it had too much overlap with GB3BN. We hope that from its new site, it will attract new users from a larger and different geographical area. By relocating the repeaters, TVRG hopes to better reconcile coverage with user demand and encourage more people to try DMR.

After the changes have been made, we will update the relevant pages on this website.

We hope to make the changes on or around Thursday 9^th October, however GB3RU will temporarily be taken off air on Tuesday 7th.