| Introduction
This proposal has been jointly coordinated between the North
Yorkshire Repeater Group and the Yorkshire Coast Repeater Group and sets
out a scheme for repeater linking aimed at improving the effective
mobile coverage in the eastern region of North Yorkshire.
The grater portion of the service area is provided by the 2M repeater
GB3YC, located at Octon, 15 miles south of Scarborough. The coverage
from this site is excellent in most directions, however, coverage into
the town of Scarborough is limited due to hills surrounding the town.
Mobile coverage within Scarborough has been serviced by the 70cM
repeater GB3NY, located at Oliver’s Mount. The service areas provided
by GB3YC and GB3NY provides limited overlap and mobile operation is
therefore segmented between the two repeaters. As the town of
Scarborough represents the largest centre of population within the
combined service area, it is also the most intense area for mobile
operation. Due to the segmented coverage provided by these repeaters, it
is not possible for a mobile or hand portable to communicate from within
the immediate Scarborough area, to a mobile elsewhere within the
surrounding district. This limitation severely limits the effectiveness
of mobile communications within this region, causing under utilization
of both repeaters.
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It is therefore proposed that repeater linking should be developed,
allowing both repeaters to act as one common network. In this way a
mobile could access the repeater offering the best coverage in its area
and yet communicate with a user of either repeater. The benefit of this scheme
would be improved utilization of the spectrum by encouraging greater
usage of both repeaters, while improving the effectiveness of mobile
communications across the region.
Outline of Proposed Scheme
In preparing this proposal it was realised that compatibility with
existing repeaters and users equipment was essential. It was also
realised that the use of additional link frequencies should be avoided
if possible. As the path between GB3NY and GB3YC is good and both
repeaters operate on different bands, linking can simply be achieved by
adding an additional receiver at each Site. With the use of a purpose
built controller (Logic), a system of control and linking can be
achieved without the need for any additional dedicated link frequencies
being used.
The proposed scheme is outlined below in figure 3. Both GB3NY and
GB3YC will comprise of identical control systems, the only difference
between each repeater will be their identity and RF characteristics. The
control unit will function in a similar way to conventional repeater
systems, however, additional logic will be included to coordinate the
linking and provide an override to allow a conventional (un-linked)
mode. The following description aims to illustrate in more detail the
operation of the proposed system.
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