GB3ZZ - New Ryde Receivers operational

[g8vpg]

GB3ZZ in Bristol has today received a major upgrade as two BATC Ryde receivers with symbol rate scanning have been installed. The receivers have been fitted as secondary receivers on the 1249 & 437MHz inputs. The existing primary receivers remain unchanged.
The new receivers will be operational daily from 06.00am to 22.00pm. They shut down and reboot overnight, so if there are any crashes, they should be automatically recovered the following day. Like all Rydes, they will receive DVB-S or DVB-S2, MPEG2, H264 & H265.
On 1249MHz, the receiver will scan 333, 1000 & 2000ks/s.
On 437Mhz, the receiver will scan 333 & 1000ks/s.
Initial tests indicate that on 1249MHz, the already very sensitive input has received a boost of 10-15dB with the use of DVB-S2 with 333ks/s. G4UVZ from Taunton has accessed with 30mW and G8VPG from Saltford, near Bath with 25mW, both paths obstructed. It is possible that stations that cannot see the output will still be able to get in on 1249MHz, 333ks/s (the 23cm repeater aerials are a lot higher than the 70cm ones), although you can check access on the BATC streamer.
So please turn your beams towards Bristol, especially if conditions are up and you may be surprised at what you can do!

[DL5BCA]

Hello Shaun,
very interesting.
We want to do the same with our ATV repeater DB0OV.
Do you have 2 separate Ryde receivers, or do you scan the upper entrance and then the lower entrance of the tuner?

How do you do that with the shut down?
Is the Raspberry switched off correctly?

73 es greeting from North Germany

[g8vpg]

Thomas,
We have two receivers, one for each input frequency. You could use one receiver with frequency and symbol rate scanning, but the scanning sequence would be longer and you would need an RF relay to switch aerials.
Yes, the Pi is shut down properly. We have fitted the hardware shut down option. A timer controlled relay wired across the shut down button starts the shut down sequence. Another timer controlled relay cycles the power to the Pi a few minutes later, thus rebooting it. We have used this system on the Portsdown repeater streamer for 18 months and it has worked very well. If the Pi does crash, which is not often, you just wait for the next reboot sequence to correct it. It saves a lot of site visits!
The 333ks/s input is really sensitive and users are getting in with a few tens of mW. It will be very interesting when the next lift occurs to see how far away people can access it.
73 Shaun G8VPG.

[DL5BCA]

Hello Shaun,

thank you for the comments.

That's very interesting.
We want to install one Ryde first. The Ryde is already ready in a case.

But I'm doing a new repeater control and the other receivers are not working as they should.

There are some on-off boards there. How did you use which ones?
Do you switch off the software beforehand using a time-controlled crone?

73...

[g8lce]

You don't need to use relays for the aerials if you use the two inputs of the Minitiouner. You can choose which input a frequency is received on from the menu. I have been testing this for some time with 1316MHZ on one input and 437MHz on the other. SR of 333K and 2M. I have put the scan time down to 2seconds via the menu and this cuts the receive delay but may make weak signal reception worse. Mains failures have caused the Ryde to crash but still able to be connected to via ssh. A shut down pulse to the Ryde while some sort of backup power keeps the power going for a few seconds or more may be the answer.
Ryde stream from this is on g8lce stream. The 1316MHz input is the GB3NQ repeater. I am still experimenting but almost 99% of the time the Ryde seems reliable but the timed reset seems a good idea.
Two receivers must add to the control logic if only two frequencies are used. With one Ryde and two frequencies, two SR, scan time at 2 seconds that gives a total scan time of 8 seconds. If an ident is given out between transmissions then the scan time is not important.

Martin G8LCE

[DL5BCA]

Hi Martin,

thanks for the information.

I would like to do something similar.
Then evaluate the "Valid RX Signal" and, if a signal is present, place it on the quad splitter.

Thank you very much for your inspirations.

[g8vpg]

Thomas,
Yes, I always shut down the Pi software before disconnecting the power. The Ryde has a shut down button that you must enable in the console menu.
Apply 3.3V from pin 17 through a 1k Ohm resistor to pin 26. This pulls pin 26 high. If you then ground pin 26 to pull it low (ground is pin 25) this will start the shut down sequence. I use a timer controlled relay to do this and then another timer controlled relay to cycle the power on/off. This is a safe shut down/reboot sequence that we have been doing for 18 months, twice a day, on the repeater Portsdown streamer.
73 Shaun.

[DL5BCA]

Hello Shaun,
Thank you for the informations.
Well done and worth emulating.

@All: nice pre-christmas time.