It has been reported that some stations are having problems with operating GB3NH. After speaking with Maurice, M0MAO from the Northamptonshire Communications Club, he told me that users were experiencing the repeater shutting down whilst in use. Maurice and Gary M0NNH were able to give us enough information to track down what is happening.

We know it can be frustrating during a QSO when NH keeps shutting down and we are sorry that stations are having problems but it is not a fault but a feature designed to protect the repeater. Let us explain a little about the logic and it’s features. It’s a semi-professional one-piece PCB that costs around £350. It runs a microprocessor, CTCSS encode/decode and very nicely designed audio stages. It’s pretty reliable and we know how to maintain it.

One of its many built-in functions is an anti-kerchunking feature (let’s call it AKF for short!)  Kerchunking is the repeated blipping-up of the repeater. As you know this happens quite a lot! We can’t see what people get out of doing this – but it takes all sorts!

The AKF looks for repeated short overs and then disables the repeater it for a short period. The repeater shuts down  and normal service is resumed after a short period.  It does allow some short overs in amongst a QSO but it will act if there are too many. The repeater AKF will not act at all if every ‘over’ is 10 seconds or more.

Radio Hams the world over love to talk. Listen anywhere on any band and most likely you will hear people talking for 30 seconds to maybe as much as 5 minutes on a variety of subjects before passing it back or on to the next member of the group. If the repeater is used in this way then it can be enjoyed without interruption or problems. 

We would like you to use and enjoy the repeaters.  We apologise for any inconvenience that you have been experiencing.