VK3EGC is the licensed call sign for the East Gippsland Amateur Radio Club Inc. The Club has been operating for more than 30 years and serves the Eastern end of Victoria between the Sale-Maffra area and the NSW border. The Club provides a series of linked repeaters accessible for more than 300 kms along the Princes Highway and surrounding areas. The Club operates and maintains 3 VHF repeaters and 1 UHF repeater. VK3RTU is a UHF repeater on 439.525 mhz at Bairnsdale. VK3REB is a VHF repeater on 146.900 mhz at Mt Nowa Nowa. VK3REG is a VHF repeater on 146.650 mhz at Mt Cann. And VK3REM is a VHF repeater on 147.150 mhz at Mallacoota. All VHF repeaters are permanently connected by UHF links

Solar powered repeater VK3REG at Mt Cann on 146.650 mhz

EAST GIPPSLAND AMATEUR RADIO CLUB – REPEATERS (Club History)

 Prior to the1990s the East Gippsland Zone – as it was then known – had two VHF repeaters.  The VK3REG repeater had been established, during 1985, at Donald’s Knob on a Police Department site and consisted of a Philips 828 with a locally assembled VTAC controller and had a supply of mains power.  It used a two antenna system on the adjacent tower and operated on the frequency of 146.650 mhz.The other repeater VK3REB on 146.900 mhz had been licensed in 1985 by DOTC for use at Mt Nowa Nowa using the old wooden fire tower, but because of problems associated with future development of the site, the equipment was temporarily installed at Nungurner on an ESSO tower using a two antenna system with a Philips 828 and a locally assembled VTAC controller.  Power was available from ESSO batteries.During the late 1980s a new tower of some 50 m height was being constructed at Mt Nowa Nowa adjacent to the Telecom / Telstra tower, and a proposal was put to the site manager to allow the Victorian division of the WIA to buy our way into the site and establish a permanent site for the Club’s VHF repeater.  It was negotiated that our Club would meet the cost of providing safety climbing facilities on the tower and would provide on-ground help for two or three days for the riggers installing the coaxial cables for all site users.Our Club made formal application to the site manager (Victorian Police Dept.) in July 1991 to use the tower and one of the three site buildings to house our equipment.  The VK3REB 146.900 mhz repeater was moved from the Nungurner site to this Mt Nowa Nowa site in September 1991 and began operation with a rack mounted Philips 828 and VTAC controller with standby battery and battery charger.  A two antenna system was installed on the tower with the top antenna being a 4.5 db collinear and the lower antenna – some 20 m below being a 3db collinear.During the early 90s, moves were made to establish sites at several other strategic mountain tops in East Gippsland and, at the same time, the Gippsland Repeater Association (GRA) (UHF CB Repeater Club) was negotiating the establishment of sites in areas such as Mt Taylor near Bairnsdale, Mt Cann near Cann River and Marimingo Hill near Mallacoota.  Agreement was negotiated with GRA to have access to their sites in exchange for our Club providing technical support to maintain the GRA repeaters.Our Club undertook trials of VHF repeaters at several sites in order to establish the most suitable sites for permanent repeaters.  A repeater VK3RGO on 146.050 mhz was established at Mt Livingstone – near Omeo – and operated for some six months.  However, its coverage in the more populated areas was not up to expectations and this unit was withdrawn on 23rd December 1992.Another site at Mt Johnson, near Buchan, was trialed for several months, but proved to be unsatisfactory and was also withdrawn from service.In 1994 the VK3REG repeater on 146.050 mhz was temporarily moved from Donald’s Knob to the GRA site at Mt Cann and indications were that this site was much better than the Donald’s Knob site, so it was agreed that we should move this repeater to Mt Cann.  The Mt Cann site has no commercial power and, as part of the move, our Club was required to provide extra solar panels and have a mast erected for our antenna.Also during 1992, the Victorian Division of the WIA had invited Clubs to participate in a joint proposal for Mt Hotham where a new communications building was to be built.Rex VK3VL had donated the repeater radio and a duplexer, our Club provided a VTAC controller and antenna. The cost of the site was to be shared between the Eastern Zone, the East Gippsland Zone and the Twin Cities Radio club at Shepparton.  Delays occurred in getting the new building constructed because of snow, and an agreement was eventually reached to provide temporary housing for this equipment in the base of the fire watching tower and the antenna was to be mounted on an adjacent wooden pole.  The repeater began operating with a folded dipole antenna. This site proved to have exceptional coverage and our Club made numerous maintenance visits to the site during the summer periods – the site was not accessible during the snow season.   Over the years the Alpine Resorts Commission placed restrictions on who could visit the site and eventually our Club was denied access to the area.  The equipment was subsequently removed and the Philips 828 is held by our Club and the controller was allocated to our UHF repeater VK3RTU. Several verbal requests made to the Victorian Division of the WIA to support the re-establishment of this repeater have not been successful although Amateur Radio Victoria continues to pay a licence fee for the site.         Also, during the early 1990s, a proposal was put forward by the Victorian Division of the WIA to permanently link the East Gippsland repeaters and in the 1992 Call Book it was announced that links would be established between Mt Nowa Nowa, Donald’s Knob and Mt Hotham.As the East Gippsland Zone had access to the GRA site at Mt Taylor, it was agreed that our Club should establish a UHF repeater at this site.  It was considered that this repeater could form a link between Mt Nowa Nowa and Mt Cann.  A UHF Philips 828 was converted to a repeater and a controller was purchased from Lara Electronics with a duplexer being purchased from RFI and, with donated antennas, the repeater was put into service with the link to Mt Nowa Nowa in April 1995.  Subsequent trials to provide a link to Mt Cann were unsuccessful as the UHF path was unreliable.  The Mt Taylor UHF repeater remains as a stand alone repeater, but facilities are built into this UHF repeater to allow linking to Mt Nowa Nowa.During the 1996 year our Club obtained permission from the Police Department to have access to their site at Marimingo Hill (Mallacoota) to install a VHF repeater and we were allocated the frequency of 147.150 mhz with the call sign VK3REM.  Cabinets were installed and power permanently wired in, and a Philips 828 was converted to a repeater and a set of six cavities was constructed by Club members for a duplexer and the controller ex-Mt Hotham was used. However, after two trials at the site, it became evident that some local interference was causing problems with the Philips 828 receiver.  As Philips 900s were becoming available cheaply at the time, it was agreed that we should try two of these as a repeater. These have subsequently operated satisfactorily at this site.  The Lara Electronics controller was moved to the VK3REM site because it provided improved facilities for use at this remote station and the ex-Mt Hotham VTAC controller has been installed at the VK3RTU repeater at Mt Taylor Low power UHF links in the 420 mhz and 440 mhz bands and feeding 6 element beam antennas at each repeater site have been established between Marimingo Hill (Mallacoota) Mt Cann and Mt Nowa Nowa.Members have contributed many hundreds of man-hours in preparing and installing equipment and the travel would amount to many thousands of kms over the past 15 years in establishing this network in the most sparsely populated area of Victoria.  Equipment modifications have been done by members and, with the exception of a donation of  some antennas and a grant towards replacing solar panels that were stolen from Mt Cann, all funds have come from member’s contributions.One of the major tasks that the Club has undertaken was the construction of four sets of six cavity duplexers.  These were constructed from raw copper tubing and have been functioning satisfactorily over many years on our three VHF repeaters and our one portable repeater.  This has saved the Club many thousands of dollars from the cost of commercial units.Licence fees for the three VHF repeaters, and an annual fee for Mt Nowa Nowa site is paid by Amateur Radio Victoria.  Our Club pays the licence fee for the UHF repeater VK3RTU.  There are no fees payable on the GRA sites at Mt Taylor and Mt Cann and the Police Dept. site at Marimingo Hill is free.

During the year 2007 an IRLP node (6008) was established at Loch Sport and has been made available through the Mt Nowa Nowa repeater VK3REB on 146.900 mhz.  During the same year an Echo-Link node (362226) that was operational from Maffra has been made available through the Mt Taylor UHF repeater VK3RTU on 439.525 mhz

This network of three linked VHF repeaters along the Princes Highway between Bairnsdale and the NSW border provides for continuous communications over this sparsely populated area of   East Gippsland.