Hampshire Basin Illuminators
@hampshire-basin-illuminators

We are a group of amateur radio licensees located in Hampshire, England, who "keep" a number of repeaters and data stations (colloquially, "boxes") under the terms of our amateur radio license, or operate IR-2030 license-exempt communications equipment.

Who are we?

In no particular order our motley gang consists of Alan G8IPG, Marcus M7CJE, Geoff G7UHE, Jason G5RKT and Tim 2E0CXQ

What boxes do we keep?

Ham radio boxes:

• GB7CW, a 70cm DMR voice repeater connected to the South West Cluster
• GB7WIN, an AX.25 packet radio node on 2m and 6m
• MB7UUW, an AX.25 APRS digipeater on 2m

Meshcore repeaters, license-exempt IR2030/1/19 compliant devices on 869.618MHz 27dBm e.r.p EU/UK (Narrow)

• So'ton WEST HBI Omni (674c)
• Hythe SOUTH HBI Omni (63ea)
• Crab Wood HBI Omni (1799)

Why are we asking for donations?

Setting up and operating these boxes is very exciting and rewarding for us, especially when a new station comes up on the air. It's a technical and logistical challenge which we consider to be good quality nerdy fun! All of the costs are covered from our personal pockets, and done so with grace, such that people might find a use for and enjoy operating the equipment we keep. We are very fortunate to have access to some superb sites on which to install equipment and believe very strongly that it is our duty, nay our calling, to set up equipment on these sites in a manner which benefits the amateur radio community. We do because we can, and because we can, we should!

All this equipment gets expensive pretty quickly, and although our operating costs are low the initial outlay and continuous spending to upgrade, repair and work on the equipment is not trivial. We would like to have a piggy bank we can break into to replace failed equipment, improve what we have installed already and set up new boxes in the future.

What will you do with the donations?

We will use your donations solely for maintaining, upgrading and installing equipment which is used by the community. We will not use any donations for personal projects, club operations, or anything which does not specifically include working on the boxes we operate.

For example, we have a packet radio node, GB7WIN. This node operates on three bands, 6m, 2m and 70cm. We also have a 70cm voice repeater, GB7CW. We would dearly love to purchase some (very expensive!) filters in order to multiplex the 70cm packet port up the same antenna which GB7CW uses. Or perhaps our Motorola DR3000 repeater fails. Perhaps we add another port to our packet radio node, or set up another elsewhere. Our monthly outgoings for the internet connection may increase soon... et cetera. Our only real limitation is funding, so the more we have, the more we can achieve!

How will we know what you've used our donations for?

As time goes by we will publish updates below, and we continually update the relevant external links to show what we've been up to.

Is my donation private?

We have configured liberapay to accept all types of donations; these work as follows:

• Secret donations - we will see you have donated but cannot see your identity
• Private donations - we will be able to see your identity, but your identity will be hidden from the public
• Public donations - everybody will be able to see that you have donated by clicking the "view income history" below

We will not publish your identity or donations anywhere, but if you would like to be recognised on this page please get in touch and we will create a list below.

Thank you!!