by John G7RXS

Originally published: LENS September 1999

On a recent site visit to Markfield, I was a little late arriving due to technical problems which is another way of saying; shortage of petrol. On arrival, I met a man who had looked like he had seen a ghost! He had a pale face with a definite twitch to his features - our Engineering manager. He told me that he had accessed the bunker, disabled the alarm and begun to sweep up the usual alluvial deposits when he had disturbed an apparently sleeping crocodile. I queried this only to be told that this creature was over a foot long with a leg at each corner and a long tail at the end. There was no mention of a head but I assumed it would be at the opposite end to the tail.

A number of dates in the article below are contested by both Geoff G4AFJ and Dave G8MZY so alhough we are reproducing the original article, all dates are suspected to be  between 4 and 6 years too early

Written by Jack G3PVG

Around 1970 the Leicester Repeater Group was formed at an inaugural meeting in one of the lecture rooms of the Area Health Authority, courtesy of Les G4CWD. Several projects were discussed, but the one which came to fruition first was a 70cm repeater. The machine was fabricated from a number of PMR components by Barry Doel G3SXK, who at that time was the Chief Engineer for a PMR Company in the Saffron Lane area of the city. The company called Contact Radio Telephones has long been defunct. A number of his engineers and colleagues were involved at the time, and notably Eric Goodwin, G3MNQ, who built the Logic entirely from discrete CMOS "A" Series logic Chips.

Written by... Jack Hum, G5UM

"REPEATER EXPERIMENT LICENCE UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS" said the man from the Ministry.

How long have you held your transmitting licence? Two years, three years, five years? Then the amateur radio repeater service will be a normal part of life to you: it will seem to have been there all the time. You cannot visualize the 2m and 70cm bands without it.

The Leicestershire Repeater Group.

The Leicestershire Repeater Group was formed in 1975 with the object of building and operating VHF and UHF amateur Repeaters in conjunction with the Radio Society of Group Britain.