The hidden cost of amateur repeaters

From time to time we hear about the funding difficulties experienced by clubs who run a repeater, often not for the benefit of their members but for the wider amateur radio community.

In New South Wales the Lands Department is continuing on its campaign of introducing high site lease charges all in the name of cost recovery and getting a commercial return for access to sites.

Similar things are happening in other parts of Australia which are making repeater operators very anxious.

Amateur Radio Victoria funds and licences most of the repeaters in its state. The annual ACMA licence fees are nearly $4000.

In addition to this are site fees. Take for instance the Mt William repeater VK3RWZ in Western Victoria, the site fees for this repeater are around $1,000 a year!

And Recently VK3RWZ was restored to service after a major antenna failure. Rigging costs alone were in excess of $5,000 for that job.

A considerable number of complaints were received when the repeater was not on air, most came from non members of Amateur Radio Victoria. Since it has been returned to service only a couple of loyal and understanding members have expressed their thanks.

Another major new cost for repeater operators is the D-Star network. Amateur Radio Victoria has spent more than $10,000 to get VK3RMM D-Star Mt Macedon on air, we now find it has minimal use by a few operators, of these less than a quarter are Amateur Radio Victoria members.

And with D-Star comes the monthly expense of internet access for the D-STAR internet gateway.

Ongoing maintenance, replacements and upgrades to meet commercial site technical requirements are hidden costs not understood by all radio amateurs.

Do you support the organisation that provides amateur radio repeaters, if not why not join today, and in VK3 that means Amateur Radio Victoria.