Sited at Silpho from birth to 1996

While waiting for the RSGB and RA to sort out our application for the repeater, numerous expeditions were made to identify a suitable site; fortuitously new club members Bob Marley (GØVFV) and Julia just happened to farm at Silpho - a location to the west of the town and 600 or so feet above sea-level.

They graciously agreed to let the repeater be sited on their home. The location in the 'National Park' necessitated the 'covert' application of black paint to the repeater's yagis, prior to being mounted on the farmhouse chimney - "Yes, they are both TV aerials...one for 'Yorkshire' and the other for 'Tyne-Tees'....." Subsequently Julia and Bob's now customary hospitality was extended to repeater 'working groups' - especially when word got around that Julia had been making another batch of her 'seriously scrummy' mince pies.

GB3YC came into full service at 1300hrs on 7th November 1994. It was a unique repeater. operating through two yagi's in phase. One, a four element, beamed to the south over the Yorkshire Wolds - the other, a six element, took a north-west path (straight up G4DAX's garden path in Goathland - to this day he swears he was not 'pulling rank' when he 'advised' the beam-heading...... really?) The extra gain to the north west was required to overcome the hard terrain of the North Yorkshire Moors.

The repeater system was very much a 'home-brew' project. John (GØFNS) obtained wide-diameter aluminium tube which was expertly engineered into the cavity-filters by Bob (G4YKO). The many and varied feeders and coaxial links and phasing-harness were engineered by Geoff (G4LRH). Tony (GØWYN), a friend and RF engineer from Chesterfield, provided the group with a power-divider which 'split' the RF by offering one-third of the power to the southern beam and the other two-thirds to the northern beam, while maintaining the correct impedance. The control of 'YC' was governed by a logic designed and built by another of our volunteer-professionals - Kevin (GØEBL).

Improvements were made to YC's setup at Silpho when the group acquired a set of 'WayComm' professional cavity filters. Interestingly - these were ex-GB3HD on the Isle of Man and arrived in Scarborough via a fishing boat to the Scottish coast at Dumfries and a car journey by a Scottish amateur wishing to visit the North Yorkshire Moors. He delivered them personally to Dave (our repeater engineer), at his home in Goathland, for tuning prior to installation. ('YC' has a 'sister' repeater on 70cms - GB3NY which is situated on Olivers Mount - Scarborough. It operates on 'RB 0').

A home move notification by our hosts in April 1996 necessitated a site-change for the repeater. GB3YC was eventually taken out of service in September 1996, pending its relocation to the present site at Octon.