Dolphin TETRA Network

I've been doing a bit of readin about the Dolphin Telecom TETRA Network and thought I'd share. 

Dolphin TETRA was a mobile network operator using the TETRA radio access technology. Dolphin's initial network was in the United Kingdom but they also built networks in France, Germany and Belgium. The idea was to provide a 4-in-1 service with the ability to have telephone functionality along with UHF two way radio, SDS which was the TETRA equivalent of SMS, and packet data. 

Dolphin TETRA never really took off because the sound quality of the telephone service was poor and that the technology never delivered a working packet data service on any of their networks.

On 1 August 2001, the company went into administration and the majority of their people were made redundant. Another set of redundancies were made later that year and the network ran on a skeleton staff. In June 2002 the network was bought by Inquam for £25m. The service was still marketed under the Dolphin Telecom brand name although Inquam struggled to operate the network profitably. On 31 July 2004 the network was finally switched off.

The UK Police service bought up much of the infastructure implemented by Dolphin when they switched their communications from analogue to TETRA in the mid 2000's. 
 
The new all digital civil Tetra (Trans European Trunked Radio) system operates on:

• 410-415 MHz portable transmit
• 420-425 MHz base transmit
• Band ranges from 410 to 430 MHz subject to future expansion.

I found it interesting that after all this time the website is still online albeit useless.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK. 

Werneth Low

Werneth Low really is my favourite local spot for radio and those local to it will agree. It's not far from my home QTH so is handy for a quick spot of 2m DX or for playing about on other bands. At 250m / 820ft ASL it's not the highest point in the area but the fact that it's local and easy to get to by car makes it my favourite spot.

I often throw some radio gear into the car and spend an hour or so up there calling on 2m and manage to get quite far from the top. This is mainly due to the line of sight into the Cheshire Plains, North Wales, Merseyside, Lancashire and West Yorkshire. I've managed Shropshire and Staffordshire on 5 watts from my Baofeng up here but my preferred radio of choice for up here is my Icom 207 dual bander.

The only downside it there is sometimes slight noise on 2m from the old Home Office towers that are up there but it rarely causes me any problems.

The view from Werneth Low is fantastic and on a clear day you can make out Liverpool Airport control tower, Runcorn Bridge, Daresbury Laboratory (home of GB7WC) and the hills in North Wales. 

There's a nice pub up there called The Hare & Hounds which is good for a drink on a summer's day whilst playing radio too. There used to be a pub about 1/4 of a mile down the road called Windy Harbour which was closed in 1998 and demolished in the early 2000's after vandals started a fire. 

All that remains is the customer car park, the steps and disable ramp leading to the entrance of the pub itself and the gateposts at the front of the site. Such a shame really. The site has long since sat empty, I'll post some photo's next time I'm up there.

If you live in Manchester and need a nice little spot to play some radio then go to Werneth Low.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK. 

New Baofengs

Some really nice reincarnations of the popular Baofeng BF-888S appearing on eBay lately in the form of the BF-R5, BF-R6, BF-R7 and BF-A8. They feature the usual 16 channels, CTCSS, DCS, repeater shift etc but I think they look really nice. I'm tempted to try the BF-R7.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.