GB3OR was officially switched on at 12:00hrs on Tuesday the 9th of February 2021 by John Pritchard MW0JWP (repeater keeper) and Ted Pierce MW6ADF and has been serving the area constantly ever since. However due to work that was being carried out in the café at the The Summit Complex the repeater group were recently offered a chance to move the repeater to a higher position on the top gantry. This meant that before anything could start to be moved our team had to work hard on the preparation work as this was not only a simple task of moving from one location to another but also involved moving all of the repeater equipment onto the top gantry which would require a great deal of expertise, planning and specialist lifting equipment to complete the task safely.
Our team working on the repeater move was Ted MW6 ADF, Vince GW0NEC, Tony MW6TMQ, Kevin MW6ORJ, Simon GW8VPP and our friend John (who we couldn’t have done the move without!). The team commenced work on Thursday the 13th of April 2023 and spent 3 days moving the antenna and all of the equipment that goes with it. The move was completed at 15:46 on Saturday the 15th of April 2023.
Although the repeater equipment and old position has always given GB3OR a superb coverage all over North Wales and reaching as far as Cumbria, Liverpool and beyond the new location has already within hours of being switched on received some stunning reports from around the region and further afield.
Great Orme summit complex image of great Orme telegraph station. This building was erected in 1909 as a golf club house. An 18-hole golf course was laid out nearby. In Victorian times, there was a semaphore station on the site (pictured right). It was part of a chain of signalling stations from Holyhead to Liverpool which would give the Mersey port authority notice of approaching ships. Station keeper Job Jones opened the site to visitors, complete with a tearoom, in the mid-19th century. Later the building became the nine-bedroom Telegraph Hotel for golfers. During the Second World War it was requisitioned by the RAF as a radar station.
