VMB4 Newcastle

Location	Sugarloaf Range
Suburb	Newcastle, NSW
Founder	Roderick Breis
Date Founded	5 February 2001
Current Owner	Richard Akehurst
Transmit Frequency	476.450 (Chan 2)
Receive Frequency	477.200 (Chan 32)

VMB4 is a UHF Citizens' Band Radio (UHF CB

UHF CB

UHF CB is a class-licensed citizen's band radio service authorised by the governments of Australia and New Zealand in the UHF 477 MHz band. UHF CB provides 77 channels, including 32 channels allocated to repeater stations...

) Repeater

Repeater

A repeater is an electronic device that receives asignal and retransmits it at a higher level and/or higher power, or onto the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances.-Description:...

 located one kilometre from Mount Sugarloaf on the Sugarloaf Range in Newcastle

Newcastle, New South Wales

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. VMB4 is Newcastle's fourth repeater to go to air in the Hunter Valley

Hunter Valley

The Hunter Region, more commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney with an approximate population of 645,395 people. Most of the population of the Hunter Region lives within of the coast, with 55% of the entire...

.

VMB4 provides continuous outstanding coverage from Buladelah in the north to Gosford in the south and as far west to Singleton

Singleton, New South Wales

-Industry & Commerce:Major industries near Singleton include coal mining, energy generation, light industry, vineyards, horse breeding and cattle production. Dairying was once a mainstay in the area, but has declined....

. There are minimal blackspots throughout this coverage area.

The repeater is used by CB hobbyists, four wheel drivers, truck drivers and families as a free form of communications between vehicles and homes. Because the repeater site is self-powered it is capable of handling emergency communications should the power or telecommunications network fail.

The repeater is located on the Auzcom Communications tower which also hosts the Newcastle Node of the VKS-737

VKS737

The VKS-737 Radio Network is a division of the Australian National 4WD Radio Network Inc. a national Public Benevolent Institution established "for the relief of sickness, suffering, helplessness, destitution and misfortune to a disadvantaged section of the community, being all 'outback"...

 Four Wheel Drive Network, Radtel Outback Telephone Service and a Coast Guard service.

The voice ID plays every 30 minutes which is a recording that identifies the callsign and location of the repeater.

History

When the suggestion was put forward to install a new repeater in Newcastle it was deemed impossible and the idea was criticised by many Radio Communications Industry Professionals. At this time Newcastle already had 3 repeaters which was regarded sufficient for a region of this size.

As time went on, increased traffic on the existing repeaters often caused conflict and the need for an additional repeater was apparent. Also, Channel Six was not providing sufficient coverage to certain areas due to its northerly location on the sugarloaf range.

Ignoring the criticism local Radio Communications enthusiast Roderick Breis commenced negotiations with Australian Communications Authority (Now ACMA) and after 3 months an apparatus licence was granted. Breis also negotiated the rights to install the equipment on Cityrail

CityRail

CityRail is an operating brand of RailCorp, a corporation owned by the state government of New South Wales, Australia. It is responsible for providing commuter rail services, and some coach services, in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities of New South Wales. It is...

's Newcastle to Sydney Microwave link tower at Mt Sugarloaf.

VMB4 brought new light and excitement to the Newcastle UHF CB scene as it provided better coverage and clearer audio than Channel One and Six. The repeater's image was enhanced by a voice ID played every 15 minutes which was voiced by Sydney CB personality "JD" who currently owns SYD01

SYD01

Special Note: SYD01 has been closed down as of the 09/09.SYD01 is a UHF Citizens Band repeater located in Hurstville, a suburb of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is owned and operated by long-time controversial and opinionated CB operator and enthusiast, , who is also known as JD...

 in Hurstville.

In 2003 Roderick Breis had moved onto other projects and he donated the old equipment and signed over the rights to use the Cityrail site to Newcastle CREST. The rights to the VMB4 licence was sold to Richard Akehust who purchased and installed his own repeater equipment on the Auzcom Communications site south of the Cityrail site. Richard Akehurst has found an alternative location to reduce the cost of operation of the repeater & is awaiting ACMA Approval.

Licence Links

VMB4 Licence Information

Auzcom Communications Radio Site

Other Newcastle Repeaters

• CHT01 - AAMI Building Charlestown (Former AMP Building)
• CHT05 - AAMI Building Charlestown (Former AMP Building)
• NEW06 - General Communications Radio Tower Sugarloaf Range