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On Thursday, 3rd May, at Pine Trees, we ran a testing evening for projects built by our members. You may recall Phil, M0PBZ, suggesting this at the recent Construction Contest as a way of trying out some of the excellent projects built by our members for the contest.

Suitable test equipment was be provided for use, such as a Signal Generator, Frequency Counter, VNA, Multimeter, Dummy load etc. which allowed members to check and test their projects.

We tested antennas, a couple of preamps and we also tested the clubs TS2000 radios against spec with a radio test set.

Here are a few photos of the evening.

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the European Union’s new privacy law, coming into effect on May 25th, 2018, we wanted to be clear about the data we collect, how we use it and your rights to control that information, which is why we’ve made some updates to our Privacy Policy.

We made these updates to reflect the high standards established by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of laws passed in the European Union.

We respect your personal data. We have never and will never sell it to third parties.

We need YOU to act to help us stay compliant with the GDPR. Please can you email [email protected] providing consent for SDARC to email you else you will no longer receive email from us after May 25th 2018.

You can read the full policy at https://sdarc-net.stacktemp.com/privacy/. If you have specific questions or concerns about the use of your data, please contact [email protected].

This week at Pine Trees, we welcome Colin North, G4GBP, who will be delivering a presentation on Special Event Stations.

Most Radio Amateurs at some point or another will have likely worked one or more of the many Special Event Stations (SESs) that are frequently found on the air and which are activated from sites all around the world.

Up to date lists of those stations operating or planning to operate can be found online or in RadCom.

One such event taking place this weekend from 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC Saturday 21st April is International Marconi Day (IMD) where numerous stations will be on air from sites which are associated with Gugliemo Marconi.

Usually, special QSL cards and/or certificates are produced for such stations which are coveted by those who work them and huge pile ups can occur when the stations are operating.

There are a number of rules governing what constitutes a Special Event Station and how it is operated, such as licencing conditions, public access to the event and its significance to a person, event or place – but how do you go about participating or setting one up??

Colin G4GBP, an ex-Merchant Navy R/O, has a wealth of experience of operating such stations for events such as ROTA (Railways on the Air), MOTA (Mills on the Air) and IOTA (Islands on the Air).

Colin’s presentation to SDARC will be the perfect way to find out more about these stations and how to get further involved in their setting up and operation.

He is also our local (Wiltshire) RSGB Deputy Regional Manager and is hoping to spend a few minutes at the start of his presentation telling us about his role within the RSGB.

This is sure to be a fascinating presentation, so please join us from 7pm on Thursday 19th April at Pine Trees to meet Colin and find out more about Special Event Stations.

James Patterson, M1DST was invited to talk about Amateur Radio with Graham Seaman of BBC Wiltshire. If you missed the show and want to listen again to just the interview it is available below.

We are holding the Construction Competition this week!

The aim of this annual Spring contest is to encourage members to build either radio equipment or ancillary items which enhance their radio operations and to exhibit these to encourage others to follow their example.

Entries can include any radio-related equipment or software, for example, Morse oscillator, test unit, QRP rig, computer/radio interface, PSU, Tx/Rx, linear, antenna, ATU…..

Entries can have been built at any time, but to be accepted as an entry, they must not have been entered in any previous SDARC construction contest.

If YOU have built something that helps you operate, why not enter it?  Remember it is not necessarily the most complex equipment that wins!

Provide sufficient details with your entry to help judges understand the purpose and operation of the entry….”Sell” the concept and its usefulness through your description, diagrams, circuits etc!

The contest will have five principal Product categories:-

Homebrew – This will be for equipment built completely by the club member. (If the equipment is a magazine project with a PCB available, then, the PCB may be used.)

Kit – This will be for equipment built from a kit. The kit should require some soldering to component level.

Hybrid – This will be for homebrew equipment which also contains one or more kits.

Antenna – This will be for special homebrew antenna systems. For this type of contest entry, the member will just need to provide photographs of the antenna together with a specification, a drawing and details of the construction. A list of countries worked with the antenna should also be provided.

Software – This category will be for radio-related software. This can be either, a new piece of “stand-alone” software, or a piece written to add extra features to some existing software.

In addition, three Constructor categories may be brought to bear:-

Novice – This will be for those members who have not previously built or exhibited any equipment.

General – This will be for those members who have built and entered previously.

Professional – This may be awarded to experienced constructors whose work is of an exceptional standard.

The number of Awards will reflect the scope of entries and may include awards made to deal with tie-break situations.

The judges’ decisions on all the awards are final.

Please complete an entry form beforehand so you can bring it on the night. You can download the entry form here.

Newbury and District ARS (NADARS) are delighted to announce the date of the Newbury Radio Rally for 2018.

It will be held again at the prestige venue of the Royal Berkshire (Newbury) Showground on Sunday 24th June.

Gates opening to sellers at 8am and to the public at 9am.

Yes. This is a week later than previous years, but a move has been necessary to gain help from volunteers to run the event. NADARS pride themselves in attention to detail and maintaining high standards of service to both Sellers and Buyers, but it takes a large number of volunteers to staff the event.

We hope the move away from Father’s Day will allow even more interested parties to attend what has become one of the largest amateur radio events of its kind in the South of England.

Apart from the date, everything else is exactly the same and at the same location.

It will also be the 31st year of this much-loved rally and we look forward to providing you with a warm and friendly welcome once again.

Phill, G6EES, Rally Manager

This week at Pine Trees we will be viewing a DVD entitled ‘The Secret Wireless War’ which is in two parts. This week we will be showing the second part entitled ‘Black Propaganda’.

During WWII, Britain waged a successful wireless war against the Axis forces in Europe by broadcasting ‘Black Propaganda’ from secret transmitter sites in England.

Ralph Murray, a Foreign Office official’ helped shape the style of the broadcasts, many of which were transmitted from the Woburn Estate. The film contains an interview with his son as well as interviews with Roy Tink, a teleprinter engineer and Phil Luck, who operated the transmitters.

The sites at Potsgrove and Milton Bryan were instrumental in beaming the broadcasts to Europe and there are extensive remains of the buildings still visible at the latter, which are examined during the film. The Milton Bryan station was linked by landline to an RCA 600kW transmitter named ‘Aspidistra’, which transmitted the recordings across to Europe.

The film was originally produced in 2002 and was remastered in 2014 with some new footage.

The DVD is being shown with the kind permission of David & Debra Rixon of Grindelwald Productions Ltd. and I thank them for their quick & polite response to my E-mail request to show their films to SDARC.

The DVD is available from their Amazon store, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Wireless-War-David-Rixon/dp/B000ECXBFK and their main website, which includes many walking and other DVDs, is available at http://www.grindelwald.co.uk

We hope to see you Thursday night from 7pm at Pine Trees to watch the film!

This week at Pine Trees, we welcome Jenni Jones (M0HZT) who will be giving us a presentation on ‘BYLARA’. BYLARA is an acronym for ‘British Young Ladies Amateur Radio Association’ and was set up in 1979 to further the interests of ‘YLs’ (Young Ladies) in the world of Amateur Radio. Through this, some of the aims were to promote operating and friendship across the globe and encourage courteous and correct operating procedures amongst operators. The latter, as most will have come across, is something that is sadly lacking on occasions!

Using the call ‘M0BYL’, the association runs regular nets, award schemes, supports radio rallies and they have undertaken Lighthouse activations and DXpeditions in the past. The frequencies used very often end in ‘88’ in reference to ‘88s’ meaning ‘Hugs & Kisses’ in radio parlance. The group also regularly support the RNLI and Portland Coast-watch with fundraising activities. They celebrated their 35th anniversary in April 2014 by operating with the call ‘GB35BYL’, operating on the 40m band from Wiltshire.

Jenni is hoping that their Chairma’am, Carol Ann Hodges (2E1RBH), will also be able to join us for the evening – making quite a journey from Portland to be with us.

Please join us at Pine Trees from 7pm on Thursday 8th February to meet Jenni & Carol Ann and view what is sure to be an interesting presentation. Of course, if you have an interested or licenced ‘YL’ or ‘XYL’, please bring them along too!’

Twitter: @jennijonesM0HZT
Web: http://bylara.org.uk/

This week at Pine Trees, we will be viewing a DVD entitled ‘The Secret Wireless War’ which is in two parts. The part being show this week is called ‘Beyond Bletchley Park’ and deals with the role of Voluntary Intercepts (VIs) during WWII, many of which were Radio Amateurs. The film contains interviews with several wireless operators such as Bob King, Maurice Richardson and Wilf Neal who tell of their wartime experiences. The Whaddon spy set is examined and also the story is told of why a number of Packard automobiles were acquired to become mobile transmitter/receiver units.

The film was originally produced in 2002 and was remastered in 2014 with some new footage. The second part of the DVD, ‘Black Propaganda’, which deals with the secret British broadcasts against the Axis forces in WWII will be shown in several weeks’ time.

The DVD is being shown with the kind permission of David & Debra Rixon of Grindelwald Productions Ltd. and I thank them for their quick & polite response to my E-mail request to show their films to SDARC.

The DVD is available from their Amazon store here :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Wireless-War-David-Rixon/dp/B000ECXBFK and their main website, which includes many walking and other DVDs, is available here:- http://www.grindelwald.co.uk

We hope to see you Thursday night from 7pm at Pine Trees to watch the film!

This week at club we have Tony, G4LDL giving us a talk about A25UK.  He will be looking at the history of Botswana, why go there?, decisions about & acquisition of kit, actual set up and operation, results plus “It wasn’t all radio”.

Please join us at Pinetrees from 7pm on the 15th January for what is sure to be a fascinating talk.

• http://www.a25uk.com/
• https://www.qrz.com/db/A25UK
• http://www.clublog.org/charts/?c=a25uk