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During the activity night this Thursday I noticed that someone had installed a new sign which is perfect for us as a radio club. We had a chuckle and I thought it could be shared with you.

A reminder to everyone that this Sunday, February 12th, Harwell Amateur Radio Society will be holding their Annual rally at Didcot Leisure Centre
Mereland Road, Didcot, OX11 8AY, Oxfordshire. Doors open at 10:30am and more information can be found on their website http://www.ntay.com/hars/rally2012.html.

SDARC Member Ian, G3YBY has been an active Radio Amateur for some 40 years. A keen contester, and with a much envied station, Ian has just received the DXCC Challenge Award for working and confirming at least 1,000 DXCC on the Amateur bands, 160 through 6 meters (except 60 meters). Plaques can be endorsed in increments of 500. Entities for each band are totalled to give the Challenge standing. Deleted entities do not count for this award. All contacts must be made after November 15, 1945. QSOs for the 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 and 6 meter bands qualify for this award.

Well done Ian from all of us at the club.

This year marks the 90th year the BBC. Developing a global, world-renowned broadcast system involves many technical disciplines, from tower construction, power systems, sound and video, through to state-of-the radio electronics. Radio and communications technology underpins the entire infrastructure.

This week, Tony Crake, G0OVA takes a different look at the BBC Broadcast Engineering as he re-tells some of his experiences from working there for the past 40 years. From the perspective of a practicing engineer. In Epionde 1, Tony will be covering:-

“How I came to join the BBC.”
“A trip round an HF station back in the 60”s .”
“20 years listening to Golf Balls.”
“Going sledging in Norway and Japan ”94 and ”98.”

Intrigung titles? Join us at Pinetrees Community Centre this Thursday and all will be revealed.
All welcome.

This week, Geoff G3TPQ, takes us through receiver technology from the first part of the 20th Century – perhaps the most important and progressive period of radio history to date. He’ll cover early spark based communications, and the first steps in electronics. Geoff will then look at the receiver technology available at the time, such as crystal sets and the various methods of amplification used in early 1920’s wireless sets. Geoff will also show us early horn type loudspeakers which allowed several people to listen to the “wireless” at the same time.

So, if you enjoy technology history, why not join us for a look back at this fascinating era when “wireless” became “radio”.

Club opens at 7:00 pm, with the talk starting at 8:00.

Members and all visitors welcome.

This week, we will be showing a DVD presentation produced by the Five Star DX Association and perhaps it should be entitled DX from
Paradise..

So why not get away from the dark, English winter and join us to look back to 2007 and see how to set up a serious DX station on a remote paradise island which is also a rare DXCC entity. The St Brandon Island station, 3B7C, was very successful, achieved 137,500 QSOs, 33,760 unique calls in the log, which broke all records.

Cargados Carajos Shoals (also known as the Saint Brandon Rocks) are a group of about 16 small islands and islets on an extended reef in the Indian Ocean northeast of Mauritius. The islands have a total land area of 1.3 km². The reef measures more than 50 km from north to south, and is 5 km wide, cut by three passes. The reef area is 190 km². The islands have a small population, made up of natives as well as others, and are rich in flora and fauna. The islands are classified as a dependency of Mauritius, which is more than 300 km south, and are administered from Port Louis. The islands are part of the Mascarene Islands. St Brandon is approached only by sea, and is some 240 nautical miles from Port Louis, Mauritius.

What’s is like to set up antennas on a far off paradise beach and have the world wanting to work you? join us this Thursday and find out?

We had an excellent turn out for our first night at Pine Trees with over twenty members and visitors in attendance. It was also good to see our new intermediate licencees, Mark (ex-M6MEA) now 2E0ZPT and Jonathan (ex-M6HBS) now 2E0CTW, and Charles 2E0IMM.

Although our room is slightly smaller than the one in our previous venue, this brand spanking new building complex boasts an excellent, well lit car park with plenty of free space. The room we use is on the first floor which also has its own balcony, giving us a good take-off to the south and east.

Eager to explore the scope for balcony antennas, Rob, M0GKG, Kev G6FOP, Steve M0SPN and Phil M0PBZ managed to hastily erect an 8m fishing pole vertical. Although this was far from optimal, after some interfacing and configuration challenges with a MAC (pretending to be a PC) and our Kenwood TS590S, we managed to get on-air on 40m and worked several QSOs into eastern Europe using PSK31.

James, supplied everyone with a plentiful supply of nice cakes made by Mr.Kipling (I don’t know his callsign) and coffee was available too. Yes, we do have access to a kitchen.

Next week we will be giving our new projector an outing with a DVD presentation about the Five Star DX Association 2007 trip to St. Brandon Island, using the callsign 3B7C. Indeed some of you may have worked them.

Look forward to seeing you in the coming year.

Phil, M0PBZ

Tonight is the first meeting of the year and will be at the new venue. The address is:

Pinetrees Community Centre
The Circle
Swindon
SN2 1RF

The Club Christmas Dinner is now only a month away and we need to confirm our menu requirements to the Village Inn.

The Christmas Dinner is going to be held at The Village Inn, Liddington on December 10th (7:30 for 8pm). The cost will be £18.95 (£10 deposit to confirm your booking).

Christmas Menu 2011

Starter

• Melon & Prawn Cocktail
• Vegetable Soup
• Game Pate
• Fruit Juice

Main Course

• Saddle of Turkey
• Salmon & King Prawns
• Lamb Casserole
• Beef Bouruignon
• Parsnip & Potato Bake

Desert

• Choose on the night.

Coffee and Mint

• Tea is also available.

If you wish to attend the dinner, it is important that you let Frank Whatley, G3JOT know your requirements. Call 01793 812156 or speak to Frank on Thursday.

We would like to see as many members and non members (and partners if you wish) as possible to make this event a night to remember. See you there!