Kevin, G6FOP and Janet, M6FOP got married today at the Holiday Inn, Coate.
Congratulations from all at SDARC.
The AGM has been and gone. We had a reasonable turnout with lots to discuss.
Frank, G3JOT decided to step down from the committee and was offered an honorary membership as a thanks for his contribution to the club and although was very flattered decided to decline.
We discussed the finances of the club and agreed that something had to change as the income from membership alone was less than the rental of the hall. It was suggested that the annual fee could go up. This was discussed and the decision was to leave them as is (£15) with the teas and coffee prices being increased to £1. This will certainly help in the short term and it is cheaper than what you would pay in a cafe or bar.
If you have not yet paid your subs then please do as they are now due and Mike will enjoy writing out that receipt. We have created some standing order forms for those of you who wish to automatically renew. For the tech savvy of you we are investigating using PayPal. This will allow us to take your subs on a credit/debit card or bank without you having to visit the bank. More news on this to follow.
The committee page has been updated to reflect the change. We welcome Phil, Mark and Kevin to the team.
If you haven”t tried loading the site on your mobile then you really should. We are mobile enabled which means you will get a custom version of the site designed for your mobile. This means that the bandwidth required will also be less as images are scaled down too.
We support all touch enabled devices and thanks to a tip off from Mark, M6MEA we now have support for Windows Mobile and Nokia devices.
An Annual General Meeting, commonly referred to as an AGM, is a formal meeting which is held once a year.
It is good practice to have an AGM to act as a review of the year and deal with issues such as the election of committee/board members and reviewing the annual accounts. Each individual organisation has a section of its Constitution which deals with AGMs, and this gives guidance as to how the AGM should be run and what matters should be dealt with. Although it is a formal meeting, it is also be a good opportunity to communicate with members and other interested parties.
If you have any views on the club then now is the time to air them. We hope to see you there.
It is with regret that we announce the passing of G3BGM, Don Shirreff. If you would like to attend his funeral it will be at the crematorium on Monday 7th June at 12:45.
Amateurs who knew him welcome both at the crematorium and back at the house in Wanborough afterwards. It is likely to be a big turn out as he was something very special in the security services in cold war days (remember his talk some years ago at club?) as well as a Royal Signals and Amateur Radio celebrity.
During the last contest we decided that we should obtain some stainless nuts and bolts to replace the existing fasteners that are used on the antennas. This should help them go together and come apart quicker.
We are looking for :
50 x stainless M4 hex head bolts (50mm)
50 x stainless M4 wing nuts
If you happen to have these available and wish to donate them to the club then please let me know. [email protected]
We entered the 6 hour section and started transmitting at 0800 UTC on the Sunday.
We arrived on site on the Saturday at various times and the personnel immediately got to work placing the caravan and building antennas.
We planned to be ambitious with 2×12 antennas. One fixed and one rotatable with preamp. We found that this arrangement was far too heavy for us to lift properly. We opted for a shorter pole and tried again although the pole buckled!
We considered aborting due to many other mishaps however decided to persevere and continue on so that we could be ready for the following day.
We started on time on the Sunday and took 60 minute shifts finishing at 1400 UTC.
Strip down took an hour and a half due to the extreme rain we had.
Last year we came 9th in our section where Den and I operated from a car for 6 hours. We achieved 77 contacts and a score of 11,227. We had 51 mults giving us a total score of 572,577. Our best DX was 628km.
This year compares as follows: We achieved 74 contacts and a score of 10,391. We had 52 mults giving us a total score of 540,332. Our best DX was 451km.
This years Harwell rally is on Sunday 13th February 2011 between 10:30 – 15:30 (doors open 10:15 for disabled visitors)
Didcot Leisure Centre,
Mereland Road,
Didcot, OX11 8AY, Oxfordshire
More info can be found on their website – http://www.ntay.com/hars/rally.html