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I present
the following account of activities within Spalding and District
Amateur Radio Society during the previous year, which I hope will be of
interest to you. you may even wish to join in some of the activities in
the year ahead.
During the year John Hill G4NBR has
successfully run several Foundation Licence Courses helped by Neil,
G7UIO and Ambrose Garner, M0DJA. We now have a further 20 licensed persons
in our area, I hope that both on the air and if you meet them face to
face you will offer them encouragement to further their interests in our
hobby.
Our Club has made application to the RSGB to be included
as a centre for the second pilot run of The Intermediate Licence Course
and it seems that as we have a Satellite Examination Centre we stand a
very good chance of being one of only 20 Amateur Radio Clubs in the
Country approved to run the intermediate licence course. Preparation is
already underway with information gathering and getting to know the
syllabus requirements. To that end we have approached Breadhurst club
for information as they were the only club to be approved for the initial
"pilot scheme" and they have proved to be very helpful.
If
there is a requirement for the full A or B licence courses -- before the
deadline where all Radio Amateur "Wannabe's" have to take the Foundation/
Intermediate/ Full licence course with NO option to be
selective over which parts they take, then we will make tuition
available.
Following on from the tuition, and not only for new
licensees, John Hill, G4NBR has been running Construction Classes for
club members on Thursday evenings. John has implemented these with
great success and will help anybody with any electrical project. This past
year John has helped members to build: a 20 watt Linear for the 2 metre
band, a 1.5 watt audio amplifier, a tone burst and several power supplies
etc.
Membership fees for 2002 were voted to remain at £7.50 per
year at the AGM last year. We believe that this represents good value to
Club members. Club facilities include: Radios and aerials for H.F.
bands and 6 metres, 2 metres & 70cm. During the course of 2002
our Club has purchased a Hewlett Packard Spectrum Analyser (up to 1.3
(GHz) which will help members to align their radios etc. It is there for
all to use, however if you are not confident of how to get the best from
it, please ask. We have full instruction manuals and club members who will
be able to help you use it properly without damaging it—or your radio. We
also have a good computer with a "Windows" operating system and quite a
lot of useful software including many Amateur Radio related
programmes.
Colin Guy,
G4DDI, has continued his sterling work in providing up to date news
from the club and the area on our web site: www.sdars.org.uk where members
can place free advertisements and have their own e-mall address at
sdars.org.uk.
All these facilities are for the exclusive
use of fully paid up members of
Spalding and District Amateur
Radio Society.
Club Rally & Junk Sales in 2002:
Despite some last
minute organisational problems which almost thwarted the event we still
managed to hold our main event of the year at it's traditional
venue—Springfield Gardens. Despite the problems we managed to make a
reasonable amount which will help lo keep our club running during the
next 12 months. It was comparable to previous years, and should be
considered a success when so many clubs cancelled their event last year
due to a variety of reasons, from loss of venue to a harsh economic
climate. Our thanks go to John Hill, G4NBR; Neil Johnson, G7UIO &
Ambrose Garner MODJA who managed to re-negotiate the venue for last year's
rally (2002) at very short notice. As a direct result of the problems
encountered last year (2002) with the misunderstanding over the booking of
Springfields, we have lost the venue for future years. However it is not
all doom and gloom! John Hill, G4NBR has successfully managed to
negotiate the use of facilities at The Sir John Gleed School in Halmer
Gate, Spalding. It is about a mile away from Springfields, has easy
access, is known as a venue for car boot sales and locally signposted too.
John has also ascertained that the venue is available in forthcoming years
subject to our satisfactory care of the venue. Much more help is needed
with the forthcoming event for 2003, please support the organisers and
offer your help as early as possible. Ambrose Warner, M0DJA has offered to
co-ordinate the event for 2003.
Our Club has had two good junk
sales at our usual Bromley Hall venue—Thanks for the catering to Brenda
Hill and Helen Pell for the March event and Brenda Hill and Collette
Dimbleby for the November event, to Robin Holderness, G3XDA for his
sterling work as auctioneer at each event and to Carole, M1MHZ who made
record sales for the raffle at the November event.
Our
Christmas Meal 2002 has been the most successful ever with a total of 33
members and family attending. It was good to see Mary & Barbera
Hoult accept our Club's invitation to join us again on this festive
occasion. Our thanks go to our hosts Robert & Paulina at The Ship Inn,
Pinchbeck for their excellent cuisine and facilities. Our best wishes go
to Paulina for a speedy recovery following surgery for a slipped
disk.
Following the Foundation Licence Courses our Club has
several new members.
The G400 licence has been renewed as have
the other club callsigns G4DSP & G1DSP.
Club
Trophies:
The following club trophies were presented in 2002
for their work and achievements on behalf of our Club during the previous
year (2001)
G400 Trophy was presented to John Hill,
G4NBR
G3XBS Trophy was presented to Ambrose Warner,
M0DJA
Best
Newcomer Trophy was presented to Carole, M1 MHZ
Gossip
and Trivia
The Top Band transceiver of our Past President the
late Dennis, G400 has been painstakingly restored by Colin, G4DDI and
is now at our clubroom.
Jim, G7CWM is back on the air after
successful re-installation of 2m & 6m beams by Andrew, G70LS &
Neil, G7UIO. Jim can run up to 100 watts from his Icom 746 on 2m & 6m
and can be heard periodically chasing that elusive DX we all hope for.
Good luck Jim and enjoy it all. Jim also has internet access at home now
to supplement his radio activity and keep in touch with his family. Thanks
go to Andrew, G70LS for work on his computer to upgrade and configure
it for "The Net".
John Hill G4NBR
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