Activities in 1993 1992 1994
On this page you will find illustrated reports of some of our activities during 1993. These are mainly in addition to our main meetings and shack nights. The most recent activities are at the top of the page.
Interclub Quiz
On Friday 12th November we took part in the local inter-club quiz, which was hosted by the Bournemouth Club. We fielded two teams one of which cam e second overall.
Hamfayre 1993
Several members attended Hamfayre 1993 on Sunday November 21st. Despite changes of both date and venue, the South Dorset Club must have been well pleased with the number of people attending. The final venue was the Portland Heights Hotel, located close to the summit of the zig-zag road on top of Portland. The modern hotel commands magnificent views across Portland Harbour and Lyme Bay.
The South Dorset club had organised a number of stations, with activity on both HF and VHF. These were complemented members of the local ATV repeater group, one of whom drove around Wyke Regis, sending back excellent P5 colour pictures from his car on 24cm.
The traders appeared to be doing brisk business. Practical Wireless sold all their bargain packs of back issues by early afternoon, whilst the RAIBC stand was selling 1N4007 diodes by the foot - an unusual unit of measure for components, but quite logical as they were being issued off a reel.
Ken G1NCG and Trevor Emmery, who some may remember gave a talk to the club a few years ago, manned the RSGB stand, which unfortunately did not have any publications for sale. Phil G0KKL helped man the Novice stand, where a number of Novice projects could be inspected, and back numbers of D-I-Y Radio were to be seen. Lunch in the hotel restaurant was a much better alternative than the usual fare on offer at rallies.
Everyone agreed that the organisers should be congratulated on a successful Rally, which fills a gap at a quiet time in the local rally calendar. With admission of just 50p, they seemed to have got the balance just right.
Jersey
John G4XGM and
Colin G6MXL went to Jersey in September 1993. Using the callsign GJ4XGM/M,
John operated hf mobile, while Colin using the callsign GJ6MXL/P operated on 4m
in the RSGB Trophy Contest and on 2m. Whilst on Jersey, they met up with a
small Italian DXpedition, and visited the Jersey Amateur Radio Club.
Conditions on hf were excellent, and John worked the West Coast of the USA using no more than a mobile whip mounted on the car. On 4m Colin worked stations as far north as Scotland using a 6m beam that he had ‘pruned’ down to 4m from 6m. On a day-tip by hydrofoil to Sark, John operated using the callsign GU4XGM/P on 80m using a metal fence wire as an antenna, and on 10m using a wire dipole so that the Italians could work GU towards a 10-10 international award. All the gear for Sark was hand-carried.
The picture shows John operating on a cliff-top on hf from the car at sunset.
Barbeque
The annual barbeque originally planned for 11th June was postponed to 23rd July due to the poor weather. Members enjoyed a variety of exotic meats and salads. John G4XGM also brought along a 28MHz Delta Loop antenna which he and Bob G0SJT had constructed. Several good QSOs were made into Europe on CW with the antenna suspended some 5 m above the ground.
On-the-Air Evening
We held an on-the-air evening in Hamworthy park on 25th June, using gear in members cars.
Annual Dinner
Our Annual Dinner was held at the Fairlight Hotel in Broadstone on 29th January.