Activities in 2007 2006 2008
On this page you will find illustrated reports of some of our activities in 2007. These are mainly in addition to our main meetings and shack nights. The most recent activities are at the top of the page.
Final GB75PW
Poole Radio Society hosted GB75PW for the final time on Saturday 29th December 2007. Most activity was on 40m, with some 2m activity as well.
If you worked GB75PW, QSL cards are available either by sending an SAE to the PW offices, or via the bureau.
Further Foundation Course Successes
Congratulations to Alex Brown and Alan Ackroyd who both passed their foundation exam on Friday 30th November 2007.
New look to Newsletter
When the November issue of G4PRS News was published, it had a brand new colourful design, using an A5 booklet format.
Articles included a reminder about Geoff’s Construction Challenge for 2008, Training, Sunspots, Technology Marches On and Satellite TV.
If you have an article for G4PRS News, please send it to Dave G3ZPR. Dave is pleased to receive articles and photos in just about any format!
Intermediate Course Starts
Our winter Intermediate course started on 16th November. Our training courses became so popular that we had to run two courses on the same evening. We had an Advanced course running in the back room, and an Intermediate course running in the front room. This still left room for the main room to be used for main-stream club activities!
Two More Foundation Course Successes
Congratulations to Paul and Alan who both passed their foundation exams on Friday 3rd November. Everyone who has taken their Foundation Course with us has passed their exam.
Paul’s call sign is M3SSM. Listen out for them on the air.
Advanced Course Starts
Wednesday 31st October saw our first Advanced Course get underway. Several of our Intermediate Candidates decided to progress further and tackle the Advanced Course.
Fast-Track Foundation Courses
We also ran a couple of Fast-Track Foundation courses for candidates that already had some relevant knowledge.
Yet More Foundation Course Successes
A further two candidates passed their foundation exam on Wednesday 3rd October. Congratulations to Hugh Morris (now M3BQT) and Chris Shaw.
Many thanks also to the invigilators and to the instructors.
Poole Radio Society at Hamfest
We attended Hamfest, the local amateur radio rally, on Sunday 12th August, to round off a busy weekend for the Society.
We were well prepared for the couple of light showers, covering the highly valuable surplus equipment with some plastic sheeting. Amongst the items sold was a Yaesu FT102 transceiver.
GB75PW Gets a Fourth Airing from Poole Radio Society
Poole
Radio Society again hosted GB75PW, the special event stations marking the 75th
anniversary of Practical Wireless, on Saturday 11th August.
The excellent sunny weather unfortunately was accompanied by poor hf band conditions.
The main station was on 40m ssb, with the second station made far fewer contacts on 20m cw.
Perhaps we should have tried for some meteor scatter contacts on the VHF bands instead?
More Intermediate Licence Successes
No less than 5
candidates passed their Intermediate Licence Exams on Friday 10th
August with Poole Radio Society.
In so doing they maintained our 100% success rate at Intermediate level.
This is the largest number of candidates that have sat an exam with us in one session. Congratulations to Paul Thompson, Roy Burnham, Neil Anderson, Mark Leake and Adrian Anderson.
GB75PW On Air Again from Poole Radio Society
GB75PW,
the special event station marking the 75th anniversary of Practical
Wireless, was active again on Saturday 21st July from our usual
meeting venue. Even the rain could not dampen the spirits of those who
braved the elements to erect the long wire antenna, although it probably
reduced the number of visitors.
This time the main station was QRV on 20m ssb. Rob G3XFD commented that 20m seemed more like 40m on previous occasions. The second hf station was active on 40m ssb and cw.
A third station was QRV on 6m ssb running 50 Watts into a triple band vertical antenna. This soon took advantage of a Sporadic E opening that took place during most of the event. Stations roughly in a line from Hungary through Croatia, Italy and Switzerland to Spain made it into the 6m log including 1A0KM (Sovereign Military Order of Malta) from Rome.
Intermediate Course Continues Despite Power Cut
On Friday 29th June 2007 the candidates on our Intermediate Course arrived to find the hall in darkness due to a power cut. Tutor Dave Mason G3ZPR, soon had the show on the road again, by using the club generator to power the computer etc.
Exhibition Station at Oakdale Community Centre Fete
To finish
off a very busy weekend for Poole Radio Society we mounted an exhibition
station at Oakdale Community Centre Fete on Sunday 24th June 2007.
The weather was not kind to us, with rain throughout the event. Many of the other stalls set up inside, but we decided to persevere outdoors.
Even the club’s gazebo tent was not enough to protect us from the rain, and eventually we resorted to an umbrella inside the gazebo to keep the transmitter dry! Whilst it might have looked a bit odd, it seemed to attract visitors to investigate.
Few contacts were
made, as we were spending most of the time talking to the visitors who were
brave enough to leave the dry halls of the centre and venture out into the
rain.
Several members of the Dorset Youth Marching Band and others visitors managed to successfully send their names in Morse code – one young lady was so fast that we all thought she had learnt Morse before!
Let’s hope that the weather will be kinder for next year’s event.
GB75PW Gets a Third Airing from Poole Radio Society
On
Saturday 23rd June 2007, GB75PW, the special event station to mark
the 75th Anniversary of Practical Wireless, was on the air again.
40m ssb was again very popular, with pile-ups at several points during the day.
The combination of a slightly changed antenna arrangement and propagation seemed to favour G, GW and EI stations on this band.
A number of 20m contacts were made on PSK31.
Some local stations
were also worked on 2m fm.
More Foundation Licence Successes
Congratulations to Paul Thompson and Roy Burnham who both passed their Foundation Licence exams on Friday 11th May 2007. They both moved straight on to start their Intermediate Course.
Geoff’s Challenge
At our May meeting on Friday 11th May we judged the entries for this years Geoff’s Challenge construction contest. Click here to see the entries.
Poole Radio Society Stand at Mayor’s Charity Event
On Sunday
6th and Monday 7th May 2007 we attended the Mayor of
Poole’s Charity Fair in Poole Park. It was the first time that we had
attended a 2-day show on both days.
Our stand proved to be very popular with many visitors of all ages despite the rather cold and windy weather. The wind overnight was so strong that unfortunately it damaged some of the other exhibitors’ stands. Our pre-exhibition risk assessment had anticipated the possibility of bad weather, and we had our gazebo well anchored down.
People were impressed at the number of different countries that we contacted on ssb, cw and PSK31 mainly on 20m and 40m. Countries worked included Norway, Israel, The Netherlands, Scotland, Russia, Poland and Spain. Best DX was Zimbabwe on 20m CW.
Many youngsters went away with our popular Morse certificate having sent their name in Morse Code using the Foundation Licence crib sheets. In the meantime we had a chance to tell their parents about our hobby.
GB75PW QRV Again From Poole Radio Society
On Saturday 21st April 2007, GB75PW, the special event station to mark the 75th Anniversary of Practical Wireless, was on the air again. This time 40m ssb was again very popular.
A number of 20m contacts were made on cw and PSK31. Some local stations were also worked on 2m fm. It was good to welcome visitors from around the area who popped in to see what was happening.
If you worked GB75PW, QSL cards are available either by sending an SAE to the PW offices, or via the bureau.
Intermediate Licence Success
Congratulations to Andrew M3XAM who passed his Intermediate
Licence exam with us. Andrew was one of our first Foundation Licence
candidates, and is now our first candidate to pass his Intermediate 
Licence with us. Andrew’s new call is 2E0XAM.
Bournemouth RS Rally
On Sunday 11th March 2007 we had a stand at the Bournemouth Radio Society rally at Pelhams, Kinson.
For the first time this year, we were located in one of the rooms in the new extension. These rooms are much lighter than the older main hall.
The picture, taken shortly before the doors opened, shows Phil G0KKL on the left and Alan G4UWS on the right, examining one of the ‘highly desirable items of surplus equipment’ (a.k.a. junk) which we were hoping to sell.
Poole Radio Society plays host to GB75PW
On Saturday 3rd
March 2007 we played host to GB75PW, the special event station to mark the 75th
Anniversary of Practical Wireless.
We quickly had three stations operational. The clubs main hf station was operating on 20m, Robs hf gear was used mainly on 40m into a long wire supported by a pump-up mast with a modified car base. In addition we had a 2m station operational.
We welcomed many visitors from local clubs. On the air most stations were from the UK, with many EI and PA stations also appearing in the 40m log.
In the picture on the left Rob G3XFD is seen operating whilst Dave G3ZPR logs. The picture on the right shows Dave G3ZPR pumping up the mast which supported the far end of the long wire antenna.
The May 2007 issue of Practical Wireless included a two-page article with many more photos on pages 19 and 20.
Annual Dinner
Our
Annual dinner took place on Friday 2nd March 2007. 14 members and
their partners enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Thistle Hotel on Poole Quay.
The pictures show some of those who attended. As you can just see the plates were all emptied! As is usual on these occasions, a good time was had by all.