AARG Previous News
Air Antennas Website
Tom GM3HNN has a new website for his company, Air Antennas. You can access it here.
Additionally, if you would like to check out the Twitter page dedicated to the company you can do so here.
Dave Cossar Funeral Attendance
Thank you to everyone who went on the air to say their 73's to Dave. A list of those who attended is available to download here.
GMDX Convention 2020 Postponed
The GMDX Convention 2020 event has been postponed due to health concerns and may be rescheduled to sometime later in the year.
Congratulations To GM3MQO
Congratulations from the club go to Garry Olesen GM3MQO, who has received recognition for 50 years of membership of the RSGB.
GB0DAM
Clive, GM4FZH, has published a pdf detailing a special event station being hosted this Summer. An excerpt is below.
"A special event station is being organised at Dumfries Aviation Museum for the weekend of 20/21 July 2019. The idea of this is that it is an opportunity for amateur radio operators, SWLs and others to meet each other over what is a largely scattered population.
The main groups that have been involved are Wigtownshire Amateur Radio Club, James Clerk Maxwell Group and Solway Radio Group. However, there are others who are not affiliated to these groups and you are ALL welcome – I apologise if someone (or group) has been left out, it is not my intent."
You can find out more about the event in GM4FZH's pdf, available here.
GB7AY Repeater
The GB7AY 70cm DMR repeater went live on the 17th of March and is now usable. If you want to find out its specific details then you can visit the UK Repeater website here.
The Scottish Amateur Radio & Electronic Convention 2019
The Scottish Amateur Radio & Electronic Convention will take place again for its third year on the 16th of June at INTU Braehead.
This is an ideal opportunity for Clubs to advertise to other radio enthusiasts what they do as well as what their specialities, interests and capabilities are.
The A.S.R.A. Rally is the biggest Ham Radio convention in Scotland, which over 350 visitors attended last year, so there will be lots on offer and many other licenced operators and SWLs to meet.
The event will run from 10am to 4pm on the day with an entry fee of £4 for persons 14 and above and free for anyone under 14.
If you are interested in hosting your own stall then this year is an ideal opportunity to do so as the rally organisers are offering the special low price of £5 a table for Clubs in the lower concourse. Clubs booking these spaces can set up an operating station to showcase their club. Power and access to the broadwalk to erect antennas is provided. Tables on the upper concourse are also available for £10 each.
A poster is available to download here if you want to print it out and put it on your noticeboard.
You can access the A.S.R.A. website for more information, table booking and ways to contact the organisers for inquiries.
22nd Annual GMDX Convention And Dinner
Saturday, 6th April 2019 at the King Robert Hotel, Stirling
The GMDX Committee is pleased to announce that the above convention will be held at the King Robert Hotel, Whins of Milton, Stirling, on Saturday, 6th April 2019. Bar snacks will be available from 12.00 noon.
Programme (timings are approximate)
10.30-11.00 Registration for AGM
11.00-11.30 GMDX AGM
13.00-13.30 Convention Registration and Welcome
13.30-14.15 A35EU Tonga by Tome GM4FDM
14.15-15.00 VHF DXing for HF Dxers by Martin GM8IEM and Ian GM3SEK
15.00-15.30 Coffee
15.30-16.15 EL2EL/4 Liberia Telengbe Island by Jonathan MM0OKG and Col MM0NDX
16.15-16.50 A44A Oman CQWW CW trip by Don G3XTT
16.50-17.30 T31EU Kanton Island by Ronald PA3EWP
17.30 Convention Close and raffle draw
20.00 DX Dinner
22.00 Hotel Bar
Card Checking is available for DXCC, WAZ, WAS, IOSA and RSGB awards.
Non Members are very welcome.
The cost of the afternoon’s convention is £10 for members and £15 for non-members which includes tea or coffee and biscuits, whilst the dinner is priced at £26 per person. The dinner includes some wine.
The committee would be grateful if you could book early to give them an idea of numbers – the booking form and means to pay are available on the GMDX website. Booking your dinner tickets is particularly important as numbers are limited.
The King Robert Hotel has given them special rates for convention delegates – £70 B&B for a double room and £49 B&B for a single room. In the event that all single rooms are taken the rate for single occupancy of a twin room will be lowered to £49. If you would like to stay at the hotel please contact the hotel directly. You must mention that you are attending the GMDX Convention to get the special rates and the pre-reserved rooms. The committee suggests that you arrange your accommodation as early as possible to avoid disappointment. The King Robert Hotel telephone number is 01786 811666.
British Science Week Special Event Station
The James Clerk Maxwell Radio Society will be operating their Amateur Radio Special Event Station from Parton Kirk in Dumfries and Galloway as part of the British Science Week over the weekend of the 9th and 10th of March 2019. They will be using the GB2JCM call sign and invite anyone on the air to have a chat with them. The society also extends an invitation to everyone to visit them during the event if they want to meet the gang. If you want to know more about them or follow what they do you can visit their Facebook page here.
RSGB Cricket World Cup Marathon
The RSGB Contest Club is organising an International Amateur Radio Marathon on the HF bands to celebrate the Cricket World Cup which is being held in England and Wales this summer.
• The Marathon will run from 30 May 2019 to 14 July 2019.
• Special UK and International callsigns will be active on 9 HF bands using SSB, CW and Digital modes.
• The Marathon will encourage HF operation and provide an opportunity for all operators to enjoy being a sought after callsign.
• Award certificates will be offered to participants based on the number of QSOs they achieve with the Special stations.
• The club will use the Hamlogs system that allows logs from activating stations to be uploaded to a central database.
Hence, participants will be able to track their progress towards the available awards.
• From the UK the club will be activating 31 special callsigns, including eleven for the Cricket Grounds that will be used in England and Wales as well as ten for the teams that are participating. They also have callsigns for Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. All UK callsigns will all have the prefix GB19 with a two or three letter suffix.
This is an excellent opportunity for some really fun radio operating.
All full licensees who are RSGB members can join the RSGB Contest Club and as club members can operate, either in a local radio club or group, or simply operate from home.
You don’t have to be a cricket fan to take part and you don’t need a “super station”.
You can also just operate for a few hours.
Foundation and intermediate licence holders may operate supervised from a club or the station of a full licence holder.
The club wants to encourage those who have good stations to allow others to operate them.
The full details and some additional information on Radio Marathons can be found on the RSGB website.
While the full details for Coordinators and Activators are not currently there they should soon be updated to the site.
You can contact the contest club under the email address ContestClub@rsgbcc.org with your details, including your RSGB region, if you would like to get involved.
More details should be available soon.
GM3CSO
It is with deep regret that I have to inform you of the loss of a stalwart member of our club. John Shankland, GM3CSO became a silent key on Tuesday the 8th of January 2019. John passed away peacefully. Our thoughts and prayers go to his wife Frances and family at this sad time. John was a loyal, hard working supporter of AARG over many years and will be sadly missed by us all.