Colin working soldering a tiny IC onto a board.

Meanwhile, some old gear being looked at and opened up.

Also, George making contacts on low power. Extra points for the Irish participant in a contest for getting our IO85 square. Easier to control the FT-817ND through Ham Radio Deluxe interface.

The 2018 Annual Open Day and Rally was held on Sunday the 21st of October 2018

Another very successful rally.

Many thanks to the Traders for filling the hall with their goods, the club members who helped out on the day with setting up and packing up of traders goods, manning the doors and the Bring & Buy stall, and to the visitors who came from far and wide to our open day.

Video Courtesy of Delboy Enterprises.

 

Traders:

Bob McClements
Perth RG
GQRP Scotland
Davy Jackson (Canny Components)
RSGB
Mick Hunter
Kevin Avery
SBRG
Alan Clegg
Dave Bagshaw
Tony Kruszelnicki
Martin Stokes (Mirfield Electronics)
J Dosher
Geoff Darby (Worked All Britain)
Ken Elliott GM4NTX
Peter Bates GM4BYF

Bring and Buy Stall

Hot and cold refreshments

 

 

Club members participated in the Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP contest again this year.

The aim is to contact and exchange details with as many other stations as we can through the day, all over the country, using 5 watts of power maximum, on 144Mhz band which is usually “line-of-sight” only.

We were slightly more successful than last year, even though we had a few episodes of thunder and heavy rain and had to retreat to the vehicles. Contacted stations from the north of Scotland right down to the south coast of England.

Thanks to our operators Dave and Jim, Dave and George for getting the station set up and antenna erected, Mike for logging, and the other club members who came to support us during the day. Also special thanks to Dave for the coffee and fresh bacon rolls cooked on the portable gas stove!

As usual we were located at the top of “Middle Swire” between Yarrow and Ettrickbridge, 6 miles west of Selkirk. The day started off nice, then the clouds rolled in and the rain started.

Playing with HF while waiting to start contesting on VHF…. and watching the heavy showers dodge us. For now….

Calling CQ for any stations listening. Callsign and locator on the sheet for reference. Notice the DIY audio reflector for the on-board speaker.

Okay boys, time to retreat to the vehicles! Rain started.

Getting very noisy and crackly on the radio now. Acutely aware there’s lightning around and we’re next to a tall metal pole with a trailing cable leading inside the car. The radio was disconnected for the short time the bursts of static became a constant loud crackle. Not that we could hear the radio anyway over the sound of the rain battering off the roof of the car.

These were taken during the breaks inbetween showers.

Altogether (to be confirmed by the invigilator) 28 contacts (we had a duplicate that nobody noticed at the time) in 13 squares. Just need to wait and see how well we did compared to other stations, particularly the Scottish ones as we won Best Scottish station of last year’s contest.

 

 

 

Call: GM4YEQ/P

Locator: IO85MM (Square IO85)

Coordinates: 55.5215N 2.999W 360m (1180ft) ASL
NGR NT370257 (WAB Square NT32)
Google Maps shortcut: 9C7VG2C2+M7
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/9C7VG2C2%2BM7

On Saturday 23rd / Sunday 24th September 2017, members of the club were at the Whitrope Heritage Centre on the old Waverley Route, south of Hawick, taking part in the annual “Railways On The Air” special event.

Our callsign used on the day was GB0WRH (Waverley Route Heritage)

Details of Railways on the Air event (ROTA): https://rota.barac.org.uk/

Whitrope Heritage Centre: https://wrha.org.uk/the-association/whitrope-heritage-centre/

Many thanks to those who took part (the two Daves) and the others who visited and helped set up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location:

https://wrha.org.uk/the-association/find-us/

Postcode: TD9 9TY

OSGB36 Grid ref: NT525003 

IARU Grid IO85PH

 

 

 

Many thanks to those traders and visitors who came to the 2017 rally and made it a successful day.

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The 2017 Annual Open Day and Rally will be held on Sunday the 22nd of October 2017 at 11:15am

The Volunteer Hall
St John Street
Galashiels
Scottish Borders
TD1 3JX
Doors open at 11.15am (Disabled access from 11.00am)

 

 

Admission will be £2.50.

PLEASE NOTE: As the old “round pound” coins will no longer be legal tender from 15th October, they WILL NOT be accepted by us. We will only accept the new 12-sided pound coins.

Traders:
Bob McClements GM4CID
Alan Clegg
Really Good Radios
DX Maps
GQRP Club
Pete GM4BYF
G0TNF
Pete GM7EEY
GM1CMF/GM0BKC
Mick Hunter
Kevin Avery
RAOTA
Andre Sanders
D. Bagshaw
RSGB
Perth Repeater Group
SBRG
Sandy Weddell
Stirling Radio Club
Davy Jackson

Bring & Buy stall

Refreshments available.