West Kent Amateur Radio Society
There have been a few changes in the club of late, so here is a quick run down of whats been going on.
As of October the club will no longer meet at St Peters Hall in Tunbridge Wells.
This will be the first time the WKARS has not held a meeting in the town it's self since the begining of the club.
How ever times change. With the popularity of the Bidborough site, attendance at St Peters has wained, and the Bidborough site
is far better suited regards, access, parking, location, a far better venue for the club.
Last month a tri band colinier was fitted at the hall, so there is always 6-2-70 avalible.
HF operation is still on an add hoc basis at present, with members fetching various HF antennas on club nights for phone & digital op's.
Since the last web update the club has held it's 2009 AGM.
There were no changes in committe officers, how ever a new post was created, Events Coordinator.
Billy Warwicker 2E0ZWW was elected to this post.
Welcome to the new WKARS web site we hope you enjoy your stay
This year has seen a boost in activity in the club.
We have been taking in active roll in out side events, starting with a demo & introduction to ham radio with the First Brenchley & Matfield Scout group.
The group comprissed G3KIP Ken, G4JED Keith, G8GYB Robin, & 2E0ZWW Billy.
Billy gave a talk covering the basics of ham radio, what can be achived, and how to get started.
After which the scouts split up into groups, and got a chance to have qso' on both VHF with Ken, contacts were easy on 2m Fm via the repeaters, and simplex.
HF was providing some good Dx qso's to Billy and his group, a memorable qso being with 5B4AIX Nos in Cyprus, not just for the 59+20db report both ways, but Nos was using an antenna designed and built by Billy, the M3ZWW UN2UN!
On another table Robin was teaching some basic CW to the scouts, this caused a fair bit of laughter, which was fun to watch.
Keith was giving a talk to the group about propogation, and antenna theory.
The evening was a great sucsess for both the club and the scouts, and as a result the club has been asked to continue their talks and demos with other scout groups in the area.
International Museums on the Air
This year the club decided to take part in the IMW event.
As our chairman Les G6UBM has links with Bentley Wild Fowl and Motor Museum, so we decided to approch the museums to see if we could operate from the museum grounds for the event. The museum offered us much more than we could have expected!
please click the museum logo to see the photos, read the story, and check the log too.........you maybe in it !!!
This year the club entered the RSGB HF Field Day for the first time in many years.
Again, thanks go to Les for having such a great neighbour, with a lot of farm land!
The club entered in the low power restricted section.
Running a Yaesu FT897 and a full size G5RV, we made a good account for ourselves, coming 14th out of 25 in our section with.....
300 QSO's with 57 Multis for a total of 73701 points.
You can see some photos of the station in the photos section of this site. What isn't visible in the photos is the abundance of sheep droppings!
And that charming smell of the country side.
When we first looked at the site there were no sheep, but come field day
.!
Main operators for the event were, Robin M0NZA, & Billy 2E0ZWW, assisted by, Les G6UBM, Ken G3KIP, & Malcolm G4FWG.
This was a great success for us. Ok we were never really going to be in the running for top spot, but what a great way to spend a weekend. Out in the fresh air, with great company, and doing what we do best, operating the station, and getting involved!
Magic
