Category: News & Activities

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ODARS members tried Surface Mount Technology at a club activity evening in September 2016. Brian, G2KQ, provided equipment and instruction.

SSB field day was held in the field next to Thomley Hall. This was convenient as our tower is kept there in a barn. We used the C3 beam for 20, 15 and 10m plus 40m separately fed. 80m used an inverted V from the top of the tower, some 20m agc. A 5-band vertical was used for the spotter station.

The site is about 70m asl and useful for VHF so we put up a 16ele Tonna at 8m with the help of a gin pole and rotated from the base. Andrews Heliax fed Chris’s (G7IVF) FT-857 with 50W. Call sign was G8PX/P and Scotland, France and Germany were worked although conditions were not very good and there was a shortage of operators.

For HF we used Colin’s (M0DDT) K3 and Expert amp with 400W op. Power was from the club’s new generator that behaved excellently throughout. We used the club’s FT-950 as spotter station.

We had a few difficulties with IT, some rain and solar storms overnight but managed 513 QSO’s in all with105 multipliers for an entry to the open section.

Operators were G7IVF, G8EWT, M0DDT and guest G7IXU and used the G5LO/P call sign.

The operators wish to thank all those that helped in setting up, supply of tea and efficient clearing up at the end. Overall it was a very enjoyable club activity.

Clifford Marcus – M6NMW

Well done, Clifford!

Our President, Barry Crook, G4AZN, died earlier this week.

He will be greatly missed by club members, and by his many, many friends in the Amateur Radio Community and beyond.

Ken, M1SLH, writes:

“Well, that’s another Marconi Day done and dusted! Working from the basement was much better I thought; much easier to see everything and get the visitors’ attention. Brian’s collection of early apparatus was obviously a big attraction, and the Morse Code hands-on was as popular as ever.

That the aerial worked at all was a great surprise to me, and thanks to Colin’s excellent installation, it stayed up on a rather windy day. In fact, it stayed up rather too well and had to be coaxed off an anti-pigeon spike with a fishing pole in the end.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped.

73

Ken, M1SLH”

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Congratulations to Ernesto, M6ATD, on winning the 2014 Construction Competition – his second construction competition win in less than five years!  The cup was presented by last year’s winner Brian Hawes.

Tuesday evening showed that some members still have soldering irons and know how to use them! Five excellent examples were exhibited:

• A one valve receiver, which was a reproduction of a model build in the past, by Mark
• A reproduction of the wartime “telephone book” transceiver by Ernesto
• Two entries from Brian, his high performance crystal set and a power amplifier for 2m.
• A high power filter for 40m from Colin.

Ernesto won this time, and took away the cup. Perhaps we should have given him an isolating transformer as well as his project was an AC/DC design!

Did you see us at the Newbury Rally on Sunday?

ODARS always puts in an appearance at Newbury with our fine collection of components, home brewed radio kit and interesting commercially made gear, either no longer wanted by members or given to us by the family of an SK. We have manuals, circuit diagrams and other information available for some of the equipment so if you bought a branded item from us and would like to know a bit more about it, please get in touch.

Club supports Wow! How?

On Saturday 10th March, ODARS organised a Special Event Station, GB4WOW, at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. This activity supported the Wow! How? Family Science Event.