Once again ODARS members set up a special event station at the Museum of the History of Science to celebrate the birthday of Guglielmo Marconi. It is quite a challenge to do this as the museum is in a listed 17th century building in the centre of the City of Oxford and we are no longer allowed to use the roof for antennas. So we used 3 fibreglass poles attached to the railings supporting an off-centre fed dipole for 40 and 20metres. However, our location in the basement was adjacent to the cabinets containing some of the historic Marconi collection, so we were well placed inside.
Conditions were difficult – as well as the usual high noise level the K index was also high but although propagation was poor some contacts were made around Europe and into Asiatic Russia. As well as the GB4MHS station, we ran a very popular Morse code hands-on experience, and Brian G2KQ’s excellent demonstration of early wireless equipment.
Many visitors dropped by and talked to us and seemed interested in what we were doing. We hope that some of them may develop an interest in amateur radio.
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