Summits on the Air launched in England (G) and Wales (GW) on 2nd March 2002. Since then it has expanded massively to over one hundred associations on all major world continents, and has over 24,000 participants.
A special award has been launched to celebrate SOTA’s 20th birthday. Participants can obtain a certificate for their best 20 days chasing or activating (separate certificates for each activity). Logs are entered as normal and the SOTA Database picks your 20 highest scoring days out of your logs for the whole year. (March 2nd 2022 to March 1st 2023). Read MORE ……………..
NEWS FOR SCOTLAND & CLUB NEWS (GB2RS ) Extracts inc Additions
CLUB NEWS
With Scottish Clubs returning to normal meeting details of club activities can usually be found on the individual club’s website. A summary of activities in Scotland can be found at www.wosars.club/radio-nets.
Stirling and District Amateur Radio Society is open today for operating from 11am and next week for project construction. It will also be open on Thursday from 7pm.
Livingston & District Amateur Radio Society has a Club night at Crofthead on Tuesday from 7.30pm.
Also on Tuesday, Kilmarnock & Loudoun Amateur Radio Club, there is a natter night at their clubhouse and on Zoom at 7.30pm.
Inverness & District Amateur Radio Society is on the air on Wednesday.
Also this Wednesday WoSARS’s SOLDER GROUP meets from 6pm at the Electron Club, CCA, Sauchiehall Street.
And the Lothians Radio Society has a Video Night by Peter GM4DTH at ECVS. Checkout their website www.lothiansradiosociety.com
This Thursday, Glenrothes & District Radio Club, there’s a Club meeting at the Secret Bunker from 2pm.
Also this Thursday, Aberdeen Amateur Radio Society meets at 7.30pm and is having a junk sale.
And Lomond Radio Club has resumed club nights on Thursdays from 7.30pm at the John Connelly Centre in Renton.
And again this coming Thursday at 7pm the Wigtownshire ARC has a lecture Transatlantic Tests and Paul Godley lecture. Checkout their website www.gm4riv.org
On Friday at 8pm, WoSARS has a Video Night at Rose Street. Checkout their CALENDAR for further details.
Also this coming Friday, the Strathclyde Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARCS) has resumed club meetings at 4a Auchengramont Road, Hamilton ML3 6JP
On January 10, 1946, the US Army successfully bounced radio waves off the moon–the first-ever extraterrestrial communication, the birth of radar astronomy, and the opening salvo in the Cold War. The author was just shy of three years old at the time, and her father, E. King Stodola, was Scientific Director of the team that carried out the experiment, code-named Project Diana.
To mark the 75th anniversary of this historic event, Cindy Stodola Pomerleau has written a series of essays using Project Diana as a lens for examining the transformations and dislocations occurring in the US during World War II and its aftermath. Nearly half the book is devoted to World War II, with particular attention to the history of radar at Camp Evans, starting with its fumbling beginnings at Pearl Harbor and culminating in its stunning success in Project Diana. The second section is devoted to King Stodola himself and an examination of the confluence of internal and external factors that made him the right man for the moment. The last section provides a sampler of Jersey Shore life (e.g., the boardwalk, the Neptune Music Circus), contemporary American life (e.g., Sears, nylon stockings), and the author’s little-girl activities (e.g., her parakeet Archie, her Islander ukulele).
Steeped in good humour and nostalgia, these wide-ranging narratives explore Project Diana’s historical, sociological, political, and scientific context, as seen from the perspective of the tiny coastal New Jersey community where fate in the form of Camp Evans deposited the author’s parents and their neighbours. The book is a unique eye-witness account of an event and an era that marked a turning point in American history.
(First Published 14 July 2021 – Updates 3 Nov; 21 Nov; 29 Nov; 14 Dec; 17th Dec (COX))
BACKGOUND
The first one-way amateur radio QSO across the Atlantic that took place on 12 December 1921. The ARRL have joined with a group of UK operators who plan to recreate the event in December this year.
To celebrate the centenary of Paul Godley – 2ZE’s success, in collaboration with North Ayrshire Council, special event stations GB2ZE and GB1002ZE respectively will be operating from 1 to 28 December 2021 (added to CALENDAR).
An attempt was made using GM4AGG to contact W1AW. A report was produced by Jack GM4COX on the Club’s Programme Forum – HERE as to the outcome.
A YouTube Video Of The W1AW End Of The Proceedings
KLARC OPERATIONS (Copied off KLARC Website)
“……..Kilmarnock and Loudoun Amateur Radio Clubwill activate a special event station adjacent to the original location of the Paul Godley experimental station at Ardrossan, Scotland in 1921. The activation will be on air from 1200 UTC on Saturday 11 December 2021 until 1200 UTC on Sunday 12 December 2021. The callsigns will be GS2ZE(licence holder Jason GM7VSB) and GB1002ZE (licence holder Bob GM0DEQ) using CW, SSB and data modes on bands between 160m and 10m. GB2ZE (licence holder Bob GM0DEQ) will be used by the Ardrossan station for the first hour of the ARRL/RSGB 160m QSO Party (0200z – 0300z). During this first hour of the 160m QSO Party at Ardrossan, GB2ZE will be exclusively on CW. The GB2ZE callsign will be taken over by members of the GMDX Group on an hourly rota for the remainder of the QSO Party. An attempt will be made to re-enact Godley’s original successful reception of transatlantic amateur radio signals at exactly the same time and on the same date as 100 years ago. Attempts will be made to record any US re-enactment signals received at Ardrossan and also at other UK locations for sharing with the amateur radio community…….”
And a KLARC summary of the Event over the weekend of 11/12th December – Copied off their Website:
We were on the air ahead of schedule and had our first QSO with DL1DCT on 30m FT8 at 11:37 UTC on Saturday 11 December 2021. The first SSB QSO was with LY3YY on 20m. Band conditions on HF turned out to be very poor overall and the highest band we made QSOs on was 17m. We made 401 contacts in 60 different DXCC countries using three callsigns – GS2ZE (licence holder – Jason GM7VSB), GB2ZE and GB1002ZE (licence holder for both – Bob GM0DEQ). The final QSO was at 11:21 UTC on Sunday 12 December 2021 with RM9W on 20m SSB. The callsign used for the majority of the activation was GS2ZE.
Thank goodness we had an FT8 station on air – it came to the rescue under the challenging HF propagation conditions we had and got some very good DX into the log. The map below, produced by Barry GM5BDX, shows the geographical spread of our contacts.
At the start of the 160m Godley Trans-Atlantic QSO Party (0200 UTC) we used the callsign GB2ZE . We tried to have a QSO with the ARRL station W1AW on 1814 kHz. We heard them calling us and tried to respond but they couldn’t copy us unfortunately. A video of our attempt is on The KLARC YouTube Channel – see below for link. The plan we had was for NA2AA to call GM3YEH initially and then change callsigns to W1AW and GB2ZE if contact was established. We then operated in the QSO Party using GB2ZE for 22 minutes and worked quite a few US, Canadian and European stations on CW (Morse Code) before going into radio silence to take recordings of the period during which the re-enactment transmission from W2RCA was to take place. A video of us operating in the QSO Party is on the KLARC YouTube Channel.
One major target was to try and hear and decode the re-enactment transmission of the original message that Paul Godley 2ZE heard at Ardrossan, Scotland 100 years earlier. At 02:52 UTC – exactly the same time and date that Godley copied his message in 1921 – we copied W2RCA (The Radio Club of America) on 1825 kHz sending the same message…SUCCESS! We have a video recording of this momentous event on our KLARC YouTube Channel. In addition to the KLARC Members and some others on site, the historic successful reception was witnessed by Stewart Bryant G3YSX, President of the RSGB. Also on the KLARC YouTube Channel is a video of how the W2RCA re-enactment transmission was heard by Don G3BJ in Shropshire, England.
After our spell using GB2ZE and the recording of the W2RCA re-enactment transmission, we used the callsign GS2ZE for the remainder of the time we were in the QSO Party. During this period we listened for the transmissions from W2AN/1BCG on 1820 kHz but heard nothing from that station.
We had 139 contacts on the network assisted FreeSTAR station running with GS2ZE callsign. The first contact was Oscar 2E1HWE in Essex. The farthest station to call in was ZL1BOB who congratulated the KLARC team and wished us well from New Zealand. There were several operators who were thankful for being able to call in through the network as they did not have HF capabilities at their location or could not reach us due to propagation conditions at the time.
We had a lot of visitors to the site including local folk and various radio amateurs, some of whom had travelled a distance to get to us. The visitors we had on site from southern climes apparently thought we had bad weather, but those of us from Ayrshire were not too troubled by the horizontal driving sleet, in fact it seemed slightly better weather than we had anticipated. The endless shared stories, jokes and banter that went on all weekend kept us all very cheery. On reflection, I think I agree with the guys who have said we should do this again…but maybe in the summer 🙂 We don’t need to mention all the people who contributed to make this activation such a massive success – there are far too many and you all you know who you are. It is, without a shadow of doubt, the highest profile event that KLARC has ever delivered…genuinely fantastic!
“……………………During the ARRL Convention held in Chicago that year (August 31 – September 3, 1921) is was announced “to a wildly enthusiastic audience” that a second series of Transatlantic tests would take place in December and that a well-known American amateur (Paul Godley, 2ZE) would be going to Europe……………………..
………..Godley duly arrived at Southampton on November 22, 1921……………………”
The West of Scotland ARS (WoSARS) has been running the special event station GB4GDS celebrating 90 years of the Guide Dog Association which ends on the 2nd November. More information about the station can be found on the Club’s WEBSITEpage
Kilmarnock and Loudon ARC have taken over the operation of the Paul Godley Centenary SE Station at Ardrossan and will be operating for the QSO party on 11/12th December and for the hoped for reception of a broadcast from 1BCG in the USA which was the original callsign used to transmit the first verified amateur radio signal across the Atlantic.
Can you help with a Generator? The KLARC Team at Ardrossan are trying to get the loan of a generator for 240v with an output of 5-10kVA. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone who maybe has one or knows of one could help out.
CLUB NEWS & NETS
Wigtownshire Amateur Radio Society has a net on Sundays from 7.30pm on GB3DG, which then usually moves to Zoom at around 8pm. Thursday sees a net on GB3DG from 7pm. There is also an open RAYNET net daily on GB3DG from noon. www.gm4riv.org.
Stirling and District Amateur Radio Society is open today for operating from 11am. It will also be open on Thursday evening from 7pm. secretary@gm6nx.com
Kingdom Amateur Radio Society has nets on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays from 7pm on 144.750MHz. Steve, MM0SKX, 0771 105 9343.
West of Scotland Amateur Radio Society has resumed its Solder Group on Wednesdays and its main Club Meeting on Fridays at the Rose Street HQ. Some meetings are also on Zoom. WoSARS continues to run a net today and a daily net from 11am on 145.425MHz. Wednesday sees a net from 8pm on 433.425MHz and on Friday there is also an open net on 145.425MHz from 8pm. Details at www.wosars.club.
Dundee Amateur Radio Club holds nets on Sundays and Wednesdays from 7.30pm on GB3AG and GB3DD. Tuesday is a club evening Martin, 2M0KAU, 0776 370 8933.
Ayr Amateur Radio Group has a net on Sundays from 7pm on 144.295MHz CW and from 7.30pm on 145.450MHz FM. There are daily nets around 7.035MHz from 10.15am, moving to 7.065MHz and 145.450MHz at 10.30am. Friday now sees a Club Night derek.secaarg@gmail.com
Kilmarnock & Loudoun Amateur Radio Club holds a net on Sundays from 2pm around 3.720MHz SSB, later moving to around 3.540MHz CW. Tuesday sees a net on 145.475MHz from 7.30pm. klarcinfo@gmail.com.
The Viking Amateur Radio Net runs on Sundays from 6pm on 3.660 or 3.639MHz. Details are on their Facebook page.
Glenrothes & District Radio Club has open nets daily from 10am on 3.790MHz except Sunday. Morse training is now available on request. Tam 0775 352 6498.
On Monday, Edinburgh & District Amateur Radio Club has its FM net at 8pm on 433.525MHz. Norman, GM1CNH, 0774 094 6192.
DV Scotland has a multi-mode net on Monday from 9pm to 10.30pm using GM5DVS. Access to the net is via All-Star Hub and Brandmeister DMR. dvscotland.net
Paisley Amateur Radio Club holds a net on Mondays from 8pm on 144.550MHz and on Zello. Tuesday sees a DMR net in room 4415 from 8pm. On Thursday, there is an FM net on 144.550MHz and on Zello from 7.30pm. Stuart, MM0PAZ, 0742 665 0757.
Livingston & District Amateur Radio Society has a net on Tuesdays from 7.30pm on 145.575MHz FM. Wednesday sees a net on DMR Scotland TG23550 from 8pm. Cathie, 2M0DIB, 01506 433 846.
Inverness & District Amateur Radio Society has a net on GG7BI from 8pm and on GB7II from 8.30pm. Adrian, MM0DHY, InvernessRadioSociety@gmail.com.
Falkirk Amateur Radio Club has a net via GB3FE from 8pm on Wednesday. Peter, gm8gax@tiscali.co.uk.
Mid Lanarkshire Amateur Radio Society takes part in the DMR Scotland net on TG23550 from 8pm on Wednesday. There is also a net on Thursdays from 8pm on 70.425MHz. Friday sees a Zello chat from 8.30pm, which then moves to GB3KV at 9.30pm. www.mlars.co.uk.
On Thursday Lomond Radio Club meets from 7pm at the John Connelly Centre in Renton. Barrie, gm0kzx@googlemail.com.
Aberdeen Amateur Radio Society meets at 7.30pm on Thursday see http://www.aars.org.uk/ for details
This Friday, Cockenzie & Port Seaton Amateur Radio Club is planning a club night. Contact Bob, GM4UYZ, 01875 811 723.
Also on Friday, Strathclyde Park Amateur Radio Club has a net from 7.30pm on 145.400MHz, and also on the BATC channel from 8pm. Bill, MM0SFB, gm0syv@btinternet.com
Details of club activities can normally be found on each club’s website. To have your net listed on the WoSARS website or to report any changes, contact Tony, MM0TMZ by email to rr1@rsgb.org.uk. Please also keep GB2RS updated via email to radcom@rsgb.org.uk. The deadline for GB2RS submissions is 10am on Thursdays.
“The BBC Archive shared a clip of a news item about a radio amateur’s reception of BBC TV pictures in Cape Town, South Africa in 1949, it includes an on-air contact
The BBC news item describes the remarkable reception of BBC television pictures from Alexandra Palace, London on 45 MHz by Henry Rieder ZS1P in Cape Town, South Africa.
The clip features a contact between Mr C. G. Allen G8IG of Bromley, Kent and Henry ZS1P in which G8IG asks Henry questions about the TV reception.“
A comprehensive article about the transmission can be found on EI7GL’s Website – HERE .
And from the South African Radio League’s( SARL) – Hall of Fame; Mike Bosch ZS2FM first to receive the BBC TV transmissions in 1956 on BAND I. There is a brief description of the equipment used – HERE .
………In late August, amateur radio enthusiast Yukio Sakurai (59) from Matsuyama, Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, accidentally received a distress signal for a small boat drifting off the coast of Niigata Prefecture, and gathered information in collaboration with other enthusiasts. It was revealed on the 6th that the Niigata Coast Guard (Niigata City) helped two crew members………….Read MORE ………….
Well it all started with an email from James 2M0RMP ………..
“…………..26th Oct 20……………….Jack can you email me your number I have a wind up mast that needs a new home…………..”
In discussion with James, he said he’d met a nice lady who lived just outside St Andrews in Fife and had a tower in her back garden with a ‘protrusion’ upon it; both were required to be removed.
A VersaTower with a ‘Protrusion’
Well what else could we do but help out this nice lady with a trip though to the sunny ‘Fife Rivera’.
And indeed, in June the ‘gang’, Alan GM4TOQ, Sam GM4BGS, Ted 2M0VGY and yours truly headed through to the ‘sunny’ east coast to administer the necessary surgery.
The Fife ‘TEAM’ (Picture Courtesy of Alex Paris)‘Dropping’ The TowerSam & Ted Perform Surgery – Removing The ‘Protrusion’
Sparks ‘Fly’ As Alan Cuts The Ground Post
It was intended to try and remove the Ground Post from below the surrounding grass level but this proved beyond the kit we had with us on the day, resorting to cutting it off with a grinder. Not ideal but it did the trick.
And WoSARS would like to thank Alex Paris and family for allowing us to remove their elaborate ‘flagpole’ 🙂 and return it to it’s rightful place in the hierarchy of radio towers. Thanks folks!
And discussions are initially on-going within the Committee as to the use that the tower will be put to. These will be presented to the Members in due course as to their own thoughts.
And, who was the original amateur that owned the house? Alex had no information but did have some communication from Ofcom – with just a reference number on it, but no amateur callsign – a fat lot of use that is! Well I carried out a wee bit investigative work using QRZ.com’s search facilities and tracked GM4DPC ; still listed on QRZ, though a SK for many years? (he left the QTH many years ago). I contacted Ofcom on Alex’s behalf, to inform them that GM4DPC no longer lived at the QTH. They acknowledged accordingly and as a consequence his entry in QRZ maybe removed?
Oh the ‘Protrusion’? Not too sure, but I think it’s was being used as part of a Wi-Fi node for the village years ago when there was limited landline/mobile internet facilities? I have it at my QTH and at the time of writing this article, I have still to ‘sweep’ it?
The Cartagena Team group will be active from May 28 to June 6 using the callsign AM5IP with a special QSL commemorating the 170th anniversary of the birth of Isaac Peral (Cartagena, June 1, 1851-Berlin, May 22, 1895), who was a Spanish scientist, sailor and military man, lieutenant in the Navy and inventor of the first torpedo submarine, known as the Peral submarine.
He had an intense career in the Spanish Navy, intervening in the Ten Years’ War in Cuba and in the Third Carlist War, for which he was congratulated and decorated. He also excelled in scientific work and missions: he wrote a “practical theoretical treatise on hurricanes”, he worked on the lifting of the plans for the Simanalés canal (Philippines) and in 1883 he took over the chair of Physics-Mathematics at the School of Expansion of Studies of the Navy.
Sadly we have to report that Robert Fraser (Rab) MM0VUV from Denny has become a Silent. Key following contracting COVID-19. Rab received his full licence in 2011. After a break from the hobby for 7/8 years he re-joined his old Stirling Club GM6NX, where he won a Master of Communication Europe award. He was well known there and on the airwaves and we send condolences to his family.
CLUB NEWS & NETS
A listing of all known nets in Scotland is collated by RSGB Regional Rep Tony Miles, MM0TMZ in association with Jack Hood, GM4COX and the West of Scotland Amateur Radio Society. These are then published www.wosars.club/radio-nets.
