The two planned contest nights, on 10th and 11th July have had to be cancelled at short notice, due to illness.
The next meeting will be out regularly scheduled meeting on 17th July at Hudswell Village Hall.
Category Archives: News
July Contest Nights
We’ve added a new meeting to our events calendar. On Wednesday 10th July, we’re planning to participate in the RSGB 3.5MHz Club Championship contest. As we don’t have use of Hudswell Village Hall on this night, we’re currently planning to operate a portable station, probably from the field behind the hall. Meeting times are to be confirmed closer to the day.
We have a proposal to operate a portable station for the RSGB 6m UK Activity Contest on Thursday 11th July, but there are currently no concrete plans in place. We’ll try to determine whethere there’s enough interest to warrant operating portable contest stations two days in a row, and update the web site once we know whether or not the 6m contest is still on the cards.
If you’re interested in taking part in one of the contest nights, please keep a close eye on the web site in the days before the meeting, as arrangements may change at short notice.
Upcoming Talk “A Life in HAM Radio”, by Peter, G4VUN
On Wednesday 19th June, Peter, G4VUN will be presenting a talk “A life in HAM Radio”. We hope that many of our members will join us for what will hopefully be a fascinating journey through everything Peter has experienced during his many years as a radio amateur.
As always, our Meetings page is where you can find full details of our upcoming events programme. We’ve got a few other guest speakers pencilled in between over the coming months, and we’ll be updating the web site once we’re able to confirm that they’re available.
Summer 2019 Events Programme
The proposed calendar of club events is now available on our Meetings page at https://crdars.org.uk/meetings. Between now and October, we’re hoping to have presentations by several guest speakers, participate in a 6m contest night, and try our hands at Amateur Radio Direction Finding.
We’re still checking the availability of some of our guest speakers, so please watch this space, as we’ll be updating the calendar once we receive confirmation that a particular talk is going ahead. Some upcoming events will not be taking place at Hudswell, so please keep a close eye on our Meetings and News pages, as we’ll be posting meet up times and locations closer to the day of the event.
In a change to our usual routine, we’re planning on adding an extra date to our calendar on Thursday 11th July for the RSGB 6m contest. The usual July meetings on Wednesday 3rd and Wednesday 17th July will go ahead as normal in Hudswell.
We currently intend to hold an Amateur Radio Direction Finding event on Wednesday 21st August, at a location yet to be determined. Please note that there are no meetings at Hudswell Village Hall in August.
Finally, please note that the date for the CRDARS AGM has provisionally been set for Wednesday 2nd October at Hudswell Village Hall.
Upcoming Talk on Optical Communications
In a change to our previously published events programme, the meeting on 20th March will now be a talk on Optical Communications, by Charles, G4DXP.
As always, full details of our upcoming events programme can be found on our Meetings page. We hope our members will join us for the events we have planned over the next few months.
Winter and Spring Event Programme
The event calendar for late 2018 and early 2019 is now available on our Meetings page. As usual, the first week in a given month is usually a general meeting and “on the air” night, whilst the third week is normally some sort of planned event or talk.
AGM and related matters
The CRDARS Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday 3rd October 2018.
The following members were elected to roles on the committee:
| Chairman | Andrew Thornton |
| Vice Chairman | Dave Lutman |
| Secretary | Chris Kirby |
| Treasurer | Irene Lyne |
| Additional Committee Member | Paul Hunt |
Founding members Colin Lyne and Chris Watkins have both stepped down from their committee roles this year. We’d all like to express our thanks to both of them for their work in making the club what it is today.
Colin has agreed to continue his work as the primary point of contact for new and prospective members, and Irene has once again agreed to continue as club treasurer. Thank you to both of you for all of your work in the background. It really is appreciated.
From October 2018, subs for members over the age of 18 will rise to £20 for the year. The £2 charge for the individual meetings will be eliminated. This should be simpler for everyone, and will result in an overall saving for members who attend more than five meetings during the year. Subs remain at £5 per year for under 18s.
We’d like to extend our thanks to AJ for the donation of a 2m mobile radio, and to Richmond School Amateur Radio Society for the donation of a 2m/70cm collinear antenna.
The club has reluctantly agreed that we are not in a position to run a JOTA station for the scouts this year, although we hope to be able to put a suitable team together and run a JOTA station in future years.
Colburn Village Hall is no longer available for us to use as an examination venue. Arrangements are currently being made to register Hudswell Village Hall as our new exam centre, so we should be able to offer examinations at Hudswell in the near future.
The club is currently exploring whether or not it’s financially viable for us to repair a donated Yaesu FT-757 transceiver. If so, this is likely to become our main HF radio. Thanks to Paul Hunt for taking the time to investigate this.
A working party has been arranged to erect the club’s HF antenna, on at least a temporary basis. Hopefully this will make it easier for our members to use our G5RV until both antenna and feeders can be permanently installed. Thank you to everyone involved for your time and hard work.
As the club now meets on the 1st and 3rd week in any given month, there is the possibility that the club may hold a second December meeting on the 19th, likely depending on whether there is any interest in meeting so close to Christmas. A decision will be made closer to the time, and details will be posted to the web site once we know one way or the other.
Finally, it has once again been suggested that we attempt to hold a short, regular 2m club net. In the past, we’ve found that Sunday evenings have been inconvenient for a lot of our members, so we’re trying to come up with an alternative day or time when the majority of members can get on the air for 15 minutes or so.
Upcoming 6m VHF Talk (17th October)
On 17th October, Clive (G4FVP) will be giving a talk on the VHF amateur bands. Clive has a reputation for being extremely knowledgeable when it comes to VHF, and the 6m amateur band in particular. If you’re interested in taking a step beyond basic “line of sight, plus a bit” FM contacts and would like to explore more of what the VHF bands have to offer, this is an opportunity to learn from one of the experts.
We’re always happy to see new faces at our club meetings, so even if you’re not a CRDARS member, you’re more than welcome to join us for what will no doubt be a very interesting evening.
Summer Hiatus and Nets
Please note that CRDARS does not meet during the month of August. Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday 5th September.
Some of our members have suggested a club net during the summer break. We’d recommend listening out for fellow members on the 1st and 15th August on the GB3IR repeater (145.7625) at around 19:30.
Planning, equipment and finances
At our last meeting on 16th May, some more discussion took place regarding the future of the club.
Finances have been tight lately, with the club making a net loss on many of our recent meetings. This is due to a combination of a more expensive venue, increasing costs and a slight drop in the number of members attending on a regular basis. It has been suggested that the cost per meeting be increased to £3 each, and there has also been a proposal to increase annual membership fees from October. Our Annual General Meeting is provisionally scheduled for 3rd October, and we expect to formally put these proposals to our members during the AGM.
We’re keen to have radio equipment available for use at our future meetings. To tide us over until Dave has chance to repair the Yaesu rig, Richmond School has offered to provide an ICOM IC-735 on loan. AJ has also offered the club a 2m radio, which should allow us to establish a regular presence on VHF.
Once we’ve got an antenna permanently erected, Colin is keen to do some more promotion of the club, through local media such as richmond.org and Richmondshire Today. Chris Watkins has offered to set up a YouTube channel, giving us both a promotional platform and somewhere to preserve footage of some of the club’s activities. Colin also intends to begin promoting Jamboree on the Air within the Scouts, and has suggested hosting the event up at Hudswell this year.
Finally, we’ve got a couple of presentations scheduled for the meeting calendar. A few members have expressed an interest in C4FM and HF digital modes, but aren’t really sure how best to get started. A couple of members have therefore offered to “have a go” at home, and provide some demos showing what they’ve learned. We’ve had a look at some of the more interesting capabilities of these modes in the past, but we’d like these events to be a bit simpler and more practical, in the hopes that we can get a few more people “over the hump”, and get them up and running with these modes. Dates are on the meetings page.