GB2RS News

Sunday the 9th of October 2022

The news headlines:

RSGB Convention 2022

New RSGB Board Member

Celebrating 100 Years of the BBC

The RSGB’s first hybrid Convention is this weekend. A selection of presentations is being live-streamed as well as interviews, videos and live operations by the special event station GB3HQ. You can watch some of the live stream if you want to join this event from where you live. Head over to the RSGB YouTube channel or follow the link from the live stream web page at rsgb.org/livestream.

The RSGB Board is pleased to announce that John McCullagh, GI4BWM has been co-opted as a Board Director until the 2023 AGM. Many members will know John as he was ETCC Chairman from 2005 until 2017 and he is still the Northern Ireland ETCC representative. John worked for almost 40 years as a communications professional in the emergency services in Northern Ireland, retiring in 2005 and being awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to policing. Since then, he has worked as a communications consultant in Eastern Europe and in the past few years has, with his wife, volunteered with a children's charity in Tanzania. John was licensed in 1973 and has been active ever since, mainly on UHF and VHF. He has been involved with the repeater scene since the late 1970s when he installed the first repeater in Northern Ireland. He is also the Controller of a RAYNET Group in County Antrim and has been in that position since 1976.

On the 18th of October 1922, the Marconi Company and other equipment manufacturers formed the British Broadcasting Company, which became the British Broadcasting Corporation six years later. To mark this momentous date exactly 100 years on, members of the BBC Amateur Radio Group have been invited by Arqiva to operate for the day at the Daventry transmitting station that was home to so much of BBC short-wave broadcasting over the years. Members of the BBC and Arqiva clubs will be operating HF on Tuesday the 18th of October from the Empire Service Building at the Daventry site. As well as GB100BBC, the callsign G2LO will be on air. 2LO was the callsign allocated to the very first BBC transmitter, built by Marconi and located at Savoy Hill in London. Keep an eye on the GB100BBC QRZ page for more information.

The Caledonian Rally is an annual event that brings together 13- to 17-year-old Scouts and Guides from all over Scotland. This year the event takes place between the 14th and 16th of October. Inverness Amateur Radio Society will be running GB2CWR for the event as part of Jamboree on the Air. Aberdeen Amateur Radio Society members are helping with the station, but more experienced operators are sought, especially for set up and break down. Email [email protected].

The Royal Air Force Air Cadets will be running the popular Blue Ham Exercise on the 22nd and 23rd of October from 0800 to 1800UTC each day. If you are a UK Full licence holder the hope is that you can set some time aside to take part with the Cadets and Staff Volunteers who will be ready to take your QSOs over the operating period. A Blue Ham participation certificate for amateur operators who contact 20 or more special MRE callsigns will be available. Details are on the alphacharlie.org.uk portal.

Member States of the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations' specialised agency for information and communication technologies, have elected Doreen Bogdan-Martin, KD2JTX as the organisation's next Secretary-General. She will assume office on the 1st of January 2023. She will be the first woman to lead the ITU in its 157-year history and only the third Secretary-General to hold an amateur radio licence.

And now for details of rallies and events

The National Hamfest will take place on Friday the 14th and Saturday the 15th of October at Newark Showground, Nottinghamshire. Gates open at 9.30 am and the main hall opens at 10 am. For more information visit nationalhamfest.org.uk.

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