GM4RIV

With great sadness, we must inform you that Jimmy GM3VNW has passed away at the grand old age of 98. He had been confined to home in Girvan for a few years, but Eric GM0FSZ visited him often and says his mind was as sharp as ever.

Which is saying a lot, for Jimmy was a charismatic character, full of wit and charm, and always finding something to smile about. Even in his 80s, his attitude to life was that a walking-stick was actually a dancing-cane in disguise – which he would demonstrate at the slightest [ … ]

Yesterday the WARC committee met on Skype to discuss options for meetings, presentations and the SK sale originally scheduled for March 28th. These are the decisions we made:

• On Thursday evenings at 7.30pm, we will meet for a Net on the GB3DG repeater.
• From 8pm on Thursday evenings, we will also meet on the WARC channel on Zello. Access requires a password – please contact us by email and we will send it to WARC members. Please read this article for some background on Zello.
• The talk night on April 2nd is postponed. We hope to find [ … ]

As you all know, these are difficult times for group meetings small and large. The WARC committee has followed government advice regarding the Coronavirus pandemic closely, and we have decided that now is the time to take action.

All “face to face” WARC meetings are now cancelled, until further notice.

This Thursday the committee will meet on Skype to discuss alternative plans for meetings, presentations, and the scheduled SK sale. Please watch this space, we will post an update on Friday.

There will be a “Shack sale” of the equipment of SK Robin Bellerby (GM3ZYE) on Saturday 28th March from 10:00 to 16:00, QTHR. There will be items to bid on, items where no reasonable offer will be refused and piles of “Freebies”. A list will be available soon. Please contact Clive GM4FZH for further information.

This reminder was written by Peter GM7NFF. Thank you!

All UK licence holders are required to revalidate their licences with Ofcom at least every 5 years. Radcom are suggesting that you pick a significant date such as your birthday and do it yearly. This would seem to be a good idea and means that you don’t find yourself unlicenced.

Ofcom do not send out reminders. It is your responsibility.

You can do it via the Ofcom website, or Email them at spectrum.licencing@ofcom.org.uk – but if all else fails call 02079813131. I did and got a very helpful lady on [ … ]

A short note: there is the possibility of running a Foundation Course early in 2020. Clive GM4FZH is trying to gauge interest at this time, so please contact us for details if you would like to know more.

Yesterday I presented my talk Programming Computers in Gatehouse. Everything went well and I was asked to make the slides available – here they are:

• View Slides Online
• Download PDF

Enjoy!

Introducing our new concept of Kit and Soldering Nights, Clive encourages everybody to bring kits to build on 2nd Thursdays of each month. (Note that the first such evening will be December 5th, which is the first Thursday in December – there’s no talk scheduled for that month, and the Christmas Quiz is on the 12th.)

Feel free to come along and bring what you’re working on! Kits can be tested when they’re finished — please let us know if special test equipment is required so we can try to arrange it.

The WARC Annual General Meeting took place Thursday September 12th 2019, and we have circulated draft minutes and other relevant documents to members by email.

The election of a new committee and club officers was one of the most important agenda items. Here are the results:

Wigtownshire Amateur Radio Club (using callsign GB2LG) took part in the annual International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend on the 17/18 August from the Mull of Galloway (the most southerly point of Scotland). We were upset by two factors – one of our main operators managed to break her ankle when loading the car ready to travel to the lighthouse (we wish her a speedy recovery – it also required a 3hr operation) and the high winds over the weekend which meant we could not put up the main trap dipole up from the lighthouse balcony (one gust was measured at [ … ]