Friday the 12th of July 2013 was club night for the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society at their new club venue in Great Baddow. The evening was split into two main sections, with an introduction from CARS chairman John Bowen G8DET.
To warm up the audience, the Essex Ham RSGB Centenary Bletchley Park video was played, showing what happened at last week’s Centenary Day. Then, on to the main content.
Amateur Radio Training
Essex Ham’s Pete M0PSX was asked to present an overview of training in Essex, plus details of new training material that’s been created. Here’s what was covered:
- Status of training in the UK. 1600 amateurs joined our ranks in 2012, but is this enough?
- Five of the fifteen Essex clubs offer training, and 10 don’t
- What goes into making training – team, venue, process, exam and training material
- Course structure and syllabus – what are we teaching and how.
Pete wrapped up with a short video that provides an overview of what they hobby is all about, and explains how to get on a course and get a licence. Here is a copy of Pete’s “Welcome to Amateur Radio” video:
A lively debate ensued about the training process, how to encourage people to progress from M6 to a higher level, and what roles clubs should play in helping newbies. We’ll be covering this in a separate post very shortly.
Hands-on with Logger32
The second part of the club night was a hands-on training session. CARS will be operating the G100RSGB callsign from Sandford Mill next Saturday (20th July) and from BAE Systems on Sunday the 21st July. Another station will be operating 6m from Clive G1EUC’s QTH. As part of the rules of using the RSGB’s centenary callsign, electronic logging is mandatory, and CARS has selected Logger32 as the program of choice. As many CARS members aren’t familiar with Logger32, the second part of the evening was dedicated to allowing operators and loggers to get to grips with Logger32
Machines were set up with Logger32 installed, including a CW station set up by Gwyn G4FKH. Also on hand were Carl G3PEM and Colin G0TRM to give help and advice on using Logger32.
Chairman John G8DET reiterated a request to all CARS members for help and support for the Centenary event – Operators and loggers are needed, and are coming up in short supply. if you’re reading this and you’re a CARS member, please consider lending your support either as an operator or a logger in Chelmsford next week. See the CARS site for more.
For more on the club night, see the write-up on the CARS website.
