Radio Clubs: The Name Game

Time for a bit of light relief! I’m sharing this for the benefit of those who’ve not been following some of today’s Twitter chatter about clubs. It’s made me smile, and may make you smile too.

Here in Essex, we’re doing pretty well for radio clubs, at least compared with other regions in the UK which seem to be much quieter. A quick tally reveals that we have the following amateur radio collectives with the following suffixes:

• 9 Radio Societies
• 4 Radio Clubs
• 3 Radio Group, and
• 1 Radio Interest Group

This has led to some discussion about what the difference between the terminology is… is a “society” a more formal organisation that a “group”? Just what is the difference? It seems that it may be that the suffix is chosen simply to make for a better acronym. A few thoughts from Twitter:

@georgesmartuk – “I like @lids_cw (less interactive data society)”

@MX5AKA – “BAD ARS was a good acronym as well” (Braintree)

@MX5AKA –  “I liked the two ARS’s just 13 miles apart who both call themselves SAD”

Here in Essex, we have the somewhat similar HADARS (Harlow) and HADARC (Havering), as well as TAARC (Grays) and TARG (Canvey), which can sometimes cause confusion.

On the subject of the Harwich ‘Interest Group’ name:

@M0PZT – “The one that makes me chuckle is neither a club or society but an ‘interest group’!”

@MX5AKA – “I thought it quite clever as they managed to get RIG into their acronym”

@PeterOnion “But they sound so surprised about it Ha! Rig!”

Collective Nouns

Pete M0PSX has proposed the following phrase to indicate a gathering of hams – “a ferrite of hams”. Do we hear a seconder?

Other top names

The following non-Essex clubs score brownie points for good names:

• TARTS -Thames Amateur Radio Transmitting Society
• BRATS – Bredhurt Receiving and Transmitting Society
• FISTS – Morse club that got its name from CW operators characteristics
• Not an acronym, but a great name spotted in Radcom recently – Drowned Rats Radio Group

Other names plucked from the RSGB Yearbook include: the Jaggy Thistles ARC, the Manx Kippers and the Hogs Back ARC. Unless you know different, the longest name award goes to the ‘South Normanton Alfreton and District Amateur Radio Club‘ (SNADARC)

The winner?

Surely the prize goes to the OLD Flatland Amateur Radio Transmitting Society – The Old Farts in the US have written a great constitution, which will no doubt tickle the funnybone of anyone who’s event been involved on the committee of a radio club – See www.k0wa.com/old_farts.htm

Historical Clubs

Thanks to @MX5AKA for sending over the link to a slightly more out-of-date club list than our ham radio clubs in Essex list.

Take a look at www.g7kpf.co.uk/quicklinks/soceast.htm – This includes the now defunct Barking and Ilford clubs, as well as Wickford Mafia Amateur Radio and the South Essex Repeater Group. Any other past and present amateur radio collectives out there that we don’t know about, I wonder?

 

Come across a good radio club name that we should feature? Do you prefer ‘Society’, ‘Club’, ‘Group’, or something different? And would you become a member of the Old Farts? Have your say in the box below…