WELCOME TO THE BRAINTREE AND DISTRICT AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY
The club is grateful for the support it has received from Martin Lynch & Sons whose website is www.HamRadio.co.uk
Club members and visitors normally meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at 8pm in St Peter's Church Hall, Braintree. Further information about our club, how to join and on getting to our meetings is on our About Us page and all are welcome to attend.
We also have a club net on 2m FM on V30/S15 (145.375MHz) on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at 8pm and, if there is a 5th Tuesday in the month, via the local GB3BZ 70cm analogue repeater on RU68 (input 438.450MHz output 430.850MHz CTCSS 110.9). Again, all are welcome to join in.
We are on Facebook (Page Badars @CallMoXG Local Business) and also X (formally known as Twitter) (badars @badars_M0XG)
Information on upcoming events can be found on our Programme page and on Facebook.
Please note that we are now making Zoom available for members to use for our 'on air' nets (including via GB3BZ) as well as at the Church Hall. Zoom will be activated 10-15 minutes before the official start of the meetings and the login details will be as advised by an email sent out to members.
!!! STOP PRESS !!!
The next meeting at the Church Hall will be a 'Construction Evening' on Tuesday 12th November 2024 with something for everyone! Following the last evening where we made Slim Jim aerials for various bands, this time we are continuing the theme by making coax cables to connect it to your rig. They dont have to be for that of course and you can never have enough patch leads in the shack! Geoff is supplying the RG58 coax but please bring your own end connectors. The club will have a supply of good quality PL259's for you to purchase on the night but please let Geoff know how many you will want.
You are also free to bring anything else you would like to work on during the evening, as there will be plenty of tools and test equipment available. Geoff will be bringing along some '30 minute build' kits if you would prefer to do that and rumour has it that David, G8LHD might be there to demonstrate SMD circuit construction with spare boards and components so that you can have a go yourself!
NEWS HEADLINES!!!
You may have noticed that our normal website has changed and we have fewer pages. This is because we have had to switch platforms and had to rebuild a temporary site. We will be working behind the scenes to build a new, refreshed site to be published next year.
The last meeting of 2023 at the Church Hall on Tuesday the 12th December was a great success with members enjoying the quizzes, nibbles and conversation at the Christmas Social and Quiz Night. There were great prizes donated for the tombola and the UHF Handheld transceiver first prize in the raffle that was donated by ML&S was won by Logan, a newcomer to the club and a very worthy winner. The pictures below show Geoff, G1GNQ and Dave, G0DEC receiving the prize at the recent ML&S Open Day, and a very happy Logan receiving the prize at the Christmas Social!
Unfortunately we didn't have sufficient support to run a club entry in the RSGB VHF National Field Day on 1st and 2nd July. We have recently seen a reduced interest in and support for field days from BADARS club members, so we have removed these from our calendar and will concentrate on other Special Event days (see programme page for details).
The club held its AGM on Tuesday 23rd May 2023 and the outgoing committee was pleased to report that we are finally leaving Covid restrictions behind us and have enjoyed meetings, operating events (e.g. International Marconi Day at Stisted) and special event stations (e.g. Mills On The Air at Alderford Mill).
Less happily we have not been immune from rising costs and the meeting hall costs were not fully covered, therefore we reluctantly have increased our door fee to £2 when we meet in St Peters Church Hall.
John, M5AJB, Dave, G0DEC, Geoff, G1GNQ and Colin, M6NCU remain President, Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer respectively but with Edwin, G0LPO stepping down, Howard, G6LXK joins Tim, G0JMT as Ordinary Members. A new Co-Opted Member was created on the committee for the club Webmaster who was confirmed as Richard, G4FJC. Mike, G8DJO kindly volunteered to carry on as Editor of Barscom.
The Harold King award for 2023 was presented to Gary, 2E0PTV for his contribution to the magazine and stepping in at short notice to do a presentation at a club meeting when the existing presenter couldn't make it. Mike, G8DJO was awarded the Founders Trophy for his unstinting work on the Barscom magazine which has received wide acclaim and recognition and is the envy of many other clubs. Well done to both Mike and Gary!
OTHER NEWS
Apologies this section hasn't been updated recently - I have been focussing on the headlines and programme but will hopefully find the time to refresh this and other sections soon!
Our annual Summer Camp over the weekend of 6th and 7th August 2022 was hosted by our President John, M5AJB and his wife Rosemary as usual and we had great weather and a great time playing with aerials and radios and socialising. There are some pictures and videos on our Facebook site.
Our annual BBQ and Natter Night was held at Stisted on Tuesday 12th July 2022 and was a great success. A good time was had by all, despite the rain shower.
The club AGM was held on the 24th May 2022 and having reduced our subscription rates through Covid, we have reverted to our normal arrangements and unfortunately had to make a small increase for 2022 - 2023. Details are on our Membership page together with a new membership form to be completed by all members.
On 18th April the club used its special event callsign, M0XG to commemorate World Amateur Radio Day from Stisted in Essex. Many members visited the site during the day and enjoyed the sunshine, BBQ and of course radio.
In October last year the club supported the 1st Castle Headingham Scouts with the return of their Jamboree On The Air at their headquarters. A great time was had by all.
We ran a special event station GB5RD which commemorated Remembrance Day and was operated from members own stations and the Stisted contest site.
SO WHAT IS AMATEUR RADIO ???
The easiest way to answer that question is to invite you to watch a video made by the Radio Society of Great Britain, which can be found here. If you want to know more, or prefer to read rather than watch, the Radio Society of Great Britain also have a 'Getting Started' section on their website which can be found here.