Scout Amateur Radio Club
2009 saw the Club get off to a great start.
Members of the Club and Gordon McCready - District Explorer Scout Leader, attended a talk on ARDF (Amateur Radio Direction Finding). This combines orienteering and Amateur Radio, where Morse code beacons are positioned around an orienteering course for competitors to locate.
A seminar & practical session for ARDF is being held in Murdock Park on 18th April. 4 members of the radio club and some older Explorers/Network members will be taking part in this activity.
ARDF is very big among English Scout Groups, and this is an attempt to get the sport introduced into to Scotland.
Watch this space for updates on this exciting radio sport.
The radio club was invited to operate Girl Guiding Renfrewshire TDOTA (Thinking Day on the Air) on 20th/21st February. This was a great success with 57 stations in 20 countries contacted. The Guides have also intimated that they wish the Scout Radio Club to operate the special event call sign GB0GGR throughout the year and over the course of their Centenary Celebrations into 2010.
A new Foundation Class has begun with the candidates preparing to sit the Foundation Licence exam around April. 2 members of the 5th Gourock Guides have joined the class.
2 members of the radio club attended a D-Star user’s group meeting. D-Star is digital amateur radio where radios can be digitally linked on a one to one basis anywhere in the world using digital technology.
Another radio event being looked at is Summits on the Air (SOTA). This combines Amateur Radio with hiking/hillwalking. A small handheld radio is carried along with specially constructed lightweight aerials to transmit from the summits of hills. There are a large number of hills/summits in Scotland and each carries a varied degree of points depending on the height of the summit. The first SOTA planned will be in the spring of 2009.
Other events being planned for 2009 are:-
National Explorer Camp – June 2009
Museums on the Air - June 2009
Hardie Webster Camp - September 2009
Guide weekend Camp Autumn 2009
Jamboree on the Air (JOTA - 16th/17th/18th October at Everton Camp
The clubs has plans to set up a radio station at Scout HQ on various weekends, where members of the District will hopefully come along and see what the Radio Club can offer to Groups in the District.
Get involved with the Amateur Radio hobby now. Contact Bob Lynch for more information.
Click on the image below and view a selection of photographs.
Comments
Comment from Jane
Time: December 16, 2008, 10:27 am
We want to send our congratulations to Robert Lynch on raising so much money for the BWBF recently on that long and arduous walk he successfully completed. My husband Geoffrey is totally blind and has radios all over the house! We both appreciate how important radios are to the blind and visually impaired, and the BWBF does great work. We were both very impressed to read about it in the online Inverclyde News. Possibly Robert will remember me as an old friend from the distant past (I was an \’Edney\’ in those days). Very best wishes and congratulations again, Jane and Geoffrey Thomas
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