Rather unexpectedly a few of us appeared on 6m this evening (Monday 16th May). Firstly Jon G0IUE and Brian G6HUI were doing some tests. Jon had just installed a Cushcraft AR6 vertical ready for the Sporadic-E season and Brian was using a horizontal dipole and despite the cross polarisation good 5-7 reports were exchanged.

Before long word was out there and up popped Gary M0OTL (Melksham) and Jack M0PLS (Chippenham). Jack had set up his Buddipole in the back garden and his signal was clear and strong using just 10 Watts from his Discovery SDR transceiver.

We chatted for 90 mins and it was great fun to get back on to 6m. Jon’s new vertical and Jack’s Discovery radio are shown below.

This evening’s meeting saw Jack M0PLS construct the new ‘Dual’ 13 element 2m/70cm yagi ready for installation in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile Gary M0OTL was busy sourcing a 7 pin rugged connector for our Prosistel Rotator so we can connect it up to the new beam. Brian G6HUI continues to recover from his recent surgery and after popping in to see him during the evening he seems in good spirits and is enjoying digi modes on his newly installed Off Centre Fed dipole.

This weeks ‘Shout Out’ goes to Mike 2E0OND who continues to be our No 1 News Page viewer. Mike is a regular member and contributor of the Sunday evening 4m Moonraker Net and often acts as Net Control.

No pictures tonight folks but have a great week and plenty of DX. Till next time it’s 73s and good DX from the Chippenham Club Web Team! 😊

A great club night this evening with many of Bert’s (G0FGR, SK) remaining books and sundry items generously donated by Bert’s family, being picked up by grateful members.

Here we see Laurie testing out a new acquisition, the FT-980 and matching SP-980 speaker using the club Callsign GX3VRE.

By popular demand the club has invested in a dual band single feed 2m/70cm yagi for Club night VHF/UHF operations. This neat antenna will be paired up with our ICOM IC-706Mk2G and Prosistel rotator.

We hope to have it installed as soon as possible.

This weeks meeting saw club members experimenting with an ICOM IC-705 running 30m FT8 and FT4 with an MFJ Magnetic Loop. We managed 18 contacts with the furthest being 1800 miles away. Here’s a couple of photos from the evening.

It was great to see a number of Club members today at the Andover Rally. The event was bathed in sunshine and really well attended. We managed to despatch all of our 50 Wiltshire Radio Rally Flyers and many said it’s in their calendars already.

Here’s a few pictures from our table.

Both C&DARC and @WiltsRadioRally send their best wishes to all our friends at Andover Radio Club for their event on Sunday. We will be there to support them.

A big thank you to all the Club members who supported the GB5MU operations today. We made plenty contacts on 40m, 17m and 2m SSB and FM. We didn’t take many photos but here are the few we did take.

EASTER SATURDAY

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Take a listen on Easter Saturday for a Special Event Station GB5MU from Cotswold Airport (Ex RAF Kemble). Club Members will be using HF SSB and Data Modes as well as 2m SSB and FM. We should be on 80-10m from Noon onwards.

We are sure that everyone at the Club would like to send Brian their very best wishes for a speedy recovery and we look forward to seeing him again soon at our G3VRE HQ in Kington Langley.