This page holds a record of club meetings and contests from a few years ago. For current meetings, please see the Meetings and Contests page.

2023

17 & 18 Jun RSGB 50MHz Contest at Matfield; Field Day organised by Keith, G4JED. Adjudication awaited but G3WKS/P currently lying 3rd. in the 6hr Open section.
12 Jun Live Radio Night at Bidborough to familiarise members operating the Club’s new FT dx10 HF station.
13 & 14 May Mills-on-the-Air Weekend with HF & VHF Special Event Stations GB2NW at Nutley Windmill, organised by Keith G4JED, with 4 stations (HF SSB, VHF FM & SSB, QRP 40m CW & 20m FT8) in glorious sunshine! The Mill had a sweep come down in November but will restore it to full working order in the next 2 months after crowd-fund ing raised over £10k.
8 May Solar Power for Home & Rig; Noise, Interference, filters. An illustrated talk by Chris G6HTH
14 Apr 75^th Anniversary Dinner at the magnificent Salomon Estate
3 Apr Annual General Meeting; see your new Committee here
13 Mar Surplus Equipment Sale at Bidborough Village Hall. Run by Dave, G4OTV, a capacity crowd took the opportunity to get some money for bits of kit no longer used or win a real bargain. Of the 86 lots, 51 sold for £522, pleasing buyers & sellers alike with nearly half being generously donated for Club funds. Thanks also to Jane G4UPI for her efficient bookkeeping on the laptop so things ran smoothly, and Steven 2E0VFH for portering with humour.
13 Feb Video presentation on Propagation; a hot topic with the present sunspot cycle getting towards maximum presented by Keith G4JED
9 Jan 2023 Annual Planning Meeting, monthly meetings, HF & VHF Contests & particularly proposals to celebrate the Club’s 75th Anniversary Year.

2022

12 Dec 2022 Christmas Bash, held on Zoom due to snow & ice making travelling risky.
16 members enjoyed ‘Santa’ Dave’s G4OTV quiz but could only admire the mouthwatering sausage rolls & mince pies he’d made.
14 Nov: Show and Tell meeting featured short talks by Richard about things they’ve built, software & other projects.
10 Oct: An excellent talk on Magnetic Loop Antennas by Mike M0RYK with examples from other members using small loops.
12 Sep “The KW story” Steve G3ZPS returned to tell us about the rise and fall of the “KW Company” from Dartford, whose equipment is still much sought after many years down the line.
8 Aug: Natter Night No specific event planned for August due to holidays but we enjoyed a pleasant evening at the village hall, discussing what we could have done if we only had the time to do it!
11 Jul “Rig power, Noise, Interference and EMP”, Chris G6HTH gave us some useful tips on keeping RF out of the Shack, amply illustrated with hardware examples for minimising noise from mains & DC power supplies, modern economical lighting and those now indispensable accessories in the shack; Computers and the Internet & ADSL Included was a spectacular demonstration of the hazards of under-sized DC power cables.
13 Jun Pre loved Equipment Sale. Run by Dave, G4OTV, this was an opportunity to get some money for those bits and pieces no longer used. Of the 82 lots, 49 sold for £564, raising £109.25 for Club funds, pleasing buyers & sellers alike.
9 May Steve Venner G0TAN, “Life on the other side”. A fascinating insight into the issues & problems faced in ML&S workshops from customers & suppliers worldwide.
11 Apr Annual General Meeting
(Switched from face-to-face at Bidborough to Zoom to ensure quorum of 15 was met)
14 Mar: Steve G3ZPS talk (on Zoom) “Old Ham Radio Gear, why the hell do we bother” brought back many memories of gear used in yesteryears.

Field Days

2-3 Jul 2022: The Club took part in the 24hr RSGB VHF National Field Day at Matfield again, thanks to Richard. Although some regulars were away that weekend, we ran 2 SSB stations; one on 6m & 4m with a 7 element dual band beam, and the second on 2m using a stacked pair of 11 element beams. 7 members shared operation of the 2 stations.
In the Restricted Section, we made 20 QSOs in 4 countries on 6m (ODX PA4VHF at 458km), coming 15th/18 with 164pts; and 18 on 4m (2 countries, ODX EI9E at 516km), coming 14th/18 with 165pts. The 2m station in the Open Section made 88 QSOs into 9 countries (ODX DR2B at 820km), coming 8th/11 with 90pts.
Many thanks to those who helped setting up on Friday evening and taking down on Sunday afternoon & Monday morning, particularly those who had been unable to join us to operate.
18-19 Jun 2022 RSGB 50 MHz Contest Oganised by Keith G4JED, the Club entered the 6hr Open section in this 24hr Contest, from Matfield by courtesy of Richard.
Saturday was dreadfully flat but Sporadic-E’s on Sunday morning livened it up.
Click to see the Station and Operators in the cold light of day!
Following ajudication, West Kent ARS came a very creditable 4th out of 14 clubs in that category thanks to all that helped with this contest, including the very good supporting team for the setting up and taking down. See our Certificate here .
The log from that 50MHz contest was also submitted by Les G6UBM into the WAB 6m contest that was running at the same time and, as a result, the Club has been awarded 1st place in the Club & Multi-operator category.
7 – 8th May 2022 GB2NW Mills-on-the-Air at Nutley Windmill on the Ashdown Forest, with 4 stations; where the main station, using the Club’s new FTdx10 on 40m, made 158 contacts, 19 with other Mill stations including one in the Netherlands. The VHF station on 2m FM made 18 contacts, 3 with other Mills & one with a French station in Normandy. In addition, on the Saturday, Mark M6MSF ran QRP CW making 8 contacts into 5 countries, and Matt M0CUV on FT8 had made 15 contacts in 5 countries.