June 2009

Editor: Malcolm Andrew G8NRP

COMMENT

It is many years since we ran classes so that those new to the hobby could take the exam in order to obtain an amateur radio licence.  Your committee has been looking at the possibility of reintroducing these classes for some months and now we have the use of the refurbished Social Club for running classes for all three exams, Foundation, Intermediate and Full.  It is also good that some of our newest members are willing to help run these classes.  We hope to commence classes in the autumn.

Your committee has also decided that we will provide a radio station for the Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) weekend 17-18 October.  We plan to invite Scouts and Guides from the local area to visit our shack and take part.

Malcolm, G8NRP

MAY MEETING

The May meeting was an informal gathering where all members were able to check out the facilities at RAL.  It is not often that we have an informal night like that but it was good to get to know the new members of our club.

ANOTHER OVER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

I expect that most of you know that Bob, G0ADH was recently admitted to hospital for some surgery.  I am pleased to say that the first operation was in general a success, but he has had some additional infection problems that meant he has not been able to come home again as soon as was hoped.  However, he is making good progress now and should be home sometime this week.  He is very sorry that he will miss Tim’s talk this month.  No doubt he will be back to his normal, voluble self very soon!

Although we didn’t have a visiting speaker last month, I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to see the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Social Club and their radio ‘shack’ right next door.  It was the first meeting at the ‘new’ venue and I hope it met with your approval.  We will continue to meet there for the foreseeable future.  We do have plans to have the bar open during meetings - when some of us have had the relevant training!

I have handed out most of the RAL RecSoc membership cards, with just a few left to go.  As you probably know, HARS itself is paying for the RAL RecSoc membership for those HARS members who attend more than 3 monthly meeting within a year.  We will be regularly reviewing this, but of course everyone is welcome to the monthly meetings.

We plan to hold another BBQ at the RAL RecSoc this year as we did last.  The date is 15 August 15 so put it in your diaries now.  However, we can’t promise to have the marquee like we did last time!  We also hope that the cooking arrangements will be a bit quicker than last time - forewarned is forearmed!

The club entered the 2m contest on 16 May from the clubroom and a good time was had by all I think.  We entered the 6O section - that is 6 hours, Open and we operated from 15:00 to 22:00 with an hour break in the middle for the Indian takeaway.  Hopefully the smell has now gone!  The logs have been entered and we should hear the results in a few months time.  I did have a minor worry last week when I got an email from one of the contest adjudicators asking if Dave, M0NUT was an RSGB member as he couldn’t find a record of it!  Luckily, Dave was a member under one of his earlier callsigns, but for a moment I though we were going to lose some points - or be disqualified altogether.  This is, however, a reminder that we must make sure that all our operators are RSGB members when it is necessary.  For the 2m Club Championship contests, this is not a requirement as HARS is an affiliated club and as long as you are a member of HARS then you are OK.

!Mike, G8CUL

CONTEST NEWS

The campaign continues in the 2m Club Championship where we still in 3rd place behind Trowbridge and Cray Valley clubs.  In the 80m CC we have maintained our 24th place.  Our chairman continues his lonely campaign in the 6m CC where he is leading the AR class although as a club we have fallen back to 3rd place.  Mike with help from Colin M0DDT have done well to achieve this but this championship is still winnable if you have 6m equipment and can enter a log.  Like the other CCs every log counts.
Congratulations go to David M0NUT who entered the 144/432MHz contest back in March and came 4th in the 6 hour 2m section and 9th overall in the 6 hour section.

The next planned club event will be the 144MHz trophy contest to be held over the weekend of 5-6 September.  As usual the plan will be to enter the 6 hour Open section operating from 1500 to 2200 with a 1 hour break.  Please let me know if you are interested in taking part.  Evening cuisine will be decided nearer the time but let me say the Indian was very good.
October will be a busy month as the committee has decided that we will be actively participating in JOTA this year which takes place 17-18th.  It is intended that the following weekend being the CQ WW DX SSB contest will see the club returning to HF contesting after our successful venture into the CQ WPX SSB contest.  We will probably, as last time, operate 12 hours on the Saturday (nominally 1000-2200).

Angus, G0UGO

JULY MEETING

Our meeting on 14 July will not be held at the RAL RecSoc Social Club.  Instead Ron, G0BNC is organising our Annual Summer DF Hunt.  All are welcome to join us for this event and all you need is an envelope from Ron.  If you don’t have the equipment to try and find where Ron is hiding then please come along with your friends and family to the ‘nosh and natter’ in a nice country Inn somewhere in Oxfordshire.  Full details of this venue are contained within the sealed envelope but please don’t reveal the location if you do open the envelope.  (If you need a clue, Ron lives in Witney so it wont be east of Wallingford!)

AUGUST MEETING

There will be no formal meeting on Tuesday 11 August but please try and come along to our annual Summer Barbecue on Saturday 15 August at the RAL RecSoc Social Club.  More details next month.

SOME HELPFUL TIPS ON USING THE HARS REFLECTOR

Do you subscribe to the HARS reflector?  If not why not join and get all the latest club news, views and gossip when it happens.  Simply visit www.g3pia.org.uk and select ‘email list’ from the main menu and complete the simple form.

The HARS reflector is available to anyone who wishes to subscribe to it.  In fact about half of the subscribers are not members of the club.  The HARS committee reserves the right to remove the subscription of anyone who abuses the reflector.  The reflector is moderated by a member of the club and by default the size of any posting including attachments such as photos is restricted.  It also has a very efficient spam filter and to date no spam has been sent via the reflector to subscribers.

Please remember when replying to a message sent by the reflector that you should only use the ‘reply’ function on your email system if it is important that all subscribers see your reply.  If you just wish to ‘send’ your reply to the author or a limited number of subscribers then just use the ‘forward’ function on your email system and enter individual email addresses.

Please remember that there are two types of subscription to the reflector.  You can either receive each message as they are sent or your can receive a daily digest that contains all messages sent.  You should bear in mind that not everyone will see your message or comments straight away.
Don’t use the ‘reply’ function to send a message that is a change of subject from the original message - send a new message.
If there is anything you need help with or clarification, please contact me direct at:
secretary@g3pia.org.uk.

REVISED CONSTITUTION

The HARS revised constitution is now available at www.g3pia.org.uk or request a copy from the Secretary.

NEW HARS EMAIL ADDRESSES

We have recently introduced new email addresses for the Officers in HARS.
Please use them rather than the personal addresses. They are as follows:

In addition, if any member would like a new email address, (anything-decent@g3pia.org.uk) with excellent automatic spam rejection, please send your request to editor@g3pia.org.uk. There is no charge for this service, all you need is an Internet connection.

HARFORD NET

Did you know there is a regular net on 2m? It is called Harford as it is used by both HARS and Oxford members. Please come and join in. 145.325MHz FM every Sunday and Wednesday 20.00 - 21.00hrs.

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