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  • D-Day at Slapton Sands

    If you are attending or are planning to visit the SES running over next weekend at Slapton Sands you need to know the following information:

    Criteria for the Special Event station at Torcross are as follow:-

    • Pot luck for parking until the desired spaces become available.
    • Parking must be paid for in all spaces used.
    • It has been explained that the event could go into the night, which will require some operating and some sleeping, but we will have to play this by ear……….
    • Operating times are not restricted, so operating can carry on through out.

    To all who are taking part please realise I have twisted a few arms in order to allow us to do this so please do not abuse it

    G4VTO

    As you can gather, Peter (G4VTO) has gone to some considerable lengths to get us permission to be on this particular site. So make sure you abide by the rules.

    If are required to move etc then we will have to comply.

    Whilst we do plan to have VHF running, a test during the recce showed that access to GB3TR isn’t feasible with a hand held radio, so don’t rely on it to check in with the SES operators.

    If you have any queries please email in asap.

    73 Lin.

    Torbay Amateur Radio Society is pleased to be able to confirm that we will be activating a Special Event Station with the call sign ‘GB80DCS’ ( 80th Anniversary of D-Day – Commemorations from Slapton Sand in Devon) from the afternoon of the 7th of June until approx. 1200 hrs on the 9th of June, weather and band propagation dependant.

    We will be operating on both HF and VHF, telephony and Morse (as appropriate).

    For those interested our locators etc are:

    GRID: IO80EG

    WAB Square: SX84

    POTA Reference(1): GB-0074 (Slapton Ley)

    POTA Reference(2): GB-0231 (South Devon National Landscape).

    BOTA Reference: B/G-0180 ROC Post ‘Strete’

    Operators who make a confirmed contact GB80DCS will be able to apply for a commemorative pennant – for a nominal fee (£5) PLUS the relvant postage to your location.  Available on a strictly first come first served basis (priority to TARS Members ).

    Vistors are very welcome, please note that all the car parks are pay and display!  We wish to extend our sincere thanks to South Hams District Council for their consent to allow us to remain on site for the weekend.

    Thank you to Peter (G4VTO), Mike (M7MYK), John (2E0SPS) & Eddie (2E0EVM) for all the help to get this SES organised!

  • Construction Evening – 26th of January 2024

    Coming up, the annual construction evening!

    Click on the event over in the Club Meetings and Events section.

  • Additional Aerial for TARS

    Lin, M0TCF, has kindly donated a spare aerial of his. It is a HVU8 which covers from the 80m band to the 70cm band. Mounted on top of the existing mast, this is a multiband aerial which will allow Torbay Amateur Radio Society to run two radios in the club room.

    Many thanks to Peter G4VTO and Lin M0TCF for installing this aerial.

  • Crystal Set Build Entries

    Scroll down to see the video!

    Last Friday 3rd November we held a Club challenge.  This was instigated by Lin M0TCF after a discussion about Crystal Sets one night in the Club.  As the conversation progressed, He came up with the concept of a “Club Challenge” open to all to build one that could receive the Club net frequency of 3.663Mhz and any other bands the builder felt they wished to include.

    We made all the information available on the club website and made regular announcements regarding the challenge at Club nights too and we did manage to get a few entries.  Admittedly not as many as we may have hoped as from the conversations going on in the club, it appeared that more were going pitch in and have a go.  It was also interesting to see that from a few junk boxes that were brought in as give away items, all the Air Spaced Capacitors disappeared really quickly.  

    Nonetheless we had a number of entries of very different types and designs, from quite simple to quite complex.

    So, come the Friday of the challenge, we set up an antenna of some 60 feet stretched across the car park and an earth was obtained from the nearest socket outlet.

    Each entrant gave a short talk on their build and anything unique about it.  After that, the testing and judging commenced.

    Testing was done by Andrew Lenton G8UUG and a small team of volunteers who were happy to take part in the judging as they were not building.  The sets were all  connected to the same antenna and earth and a small LM386 based Audio Amplifier was used to allow all the judges to hear the radios for themselves as well as any club members who wished to take a look as they were being assessed.

    The sets were evaluated on a number of criteria including reception and specifically the ability to receive the Club Frequency, selectivity, audio quality, use of recycled/repurposed materials, build quality and innovation.

    The test signal was kindly provided by John 2E0SPS who sat and operated the club rig with the output turned right down and sending “CQ TARS Crystal Sets” on 3.663Mhz AM when called to do so. 

    Well, did they all receive and who won?  That fellow members is something you and I will have to wait to find out at the Presentation Night in the New Year as the results will be announced then.   

    Overall it was a great fun challenge and I think most who took part learned something from it too.  I know I did!

    It is hoped that we may be able to create more challenges of this type and that we may get a few more entries if only for the fun of doing so.

    Please all think about the Club Construction Night too which is also coming up in the New Year.  Last year we postponed it after there was a very poor number of items submitted on the original date. We then moved it back a few weeks to allow a few more to build something.  There is now plenty of time to get those Soldering Irons heated up and start building something for the Construction Cups.  Please take part and support your club events that we take a lot of care in organising.

    Best 73s all

    Jeff M0WSZ

    TARS Chairman

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