Our Club meets in the Wesley Room, Bracknell Methodist Church, Shepherds Lane, BRACKNELL.
To find Bracknell Methodist Church take the Binfield Road B3018 from Bracknell town centre. Shortly past the Total garage turn right into Shepherds Lane at the crossroads. The church is located several hundred yards down on the left, just past the Prince of Wales public house. The car park is at the rear off Agar Crescent.
Last Month
At our April meeting we had our regular 'Bring and Show' evening where members are invited to share with us what they have been working on in the past year. A well attended meeting and lots to share - in particular comparison of the performance of an Elecraft K3, a Yaesu FT2000 and several other rigs, with a 'test' antenna erected in the church grounds.
Foundation Courses at Bracknell ARC
The club is now able to offer courses for the amateur radio examinations. The first of these was a Foundation Licence course held on Saturdays September 8th and 15th 2007 at our club meeting place, Bracknell Methodist Church. It was a great success as can be seen on the faces of the 9 lucky chaps showing their pass certificates. It is hoped to run another Foundation course shortly.
Further information on Amateur Radio licences and the Foundation course can be found on the RSGB site.
The next Foundation course took place at Bracknell Methodist Church on Saturdays January 19th and February 2nd. If you wish information on our future courses please contact .
In addition John G3NCN runs a morse class at his home on Monday evenings. Contact John (see above) for details. On Sunday evenings at 8pm he operates an RSGB GB2CW morse broadcast on 145.375MHz FM for amateurs in the local area.
Club Activities
In addition to our monthly meetings, the Club participates in amateur radio contests organised by the RSGB. See our contest pages.
Other activities in our calendar include a barbecue, bring and show evening, and participation in local rallies.
A
monthly newsletter is produced and distributed to members. Click here to see a specimen newsletter.
The Dave Sugden Memorial Trophy is awarded annually by the committee to the member considered contributing the most to club or amateur radio activities.
Want to know what the club was like in 1977? Look here for some
real nostalgia...
Committee 2007/8
The following have been elected to serve on the G4BRA Committee for the current year:
Chairman:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Minutes Secretary: Jennifer Sefton M3JAC
Coopted members:
For more information on the Bracknell Club please e-mail either the Secretary or the Treasurer
The Club Constitution is available for viewing on this
website.
Keep in touch with Club Activities
An email reflector has been set up for the use of members. To subscribe to this send a blank email to g4bra-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and confirm by replying to the email you will receive. Alternately visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/g4bra/ and join from there (you will need to set up an account at Yahoogroups).
A club net takes place each Wednesday evening (except club nights) on 145.375MHz FM.
DXpedition to St Brandon Island 3B7C
The club supported the DXpedition from the 5 Star Dxers Association which took place in September 2007 on the Indian Ocean island of St. Brandon with the call 3B7C. Although it was tough going in the current HF conditions a few of our members were lucky to have QSOs on several bands. Don G3XTT told us all about this dxpedition at our March 2008 meeting.
Visit the DXpedition website for further details
DXpedition to Rodrigues Island 3B9C
The Bracknell club was sponsor for this major DXpedition to Rodrigues island in the Indian Ocean. This was a major operation and was active from March 19th to April 12th 2004. There were awards for contacting the station on as many HF bands as possible - quite a few club members were heard in the pileups. 3B9C made over 150,000 QSOs in three weeks operation.
DXpedition member John G3WGV told us all about 3B9C at our July 2004 meeting in a thoroughly interesting presentation.
Visit the website for further details
GX4BRA at Bracknell Methodist Church 50th Anniversary
Over the weekend of June 3rd and 4th 2006 Bracknell Methodist Church celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1956. On the Saturday there was a fete and BARC was invited to put on a display of its activities, along with other organisations which meet at the church. Stations were set up for HF, 2m and slow scan TV and some interesting QSOs were had on 20m and 40m SSB. There was a lot of interest in our station and members took quite a lot of time talking to visitors about what amateur radio is about. No DX was worked, but it was a most enjoyable day and we felt we had achieved out goals in publicising the hobby.
The picture shows Richard G8IBP in QSO on the HF station.
For a detailed report of the weekend see the church website.
5MHz band available to UK amateurs
During July 2002 the RA and RSGB announced that permission was given for experimental transmissions on spot frequencies in the 5MHz hf band (3kHz channels centred on 5260, 5280, 5290, 5400 and 5405 kHz). Special NOV permits are required for this operation and are available to full (advanced) licence holders. For full details see http://www.rsgb.org/licensing/fivemegs/fivemegs.htm.
Several club members have obtained an NOV's for the band and have been operational. G3YMC has included some pages on his site detailing his experiences on the band, together with the design of the 5W VXO transmitter he has built.
QRP operation by Club Members
Several of our members are very keen on HF QRP operation. Dave G3YMC is very active with his K2 transceiver, see his QRP pages. Ian G3TLH has operated for some years on QRP with a loop in his loft space with surprising results and is now active from his new QTH in Devon with rather better antennas.
Summits on the Air
Club member John Linford G3WGV is General Manager of the Summits on the Air programme. This programme encourages amateur radio operation from summits throughout the world, including over 200 in the United Kingdom, and awards are available both to activators (who operate from the summits) and chasers (the rest of us, non athletic, types). Look out for John and others working portable from these summits.
Dave G3YMC has also been working some of the summits stations with his K2 on 40m. In 2003 he activated summit TW-005 in the Lincolnshire Wolds. The picture shows his portable station in action.
Further details of this programme can be found at http://www.sota.org.uk.
Bracknell is twinned with Leverkusen in Germany
Some years ago we used to have regular HF schedules with the local amateurs, and several of us have visited their members. See the Leverkusen club DL0IL website (German language)
In 2002 Egon DK7EI visited us here in Bracknell.