The British Amateur Radio Teledata Group’s Diamond Jubilee 2019
Roger Cooke G3LDI reports on the BARTG 60th anniversary celebrations.
It hardly seems ten years ago that BARTG celebrated the Golden Jubilee with the special call GB50ATG. It certainly does not seem 60 years ago that BARTG was formed. I was one of the founder members, but I must emphasis that I started out as a very young operator indeed! Oh OK, yes, I was 21 at the time. Unfortunately, the two really active founder members, Arthur ‘Doc’ Gee G2UK and Bill Brennan G3CQE, are both Silent Keys (SK). There were also quite a number of very keen RTTY ops who joined along the way.
RTTY was new to the UK and one of its first activities as a self-help group was to start a newsletter and help members to acquire teleprinters for their use. Of course, we didn’t stop there. RTTY needed a contest and the one we launched is now the oldest extant RTTY HF contest in the world. We launched an awards scheme. We ran a RTTY news broadcast to provide both news and test transmissions for RTTY enthusiasts. Our Shop Window sold components for the RTTY terminal unit (an interface between teleprinter and radio) such as the PCB and the transformer and, of course, we sold BARTG lapel badges.
We grew in membership and became bolder, launching a BARTG rally at Meopham in Kent. It later moved to Harpenden and then to Sandown Park where it outgrew the smaller (1218m2) hall and moved into the larger (2,740m2) hall. Our rally was always aimed at the RTTY and datacoms enthusiast and it came to a close when datacoms became a mainstream technology rather than a specialist one.
The 1980s were a busy time for BARTG. The massive growth of computer use in the home and particularly in the shack brought about a substantial growth in the use of computer based RTTY in amateur radio. Every time we set a target for growth we surpassed it and set a higher one. We eventually had over 3,000 members.
Silver Jubilee
We celebrated our Silver Jubilee in 1984. A ‘QSL card design’ competition produced an excellent commemorative design and demand for our silver jubilee lapel badges, complete with silver laurel leaves, exceeded our most optimistic expectations.
Datacom
Our magazine was given a title, Datacom, received an ISSN number and a spine with title and date. In 1998, under the editorship of Arthur Bard G1XKZ (SK) it won the national section of the newly inaugurated PW & Kenwood Club Spotlight Magazine Competition (February 1998 PW has photos on the cover and on page 10 and also has a review by G3LDI of the Kachina computercontrolled HF transceiver).
Continued Success
We’ve come a long way since 1959. I think two reasons for our continued success are the loyalty of datacoms enthusiasts and the ability of our committee to change and grow BARTG so that it meets the needs of those enthusiasts. Amateur radio is a hobby of progression and development and this applies to datacoms as much as to any other aspect of our hobby. Today BARTG is known principally for its contests and its awards scheme.
BARTG now encompasses all data modes, including the JT modes of course, and long gone are the nostalgic days of oily machinery, paper spewed out all over the shack and noise, sometimes unbearable after a 24-hour contest. These have been replaced with computer-based equipment. How it was in the 60s is shown in Fig. 1. I wonder if these guys are still about and if they are still involved in RTTY/Data? All transmit equipment was home built, with some commercial receivers and terminal units. 6ft racks were the order of the day, and boat anchors held down the floor of the shack. It certainly was the days of the dinosaurs, and with all those valves involved the shacks of the day had the characteristic smell and look of a real radio communications room.
I guess it was the equivalent of a modern ‘Dad’s Shed’. However, these days most amateurs do not build transmitters or much else, except for small projects. Most stations are now commercial and would be acceptable to the boss (the XYL) in any spare room, or indeed tucked up a corner, with a suitably placed rubber plant as a table decoration!
Organising the NoV
Organising the NoV (Notice of Variation) for GB50ATG was pretty straightforward ten years ago. The job of organising GB60ATG again came to me and I thought it would again be quite straightforward. How wrong I was. Talking to Ofcom was a nightmare. I was passed from pillar to post and the bottom line was that I could have an NoV for a month but not for a year. One person told me I could, another told me I couldn’t. I contacted the RSGB and was given a direct line to the person (persons) involved. However, again they faltered, tried to say it was impossible and so on. I e-mailed the NoV for GB50ATG so they could see we had done
this before and then after more phone calls they eventually relented and sent me the NoV. It turned up, and guess what, it was for one month only. My hair – what’s left – was getting thinner by the day. More phone calls and with a few days over what should have been the start of our year the NoV did arrive. I doubt I shall be around for the platinum anniversary, so someone else will have all this pleasure to look forward to!
The NoV eventually ran from July 1st 2019 until June 30th 2020 so publicity had to be arranged PDQ and a list of operators for their chosen period put on the calendar. Surprisingly, we were not inundated with volunteers.
Propagation was not good so perhaps that was some of the reason why not many came forward. However, we managed to fill the year with operators free to choose which mode they ran with. The JT modes proved quite popular, mostly due to the fact that the JT modes provided most of the activity on any band. However quite a lot of RTTY also took place so that was gratifying.
Our website (below) carried all the information on the operating schedule, and awards structure.
Each contact with GB60ATG on a new band, mode, or country counts one point towards the BARTG Diamond Jubilee Award. There are two categories, Mixed Modes and Single Mode. In each there are four levels, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Diamond. The first applicant to reach Diamond level in either mixed or single mode, can apply for a free salver.
GB60ATG QRV
To be honest we struggled a bit trying to keep GB60ATG on the air for the full year, but our volunteers were very loyal in keeping it going. Propagation did not help at all, but despite that, all data modes were used, and every operator used RTTY. Keith GU6EFB
actually used the call on QO-100, the geostationary satellite. With over 20,000 contacts and 154 countries, it was a good result, remembering that each volunteer only used the call when he could get on the air.
I was very pleased to achieve the very first award application and it was for a Bronze, RTTY only. With my poor antenna situation at present, I was lucky in that I managed this all in one day with Gordon
who lives locally. I would not have achieved it otherwise! See Fig. 2.
That has Certificate Nr 1 on it. Certificate Nr 2 went to Chris G8APB and it was a Bronze for FT8. Mike G4DYC gained Bronze certificate Nr 3, again for RTTY only. John GW4SKA has a mixed mode Gold level for certificate Nr 8 and Chris G8APB has a Silver level for FT4, Nr 9. Chris also holds a Diamond for mixed modes, Nr 7.
Our volunteers were a hard-working bunch and the most prolific was Gordon G3PXT, Andrew G8GNI also did well. Here are his comments:
“Overall, I had 714 QSOs representing all six continents, 62 DXCCs and all bands 160m to 15m. Best DX included China, Indonesia and New Zealand. Most of my QSOs were on 80, 40 and 20m. I used 10 different modes: FT8, FT4, RTTY, JT9, JT65, PSK31, PSK63, Domino, MFSK16 and Throb, the majority being made with FT8, FT4 and RTTY”.
Great selection and Andrew’s station can be seen in Fig. 3.
John GW4SKA is a very keen contester and also provided lots of QSOs during the year. He also has a very tidy shack, Fig. 4. I suspect it was somewhat ‘tidied’ for the picture, however. John provided the following comments:
“GB60ATG operation has now ended and I have put all the logs together. Here are a few facts and figures.
“Gordon G3PXT took the most slots, running up to three stations simultaneously. He took part in a multi-mode contest and made contacts using Throb, Olivia and various other data modes.
“Operation was from G, GW, GM, GI and GU. It was difficult to get all the weekly slots filled and proved impossible to find anyone helpful in GD and GJ. The one stint from GU was very brief and didn’t help a great deal.
“The logs have all been uploaded to Hamlogs and passed on to Charles M0OXO
for handling the QSL cards. He will also upload the logs to LoTW.
“So that’s my involvement over. After all the time spent by Roger to get the call, and my constant chasing for ops, I saw little interest in actual award chasing. I doubt there will be many applications outside of our committee!”
I have been involved with the Golden and now the Diamond BARTG celebrations. I am just wondering if there will be a Platinum celebration in ten year’s time, 2029/30. I am also carefully considering two possibilities here. One is that RTTY itself may have faded somewhat by then with all the migration to JT modes. The other is that I may not be around to participate. Fingers crossed!