Radio Round-up

G8SRS/100: The club callsign G8SRS was used by members of Stockport Radio Society for the month of June with the suffix /100 to celebrate the centenary anniversary of the club. The callsign was operated from several members’ home stations as well as portable. A special QSL card was designed for the occasion, featuring photographs that document the history of the club. These have been received by members that worked the station, as well as sent to other stations by request.

In total there were 18 operators of the callsign over the 19 days that it was used. Most operators used their home stations, some operated portable stations as part of the Summits-on-the-Air (SOTA) programme, some sought high ground to take advantage of the good take-off, and a number of other operators also operated portable or ‘gardenportable’.

FCC PROPOSES TO INSTITUTE AMATEUR RADIO APPLICATION FEES: Amateur radio licensees would pay a $50 fee for each amateur radio license application if the FCC adopts rules it proposed recently. Included in the FCC’s fee proposal are applications for new licences, renewals and upgrades to existing licences, and vanity callsign requests. Excluded are applications for administrative updates, such as changes of address, and annual regulatory fees.

145 ALIVE 2M ACTIVITY DAY : Lockdown has proved to be a major challenge, however one positive aspect has been the boom in interest in amateur radio and in particular the increase in new M7 licences since April, thanks to the exam being available online. 2m and 70cm have often been the first port of call for many newcomers to the hobby and Tim G5TM, along with some like-minded amateurs, decided it would be great to encourage activity on the 2m band for all licence levels, including M7 callsigns. The aim was to encourage people to join a series of frequencies during one afternoon and to help them fill their logbook with new contacts and to show just how much 2m FM can be used to have an enjoyable time on air.