Category Archives: Events

radio events, general events, or events involving M0INI.

Red Rose Rally 2025 Successful
Red Rose Rally 2025 Successful avatar

Today was the West Manchester Radio Clubs Red Rose Rally.  Over 250 people attended the event, which was judged a success despite it being in an unfortunate smaller venue that cannot be helped.  The club is working on this for a larger and affordable venue.

As secretary of the club, I arrived just before 10am, and offered my services to cover any job position to relieve people allowing them to take a break.  I managed to get involved in taking the money on the door, selling raffle tickets, folding the raffle tickets, clearing up used cups and plates, sorting out the car parking issues, asking vendors to keep the isles clear, helping on the bring and buy.  At 1pm, I did the announcement of the draw, thanking everyone for coming, and inviting Dave Wilson from the RSGB to draw the raffle tickets.  Like everyone else running the rally, a busy day for all.

The main raffle prize, a Yaesu FT70D, was won and collected on the day, and the 2nd prize of a £20 cheque and cap from our sponsor, was won by a newly licensed amateur who only passed his foundation level exam this week on Wednesday..!

I did manage to take a break myself in order to enjoy one of the delicious bacon baps.  And, there may be every truth in the rumour that an hour later I participated in trying one of the sausage baps too.  A big thank you to the kitchen staff for the presentation of the food.

And lastly, a big thank you to all the volunteer members of the West Manchester Radio Club for helping out and making the rally possible.

DXpedition South Andaman Isles 2025 – Callsign VU4AX
DXpedition South Andaman Isles 2025 – Callsign VU4AX avatar

Expedition News

DX-Adventure is thrilled to announce our upcoming DX-pedition to the beautiful South Andaman Islands (IOTA AS-001) operating as VU4AX.
From March 10th to March 20th, 2025, an experienced team of 12 operators will be active from South Andaman, operating 6 stations around the clock on bands from 10m to 160m (incl. WARC + 60m), using CW, SSB, and DIGI.  Months of careful planning and preparation have brought together an international team of experienced DX-peditioners, including: ON4AMX Marc, ON4HIL Patrick, ON5UR Max, ON5RA Pascal, ON5TN Karel, ON6CC Marc, ON7FT Jonas, ON7USB Geert, ON7RU Franky, ON8AZ Francis, PA3EWP Ronald, PA9M Marcel.
Six stations mean a lot of material and it is a big challenge to transport it all to VU4. With 1.150kg of equipment meticulously prepared, we will try to offer the best experience possible for you, covering 24/7 operations to maximize the change on having a QSO with us. VU4 ranks as #28 for the USA and #53 worldwide, making it a rare and exciting challenge.
Needless to say, your support is essential to make this DX-pedition a success. We deeply appreciate our sponsors and suppliers for their ongoing support and welcome further contributions to help us achieve a memorable DX-pedition.
Stay updated with the latest news at www.dx-adventure.com.

Red Rose Radio Rally 2025
Red Rose Radio Rally 2025 avatar

Next month sees that winter radio rally for my radio club, the West Manchester Radio Club and will be held on Sunday 23rd February 2025 from 10am onward.

Red Rose Rally Venue

Due to work being carried out in the usual hall, there will be a change of venue, and the Red Rose Rally will now be held at Mather Hall (Postcode: WN7 2PJ) instead of the usual St Josephs Hall.  However, please use the same car park.

Personally, I am very interested in the 27MHz / PMR users meeting, however, full details of the radio rally are on the West Manchester Radio Clubs website at: Red Rose Rally.

Radio Rally Update

I understand that the trader tables at this years Red Rose Rally are 5ft not 6ft, due to the venue only being able to supply 5ft tables, however, the good news is that the price for a table is the same price.

West Manchester Radio Club Christmas Party 2024
West Manchester Radio Club Christmas Party 2024 avatar

Last night, I enjoyed a brilliant night at the West Manchester Radio Club‘s Christmas Party.  Every year, my club puts on a tickets only Christmas Party where we all have a get together, have a lovely buffet and enjoy a quiz.  At the end, the ticket price includes a random draw for a bottle of something for you to take away.  Although, I never seem to win the whisky..!

For the last three years, being the Secretary, I have stepped up and done a quiz with a range of categories to make everyone have a jolly good think.  As it is only for fun, the club provides a box of chocolates for the winning team.  This year, the winning team scored 42 out of 50, the worst team, ah hem, 11..!

The buffet we enjoyed was organised by Janet LePuy (thank you) with caterers T&T Sargeants from Leigh who supplied a lovely spread of food, and plenty too..!

Christmas Party

Here are some Christmas party pictures taken courtesy of Peter Nutt G4WLI. Thanks Peter.

If you are into amateur radio, and live in the north west of the UK, then you really need to think about joining this very socially active radio club, it is well worth the membership fee and effort of coming down to the club shack.  Oh, and you don’t always have to wear a Christmas jumper..!

JOTA 2024 Event Report
JOTA 2024 Event Report avatar

Today (Saturday 19th October 2024) the 1st Ashley Air Scouts had a very successful JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) from Hugo Meynell school in Loggerheads with help from the Staffordshire and District Amateur Radio Society along with myself.

My main role today was educational, to teach the Scouts, Cubs and Beavers some of the phonetic alphabet and explain why we use call signs to identify stations and why we speak the call signs in the phonetic alphabet they have just learned due to poor operating conditions.  Some already knew their phonetic alphabet, and as one young cub pointed out, I didn’t even know the normal alphabet..!  I was just testing them, or rather, that was my excuse.  LOL

After their lesson, they were let on to the club’s HF station, an Icom 7300 connected to a DX-Commander operated by Paul, and with his assistance, contact was made with other JOTA stations, and very basic messages were exchanged, like names and with what they had just learned, the spelling of their names phonetically.

Between 10:30 and 15:00, I believe contacts were made in York, Hebden Bridge, Jersey, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Vietnam, Mauritius and Taiwan.

The conditions of the bands were very noisy, 40m being the worse, so in the late morning, I got the impression that everyone was crowding on 20m in order to make a JOTA contact.  In the afternoon, the 40m band picked up again, but, signals seemed distant, quiet, and faded in and out.  A very difficult band to work today.

Due to these really difficult working conditions, GB1SDS did try listening out for GB4FAS (operated by my radio club The West Manchester Radio Club), but, despite trying, GB1SDS simply could not hear GB4FAS 70 miles away.

Overall, a very busy and fulfilling day, I would definitely do it again.

I would like to say a big thank you to the members of the Staffordshire and District Radio Society for their assistance in helping this local scout group do this and the troop gain their JOTA badges.

Scouts JOTA 2024
Scouts JOTA 2024 avatar

This year, I am helping at my son’s Scout group, the 1st Ashley Air Scouts along with the local amateur radio club from Stafford and District Amateur Radio Society who will be taking the lead and providing the radios.

The global 2024 JOTA, this year, is being held between Friday 18th and Sunday 20th October 2024.  However, the event I will be helping will be on the Saturday 19th October 2024 between 10:00 and 16:00.

I have spoken to Scouts in years gone by, usually when I have been mobile, however, this will be the first time I have actually helped at an organised JOTA event with a Scout group.  Needless to say, both myself and my son are looking forwards to it.

EDIT: I understand a special event callsign has been applied for and granted for this event.  The callsign will be GB1SDS.  Listen out on the HF bands for this callsign on Saturday 19th October.