Churches on the Air
For the last few years, the club has run a station from St Osmund's Church on London Road Derby to support Churches on the Air(CHOTA). During 2010 we used a special event callsign GB1SOC, which stands for "St Osmund's Church".
GB1SOC operated by our Honorary Secretary Clive 2E1HVZ
In 2010, the event was held on Saturday 11th September and coincided with Heritage Day and Historic Churches Trusts’ events put on by church of England churches. This was good opportunity both to show off amateur radio to the general public and advertise WACRAL (World Association of Christian Radio Amateurs and Listeners) who put on CHOTA which is organised by their member John, G3XYF.
For this event we used a dipole mounted on a pole in the gardens of the church grounds and a Yaesu FT897. The event was well supported and fun was had by all who attended.
For 2011 it was decided to operate from the Club’s HQ – Carlton Road United Reformed Church – in Derby as it was the Churches 80th Anniversary since the laying of the Foundation Stone on 12th September 1931. So whilst the members of the Church celebrated with one or two events and a tea during the afternoon of 10th September, other members of our Club were operating GB1OOD as our contribution to the WACRAL event.
Using
only a standard 100W into the feeder going to our Comet H-422 dipole we
managed a few contacts with other Churches but again HF conditions
weren’t at all helpful. It is hoped that when we operate from St.
Osmund’s again in 2012 with, hopefully, GB1SOC, that the HF bands are
in better shape.
