OVER 60 YEARS OF AMATEUR RADIO IN
MELTON MOWBRAY
MELTON MOWBRAY
ONLINE SHACK NOTEBOOK of G3NVK
- Sydney Clark (G8CZ)
- Douglas Wyndham Lilley (G3FDF)
- Harold Hunt (G2FUM)
- Lawrence J. Fisher (G4MK)
- John Leslie Bowley (G3FXP)
- Richard Winters (BRS 20,133)
In 1969 the hitherto unwritten Constitution under the draftsmanship of Richard Winters was promulgated and the Society (MMARS) became affiliated to the National Society, the RADIO SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN (RSGB). Also in that year the first-appointed Secretary Doug Lilley (G3FDF) retired from the post and Dick Winters (G3NVK) took over - he continues to the present day.
Since the formation of MMARS their meetings have been held on a monthly basis with the exception of July and August when likely attendees are fewer on account of annual holidays. The Annual General Meeting is held in September. The Program of Events for the current season is displayed on these pages and gives details of the venue and times together with other information as to the weekly radio Nets and Events.
MMARS are the holders of callsigns G4FOX and G7FOX significant in that Melton Mowbray is the renowned centre of Fox Hunting in England. The late Doug Lilley was equally proud of his own callsign - phonetically "Fox Dog Fox" - for the same reason. The Society is benefited by having a very dedicated group of Contest-minded members and support is also given to RAYNET, originally known as The Radio Amateur Emergency Network (RAEN).
SPOTLIGHT
From time to time we will be publishing here photographs from the writer's archives and "potted biographies" of the Founders and other members past and present of the amateur radio fraternity of Melton Mowbray all of whom have been life-long friends and colleagues of the writer.
We acknowledge with thanks the photographs and biographical notes supplied by the widows or other relatives of several of those sadly now deceased brethren.
We will also include anecdotal elements of much of the story of the local Society as enjoyed by the writer and essential to complete the circuit from the early experiments carried out by the Marchese Guglielmo MARCONI (who once described himself as being "only an amateur myself"), the early radio amateurs of the type who founded MMARS and who, with many other devotees to this world wide hobby including fellow Servicemen of the writer, paved the way to modern-day Satellite and Internet communications extended to encompass every level of human life.
No. 1 from my album is Syd, G8CZ.
No. 2 from my album is Bill, G6JQ.
No. 3 from my album is Jack, G3FXP.
No. 4 from my album is Doug, G3FDF.
No. 5 from my album is Ken, GM3WKM.
No. 6 from my album is Harold, G2FUM.
No. 7 from my album is Ray, G4PKY.
No. 8 from my album are "The Old Foxes".
Here at the MMARS Meeting on 23rd January 1964 for colour slides and colour films by Doug and Laurie we have
(Back row) Doug G3FDF (now SK), Jack G3FXP (now SK), Archie Bradley G6HNY, Dick G3NVK and David G8ELH
(Seated) Laurie G4MK (now SK), Arthur G3NJB (now SK) and Syd G8CZ (now SK)
Neither MMARS nor RSARS is immune to the inevitability of "the competitive spirit" which abounds in most of human activity and certainly in the realms of amateur radio and its Societies. The evidence of this interest and elements of prowess and skill are demonstrated on our TROPHY ROOM page.
We are also continuing to build our WALL OF FAME the foundations of which are already in place on this web site. A Guest Book for any comments you care to make is available at the foot of WINFORCE Home Page.
We offer you now our SHACK RECORDS with their pictures of Morse Keys, local Home Brew equipment, items from the shelf of an old shack, links to Web sites of Amateur Radio interest and other items which may interest you.
Much has been written about Amateur Radio and the pen of G3NVK, never idle in a half-century in the legal profession, diverted to include in his own book a chapter on the subject. "Amateur Radio" - this extract from "Law and Disorder" is available from here but readers are recommended to download it (it is deliberately not illustrated and thus is text only to keep it down to 36 kb) to read at leisure rather than whilst paying to browse!
Page contents and design © 2000-2008 Richard Winters