Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club

Another absolutely fantastic club evening up at Barbury Castle with the Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club this evening.

We had 3 stations running with Philip. M0PBZ running a 2m FM setup, young Enzo, M7VZO running a HF setup on 20m and
Jonathan, M0ZGB swapping between 6m and 40m.

We also had Rob, G4ZAM assisting John, M9KMG in tuning a 1/2 wave 80m kite antenna.

As well as coaching Enzo, I was kept busy talking to a new potential member, Steve, who has a 1980's CB and SWL background and is looking to start his journey in Amateur Radio.

We finally packed up in the dark after another inspiring, active, sociable and enjoyable club evening.

If you're local to Swindon, then please come and visit us, we really are a friendly, welcoming bunch.

73,
Dom, M9WHQ
Chairman SDARC

Excellent support from the club for WRTC 2026. 4 of our club members are part of the Station Building Team and will be providing other services to the competitors. Well don't to Tony, Marc, James and Andrew.

SWINDON'S FANTASTIC AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNITY

Well another absolutely amazing evening at the Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club this evening. Not only did we have another incredible turnout for this evenings presentation, but we had some outstanding displays of generosity.

During the week Mike, M5CBS had kindly agreed to donate his Kenwood TS-450S to our young operator, Enzo, M7VZO, so that he could get on HF. Mike said that he didn't use this particular radio anymore, so he may as well pass it on to Enzo.

This in itself was an incredibly kind offer. However, the story doesn't end there. One of our other club members Tony, G4LDL turn up at the club saying that Ian, G5WQ (who he didn't know) turned up on his doorstep, before he left to come up the club and presented him with a bag FULL of equipment, including an ICOM IC-718, Quansheng UV-5K, 20A adjustable PSU, Manual ATU, 2 x VHF/UHF SWR meters, RigExper digital modem, wire antenna, various patch leads and balun torroids, stating that this was all for Enzo! Furthermore, one of our other members Marc, M0KYB had made Enzo a EFHW antenna with a 49:1 balun.

So, we now had a bit of a dilemma as Enzo had now been gifted a couple of HF radios. I had a quick word with Mike, M5CBS and asked if he would be happy if we donated his Kenwood to Michael, M7OUF, who passed his Foundation last week and doesn't have a HF radio. He agreed that would be absolutely fine. During our 'parish notices', I presented Enzo and Michael with their donated equipment. Obviously, they were over the moon.

At the end of the evening, it was great to see Enzo going through is bag of goodies and sharing out some of the kit he had duplicates of with Michael and our two newest members went away fully kitted out to start their journey on HF, which we, as a club will support them on.

Over the last couple weeks, we have seen some incredible generosity from our members, past members, non-members who have shown the true spirit of Amateur Radio and donated various equipment and ancillaries to the club, so that we can pass it on to members.

This has included:
Ian, G5WQ
Mike, M5CBS
Simon, G4WQG
Darren, G1ERM
James, M1DST
Mike, G4GER
Marc, M0KYB
Chris, G4AJA

Apologies if I've missed anyone off, but the generosity has been overwhelming.

These people are true ambassadors of Amateur Radio and we are privileged to have them as members and friends of the Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club.

Thank you.

73
Dom, M9WHQ
Chairman SDARC

What a week at the Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club!

Thursday club night was an incredibly busy evening, with loads of activity going on.

Firstly, we had a new member Michael come along and visit the club for the first time. He sat in whilst I did some knowledge transfer with Enzo, M7VZO. I was teaching him how to use his new Yaesu FT-65E handheld and discussing contesting, in preparation for the 144MHz VHF Championship over the weekend, where the club would be putting on a small station to allow some of our newer club members to have a go at contesting.

Michael has his Foundation Exam booked for next Friday, so we are all wishing him the best of luck with that.

While this was going on, Philip, M0PZB and Rob, G4ZAM had setup a HF Station with the club's ICOM IC-7300 to allow any club members to jump on and have a go on SSB, CW or FT8.

Additionally Pete, G4OIQ was being assisted by Viv, M0IEP and Paul, M7JPJ to tune a 2m Moxon with a VNA analyser.

Towards the end of the evening, Enzo, M7VZO jumped on to the radio to practice his CW under the guidance of Philip, M0PZB and I, Dom, M9WHQ even jumped on to have a very quick dabble. 😊

On Friday, we received the great news that Paul, M7JPJ had successfully passed his Intermediate Exam.

On Saturday, the club setup a fairly small station, compared to our usual 2 tower station, to take part in the RSGB 144MHz VHF Championship Contest, up at Barbury Castle, just outside Swindon.
The station was setup by James, M1DST, Marc, M0KYB, Andy, G0UWS, Enzo, M7VZO, Paul, M7JPJ.

The aim of the station was to give some of the newer members the opportunity to experience and have a go at Contesting. Despite the relatively small station, the event was extremely successful and thoroughly enjoyed by all those who took part.

The club continues to go from strength to strength. If you are interested in finding out more, then please get in touch or visit our website for more information.

https://sdarc.net

73,

Dom, M9WHQ
Chairman Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club

Time for celebration!

Yesterday evening, our latest club member, 11 year old, Enzo, who has only been at the club for 3 weeks, successfully passed his Foundation Licence Exam, with an incredible score of 99%.

Well done Enzo, you should be proud of yourself with such a fantastic achievement.

We'll see you at the club this evening for a little celebration.

Congratulations from all of the club members.

73

Dom, M9WHQ
Chairman SDARC

The Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club is proud to announce that it is now a RSGB Brickworks Accredited Club.

The Brickworks scheme is an exciting and fun way to build on what you have learned on your Foundation Course. It enables you to learn more about your new hobby, build your confidence, gain a greater understanding of how to get the best out of your equipment and enjoy new experiences, but it does not need to be limited to Foundation Licence holders. The tasks can be enjoyed by all members of the club, no matter what licence level, as it encourages mentoring and training all, in the many different aspects of the hobby. Most of all, it encourages activities and getting on the air.

The Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club will be incorporating the various activities in to its usual busy schedule throughout 2026. If you want to find out more or get involved, then please do come along and join us at the club.

Please visit links below for more information about Brickworks and the club.

https://rsgb.org/main/beyond-exams-building-experience/brickworks/

https://sdarc.net

Following the talk "Micro-Controllers & Micro-Computers – 3 Quick 10 Minute Projects" by Dom, M9WHQ. The Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club has now received 9 x Heltec ESP32, V3 433Mhz LoRa boards for several members to build their own TinyGS Satellite Receiving Ground Station. It has also received 12 x Heltec ESP32, V3 863Mhz LoRa boards for members to experiment with LoRa Mesh technology, primarily focussing on Meshtastic and MeshCore projects.

The slide-deck from the presentation can be downloaded from https://sdarc.net

If you are interested, in radio and technology, then why not come along to the club and find out more.

Over this weekend (5/6th July '25) the club is taking part in the RSGB VHF National Field Day (NFD). Despite some bad weather with lots of wind and rain, the club was setup to operate on multiple bands from Barbury Castle.

Here are some pictures of our impressive setup.