Eddie, M0HDK, gave a talk covering CERN (The European Centre for Nuclear Research) and a brief history of nuclear physics.

CERN was established in 1954 at Meyrin, Switzerland and is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. There are 22 members (The UK contributes 146.96 million Swiss Francs or 12.5% of the budget, the biggest contributor is Germany contributing 18.6% of the budget). There are 2,400 full time employees, 1,500 part time employees and up to 10,000 visiting scientists.

CERN is the home of the Large Hadron Collider housed in a 27 km circumference tunnel that straddles the Franco-Swiss border. Following a two –year break for maintenance the LHC re-started in April this year. The most well-known discovery was the Higgs Boson particle in March 2010.

Eddie then covered the work of John Dalton in the development of modern atomic theory; the work of Mendeleev on the periodic table, then moved on to Thomson and Rutherford and Dirac and covered quantum mechanics and antimatter. Eddie also covered the development of cyclotrons, cloud chambers, spark chambers, bubble chambers and linear accelerators.                                          ( Text by Owen, G0PHY)

The fox signal was provided by Martin, M6SCI and Ian, G3ORG. The hunt started at 20:00 with the fox transmitting one watt for one minute in every five.  First on the scene at 2020 was Ken, G4YRF, assisted by Richard, G3Nii and Quentin, G0BVW. Peter Webb, M0CKA followed after a few minutes and then David, G8UOD at 20:25. Two other members, Paul, G1GSN and Owen, G0PHY got very near, but then turned away.

At about 20:45 the hunt was ended and we all headed for the pub!

The meeting started with Don, G4LOO outlining changes necessary to the VHF/UHF NFD plans.

This was followed by a short look at some of the aspects of planning a major DXpetition.  Using internet video, details emerged as to the depth and scale of planning required to enable the trips to Navassa and Desecheo Islands in the Caribbean.