26 Oct. 2017 – A Video Evening

The evening started with CW practice. Two senders were in progress, one for learners and the other for the more advanced.

Don, G4LOO then showed a DVD from the British Vintage Wireless Society explaining the state of the nation’s electricity service in about 1996.  It was interesting to see how many people worked in the distribution, maintenance, fault finding and Electricity Board’s showroom.

The second film told of the complete process of manufacturing an LP from original recordings to the vinyl pressings. A process far more complicated than first imagined.

19 Oct. 2017 – Autumn Junk Sale

The turnout for last evening’s junk sale was quite good, only four short of last year’s attendance. We were pleased to welcome  visitors from the Stevenage club. Four other nearby clubs were also invited, but none took up the invitation. Many of the items on sale were of good quality, so the evening was a success.

12 Oct. 2017 – RAE Bedford

Our visiting speaker this week was Barry Thomlinson who told the history of the Royal Aircraft Establishment Bedford which was established in 1950 after the UK government decided in 1944 that new national aeronautical research facilities were required. Bedford was chosen as the most appropriate site for reasons including the availability of electrical power to drive the new wind tunnels, easy access to supersonic flying areas, and the existence of a skilled work force.

Five world-class wind tunnels were built, on the Twinwoods site just outside Bedford, to enable tests at low speeds and also at high Mach numbers. Bedford’s Thurleigh airfield, a former USAAF bomber base, was also re-built with a new main runway and other specialised research facilities, including naval catapults. From 1952, when the first wind tunnel starting running, to 2001, when the government re-organised defence aeronautical research, RAE Bedford was at the forefront of research in many fields, including operating jet aircraft from carriers, automatic landing in fog, the flying behaviour of vertical take off and landing aircraft, and the best configuration for the Concorde supersonic transport. To many working in the field, RAE Bedford was known as a centre of world wide aeronautical excellence.

(text from the Bedford Aeronautical Heritage Group’s website  http://www.bahg.org.uk)

The RAE “house” magazine was published monthly from March 1948 to the final (bi-monthly) issue of September/October 1991, when RAE ceased to exist, having transitioned to the Defence Research Agency. BAHG holds a complete set of RAE News in its archive.     http://bahg.org.uk

5 Oct. 2017 – Preparations for CQWW 28-29 Oct.

Don began by looking back at results from past years and how we had finished with regard to world wide entries and entries from Europe and the UK.

A review of equipment and logging software followed by a request for members to sign up for Friday setting up, operating during the contest and then packing up on the following Monday.

The current state of the operating rota can be seen under the ‘Contests’   tab on this website.