Also called 5WS the First to get across, this video is  the story of early amateur radio attempts to send and receive signals across the ‘pond’ in Feb. 1921. Nick told of the stations on this side being restricted to 10 watts and small antennas while the US were allowed  1 kilowatt and unrestricted aerials.  At that time all stations were using a frequency of 200M. In the US there were thousands of licensed amateurs while over here there were a few hundred. Operations on this side of the Atlantic were restricted to certain times while the US had no restrictions in operation time.

The tests were  organised by the RSGB and the ARRL.  Skeds were made for times to call but in the first instance no signals were copied.  In the end, the Americans sent an amateur over here to set up a receiving station. Signals were copied in December 1921 coming from US to England.  Later Philip Coursey and the RSGB team got a license for 1kW and a long wire aerial was strung from the top of a 200ft chimney at the generating station at Richmond.  Their exploits were covered by Wireless World in  December 1922 when (G)5WS was the first UK station to be heard on the East to West transmissions. The first  transmissions by 5WS copied East to West will be celebrated by the RSGB at the end of this year.

The entire video can be found on line if you look for RSGB 2022 Convention Presentations – Transatlantic Centenary Tests

Derek, M0YAW, gave a brief overview of his work experience and up to the present day. He spoke of his training in electronics such that he could service any make of radio equipment, receiver or transmitter. He worked for BP on tankers ranging in size from 80,000 tons to 400,000. He circumnavigated the world twice and visited many interesting ports. Shore leave gave him the opportunity to experience some of the rarer destinations in the Pacific, particularly Pago Pago in the eastern district of American Samoa. In the tiny harbour, the tanker had a very slow discharge rate using one pump running at quarter speed, instead of four pumps each running at 3 tons per second! So he had plenty of time ashore. Derek was on BP ship British Wye when it was called into service under MoD charter in the Falklands War in 1982. All the crew on board were volunteers. Derek added that when they sailed south to Ascension Island, they all thought the matter of the Falklands war would be over before they arrived. The sinking of British warships made them realise just how serious their task was to be. Two particular events were recalled, one was the ship being bombed by an Argentine Hercules. The MV British Wye was carrying 36000 tonnes of aviation fuel and the aircraft made a low pass and the  bombs were pushed out from the loading ramp. The outcome was a scuffed deck where one bomb bounced from the deck into the sea. There was an almighty underwater explosion. Later when the WYE was transferring fuel to another ship, Derek explained that the ship’s gyroscope malfunctioned making the parallel course with the other ship very challenging. Derek did a manual reset of the gyroscope in 30 minutes instead of 30 hours. The end of the conflict with Argentina was also the end of Derek’s life as a ships radio officer. He was awarded the Falklands Service Medal. After working in sales, he moved into technical authoring.     A job that he is still doing!

Report by Paul, G1GSN

Paul, G1GSN reported “The welcome back, as always, was a low key affair starting with tea and biscuits. The ‘Welcome Back’ became a discussion that evolved around the use of FT8 on the 17m band and included non radio items such as classic cars, DIY and newly licensed radio hams. About a dozen members were in attendance”.

The meeting closed about 9pm.