The Second Radio Club evening was a great success.

The Second Radio Club evening was a great success.

We tested and listened to radio signals in and around Harker's trying to find a suitable location for our radio shack. And got an insight into morse code transmission. We also learnt that some communicators are very competitive to make contact, and have little patience with morse code beginners!

Marko then gave a fascinating talk about the popularity of community radio station in Slovenia, with specialist interest groups for all aspects of the community. However suggested that we may be the first Amateur Radio Group for Artists.

He talked about setting up the first Radio Station in Antarctica I-TASC the protocol of talking on a community radio station in Northern Canada (just get on and talk!), creating the Makrolabs and hosting simultaneous visits by both the Italian military to set off weather balloons and Italian anarchists as programmers, as well as how to make contacts with the Russian Space programme (make friends with the Cosmonauts over ham radio whilst they are bored in space!).

We were reminded that one of the first radio transmissions was made on Newcastle's Town Moor and were excited by the idea of Amateur TV transmissions.

Thankyou to everyone who made the evening.
Photos can be seen here

The next meeting of Waygood Amateur Radio Club is 6pm – 8pm on Tuesday 4 December, where we will look the process of applying for Ham radio Licenses and taking expressions of interest to see how many of us want to study for our licences. New members are welcome.

Next Meeting Agenda:
1. Foundation Radio Licenses
2. Setting up the Radio Shack at Harkers
3. Visits to Regional Clubs & events
4. Membership of the club

New members are welcome. Join the radio club mailing list via the sign up box on our website www.waygood.org<

Waygood @ Harkers, 548 - 560 Shields Road, Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 2UT. The nearest metro is Chillingham Road, exit via Depot Road towards Walkergate. For directions take a look here

If you want to know more about Waygood take a look at www.waygood.org

If you want to know more about AV Festival take a look at www.avfestival.co.uk

NEXT MEETING NOW THURSDAY 22 NOVEMBER 6-8.30 with Marko Peljhan

CHANGE OF DATE FOR OUR NEXT MEETING to feature Marko Peljan

AV Festival 08’s featured artist Marko Peljhan will be making a site visit to the region and has agreed to come to the next Radio Club Meeting to talk to us about his radio related projects and his involvement in AV Festival 08.

Slovenian artist Marko works with telecommunications technology, contemporary architecture and sustainable energy. An artist of unparalleled ambition, Peljhan has worked with the Russian Space Programme, and plans to launch his own telecommunications satellite. After building the art-science laboratory, Makrolab, which has been installed in inhospitable and remote locations around the world, Peljhan is currently working on laboratories for the most challenging environments on earth - Antarctica and the Arctic circle. Peljhan was the featured artist at the world’s most prestigious electronic art festival, Ars Electronica, in 2007.

To accommodate this we have agreed to change the date of the meeting to Thursday 22 November 2007, here at Harker’s. I hope that you can all still make it, as this is a wonderful opportunity to meet Marko and here him talk about his radio projects

Thursday 22 November
6-7pm Waygood Radio Club Meeting with Radio reception testing
7-7.30pm refreshments
7.30-8.30 Marko Peljhan Talk + Question & Answer session

The talk is open to anyone, so please feel free to invite anyone who may be interested. Please ask them to RSVP to Liping@waygood.org, stating that they are coming to Marko’s talk.

I would be grateful if you could RSVP to the same address confirming if you are coming to the Radio Club meeting (and we assume that will be staying for Marko’s talk too).

With all best wishes


Helen

ROUND UP OF 1ST MEETING DATE CHANGE OF NEXT MEETING TO THURS 22 NOV TO INCORPORATE VISIT BY MARKO PELJHAN

What a great start to Waygood’s amateur radio club!
Thanks to everyone who came along.

Proceedings began with everyone introducing themselves. This revealed a big range of interests in all types of radio production.

I spoke briefly about the variety of people who had expressed interest in the club and the wide range of locations they are based in. This inevitably means that not everyone can attend the club meetings at Harkers. A way for everyone to communicate regularly will be via this blog here on Waygood’s website.

I outlined how I had stumbled upon Amateur radio at the Peterlee Town Fair in 2006 and how this had led to developing a project as part of the AV Festival 2008: Broadcast. This will include the setting up of an arts based amateur radio club at Waygood and the coordination of a Radio Rally at Newcastle upon Tyne’s Grainger Market during AV Festival 08.

Michelle Hirchhorn, from AV Festival described the remit of the festival, which takes place 28 February to 8 March 2008 and potential links between Waygood’s Radio Club and commissioned artist, Marko Peljhan, It was agreed that Marko would make a presentation about his work to club at a future meeting. (More news on this below)

The star of the evening was Glen Thompson of Tynemouth amateur radio club, Glen gave a brilliant presentation on the background to amateur radio and several examples of how it is used including an ICOM news feature on the very competitive international contesting competitions. We also saw an informative video from the Radio Society of Great Britain on 'How to become a Radio Amateur' and the exciting pastime of setting up stations on remote islands (IOTA). As Michelle said after the meeting this was pitched perfectly for a first meeting of the club. It gave us all a good idea of the creative possibilities. Ginny Reed commented, that it would be good to experiment with the technology of shortwave radio as soon as possible in order to discover what it’s possibilities are. Michael Mulvihill agreed with this and suggested that at the next meeting of the club a radio and aerial are set up to play around with receiving shortwave signals at Harkers.

Glen described the Foundation License training necessary for individuals who want to use amateur radio. This can happen over a couple of weekends and evenings, and usually takes about 10 -15 hours depending on the knowledge of the individual. A multiple-choice test needs to be passed to receive your foundation license. It was agreed that in general people were interested in doing this as soon as possible, but that we would all consider this for our next meeting.

Andy Sheridan filmed the meeting for Waygood’s archive. He focused on Glen’s presentation. This will be edited in the near future and will be available for you to view.

Much enthusiastic chat took place with a few glasses of wine after the meeting and the last visitors to Waygood @ Harker’s were waved off at around 10pm.

First meeting next Tuesday 6th November 6-8pm

The 31st of October has arrived and a grand total of 73 of you have expressed an interest in Waygood's Radio Club - Brilliant!

The 1st meeting of the club will take place next Tuesday at 6pm until 8pm at Waygood @ Harkers, 548 - 560 Shields Road, Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 2UT.For directions take a look at http://www.waygood.org/contact/map.html

The Agenda for the meeting is:

Welcome & Introductions

Why Amateur Radio at Waygood – Helen Smith

The AV Festival –Michelle Hirschhorn Consultant Producer, AV Festival 08

Foundation Radio License training – Glen Thompson

The club – how to go forward – Everyone.

Light refreshments will be provided, (only because it’s the 1st meeting!)

See you on Tuesday

Helen

If you want to know more about Waygood take a look at www.waygood.org

If you want to know more about AV Festival take a look at www.avfestival.co.uk

Here is a picture of Harker's for those of you who have not been here before.