50th year of TDARS – a review

TDARS 50th Anniversary Year is not quite over, but it has been an eventful year, by Vice Chairman Martyn G3UKV

• The AGM saw few Committee changes, Eric M0KZB retired after many years in the Chairman’s post to be replaced by ever-active Simon G0UFE.
• We entered many contests, inc. RTTY, 50MHz Trophy, VHF NFD & 3 separate microwave bands (cumulative type), coming top in at least 3. Also the UKAC weekly contests, several members contribute on a regular basis, representing TDARS.
• Also Marconi event station at Tywyn for GB8MD which was literally a blow-out, JOTA at Market Drayton was a success, and Paul M0PLA kept us all informed of his SOTA activities, both in the UK and Europe.

Club activity
GB50TEL was carried over from 2018 (celebrating 50 years of Telford as a New Town) into 2019 from a couple of locations. The Special Contest Call G3Z was renewed for another 5 years as we met its requirements, and of course the 4 microwave beacons at LWVH, together with GB3TF voice/digi repeater just kept on going.

Promoting the club
A couple of shiny bright new banners were aired at various times (see photo), including their presence at the Little Wenlock Annual Fair in July.

The website was regularly updated and followed by many of the A.R. fraternity, along with 5 editions of the TDARS Newsletter. Social media involvement became a further useful tool in raising the profile of the Society. We were Regional Winners for the RSGB ‘Club of the Year’ Award.

The Telford Hamfest
Then the momentous decision to move the Telford HamFest and the G-QRP club Social/Buildathon to a new location at Harper Adams University near Newport.   Only those closely involved in this move probably realise the enormous amount of work this entailed. But it succeeded, with hardly a hitch and overwhelming praise afterwards. Congrats to everyone who helped make this event such an outstanding success.

Then the momentous decision to move the Telford HamFest and the G-QRP club Social/Buildathon to a new location at Harper Adams University near Newport.   Only those closely involved in this move probably realise the enormous amount of work this entailed. But it succeeded, with hardly a hitch and overwhelming praise afterwards. Congrats to everyone who helped make this event such an outstanding success.

To finish, on a rather thoughtful note, I must mention the passing of many Members of the Society over the 50 years of our existence—so perhaps worth casting your eyes over the Silent Keys  listings. Many of those mentioned played a vital part in the on-going success of the club, and I thank them for their numerous contributions.

We look forward to 2020