CLUB NEWS

At the Club meeting on 15th May 2003 an interesting visitor turned up! It was none other than John Davies G6RTV, the RSGB Regional Coordinator for Gloucestershire & surrounding counties. Apparently John has only recently took up the post and was taking the opportunity to visit as many Clubs as possible within his area and to talk to members about their Club, their views on Amateur Radio and general views on the RSGB--in fact, anything radio related whatsoever!

Topics discussed were many & varied but John was especially interested in the new 10M Packet Radio Node on 29.250MHz at Stroud which has just gone on the air and of which there is much more information on this Web site. John was also interested in our views on the RSGB (both members & non-members), subscription rates and the QSL bureau as he was soon to attend a meeting where the RSGB had requested input from it's regional coordinators on what Clubs thought of the RSGB services on offer.

Much discussion also took place about the state of the licensing system---callsigns, the possible removal of Morse as a requirement for HF operation, foundation licensing and ways of encouraging both old & young people into the hobby. It was agreed that the RSGB had made an excellent start with it's Foundation Initiative Courses.

A great deal of interesting views were exchanged on the Internet Linking Of Repeaters, Power Line Transmission (PLT) and even the ARRL in the USA got a mention too!

All members agreed that the evening had been really interesting and that it was good to see that the RSGB were seeking the views of Club members at grassroots levels. Special thanks go to John himself for his visit and I hope the Clubs' input with be very useful in his future discussions with the RSGB.