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After a couple of years without possibly the country’s largest Amateur Radio rally it was great to see the return of the Newark Hamfest this year over the slightly later weekend of 14/15 October 2022
A few members of the South Bristol ARC: Kevin M7AWX, Greg M7BUF, Kenneth M7MYU and Andy G7KNA made the pilgrimage to Newark and the surrounding area in the week leading up to the rally, and met on site on the Saturday morning.
Armed with pre-booked tickets, they were quickly inside and started with a tour of the “flea market” where Greg M7BUF had a long chat to the Camb Hams group about “Flossie2” getting a wealth of ideas for adaptions to his own transit, “The Phantom“. Kevin M7AWX was also able to have a great discussion with the same group about their QO-100 setup.
Inside the event hall many of the usual traders and groups were present including (amongst others): Martin Lynch and Sons, bhi, SDRPlay, LamCo and the usual RSGB bookstall and Committees. Notably absent were Waters and Stanton, who at the last rally pre-Covid had debuted the Elecraft K4, and Radio World. Additionally Moonraker’s stand was essentially a table showing their website on a computer.
Overheard conversations suggested that the Friday was busier than the Saturday, when our representatives attended, but there was still plenty to see and everyone came away with some information or even some goodies to enhance the shack. News from SDRPlay is that new software SDRConnect is due soon which will provide a native Windows, OSX and Linux experience for the RSP range of SDR Receivers.
After a morning at the Hamfest, the group moved to the nearby Newark Air Museum, the photo below showing at the back from left to right: Kenneth M7MYU and Kevin M7AWX and seated at the front from left to right: Greg M7BUF, Andy G7KNA and honourary member for the day Christopher SWL who took this photo by controlling his phone from his watch! We hope that Christopher will consider a greater foray into Amateur Radio in the future.
The Avro Shackleton behind the intrepid team can trace its lineage and development back to the famous wartime bomber the Avro Lancaster by way of the Avro Lincoln. The Avro Shackleton was initially equipped with extensive electronics and deployed in an anti-submarine role and also in a Search and Rescue role. Although ultimately replaced by the Nimrod in anti-submarine duties Shackeltons continued to be used in Airborne Early Warning roles until the early 1990’s.
