04-21-18, 19:00 pm

British Island Waterways on the Air (BIWOTA) is on the weekend 25 to 27 August 2018. The event is open to all boaters, cyclists, walkers and other users of the canals, towpaths and riverbanks for work or recreation.

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04-20-18, 19:11 pm

In a burst of brilliance in 1864, James Maxwell theorized that electromagnetic -- radio and light -- waves could travel through free space without the mythical "ether" or "quintessence." A few years later, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz -- the unit of cycles per second is named for him -- was able to prove electromagnetic waves could propagate through free space, which confirmed Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. In fact, for many years radio waves were called Hertzian waves. "Radio" is not an acronym or hyphenation but is derived from the word "radiation" or "to radiate." Waldo Warren coined the word and it was adopted by the U.S. Navy in 1912. You see, the electromagnetic spectrum contains radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays and Gamma rays. Those are all forms of electromagnetic radiation. The waves travel in interesting ways across our sky, in outer space and even into the earth and oceans. Since the early 1900s, no other group has made a greater contribution to radio communications than our treasured amateur or so-called ham radio operators. Even though they are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, they are called amateur radio operators because the FCC has set aside certain noncommercial radio frequencies for their utilization. Amateur radio operators have a distinguished history of public service as well as emergency communications.

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04-20-18, 12:36 pm

Last week during F-troop something very interesting happened. If you're not familiar with F-troop, it's a weekly net for new and returning amateurs and every Saturday we welcome callers to the one hour net to discuss anything and everything amateur radio. It's been going for about seven or so years, about as long as I have been making this weekly contribution to the hobby.

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04-19-18, 19:02 pm

Members of Telford and District Amateur Radio Society will set up a radio station on the Welsh coast to join a global celebration of the birthday of Guglielmo Marconi, who was born on April 25,1874, and is credited with the invention of radio as we know it today. Club secretary John Humphreys, call sign M0JZH, of Wellington, said: "We cannot hope to make our antennas as big as Marconi's, but this year our wire will be 80 metres end-to-end and handmade by club members which we will set up in a big field alongside the appropriately named Marconi Bungalows road in Tywyn for this Saturday, April 21.

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