About Dundee ARc
WHAT DO WE DO?
In addition to holding club nights, which can be members giving presentations, outside speakers or build nights (where members assist each other in building electronic items), the club takes part in many field events as can be seen here. Members participate in SOTA and POTA as well as other award based schemes. We have two weekly 'Nets' using the clubs own Repeater and a YSF Reflector (GB DundeeARC #60253) where members meet on air to catch up and discuss radio matters. There are literally hundreds of competitions to take part in, locally, nationally and worldwide. Club members interests involve VHF & UHF local communications, digital voice radio, HF radio (worldwide), digital radio modes such as FT8, Slow Scan TV, satellite communications and much more. Did you know that the International Space Station is fitted with Amateur Radios and the astronauts are licensed amateur radio operators who you can talk to when they have time!
Amateur Radio is inclusive
NASA astronaut Colonel Tim Wheelock (callsign KF5BOC) operating the NA1SS ham radio station aboard the International Space Station. But the good news is that you don't need to be an astronaut to take part in the hobby! The hobby is open to all ages and abilities and fosters people communicating with each other socially. In the UK the Foundation (beginners) licence consist of 26 multiple choice questions, taken in an online exam lasting 1 hour. There are several free online courses to prepare you for the exam, which is designed to encourage people to become licensed and start their journey into ham radio. The hobby is like any other where you can spend a small amount up to huge amounts on equipment. To begin to get on the air, a brand new dual band handset can cost as little as £30 and many operators build their own equipment such as antennas to learn more and keep costs down.
JOTA
Every year the club assists the local Scouts and Beavers in working towards their Communications Badges. We also take part in the annual worldwide JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) which allows Scouts from all over the world to speak to each other via Amateur Radio.
it isn't all sitting behind a radio on a desk though
Ultra light
Using a Mountain Topper radio, about the size of a pack of cards, powered by a 9v battery to send morse code (CW) worldwide!
Up a hill!
A portable VHF antenna on a mast, set up on a hillside to take part in a competition.
History of Dundee ARC
The club was founded as the Kingsway Technical College Amateur Radio Club in 1970 by Derek Coupar (GM3YVX) and Findlay Baxter (GM3VEY), who started running classes for the Radio Amateur Examination at the college in October 1969. The club's callsign GM4AAF was first on the air in 1971.
Kingsway Technical College became Dundee College in 1985 then Dundee and Angus College in 2013. The clubs meets at the college on the Kingsway Campus during term times.
When the college is closed during the summer our meetings move to Monikie in the Scouts and Guides Hall. We regularly assist the Scouts and Guides in obtaining their communications badge and Jamboree on the Air (JOTA). We also use the hall for taking part in contests and special event stations.
James Bowman Lindsay
The club's emblem — a bronze hand grasping a thunderbolt — is based upon the monument to James Bowman Lindsay in Dundee's Western Cemetery.
Born in 1799 near Arbroath, Lindsay was a pioneer in the field of electrical engineering, developing and in 1835 he demonstrated an early electrical lighting system in Dundee. In 1845 he later turned his attention to telegraphy, proposing a scheme for constructing and protecting transatlantic telegraph cables. In 1854 he was awarded a patent for a method of wireless communication across bodies of water, which he demonstrated across the Earl Grey Docks in Dundee, and later across the Tay from Dundee to Woodhaven. Members of the club have attempted to replicate Lindsay's experiments on several occasions with varying degrees of success!
In addition to electricity, Lindsay's research interests included philology, astronomy, philosophy and history; he spent much of his life working on a dictionary in fifty languages and was granted a pension of £100 per year by Queen Victoria in 1858 in recognition of his great learning and extraordinary attainments.
For more about the life of James Bowman Lindsay, see A History of Wireless Telegraphy by J. J. Fahie.
Experimenting
Dundee ARC members attempt to communicate across Victoria Dock using Lindsay's techniques in May 2007. (Photo by MM0DXD and used with permission).
