Whitton Amateur Radio Group » pumping station

Kew 3 – 30th and 31st August 2009 – GB0KEW

M0TZO — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:37:00 +0000

What a great weekend moving the club station to Kew Steam Museum by invitation from the Museum. We was asked to set up a radio amateur station GB0KEW so we could become involved with the weekend celebrating the ‘Home Front’ during the Second World War in conjuction with ‘Pumping Stations on the Air’.

The demonstration station was supported by the RSGB Region 9 Area Manager Alison Johnston (G8ROG).

The weekend started as visitors entered and where first met by the staff volunteers dressed up as either the Home Guard, Shop Keepers, local Police, military Police and within the shadows ‘Viv the Spive’ selling watches petrol coupons and ladies stockings!

The time table of events to entertain the public was spaced through out the day and included demonstrations ranging of all of the steam water pumping engines and the steam railway together with demonstrations of ‘Make and mend’, Ministry of Food ‘, Dig for Victory’ and how the unsung heroes of London Transport kept the Busses, Tram’s and underground railways going despite the attacks from enemy action as this part of London was heavily damaged during the Blitz. The tea room served a war time menu including span fritters and corn beef war time prices! We were well fed at Second World War prices!

Our radio station an ICOM line up with matching ATU and amp worked into a Windom antenna which was supported by the main water tower and stretched across the main car park. We would like to thank all the stations that called into GB0KEW over the weekend and made our event possible to demonstrate our hobby. We are looking forward to receiving QSL cards so that they can be added and displayed next year together with the QSL cards which we have received over the last two years.

Within our photographs are some pictures which show the view across West London from the top of the Water Tower and for those wondering how high the tower is well it’s over 247 steps! And the views show Wembley Stadium with Box Hill in the background, Central London and Docklands and either direction along the Thames towards Richmond and South London.

Photographs taken on the day are shown within our picture galley GBØKEW Photos.

Pumping Stations on the Air – Kew Pumping Station – GB0KEW Year 2

M0TZO — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:27:00 +0000

GB0KEW Licence holder for the weekend David Bowman G0MRF

Bank Holiday weekend in August 2008

Sunday 24th & Monday 25th – 10am – 5pm

Kew Bridge Steam Museum – http://www.kbsm.org this year (as last) welcomed the radio club to demonstrate amateur radio to the public and for this to be accomplished Kew kindly gave us open access to the museum to install the station and the antenna using the main feature of the museum the Water Tower.

The Museum opened in 1975, and is housed in a unique collection of listed buildings, some of which are let to local craftspeople. The Victorian brick tower stands 197 feet tall. The site was originally a pumping station, delivering water to West London.

As a result over the weekend using HF 274 countries where worked on HF

The GB0KEW station comprised of an Icom PRO 3 into IC2KL producing 300w into a full size G5RV. The G5RV was 100 feet at its centre with one end being 159 feet higher using the water tower for support.

Kew provided us with an excellent location within the main building which gave us the opportunity to promote our hobby and the radio club.

View from the top of the tower at Kew Bridge Steam Museum looking East along the Thames.

Throughout the day we were able to demonstrate our radio station using Single Side Band and Morse code, the latter attracting the public in considerable numbers.

We was very pleased to make contact with other GB special event stations operating for Pumping Stations on the Air and we hope they enjoyed the weekend as much as we did.

GB0CPE
GB5RSR
GB2WZ
MX0ERG

The 274 Stations we contacted over the two days summonses into the following Countries;

AUSTRIA 2

BALEARIC ISL 2
BELARUS 2
BELGIUM 1
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 2
BULGARIA 2
CANADA 1
CZECH REP. 1
DENMARK 5
ENGLAND 44
FRANCE 4
GERMANY 32
HUNGARY 2
IRELAND 4
ITALY 2
LATVIA 1
MALTA 1
NETHERLANDS`12
NORTHERN IRELAND 13
NORWAY 2
POLAND 2
PORTUGAL 1
ROMANIA 1
RUSSIA (EUROPEAN) 4
SCOTLAND 7
SLOVAK REP. 2
SLOVENIA 2
SPAIN 5
SWEDEN 7
SWITZERLAND 3
TURKEY 1
UKRAINE 4
USA 6
WALES 5

A great weekend for the club members and its fingers crossed that Mick G1WIA can convince Kew for us to return next year for KEW3.

For those around the world who called us we would like to ‘thank you’ and your QSL will be displayed for the public to see at Kew3 as we displayed last years QSL cards.

2nd International Pumping Stations on the Air

M0TZO — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:47:00 +0000

’2nd International Pumping Stations on the Air’
2008
Incorporation with the Claymills Pumping Engines Trust.

We have been invited to take part in the 2nd ‘International Pumping Stations on the Air’ weekend.

This will take place on the Bank Holiday weekend in August 2008 – Sunday 24th & Monday 25th – 10am – 5pm (Official times but you can do whatever times you want). The intention of the event is to set up amateur radio special event stations at as many of the pumping stations as possible throughout the whole of the world. HF, VHF, the scope of our station is entirely up to you.

We need to register for the 2008 event therefore; your commitment to the club event/station is need ASAP. Members please see Club Forum to respond or contact Mike G1WIA.

Further information about Claymills Pumping Engines Trust can be found on http://www.claymills.org.uk/