Author: Ian Renton

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FRARS takes Third Place in RSGB VHF National Field Day 2026

The results are in, and the club scored a respectable third place in the Restricted section of the RSGB’s VHF National Field Day. We were a way behind the almost unassailable scores of the Warrington and Windmill Contest Groups in first and second place, but comfortably led the rest of the pack.

Our home for Field Day weekend was Donkey Down Camp Site on the ridgeway between Dorchester and Weymouth, locator IO80sq, around 150 metres above sea level. We had a good turn out of club members with around a dozen operating across the two days of the contest, and five camping Friday and Saturday nights.

We operated across all bands during the allotted times, with 2m and 70cm antennas on 10m poles, and more modest arrangements for 6m on Saturday, 4m on Sunday, and 23cm throughout the weekend.

2m was by far the best operating band, with our best DX of the weekend being Madeira (CT3) at a distance of 2300km thanks to excellent tropospheric conditions to the west of Europe. 6m was relatively quiet on Saturday afternoon with little DX, until conditions opened up towards the evening allowing for a QSO with Ukraine.

Fish and chips from the shop in Preston and a few cans of cider rounded out the evening!

A chorus of skylarks and and several cups of coffee got us started on the Sunday morning, where after a brief bout of equipment trouble we got our 4m station on the air. Sadly the band was rather quiet for us, as was 70cm, but a few more contacts came through on 23cm as well to round out the contest weekend.

Most importantly we all had a good time up on the hill, equipment went up and came down without too much trouble, and operating went smoothly, so all in all a great weekend!

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Review of Hamfest 2026

A huge thank you to everyone who visited FRARS Hamfest 2026, to the many traders that made it worthwhile, to our hosts at Cobham Sports & Social Club, and to our tireless volunteers!

Hamfest 2026 was hot and dry once again, in the middle of a summer of heatwave after heatwave, but that didn’t seem to deter our dozens of traders and societies, dozens of car boot sellers and hundreds of visitors.

Photo courtesy of M9SEB

Out on the field we had a revised layout this year, but just about managed to fit everyone in! We also had a number of societies and traders indoors, where the air conditioning and the bar also proved popular!

Photo courtesy of M9SEB

A good moon provided an opportunity for the club to demonstrate their EME capabilities, and our treasure stall also proved popular, raising money from the sale of equipment belonging to our late friend Dr Julian Gannaway G3YGF, much of it to benefit the Bell Hill Microwave Beacon group.

We hope to see you all again on Sunday 8th August 2027. Keep an eye on the Hamfest page for more details closer to the time.

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Dr Julian N Gannaway, G3YGF, Silent Key

Dr Julian N Gannaway, G3YGF, passed away at home during December 2025, at the age of 72 years. He was a prolific Amateur Radio enthusiast throughout his life.

He had a heart valve replaced in the Summer.

Julian did a BSC degree and PHD Phil at Oxford University during the 1980’s and went on to work at Roke Manor Research in Hampshire until his retirement.

Julian  was a long  time Member of RSGB and went on to become  President and an Hon Vice Life President , sitting/Chairing on many RSGB Committees.

He edited the Microwave Newsletter for several years and contributed many designs and technical articles.

Whilst at Oxford He collaborated with several Radio Amateurs , including G3WDG and G3JVL, leading to the design adoption of practical narrow band 10GHz equipment during the late 1970’s. His experiments with Mike over the obstructed path down to Hayling Island resulted in an appreciation of Rain Scattering as a positive benefit medium – previously denied in the accepted literature.

Julian joined the Flight Refuelling ARS (G4RFR) in 1985 and remained as a very active committee member.

If a member had a question, no matter how trivial, he would take the time to talk it through, in terms that allowed them to understand what was often quite deep technical stuff.

He enjoyed Contesting such as VHF NFD, where his technical skills were usually in demand to tweak up the odd K2RIW or W1SL linear. Rope knots were a particular passion.

He was also active in the early 73kHz experiments and later on 137kHz.

During 1991 He was involved with 10GHz EME, with a World first G to G contact between G4RFR and G3WDG .

During the late 1990s he collaborated with fellow club members to design and construct the Bell Hill 5 band Microwave Beacon Complex using the GB3SC series callsigns at IO80UU59. This was the first UK large scale Beacon system and still holds several UK Beacon DX records.

During the 2010s he was again very active on EME, leading to the EME Group construction of fully auto tracked dishes and QSO capable kit for 1.3-24GHz.

He is greatly missed by his many friends at FRARS.

Article by John G0API, 13 March 2026..