Brickfields Amateur Radio Society, A brief History

According to a November 1994 Brickfields A.R.S. newsletter article, it was in July 1984 that a group first started to meet at the Fleming Arms, Binstead, to discuss the formation of a new Amateur Radio club. [The Squadron in Union Street, Ryde, has also been recalled as an initial meeting place]. As a result, in September 1984 the Binstead Amateur Radio Society was born, with the founder members being ‘Phil’ Philbrick G1EXZ, Derek Barnes G4VJF, Robby Philpott G6TIK (later G4YNC), Charlie Tweetman G1GDW, Brian Smith G1HRQ, John Willis G1BZQ and Glyn Rolf G4RTW. Club meetings were held at the HQ of the Binstead Boy Scout Troop, which was located down a short track on the Ryde to Wootton Road  at the top of Binstead Hill near the Fleming Arms. [According to an earlier newsletter dated February 1993 the club was then beginning its “tenth anniversary year”, which would make the Society a year older. It is thought that the word ‘anniversary’ was used inappropriately, for their tenth anniversary was in fact celebrated in October 1994].

Sadly virtually all records relating to the first ten years of the club have been lost, and so details regarding the earliest years are scarce. To make matters more difficult, some of the founder members are sadly now silent key, and therefore few people are still available to help piece together the early development of the club.

Robby Philpott recalls that, in the beginning, two or three members who had begun an active interest in Citizen Band Radio came together looking to study for their licence in order to widen their scope legally. Once the club was formed, the meetings were mainly ‘talking evenings’ with one or two outside speakers being invited to address the members. The licence for the callsign G0BAR was first issued on 13^th March 1985 a date verified by the future renewal notices for this licence. Therefore this callsign was issued six months after the club was formed.

 

The February 1993 newsletter mentioned above also states that 1993 was the club’s seventh year at Brickfields Equestrian Centre, indicating that the Society moved to its present location in 1987. This is now known to be true from the IW County Press article of 6^th February 1987 entitled “Radio Hams Move Into Fresh Base”. According to Robby, the main reasons for the move were that the club had no lock up facilities and so could not operate a permanent station, access was restricted and there was little available car parking space on club nights. No present members of the club remember the move, but it is believed that the then Secretary of the club was doing electrical work including installing a public address system at Brickfields for the owner, Phil Legge, and indicated to him that the club was looking for a bigger, better site with more scope. The newspaper article also mentions that the five original members had grown by then to no less than seventy, ranging in age from 16 to 75 years, of whom fifty regularly attended meetings. However, the accompanying photograph, which was taken at Brickfields just before the article was published in January 1987, shows only fourteen members. If the newspaper report was accurate the club took off in a big way, and a number like this would certainly have put pressure on the Committee to find more accessible headquarters. It also testifies to the amount of interest in Amateur Radio in those days. The article confirms that Derek Barnes was the President of the Society at that time and Bob Griffiths was the Public Relations Officer. Their meetings were held on Monday nights, a fixture which continues to this day, although the club has also held meetings on Thursday afternoons for a long while now. It is also stated that, apart from chatting socially and helping the Scouts by setting up radio stations for their events, many members belonged to Raynet. After many years of inactivity Raynet is once again an activity shared by several members of the club, and chatting socially seems just as popular!

 

Their new accommodation for the first three years was the body of an old van located between the present headquarters and the rear entrance to the canteen. The van served as a shack, and all meetings were held in the canteen area. It seems it did not take long for the club to erect an antenna tower, for in the big storm of October 1987 Michael Clark G0EHR, a member at that time (and who rejoined the club in 2009), remembers the damage that was caused by the near hurricane force winds which struck the island in the middle of the night, causing widespread devastation. The antennas mounted on the tower crashed to the ground, but fortunately they fell towards the ginny ring so that no damage was caused to the nearby buildings; however, the antennas had to be replaced. He added that the Wireless Museum was then a fairly new innovation, and that the Society’s responsibility for it was a major contributory factor that later helped the club acquire the building adjacent to the Museum for club meetings. Michael recalled that the club at that time had a fundamental interest in Raynet activities, and that he left soon afterwards because his attempt to introduce new construction projects received little support from the members.

Soon the club applied for another licence, G7BAR, which was granted on 4^th March 1988.

Two current and now long-standing members of the club joined in 1989, Brian G0MWU and Alan G0NTH, and so the club history from this year onwards is more certain. Soon after this time the Committee approached Phil Legge regarding renting a more permanent building on site for club meetings, and it seems the currently occupied building, which was built as an extension to the barn, was acquired around the autumn of 1990. Originally it comprised the meeting room as we still know it, with a doorway on the right (which can still be seen but has been blocked off) to a room with a small walk in annexe to the left. This annexe was the HF shack and the room served as a VHF shack and workshop area. The door that is still in use today simply led through a passage to the adjoining Museum and barn. The old van outside soon disappeared as it was no longer required.

 

The November 1994 article mentioned at the start of this article also states that the club name changed to Brickfields A.R.S. in 1992. This seems highly probable, as letters dated March 1993 indicate that Subscription Services Ltd, who handled the issuing of licences, were clearly very slow in changing the name, and simultaneously reissued the club with erroneous callsigns. Their mistakes recurred, causing much frustration for not one but two consecutive club secretaries who strove to put matters right. The following month the club newsletter reported that Phil Legge was putting in the foundations for the club’s second tower and the museum was being extended. In fact a newsletter dated December 1993 announced that the Museum would be extended the week after Christmas. It was then that further space within the barn was given over to accommodate the growing number of wireless sets that were being donated to the Museum at that time. This space now forms the larger area of the museum sited further away from the club entrance beyond the partition.

From the time of its first introduction the club newsletter was named “Radio News”, and a few later issues are still in existence. By 1993 it would be better described as a monthly magazine, for it came in booklet form with a wide variety of topics including, believe it or not, cookery.

 

1994 saw major changes in the running of the club, due largely to disagreements amongst committee members. A founder member insisted that two radios had been given to him and a dispute arose over whether or not this was correct; for it was thought they had been donated to the club. In the February of that year Derek Barnes who was the President and Secretary and a founder member also resigned from his posts. Mike Shepherd stepped into his shoes. The Treasurer was then Ken Claydon, Fred Parkman was Chairman and the Equipment Officer was Simon Ball. With a new committee at the helm, present members were asked to complete new membership forms and club business was run on a new footing, whilst a newly styled club newsletter which replaced the old Radio News was introduced, hailing the time as ‘the beginning of a new era’ for Brickfields.

At about this time a new Award Scheme was introduced which continues to this day, namely the Isle of Wight County Award. Under this initiative, Radio Amateurs who worked a certain number of island stations became eligible for a certificate.

April of this year saw another new initiative led by John Flewitt, then Chairman of the Isle of Wight Radio Society, who was keen to forge new links between the two clubs. It seemed to him both clubs shared much in common, so a closer association was discussed, namely collaboration in an ambitious project which proposed bringing together other island hobbyist groups as well, all under one new roof. This was an appealing idea in principle – a daytime and evening institute designed to attract islanders with time on their hands and where people with different interests could learn from each other. However, without available funding the idea never moved forward, and in any case, Brickfields had only just reorganised itself and did not want to lose its newly established identity.

May 1994 saw the birth of a new radio club, the West Wight Radio Society. At first this new club raised interest amongst Brickfields members, however this initiative seems to have had little sustained impact on membership numbers as it better suited those living towards the west end of the island.

Meanwhile, during the Spring of 1994 Brian G0MWU worked hard building the radio shack as we now know it. The small annexe was knocked through to create a bigger room, which became the club shack as we now know it, and the passageway then became the workshop area. The hatchway between the new workshop area and the shack was included so that communications were possible between the two rooms. By June 2004 the conversion was all finished and the refitted shack became fully operational. This month also saw members run a Special Event Station that set a club record. The occasion was the 50^th anniversary of the D - Day Landings, and to mark it a station was run for three days from the Paddle Steamer Ryde in Newport under the callsign GB50MN Merchant Navy. Different newsletter reports claim different numbers of contacts, the highest of which was nearly 2000, but a recent inspection of the HF log showed 993 stations worked. There were also VHF contacts, but whatever the final total it was an impressive achievement, setting a club record that has never been beaten.

The winter of 1994/95 was a particularly wet one during which time the clubrooms flooded. But thanks to a kind donation, the carpets were replaced and things soon got back to normal.

December 1994 saw the celebration of the club’s tenth anniversary. To mark this the special callsign GB0TEN was applied for, and the club station made a good number of contacts.

Time passed, with membership numbers holding up well for a while. Then in 1997 membership slumped to less than fourteen members. The cause seems to have been partly blamed on the committee of that time, as four members left through the lack of planned activities on club nights. However the problem may well have been exacerbated by the loss of the large meeting room the previous year, as it was required for a while by the equestrian centre for other purposes. In a last ditch attempt to save Brickfields, eighty letters were sent out to all known Radio Amateurs in the vicinity to try and attract them, but with the club fast becoming insolvent, an EGM was called on 12^th May 1997 to decide whether or not to wind things up. With the prospect of one or two new members joining the club it was agreed to continue for the time being, and slowly membership picked up again.

August 1998 saw Brickfields activate a memorable weekend Special Event Station from the Drum Room of Carisbrooke Castle. Upon dismantling the station on the Saturday evening, however, it was not the daunting realisation of the number of QSL cards that had to be written that was remarkable, but a close encounter which has not been forgotten by Alan G0NTH. Following their locking of the heavy Drum Room Door and the museum outer door, some members heard noises suggesting that perhaps a visitor was left behind. Then, as they unlocked the outer door, whoever it was could be heard descending the spiral staircase to exit at the locked main gate door. Back in the Drum Room calls of “Is anyone there?…We are locking up now…” brought no response. The matter was casually mentioned when the key was returned to a member of staff. “Oh”, said the recipient, “You have heard it as well….Several people have heard that. It is only when locking those rooms that it occurs, and the staff don’t like doing it much!”

From about this time on, the club steadily built up a reputation for running different special event stations throughout the spring and summer seasons, a tradition that continues to this day. In 1999 such stations included GB150SJF supporting SET99 for Science Week, GB0RN for Red Nose Day, GB0BM publicising Bembridge Windmill for Mills on the Air Weekend, GB5YL fundraising in association with the RNLI and the Royal Solent Yacht Club and GX0BAR/P at the IW Garlic Festival.

The turn of the century and a new millennium saw little change in the ethos of the club. In about 2005 the busy schedule of special events with the associated transportation of heavy equipment led to the idea of buying a caravan to serve as a mobile shack. With some imagination it was soon stripped out and refurbished to carry most of the ‘away day’ kit, and the gradual improvement in equipment has now led to a slick process for setting up and operating such stations. Our calendar in 2009 included the activation of eight special event stations as well as helping the Wootton Scouts towards their Communication Badge, trips to two rallies plus an equipment sale, participation in two contests, four talks on various topics and, of course, Christmas Lunch. Additionally, we helped several newcomers to the hobby pass their first examinations gaining them their Foundation Licences, and helped others to move up to Intermediate level.

In this our 25^th Year our membership currently stands at twenty-three, which is about average for the past few years, and our calendar is no less full. We celebrate in the knowledge that Brickfields ARS is still here to provide friendship and support to those interested in the hobby, and that it continues to promote local, national and even international events through the medium of radio communications.

David A’Bear (Hon Sec)

March 2010