I went to my third RSGB Convention, held on 14th and 15th October, from Friday 13th if you include the Welcome Dinner.
The outing started rather strangely on the 13th. I left home early from Essex as I thought I could take advantage of staying in Milton Keynes by combining it with a visit to the Moonraker shop at Woburn Sands. In 2019 I went to Bletchley Park first thing, well worth a visit, so I thought it would be useful to look round the shop. Of course, my Satnav had no difficulty in finding the Moonraker establishment way out in the country, but when I arrived, I had trouble finding the right door, and went in somebody else’s to start with. When I did find the right entrance to the shop, I could not find anybody in and no bell to ring for attention, so I spent about 15 minutes looking at their merchandise and then left. There was an antenna I would have asked about, but no matter.
As regards the venue, Kent Hills Park, the staff were very welcoming, and helped me with my holdall and suit to my Disability Access Room.
On Friday evening Martin Lynch were the hosts of the welcoming dinner. That was probably the best meal of the stay. The lunches were disappointing on both Saturday and Sunday. The meat balls had run out on Saturday so there was an alternative of vegetable chilli. On Sunday we were supposed to have a roast but I ended up with not very appetising breaded fish instead.
Enough of the food for now.
I enjoyed the presentations much more than I had anticipated from the programme / timetable. I had been concerned that there was no proper VHF stream. I thought local lad Oscar Wood 2E1HWE did well with his talk “Allstar – Working the world on your analogue radio”. This was something I knew nothing about. Then there was Tim Kirby, GW4VXE on “which digital radio is right for you?”, which has given me ideas. I did speak later to someone on the ICOM trade stand who said I should email ICOM UK to get started on D-Star, which I will, and as I have a Yaesu rig I will give Fusion a go too.
In the restaurant I had happened to share a table with Lyall Smith GM4XID and his lady, Cate. They encouraged me to go the afternoon presentation “Taking amateur radio into schools” which Lyall was sharing with Chris M0KPW and Simon G4WQG. I did attend and found it very interesting and encouraging that they were genuinely getting young people taking the first steps in our hobby and getting their licences. I particularly admire the work Lyall is doing at a school in Mallaig, such a beautiful part of Scotland. I think I will return to this in a later post.
That was all Saturday. We had the Gala Dinner that evening. I thought it was mostly very good. A couple of niggles but the starter salmon mousse was nice and the duck also. During the dinner I sat next to Helen who had recently started working for the RSGB, and she said I should see the YOTA Team talk on the visit to Hungary 2033. I did and it was encouraging again to see the lads’ enthusiasm.
Ian Evans GI0AZB and Dr Esther Harper GI0IZA presented “Summits on the Air” which was interesting and a lot of photos from Ireland, North and South.
The last presentation I attended was John Quarmby’s Talk on Aircraft Scatter. I have worked John, G3XDY so many times and it was fascinating to watch a very enlightening talk. I will give aircraft scatter a more serious go.
From my point of view the Convention was a success and I enjoyed it, though it was tough at times because of my physical limitation.
Amateur Radio News from Jon Stow, G4MCU 