In what has now become an annual event for the club, IVARC club members again took part in SOS Radio Week, operating special event station GBØSR on 17th May 2026 on behalf of Solent Rescue from their lookout station on the clifftop at Lepe Country Park, overlooking the Solent.

Established in 1971, Solent Rescue is an independent rescue charity run entirely by volunteers, and funded solely by charitable donations. Operating from a lookout on the clifftop at Lepe Country Park, Solent Rescue works alongside the RNLI and NCI, and operates two inshore lifeboats providing a 24/7 response as an emergency service to HM Coastguard.

Our station was set up adjacent to the Solent Rescue lookout station, and the setup was similar to last year, running 70 watts to a short doublet antenna at about 8 metres above ground.  Operation was almost exclusively SSB on 40m.

Radio conditions can best be described as “interesting” – with high levels of QSB, and frequent periods of little or no activity followed by pile-ups lasting over 30 minutes!  However in just 5 hours of operating, we achieved a total of 132 contacts with stations in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Belgium, Channel Islands, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany & the Netherlands.  We also managed to contact other SOS Radio special event stations in Caister, Dungeness, Falmouth, and the Lifeboat station in Urk (Netherlands).

​In addition to being adjacent to the Solent Rescue and National Coastwatch Institution lookout stations, the location in Lepe County Park also qualifies as a POTA activation (GB-0404) and a Bunkers On The Air site (B/G-0336), and we worked several POTA and Bunkers stations during the activation!

Many thanks to club members Chris G7LWV, Peter G4JHC and Ken G4DKH for their support in setting up and operating the station.  Thanks also to club member Tim 2E0CXQ (who is also a Launch Advisor) and Linda from Solent Rescue for hosting us and providing much needed refreshments throughout the day.

Another very enjoyable event raising awareness and supporting the work of the volunteers at Solent Rescue Independent Lifeboat Station.  To find out more about Solent Rescue, or to make a donation, please click here

On Wednesday 4th February 2026, a team from IVARC supported members of 11th Winchester Scout group working towards their Communicator badge.  Ken G4DKH and Bob G3ZHV set up and operated an HF station at the Scout’s HQ, using Bob’s 40m dipole and the club's TS570 transceiver.  Although conditions were far from ideal, with poor band conditions and a high level of ambient noise (!) we did manage to get 5&9 reports from a few European stations.  Fortunately Colin G4GBP came prepared with a range of alternative communications-themed activities, morse practice buzzers and even a small telephone exchange!  Chris G7LWV also participated remotely from Romsey via the local DMR repeater.

All the activities proved very popular with the Scouts – it was fascinating to watch the levels of concentration they showed in the morse practice, and it was really enlightening to see how alien the concept of a landline phone (especially the rotary dial phone!) was to 11-14 year olds!  

Thanks especially to Colin G4GBP for bringing the telephone exchange, morse buzzers and the crib sheets;  to Bob G3ZHV for providing the dipole antenna & balun, and for setting up & dismantling the mast & antenna; and to Chris G7LWV in for bravely fielding contacts with more than 15 Scouts on 70cms via GB3CW, the Winchester DMR repeater.  

The scout leaders, Leigh and Matt, both expressed their gratitude to the Club and were impressed by the level of engagement we achieved with the scouts in all of the activities we ran throughout the evening.  

Another very successful IVARC special event - a good evening, time well spent with the youngsters enjoying every part of it and learning into the bargain!.

​Colin also organised a series of other communications / science related activities over the weekend, including:

    • a telephone switchboard system
    • a ‘what does sound look like?’ with oscilloscope, signal generator and microphone
    • morse buzzer practice
    • lighting LEDS using potato batteries
    • testing acidity / alkalinity of common household liquids
    • extracting DNA from strawberries & bananas !

​Well done to Colin, Bob and Bill for running such an interesting and enjoyable event for the youngsters.  Club members – please keep the JOTA weekend dates for next year free in your diaries and come along and help / join in the fun!

​During the weekend of 17/18th May, IVARC club members participated in SOS Radio Week 2025, operating special event station GBØSR on behalf of Solent Rescue from their lookout station on the clifftop at Lepe Country Park, overlooking the Solent.

Tim Pettis 2E0CXQ, Launch Advisor with Solent Rescue, approached the club in early March asking if we would be interested in activating a special event station for Solent Rescue as part of SOS Radio Week in May.  Tim had previously given a talk on resilience and emergency communications planning to IVARC, so we were of course happy to get involved.  After confirming there were no objections from Lepe Country Park, we obtained the special event callsign GBØSR (Solent Rescue) and set about planning the activation. 

Our station was set up adjacent to the Solent Rescue lookout station, using the club’s TS570 transceiver running 80 watts to a doublet antenna at about 8 metres above ground.  Operation was SSB on the HF bands (mainly 40m & 20m).

Radio conditions were quite challenging, especially on Saturday, with very little activity evident on bands above 20m, and with high levels of QSB present.  However the fine weather lasted throught the weekend and made for a very enjoyable activation.

Over the weekend we achieved a total of 206 contacts in 24 DXCCs – a fantastic result!  We contacted stations in England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland, Austria, Azores, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.   Best DX was CU7BC on Faial Island, in the Azores, at 1579 miles (2527 km).

Lots of operators were looking out for SOS Radio Week stations, and we had several pile-ups lasting 20-30 minutes each to contend with – a great learning experience for all our club operators!  As an indication of the level of interest, our QRZ.com page has had over 830 look-ups so far!

Many thanks to club members Chris G7LWV, Peter G4JHC, Martyn 2E0OGR, Edgar M7WEF and Ken G4DKH for their support in setting up and operating the station.  Thanks also to Tim and Linda from Solent Rescue for hosting us and providing much needed refreshments throughout the day.

A very enjoyable weekend raising awareness and supporting the work of the volunteers at Solent Rescue Independent Lifeboat Station.

On 17th & 18th May 2025, in support of SOS Radio Week 2025, Itchen Valley Amateur Radio Club will activate special event station GBØSR (Solent Rescue) on behalf of Solent Rescue from their lookout on the clifftop at Lepe Country Park, Hampshire.  Operation will be mainly SSB on the HF bands (40m / 20m / 15m / 10m).  

We are participating in SOS Radio Week 2025 in May to help promote & raise awareness of the work of the RNLI, NCI, Independent Lifeboat Stations and Coastal Rescue teams through amateur radio.  If you haven’t heard of SOS Radio Week, find out more at www.sosradioweek.org.uk  

​​Established in 1971, Solent Rescue is an independent rescue charity run entirely by volunteers, and funded by charitable donations.  Operating from their lookout station on the clifftop at Lepe Country Park, Solent Rescue works alongside the RNLI and NCI, and operates two inshore lifeboats providing a 24/7 response as an emergency service to HM Coastguard.   

To find out more about Solent Rescue, or to make a donation, click here

The station will run from approx 10am – 4pm each day, and we will be looking for operators for the HF station, plus help to set up the station (starting from 9am).  If you are able to help out please contact Ken G4DKH directly or via the club forum.

Unfortunately Steve 2E0DUJ is unable to give his talk on Setting Up a DMR Repeater at our meeting on 28th February, which will now be a normal Club meeting.

When we have agreed an alternative date with Steve we will communicate this via the Club Forum.

​** UPDATE **  Rescheduled for Friday 9th May  

Itchen Valley Amateur Radio Club has a long history of supporting Jamboree On The Air for local Scout groups, and this year was no different – except that we set up and operated stations for not one but two different Scout Groups!

On Friday 18th October, Ken G4DKH, Chris G7LWV, Martyn 2E0OGR and George M7FYO operated HF and VHF stations from the HQ of 12th Winchester Scout Group.  After a short introductory talk about amateur radio, the over 40 Cubs and Scouts visited the stations and spent some time listening to the contacts.  During the evening we contacted stations in all of the home countries (including the Channel Islands), as well as stations in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia, Norway and Denmark. We also contacted 4 other JOTA stations.  The Cubs and Scouts were each given an opportunity to pass a short message and practice their use of the phonetic alphabet over the air.  All in all, a very successful evening, and many thanks to all involved in organising, setting up and operating the station.  Judging from the interest and questions asked by the Scouts, there may well be a few more Foundation licencees in Winchester in the next few years!

Colin G4GBP also organised a very successful event over the whole weekend, running special event station GB1ESG for the 1st Eynsham Scout Group, near Oxford (see Colin’s separate report in the “Club” section on the forum).  Not only did Colin set up and operate the JOTA station, he also organised a series of communications related activities over the weekend, including laptops for JOTI (Jamboree Over The Internet), morse buzzer practice, a telephone switchboard with extension phones (one of which was an old-style rotary dial phone!), secret cypher coding and decoding, secret writing with invisible ink, cup-and-string phones, and designing QSL cards.  Over 70 youngsters (and their Leaders) thoroughly enjoyed the event, which was a great success.

There can’t be too many radio clubs in the country running separate JOTA activities for two different Scout Groups!  I’m sure that there will be plenty of interest next year, so keep the third weekend in October 2025 free and join in the fun!

IVARC's annual "QRP day" event was held at Roke Manor, near Romsey on 21st September 2024.  Initially there were some concerns due to the weather, with thunderstorms the previous night, however the day turned out to be fine with only a few spots of rain around midday.

The Roke site again proved to be an ideal venue for this event, set in a rural environment with plenty of space for multiple stations and different antenna configurations.

​Previous years have seen a variety of stations using different modes and bands, and this year was no exception.

Will 2E0HAI and Christian M0UOS were busy receiving WEFAX satellite images, including some amazing shots from NOAA-18

​Andy G4JNT took advantage of the Roke location to receive downlink signals from the geostationary QO-100 satellite - no doubt preparing for his imminent talk to the club on QO-100 this Friday!

Simon M0KFQ also used an end fed half wave antenna with his IC705 on HF SSB, whilst Ken G4DKH used a 44 foot doublet and FT817, mainly on 28MHz SSB (which was wide open on the day with strong signals heard from Australia, Indonesia, Africa and USA).

Unfortunately Alan G8IPQ, a keen participant at previous club QRP days, was unable to attend this year - however he did manage to join the event remotely via 28MHz SSB.  Hopefully Alan will be able to join us at next year's event!