Affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain RSGB
Affiliated to the Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society RNARS
Our Club President is Doug Hotchkiss GW4BEQ.
We meet on the FIRST and THIRD Friday of every month at 19:00 in Deverell Hall, 84 London Road, Purbrook, Waterlooville, PO7 5JU.
The Horndean and District Amateur Radio Club was first formed in 1975 when a small group of licensed radio amateurs living in the Horndean area of Hampshire advertised that they wished to arrange a meeting of like-minded people sharing the same hobby. The club exists for the benefit of licensed radio amateurs, short-wave listeners, and anyone who is generally interested in electronics. To encourage home construction of radio equipment (home-brew), a constructor’s award is available for the novice, intermediate and expert using a variety of different techniques. The club takes part in various contests and field day events.
The club membership currently stands at approximately 50, with ages ranging between 10 and 90+ years old. The club is especially keen to get more youngsters joining the hobby through a link with communications by radio and computers, and with data communication modes that use keyboards and soundcards. Radio amateurs still popularly use Morse code and this enables contact to be made using a series of radio-terms and codes, which are universally understood. The hobby leads to participants making lasting friendships both in the UK and worldwide. In this way it has also proved to be a great asset for those who are housebound or where mobility is a problem.
We are regarded as a very friendly and warm group of amateurs. We meet twice a month with the first meeting being a social (‘natter night’) where members can chat generally on a technical or operational problem, may bring in projects for discussion or demonstrate a piece of equipment, or just enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. The club also has active nets on various frequencies (see ‘Info’ link for further details).
The second meeting of the month is sometimes a lecture/talk on a radio related subject, a video evening and on some occasions a bring and buy sale is held of surplus equipment that long-standing members or newcomers to the Amateur Radio hobby might find useful.
We offer specialised training for all three licence levels (Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced). Contact our exam secretary Julia Tribe for all the details of when and where the next course/exam will be.
The club is also involved in many social activities throughout the year, when other family members are invited to participate. If you are interested in visiting us a couple of times (you are under no obligation to join at that time), we will be pleased to see you.
Membership Fees UK: Annual subscription is £35 per year with a one-off £2 joining fee. Junior members up to 10 years pay no fee, and 10-18 years pay a discretionary fee at half the adult UK rate. Our membership year runs November 1st to the next October 31st.
The joining fee is waived for any participants that complete any training course run by HDARC, provided membership is taken up within 12 months of the course completion.