On Thursday 25^th March members gathered at the club to witness the presentation ceremony that has now become one of our clubs traditions.

The Fred Lees Memorial Trophy was donated to our club by John Lees G3PD. He did this in honour of his father, Fred, who was a founder member of Oldham Amateur Radio Club in the mid 1930’s. Fred was one of those people who was very active and determined and who carried out his ideas rather than passing them on and expecting other people to do them. Many of our current membership still have happy memories of Fred and are also grateful to him for teaching them the Morse Code which was so important in those days in gaining a Class A licence. So when he died the trophy presentation idea was conceived to both perpetuate Fred’s memory and to show recognition to a club member who, in the great tradition of Fred, gave exceptional service to our club.

As Morse Code transmissions were a particular favourite of Fred’s, the trophy itself takes the form of a gold plated Morse Key mounted on a special base and covered by a glass case. The names of previous holders of the trophy are engraved on gold plates mounted on the base of the key.

The presentation evening began after the normal announcements given by our Chairman, with a general knowledge quiz created and presented by Steve Crane G0KUY who was an old friend of Fred and was privileged to have been one of his Morse Code students. In addition to this our Chairman had prepared a "Spot the Intro" music Quiz.

The member who managed to strain his brain enough to win this year’s quiz was none other than The Clutching Hand, Geoff Ashton M0AUG. The photo shows him receiving the much coveted Quiz Trophy from Steve G0KUY along with a bottle of plonk to help cool his grey cells.

Our Chairman Geoff Oliver G0BJR then made a special announcement. In recognition of his long service to the club and his hard work in many areas but mainly as our Treasurer for a long period, a special name badge had been made bearing the words "Geoff Ashton M0AUG The Clutching Hand". This was presented to Geoff by Steve (see photo).

Then the main event took place. Normally the Trophy would have been presented to the new incumbent by John Lees G3PD but due to ill health John could not attend the ceremony so our Chairman made ready to do the honours. Stuart Wilson G7MKF the present holder made a short speech giving the reasons for his choice of recipient based upon the nominations from members.

The member chosen had been involved in many and varied activities throughout the preceding 12 months. He had helped with preparing the foundations of our new mast, produced and provided the Rally Programmes, members’ badges, computers for our shacks, and assisted greatly with Rally planning. All of this work in addition to the normal duties of a club secretary.

Therefore the person to receive the Trophy was Club Secretary Mike Crossley M1CVL.

A very embarrassed Mike came forward to be presented with the Trophy (see Front Page Photo).

Congratulations Mike.

Stuart Wilson was presented with a certificate as a permanent reminder that he had been awarded the trophy.

Geoff Oliver G0BJR provided the photographs.

As many of you are aware we now the proud owners of a 60ft Strumech Versatower installed immediately outside our cabin at the ATC. The installation of the tower has been well chronicled in the past few editions of Old Hams News, but running beneath that is another story that has been virtually unmentioned in these pages. That story begins the moment the tower was installed but before any antenna was fitted.

You may remember that early in 2003 a similar tower was installed at the ATC but this one supported Vodafone cell phone aerials and a microwave dish. The tower was a temporary structure erected to fill a gap in the Vodafone Mobile Phone network when their previous site, the nearby Park Mill, was denied them due to its imminent demolition. This installation was a financially fruitful one for the ATC but caused some distress amongst the neighbours surrounding the site. Various complaints were laid at the door of the ATC by both the neighbours and a local councillor. However these came to naught as proper investigations and applications had been made by both Vodafone and the ATC to erect the structure as a temporary measure.

Whilst the Vodafone tower was in position, work began to prepare the foundation for our mast. Planning permission was not sought at this time because we were led to believe that as the installation was taking place at a military establishment, planning permission was not required. The Vodafone tower was eventually dismantled and removed early in October 2003 and our tower reared its head at the end of the same month. The timing was not brilliant because the neighbours, thinking they were rid of one tower, suddenly found there was another, in a slightly different place, but another tower nonetheless. After a short period of time the man from the council appeared.

This was the Planning Officer from Oldham MBC. He was responding to complaints from the neighbours who were fearful that another Mobile Phone mast had been erected. They expressed concerns about health risks and visual appearance. He consulted at length with Flt. Lt. Mark Hamilton, CO at the ATC, about the mast and other structures at the ATC which did not appear on the council’s records and eventually stated that retrospective planning permission should be applied for to cover not only our mast but also the ATC antenna mast, which incorporates a powerful floodlight as well.

Mr Hamilton contacted the RAF and enquired about the planning immunity for the base. As the RAF does not wish to be at odds with any local council they advised Mr. Hamilton to go along with the council’s request and only seek immunity as a last resort. And so the saga began.

The council imposed a time limit of December 29^th 2003 for the application to be submitted. This did not allow much time as we were now deep into November. First of all the forms had to be obtained from the council. Then plans had to be drawn. Thankfully a member of the ATC who is a qualified draughtsman was able to draw up plans very quickly. Several meetings took place between our Chairman and Mr Hamilton to produce documentation justifying the development. Technical information of the tower had to be supplied along with the plans. Whilst the application was being prepared permission for a third mast was included along with an aerial farm on the banking behind our cabin and the rifle range for smaller vertical antennae and long wires.

Christmas was suddenly upon us and the application was not ready. We applied for an extension to the deadline and were successful in being given another two weeks to submit.

The two weeks was enough. Our application was entered on time. The council’s planning department set to work. They posted letters to all the neighbours surrounding the site giving details of the plan and giving them the opportunity to view the plans which were on display at the Civic Centre. They published notices in the Oldham Chronicle announcing the application. This is all standard stuff for any planning application.

After a short period of time the planning officer appeared again at the ATC, this time taking photographs. He had now received two letters from neighbours objecting to the plan. One was completely discounted as the occupier lived at least 300 metres from the compound but the second was much closer and had to be considered. The officer was satisfied that the "health risks" issue had now been answered satisfactorily therefore the only objection, from his point of view, was the visual impact our mast would have on the neighbourhood. He then put forward suggestions which changed the plans to make our development more aesthetically pleasing.

It should be noted here that the Planning Officer is pretty much ‘all powerful’. Whatever decision he makes regarding a planning application is almost set in stone. If he decides against a plan then that is it and unless the applicant changes the format to suit the officer’s wishes then the development will not happen. If he is happy with a plan he will give permission and it goes ahead. If he is happy with a plan but there are objections to it from neighbours or other sources he will still put forward his recommendation for agreement but the final decision is made by a Planning Committee made up of a group of local councillors, which meets once a month.

At the meeting the various parties involved with the application can address the committee for a maximum of 3 minutes to state their case. After all speakers have been heard the committee discusses the issues and finally takes a vote to decide Yea or Nay. The Committee very rarely votes against the recommendation of the Planning Officer. If they do vote against, the Committee has to have very good reasons for doing so because if an appeal is submitted, there is no more discussion or deliberation; the application goes directly to the Deputy Prime Minister for consideration and he will make the final decision.

All the above means that it is a good idea to have the Planning Officer on your side and if you can please him then the application will almost certainly go through.

Our Chairman and Mr Hamilton once again went into "a huddle" to examine the Planning Officer’s amendments. They agreed that, in principle, most of the amendments were workable except one. The main changes were:-

1: Mast 3, a smaller one to hold a VHF beam, should be sited between the Drill Hall and our storage shed instead of behind our cabin.
2: Mast 1, our existing Versatower, can only extended to its full height on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings and on 12 weekends per year.
3: Mast 1, should be always at its lowered position and tilted over when not in use.

Condition 1 - although inconvenient could be accommodated.
Condition 2 – the evening restriction was not a problem but we decided to push for 18 weekends per year instead of 12.
Condition 3 – the first part of which was acceptable as we had no intention of leaving the mast fully extended when the site was unmanned but the second part of tilting it over as well was completely unacceptable.

The Committee had many other planning applications to deliberate upon as well as ours and the full documentation for all these plans was printed into a tome some 3 inches thick. Our application was one of the last to be heard. In the event none of the objectors to our plan turned up to address the assemblage and Mr Hamilton’s presentation was all that was necessary for the committee to approve our application. After 3 hours of listening to other applications, ours took about 10 minutes to go through, and our Chairman and Mr.Hamilton exited the Council Chambers into the cold night air breathing heavy sighs of relief.

To sum up here is a brief description of what we can and can’t do.

The Versatower can only be fully extended on Weds, Thurs, Fri evenings, between the hours of 19:00 and 22:00.

It can only be fully extended on 18 weekends per year between the hours of 10:00 to 18:00. The times it is extended at weekends has to be logged in case of complaint. At all other times it must be parked at its lowest position but not tilted over.

The VHF mast can be sited between the Drill Hall and our Store Shed to a height of no more than 24 feet.

The area of banking behind the cabin and the rifle range is designated "an Aerial Farm" where single vertical type antennae can be erected and wires extended across.

If we find that the conditions shown above become impractical there is no reason why an amendment to the agreement can not be applied for but our Chairman hopes he will have retired from his incumbency before that is deemed necessary.

Geoff Oliver G0BJR took the photos of the tower installation.

Rosanna Chew M3RRC (See Picture)
Darren Rogers     Sam Martin
Chris McDonough     Peter Coxy

Thanks are also due to all members who were involved with their training and were headed by Ian Moth M0IJM.

The Annual General Meeting of the Oldham Amateur Radio Club for 2004 will take place at Royton ATC, Park Lane, Royton, on Thursday 26^th August 2004 commencing at 20:30. This article is a formal invitation to all members to attend the meeting to elect club members as officers and ordinary committee members who will run our club for the next 12 months.

I know it seems a long way off but we have to be thinking about organising our next rally.

This year’s rally organisation was in the main carried out by Hazel Crabtree 2E1WIC. Unfortunately Hazel is unable to perform this task this time due to many other commitments that she has taken on. Therefore we need someone to take on this role. Your officers and committee members are already fully committed with their duties in keeping the club running on a day to day basis and cannot take on any more responsibilities.

I’m sure that there is no need to remind you of just how important the rally is to our club but I will anyway.

The financial rewards that we reap from the rally are the mainstay of our club. The subscriptions that we pay each year do not even cover the insurance premium on our equipment and holdings. So everything we do and buy is financed by the rally. If we cannot find people to organise it then obviously it will not happen and I’ll be looking for suggestions from you all of how to keep our club afloat financially in the years to come. The first obvious suggestion will be very unpopular but, in the absence of other alternatives, would have to be a huge increase in subs. This is not ideal and would probably have the detrimental effect of people not renewing their membership and our numbers would decline resulting in a further financial impact.

I will not disguise the fact that organising a rally is becoming more and more difficult. Due to a decline in our hobby many Traders are reluctant to commit themselves to coming to a rally until the very last minute, and a great deal of time and effort can be expended in contacting them in order to ascertain their intentions.

Ideally we need several members working together to share the load of contacting traders and organising their tables and places in the Hall. Now that we have computer facilities in our premises much of the organisation can be done on a Club Night where more people can be involved and the experience and knowledge of the officers and committee members can be called upon. So you are not completely "on your own".

So if you would like to be involved in organising our rally then please contact me as soon as possible because time is short.

Many Thanks – Geoff Oliver G0BJR
Chairman

Our Base was Gibraltar, so we did convoy work along the North African coast. It was the time we had our great victory with the Desert Rats, so we didn’t get any trouble from that side. However we experienced plenty of raids, during dawn and dusk because at that time Italy was still occupied. The Germans used to come in dropping bombs along the coast, then turn in to attack the convoy.

It was all systems go – we had the Funnel making black smoke along with floats dropped astern. My mate, the Gunner, and I were in line with the Funnel, dressed in anti Flash gear, and were blasting away with the Oerlikon. I was loading and we finished up, black as the ace of spades. But we filled the night sky with our cannon shells, and came out OK.

Now something about our life below deck and our grub. We had 4 messes in our deck 18 in each. A Leading Seaman was in charge of each one, we were canteen messing. That meant we were given an allowance of money to spend. So if we were duty cooks for the day we had to get the stores in and advice from the Killick (leading seaman) in charge. The meat, which came in great slabs, had to be carried on our backs to the freezer.

The chap in charge was a great big man, who used to cut big portions as it was boneless. For each mess as we were allowed two duty cooks each day. We peeled the Spuds the night before. If it was a stew it had all kind of vegs in it. A sweet might be rice pudding and don’t forget the minefields, which was sultanas or currants thrown in.

Some days we had steak pudding, followed by spotted dick all made with suet with custard. But this depended on whether someone had left their shirt behind to put the pudding in. The bread we made ourselves, very heavy as it was not allowed to rise so it was very filling.

One pudding I remember was a Manchester Tart made with pastry laid out in a large flat tin with jam and covered with custard. I made it when I was PO’s messman, and got a recommendation from two Wrens, "ladies", and invited to supper.

Christmas 1943 we were in Gib. I just missed my brother who was on a ship calling at the port. He saw the Dart leaving harbour. I didn’t know that at the time.

We were getting ready for the festivities. All the stores were in. One chicken each for Xmas day, a large Turkey and a Leg of lamb or pork. We were having a good Christmas come what may, meanwhile we got orders to proceed to Alex. I recall we couldn’t get any balloons, so we trimmed up with the issue of the only rubber we had in the ship. There was plenty of them, Hi! Issued from sick bay - always very handy. As the old soldiers used to say, keep your powder dry. We use to put our pound notes in them in case we had to go overboard.

Well after good trip and a few alarms we arrived in Haifa then onto Port Said. Some miles down the Suez canal we passed the statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer who built the canal. He stands there proudly with his hand raised high. It’s said that someone climbed up and put a tin of corned beef in his hand just for a lark. How true that was I couldn’t say, but you can expect anything from the lads.

We did an about turn back to the Med and to Haifa, and the smell of the place was overpowering as we approached the dock. Because of the heat of the day, the mixture of spices and camels – well.

It was time for some leave so arrangements were made for us to go to a rest camp. We went to the diamond town of Nathanya up the coast. It consisted totally of tents, lizards, snakes and scorpions. You had to shake your bed every night or you had plenty of company.

I was invited to go pony trekking but I declined, I’ve had some. The lads came back with bow legs and sore bums. After our holiday in the camp each watch had a trip to Jerusalem. It was well worth a visit to the Wailing Wall, and the Church of the Nativity. Our guide was a Jewish chap from Manchester.

It is amazing to think they are still fighting over it these days.

CHAPTER SEVEN - EGYPT:

Alexandria harbour was our next Base and we had our own buoy to park at and never dropped the anchor. The method of mooring was to "cat" the anchor on approach to the buoy. This meant we had to loose the chain at the shackle and drop it down to the buoy, while the anchor was still locked on the side of the ship. Our whaler’s crew was standing by at the buoy. One of them was standing on the buoy to catch the chain and fasten the shackle to the buoy. It was an experience I’m glad I never had. Standing there with a great ship looming over you going in reverse. There are other ways of getting wet.

Alex was a real Naval Port and had a Fleet Club, where you could stay for the night and play "housey housey" or Bingo. This was the nearest to gambling the Navy allowed. Going ashore we were met at the dockyard gates with a "gharry" or a pony and trap and the chap using his whip got us to the Fleet Club. They had great cinemas too, and I found it was quite a cool way to spend an afternoon. They had modern films and talkies too. There was also a screen at the side showing films in Arabic and other languages, they catered for everyone. I went one evening and found it was outside, they shifted all the chairs to the side of the building. I didn’t realise it until I looked up and saw the stars.

Another time I was waiting for my mate Tom, who was in the queue for the tickets, and who should come along but a chap from Rochdale who I used to work with. He was in the army. What a coincidence that we should meet all those miles from home.

All too soon again came the pipe "All hands to stations for leaving harbour". Always the same with the Tannoy playing John Peels "Hunting we will go". What we had to do was "Clean into our number 3s, i.e. change out of our boiler suits into our working uniforms for leaving harbour. It was great sight with us all lined up on the Forecastle, the Boat Deck and the quarterdeck. We piped its flag of each ship we passed, and they did the same. All Naval traditions - it did tend to bring a lump in your throat.

By George Stead G0GSQ

With thanks to Bertie Whitcher for his help in editing this article. Ed.

CLUB WEB SITE

Our Web site has been moved. Although the content is much the same it can now be found at the following URL.

www.oarc.org.uk

For those of you who are experts in this area you will recognise this as a Domain Name. The hit counter which can be seen on the home page is now incrementing steadily so the move seems to have caused a fairly substantial increase in visitors to the site.

The site is still created and administered by our Chairman, Geoff Oliver G0BJR and any suggestions you may have for augmenting and improving the site should be sent to him.

The email address for the club has also changed.

It is now oldham.arc@zen.co.uk Any messages sent to the old address will not be read. However it is still preferable to send any club communications to our secretary Mike Crossley M1CVL at m1cvl@thersgb.net.

Our officers individual email addresses have not changed and can be seen on the last page.

At the reading of a farmer’s Will, the following part is read out:

"To my three sons I leave the cows to be divided as follows:
To my eldest son I leave one half of them.
To my second son I leave one quarter of them.
To my youngest son I leave one fifth of them.
No cow is to be harmed or killed during the division."
On counting the cows there are found to be nineteen cows.

Faced with an impossible situation a wise man was consulted. He solved the problem.

HOW?

Submitted by Keith Davenport G8INC

OLD HAMS NEWS

The editor would like to thank all contributors to this edition of Old Hams News. The next edition is due to be issued in October 2004. Any contributions for this edition should be forwarded to the editor, Geoff Oliver G0BJR on or before Thursday 16^th September 2004 to ensure inclusion.

Articles will be accepted on many formats, by email to "oldham.arc@zen.co.uk", by word of mouth, hand or type written notes, or as a .txt file on a CD ROM or 3½-inch floppy disc. Photographs, drawings, circuit diagrams and other graphics to enhance your article will also be most welcome.

In order to keep the cost of producing Old Hams News as low as possible, photographs in the hard copy version will be reproduced in black and white only. The Internet edition will show the photographs in colour. Occasionally, photographs excluded from the paper edition due to technical and/or space limitations could be added to the Internet version.

If you submit an article for inclusion in Old Hams News and you do not wish it to be included in the Internet edition you must state your wishes at the time of submission. Otherwise the editor reserves the right to include/exclude your article as he sees fit.

For reference the officers and committee members are listed below and will be happy to help with any enquiries you may have.

Chairman – Geoff Oliver G0BJR
G0BJR@thersgb.net

Secretary – Mike Crossley M1CVL     Treasurer – Geoff Ashton M0AUG
M1CVL@thersgb.net                             M0AUG@thersgb.net

Craig Taylor G7MCT     Chris Cunliffe G7OOD
Stuart Wilson G7MFK     Steve Crabtree M0CRZ
Sue Burgess G0RKE

N.B. Old Hams News is the official journal of the Oldham Amateur Radio Club. It is distributed free of charge to all fully paid up members of the club. Articles appearing herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, the Officers and Committee, or the membership of Oldham Amateur Radio Club. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of articles included, the editor is not responsible for any inaccuracy that may occur.

Written, edited and produced by Geoff Oliver G0BJR
Photocopying and distribution by Geoff Ashton M0AUG
Colour reproduction of front page by Ian Moth M0IJM

© Oldham Amateur Radio Club 2004