Sheffield & District Wireless Society

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SDWS MEETINGS & COVID 19

Posted: 15 Mar 2021 09:15 AM PDT
http://sheffieldwireless.org/2021/03...ings-covid-19/


.. an update



SDWS MEETINGS at the RUTLAND HOTEL




At the time of writing this post (mid March 2021) we are still to have a
firm date for when we can resume our in the flesh meetings in Sheffield. It
is now one year since we met at the Rutland Hotel in Broomhill, Sheffield
and most of our local members have not seen each other since! Instead, we
have been having video conference meetings in the form of a Sunday morning
chat at 11am, using the entirely free Jitsi video conference software,
which works like Zoom and Webex but does not require passwords. There are
no time limits and apparently a very generous allowance re numbers of
participants. The Jitsi meeting is only available to bonafide Society
members so if you wish to take part you will need to either look for the
weekly reminder on the members Facebook page or email the club secretary
for the link.

We also run a weekly 2m FM net on 145.475MHz. You do not need to be a club
member to join in so if your are interested in SDWS why not all into the
net at 8pm each Wednesdsay evening? Due to the hill nature of Sheffield not
all members can hear each other so be prepared to have a little difficulty
hearing some of the net members. If you hear callsigns such as M0RPK,
G8BMI, 2E0YTV, 2E1WCB, G5TO you will have found us!

At the moment the greatest proportion of club activity takes place on our
members Facebook page. This is really a very active Social Media outlet for
SDWS and is well worth joining Facebook for if nothing else. Here you can
make new friends as a member, get the answers to radio problems, especially
when they concern antennas and software.

We are also very active in the contest field especially the RSGB weekly
80m Club Contests, the weekend VHF/UHF RSGB Contests in the VHF
Championships and the AFS Superleague and the Autumn Series of RSGB 80m
Contests.

If the Covid regulations allow it we hope to put on a VHF Field Day station
at our contest portable location at Wharncliffe (IO93FL) on the 3rd/4th
July and the RSGB SSB Field Day in early September, from the same location.
We are most grateful to the Wharncliffe Estate for giving use permission to
use their Wharncliffe Chase site for all our portable contesting. No other
clubs or individuals from other clubs are allowed this privilege




SO WHAT OF MEETINGS AFTER THE COVID RESTRICTIONS ARE FINALLY RELAXED FOR
GOOD?

The committee have had preliminary chat about this and at present we have
no firm decisions to take. We have a number of scenarios that we could
undertake..

1. Revert back to preCovid meetings ie a formal meeting for talks at the
Rutland Hotel on the first Wednesday of each month, plus social meetings
in the Rutland Bar on all other Wednesday evenings.

2. For the coming year have club talks online only using video
conferencing. The RSGB are presently using this system very successfully.
We will need someone in the club to organise and co-ordinate the video
meetings. PLEASE OFFER YOUR SERVICES! In addition we would meeting in a
centrally based pub for social evenings and/or meals.

3. Look for a cheaper meeting room than the £50 a night room we rented at
the Rutland. If anyone knows of such a room (free if possible!) which we
would need for 7.30 to 10pm one night a week please email the club
secretary Peter, G3PHO (email address can be found on his QRZ.com page).



WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS AS WE APPROACH THE LIFTING OF
COVID RESTRICTIONS.