Category: Uncategorized

GB1TR
Saturday 27th September 2025 – Sunday 28th September 2025
Special Event Station

The date of this special event station celebrates the anniversary of the first steam powered passenger railway which took place on 27th September 1825 – the first passenger train ran on a line in the North East of England from Darlington to Stockton. 

Our Special Event Station was set up at Abergynolwyn Station, Talyllyn Railway (Tywyn, Wales). The Talyllyn is the world’s first preserved railway, in continuous operation since 1951, running from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast through the scenic Fathew Valley. This event celebrates the anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and promotes Britain’s rich railway heritage.

Mike Suddaby and Janet helped set up the special event station. The antenna went up on Thursday, and Mike tested the radios on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, Mike, Janet, and I ran the station together.

We had plenty of interest from passengers—some even tried operating the radios, and one passenger kindly helped us put up the long-wire antenna. The VHF setup, using an Icom 9700, didn’t perform as well as hoped, but 40m with the Icom 7300 worked very successfully.

We were fortunate to have a table in the café, which kept us warm and dry, and the rain only arrived just as we were packing up.

At the July meeting, David Morgan gave an excellent and informative talk on Standing Wave Ratio (SWR)—and why it doesn’t tell the whole story. He also explained key concepts such as impedance, reactance, RF feedback, and common mode currents, along with their impact on station performance. Most importantly, David provided clear, step-by-step guidance on how you can improve your own station setup, making the talk both practical and easy to follow.
(The Powerpoint presentation is available to view at the end of this page.)

After the talk the club Chairman, Mike Suddaby was keen to see for himself how a correctly tuned and setup 40m Delta Loop Antenna would perform using an Icom 7300 HF radio. The Icom 7300 is The Icom IC-7300 is  a base station HF transceiver (also known as “ham radio”) that operates on HF, 6-meter, and 70-centimeter bands (with the 70cm band available in European versions). It’s notable for being Icom’s first Software Defined Radio (SDR) HF transceiver. It features a real-time spectrum scope, a large color touchscreen LCD, and a built-in automatic antenna tuner. 

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Bob (AYQ) Smith received a certificate of honour from the club Chairman Mr Mike Suddaby at the 2025 AGM.
Bob has the honour of being named as the clubs first Honorary President which is a big deal as being appointed as an Honorary President is a mark of high distinction, awarded for Bob’s significant and lasting contributions to the Meirion Amateur Radio Society and to Amateur Radio.

This new Meirion Amateur Radio Society website is currently under construction by Martin Moyse (2W0NKS). Please come back again soon.