Whitton Amateur Radio Group History
The Whitton Amateur Radio Group was first formed in April 1988, the founder members were Doug G0LUH Chairman, Val G1SBU, Ralph G1OVO Treasurer, and Ian G0OFN Secretary. Although, back in 1988, the call signs of Doug and Ian were G1SIS and G1SWM.
In 1988 the club membership grew very quickly resulting in the need to find formal club facilities and club joined the local “Whitton Community Centre” located in Percy Road, Whitton, Twickenham, which had only been open for a short period of time from June of that year.
With the growing membership and radio skills the club station came to life on HF and VHF with an assortment of equipment and antennas.
Within the membership, experienced morse operators and morse teachers assisted a large number of the membership to gain their full UK radio licence and CW practise evenings became the weekly highlight. The club’s main CW teacher was Anne G3GOX (SK) and many within West London Area owe her a ‘big thank you’ for her time and effort in teaching CW to the club members.
Whitton ARG became affiliated with the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) in 1989, with the introduction of a new member to the fold Albert G4VBH, who became the first club call sign holder of G0MIN & M2W. Both call signs were later transferred to Ian G0OFN. David G0MRF joined in 1989 and soon became our President. Our use of the radio spectrum grew from local nets on VHF to working DX, contests and over sea trips.
GX0MIN can be heard on all HF bands Friday evenings and most active, between 7:30pm and 10:30pm UK local time and we are please to say that this includes the LF bands of 73kHz and 136kHz on occasions.
The club membership has also operated as GB4WSF over the years providing a special event station to the Community Centre. GX0MIN over the years with the “youngsters” within the club being our link to the local community. Recently our new call sign of M2W was granted by the RSGB which has been used in CQQWW SSB and CQWW CW and other contests throughout the year.
The club has been active over the years operating for the local 1st Whitton Brownies in “Thinking Day on the Air” in 1996, and following years, which allowed young girls to obtain their “Radio Proficiency Badge” in radio commutations and to become interested in our hobby.
The club has also put on similar station for the local Cub’s and Scouts groups of the area, in particular the 3rd Whitton Scout Group taking part in “Jamboree on the Air” which has, in the past, meant the involvement of the local Mayor of Richmond.
The club station operates “every” Friday evening from 20:00, local time, on HF as GX0MIN. Our present station consists of an Icom IC 756 Pro 3 together with a 3 element beam on a 40′ retractable mast with our original long wire which is supported from St Augustines Church to the front of the Community Centre.
For VHF 2m we have a 6 element beam above our HF beam , 2m and 70 vertical for local working and a 2m, 70 and 1.2 GHz rotatable beams for satellite use.
For those who like collecting WAB details, we are in TQ17 and the local rateable authority is the “London Borough of Richmond upon Thames”. Our CQ Zone number is 14 and our locator is IO91TK.
We particularly like working 20m and 80m Friday evenings both on SSB and CW.