Many clubs across our great nation come together for an Annual General Meeting (AGM), and the Dragon Amateur Radio Club proudly embraces this tradition. This meeting is not just a formality; it’s a powerful opportunity for our members to unite, share visions for the future, and actively shape the direction of our club where members of the club can discuss, vote on, and make decisions about the club’s future, learn about the club’s financial situation and Elect the club’s committee for the upcoming year.

This years AGM was held at the clubs home location at Canolfan Esceifiog Community Centre, Lon Groes, Gaerwen, Anglesey. LL60 6DD on the 2nd of December 2024 with some 50% of the membership attending either in person or via a live zoom meeting.

Reports were presented by the Chairman Danny GW7BZR, Secretary Simon MW0NWM and the Treasurer Stewart GW0ETF which were all accepted and passed unanimously by the clubs membership. A report on the website was also presented by the club Webmaster Martin 2W0NKS

Members present were: Nigel GW3JBJ, Stewart GW0ETF, Simon MW0NWM, Martin 2W0NKS, Sylvia SWL,
Danny GW7BZR, David GW6MLI, Mervyn GW1SGG, John MW7JCX, Marc MW0PNC, Harrison SWL,
Ian GW0KRL, John 2W0JYB, Tom 2W0IJD, Liz GW0ETU, Mike MW7KKE, Jason MW0JYY,
Brian GW4KAZ (Zoom), Tony GW4WZS (Zoom), Martin MW7AUU (Zoom), Beth SWL (Zoom)
& Tristan MW3VJN (guest / Zoom)

Officers elected for 2025
Chairman    Danny GW7BZR
Vice-Chairman    David GW6MLI
Treasurer    Stewart GW0ETF
Secretary    Simon MW0NWM

Committee Members elected for 2025
John 2W0JYB
Ian GW0KRL
Liz GW0ETU
Tom 2W0IJD
Martin 2W0NKS
Harrison SWL

Non Committee Roles for 2025
Refreshments    Sylvia SWL
Door Keeper      Sylvia SWL
Equipment          Ian GW0KRL
Publicity              John 2W0JYB
Webmaster        Martin 2W0NKS

Every year the Dragon Amateur Radio Club holds a construction contest with the aim of encouraging members to build either radio equipment or ancillary items which will enhance their radio operations and then to exhibit the builds to encourage others to follow their example.

Entries could have included any radio-related equipment, for example a morse oscillator, test unit, QRP rig, computer/radio interface, PSU, Tx/Rx, linear, antenna, ATU etc. Entries could also have been built from a commercially available kit or indeed scratch built.

1st Prize winner Les Hayward MW0SEC won with his Signal Generator
Beginners Prize winner Jason Young MWOJYY won with a portable beam rotator

Well done to this years winners

Building amateur radio items can help licensed operators in several ways, including: 

• Understanding equipment
  Building amateur radio items can help operators understand the equipment they’re using. 
• Learning new skills
  Building amateur radio items can help operators learn new skills. 

Some equipment that amateur radio operators may need and consider constructing includes:

• A transceiver, which is the radio that allows for sending and receiving signals
• A power supply for the transceiver
• An antenna, such as a VHF/UHF antenna or an HF wire antenna
• A mobile transceiver
• A mobile antenna mount
• Computers
• Power cables
• Weather stations
• Scanners and receivers
• Towers
• Two-way radios 

It was good to see DARC members on Zoom this evening for the talk by Nick Wood M0NTV called ’40M on a Glue Stick’ where Nick M0NTV tells us of his exploits building a Direct Conversion Receiver. Nick is a UK licensed radio amateur and keen constructor of radio electronic projects who’s main interest is in scratch-building SSB transceivers.

The talks YouTube video can be watched here:

You lucky people can watch more Nick M0NTV’s construction projects on his YouTube channel, M0NTVHomebrewing, which you can find by clicking HERE. Please don’t forget to comment, like, share and subscribe to his excellent channel.

We struggled to get contacts in the beginning but the 7400 and the 80/40 dipole worked well.
We packed up at 1550 when the wind was bad, and it became cloudy. All in all we achieved 63 contacts, most of whom complained about the conditions, even inter G was bad but It did improve a bit in the afternoon but nothing like a pile up. Thanks to Les for his hospitality and for letting us use his annex. Thanks to Stew GW0ETF, John 2W0JWB, Twm 2W0IJD, John GW0WZL, Les MW0SEC and Sylvia. Without your help this would have been hard, if at all  possible. Looking forward to next year!

Article by Danny Shurmer GW7BZR

The Dragon ARC Annual General Meeting will take place on Monday 2nd December at 19:30. This will be a hybrid meeting where you can choose to join us in person at our usual venue, the Canolfan Esceifiog, Gaerwen, or members will be able to join us by Zoom if they cannot join us in person.

If you have anything you wish to add to the AGENDA, please do let the Secretary know by Monday 18th November.

If you are interested in standing for a position on the committee, please do let either the Secretary of Chairman know, they will also be happy to discuss the roles available and the time commitment required.

To be able to vote at the AGM you need to be a paid up member, if you have not already done so please pay your membership dues to Chairman Danny GW7BZR at his home, or contact our Treasurer to find out how to pay electronically.

Finally, please do your best to attend in person or on Zoom, this is your club and your participation in the AGM is vital to the clubs future success.

Secretary, Simon MW0NWM     m3set@yahoo.co.uk

Treasurer, Stewart GW0ETF     gw0etf1@gmail.com

Members of Dragon ARC are busy preparing to take part in their November 24MHZ (12 metre) Operating Challenge. But what is the challenge, and how will it work?

The aim of the challenge is to encourage club members to get active on the 24MHz band, with a little friendly rivalry. Of course this is not a formal contest and any QSO you have can be a good old natter, or a 59 and 73 ‘rubber stamp’ QSO, the choice is yours. But to add to the interest we have created a simple set of rules and a scoring system to encourage us all to not only work as many QSOs as we wish, but to challenge us to work as many different countries as possible.

Remember 24MHz is a WARC Band and therefore a non contest band, so simply call CQ and not CQ Contest, as the scoring is just to challenge a few of us at DARC who want to take part.

24MHz Challenge Rules

• 1st until 30th November

• Make as many contacts as possible on the 12m 24MHz band.

• All modes: voice / CW / Digi

• Two power categories: 1) 25 Watts

2) 100 Watts

•You must use one or more homemade (homebrew) aerials.

•Scoring: 1 point per QSO multiplied by the number of DXCC worked.

        For example: 103 QSO x 15 DXCC = 1545 points.

•To enter a claimed score, you will be asked to complete a simple form which will be emailed to members.

GOOD LUCK!’

On Monday 21st October members met at their usual home in Gaerwen to test their homemade aerials using masts and analysers to check they were resonant on the 24MHz band, in readiness for the November 24MHz Challenge. Whilst not everyone brought their newly built creations along, members encouraged those who were busy tinkering with their wires, whilst drinking hot beverages and eating copious amounts of Jaffa Cakes!

The club also welcomed two visitors who became members the very same evening, a warm welcome was extended to Harrison who is studying for the Foundation exam and Michael MW7KKE. It is great to see Dragon ARC continue to thrive and encourage new members to join our club.

Join us for our new Foundation License Training course which will be held on ZOOM and will commence on Thursday the 31st October 2024 and then every Thursday at 18:30

We do not rush our courses, preferring to take a long as our students need to ensure they have the best chance of passing the exam.

If you wish to join the course and gain your Foundation License please contact Simon MW0NWM on m3set@yahoo.co.uk

The course is free to members and non members, so if you know of anyone who may be wanting to join us, please do let Simon know.

The Foundation licence is your gateway to the world of amateur radio

The course and exam that leads to the licence provides you with an exciting introduction to the hobby while requiring an acceptable minimum level of skill and experience.

Your Foundation licence is recognised by the UK communications regulator Ofcom.

It entitles you to have a unique identifier called a call sign which is used to identify you when you’re transmitting.

To find out more about the foundation license click HERE

When Dragon ARC member and President of CWop Stewart Rolfe GW0ETF ran into CWops Secretary Jim Talens N3JT in Glasgow on August 7th, 2024, Jim graciously handed Stewart a shiny new ARRL Antenna Handbook—guess who gets to borrow it now? Yes Stewart kindly donated it to the Dragon ARC, so members can boost their antenna antics!

The presentation took place at the meeting on 21st October where fittingly the evening’s topic was building antennas for the November 12m Challenge.

CWops bring together and support amateur radio operators who enjoy communicating by Morse Code (CW). CWops offer free CW training to those who want to learn this special skill that reaches back to the very beginning of ham radio and remains vital today. Learning and operating CW is fun and you can do it!

The Dragon Amateur Radio Club vice chairman David Morgan GW6MLI also happens to be the North Gwynedd and Anglesey Raynet co-ordinator and Raynet Director. The Raynet organisation was formed in 1953 following the East Coast floods, when radio amateurs provided emergency communications. Today they can provide a flexible communications service for major civil emergencies or related exercises and local community events such as the Dougie Mac’s bike ride event.

Dougie Mac’s annual bike ride is an event for cyclists of all ages and abilities with participants having the opportunity to choose between two beautiful routes.

The shorter, 49 mile route will see participants ride out of the city through Whitmore and Loggerheads towards the Shropshire town of Market Drayton before heading northward through the beautiful Shropshire and Cheshire countryside to Nantwich. They’ll then return to Stoke through Keele.

For more experienced cyclists, Dougie Mac’s longer 108 mile route heads out of Stoke-on-Trent through Baldwins Gate and Woore to Whitchurch. Continuing west via Ellesmere, cyclists will cross the border into Wales and head on to Llangollen, before returning to The Potteries through Nantwich. Along the route, cyclists will take in the beautiful countryside of Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire.

David GW6MLI working under the Raynet banner attended the Dougie Mac’s bike ride to help provide communications between stages of the ride.

For more information on Dougie Mac or Raynet please click the relevant logo below.

On Thursday 4^th September, members of Dragon ARC paid a visit to Rhyl & District Amateur Radio Club at their potential new home of Rhyl Yacht Club. Simon MW0NWM, a member of Dragon ARC attended in his role of Regional Representative for the Radio Society of Great Britain in North Wales, wishing Rhyl & District the best of luck in their potential new venue.

18 people attended this pleasant social evening where copious amounts of tea, coffee and biscuits were consumed.

Rhyl club member Alan GW4HDR set up a vertical aerial and checked for HF noise levels at the Yacht Club using his Icom IC705 and compared them on a fellow club member’s, Xiegu G90. They found that there were high noise levels on 80 metres, but other HF bands were usable. This could prove to be useful if they plan to operate from the site in future.

The following amateur attended the event: Sylvia SWL, 2W1LJC, 2W0JEB, GW4CQZ, GW4HDR, GW4RWR, GW6MLI, GW7AMS, GW7BZR, GW8NZN, MW0GBR, MW0IDX, MW0NDE, MW0NWM, MW1DSB, MW7FXH and Alan GW4HDR.

Alan thanked Tony GW7AMS and the Yacht Club for allowing them to use their lovely premises and hope that Rhyl & District ARC will be able to use the building on a monthly basis. In conclusion it was a very enjoyable evening!

Article by Simon MW0NWM