GB4BDS Jota Station

The weekend just gone I spent helping the JOTA Special Event station of GB4BDS (Banstead District Scouts).

The station was run from 7th Bandstead Scout group headquarters and was operating on various band (mainly voice) from 80M (3.6Mhz) to 23cm (1296Mhz).

Many Beavers, Cubs and Brownies visit GB4BDS to take part. First was a presentation about Radio, then they could take part in various activities including building a Flashing LED kit, Learning some Morse code and having VHF / HF contacts.

I stayed overnight looking after the equipment and enjoying contacts until 11:14UTC on 2m even though the youngsters had left hours earlier. Some ones I remember from the evening operating included 3 ops on handhelds including one heading back up north from East Croydon station near where I work and another op staying in a vicarage and who last year operated the GB5BDS (Bishop David Sheppard Primary School) with theSouthport & District Amateur Radio Club (SADARC).

Hopefully I should have a few photos soon as although I took my camera it stayed in the box the whole time other took photos of the event.
The event was made possible by a group of operators belonging to various clubs (in no particular order) including Sutton & Cheam Radio Society (S&CRS), Coulsdon Amateur Transmitting Society (CATS), Wimbledon and District Amateur Radio Society (W&DARS), Whitton Amateur Radio Group (WARG) and possibly more I haven’t mentioned.

QSL Info:- You can QSL GB4BDS via Bureau or via eQSL.cc.