Dorking & District Radio Society

Recent Meetings and Events

Trip to Amberley Working Museum

21 October 2023

The open-air museum at Amberley includes many examples of historic workplaces including volunteer craftsmen demonstrating traditional skills such as printing and woodworking. One of the exhibits focussed on radio and TV technology and included an amateur radio installation; others were themed around electricity, railways and telecommunications.

Receiving Antennas

26 September 2023

Colin Berry, M0GXV, gave a presentation on antennas suitable for shortwave listening, and how they can differ from antennas which also need to function for transmission. Tuned and untuned types were discussed, together with considerations around wideband amplifiers for active antennas.

Operating Evening

22 August 2023

Members of the club enjoyed operating portable stations on a pleasant summer evening on Ranmore Common. This is one of three local elevated sites from where the club have an agreement with the National Trust to operate.

Summer Social Evening

25 July 2023

We enjoyed a meal together at a local curry restaurant, a change from the traditional fish and chips.

Operating Evening

27 June 2023

We set up portable stations at the Devil's Dyke on the South Downs, followed by a meal at a local pub.

Direction Finding Games

23 May 2023

Denis Noe brought portable 2m CW receivers and directional "Tape Measure" 3 element antennas, to have fun locating hidden beacon transmitters. This year the activity was conducted at a new location at Newlands Corner.

10 metre antennas without a Stepp IR or Mortgage

25 April 2023

Tom Ellinor, G4DFA, gave a presentation about constructing simple antennas for the 10 metre band, as an alternative to buying a ready-made one.

HF Noise Elimination

28 March 2023

John Stockley gave an illustrated talk on the various types of noise interfering with an HF signal, how to recognise them, and plenty of ideas of how to tackle them. John brought some items of equipment to pass round to show what could be constructed, and demonstrated the use of commercial speech processors with actual radio receivers to improve intelligibility.

Top Secret: from ciphers to cyber security

28 February 2023

Dr Liz Bruton gave an illustrated virtual talk on the history of secure communications since its adoption by the military in the first world war. The original material for the talk was collected for a Science Museum exhibition, and included many stories recalling the human involvement in the constantly evolving technology.

The story of Jodrell Bank

24 January 2023

In this programme from the RSGB, Professor Ian Morison explained his involvement in the development of the Jodrell Bank radio telescope site near Manchester, it's achievements and role as part of MERLIN, an array of such telescopes which together achieve a very high resolution. The talk included some stunning astronomical images.