I trust this finds you in good health. As in recent years, we'll be holding the AGM online:2023 AGM, 19th January at 12.30pm. As last year, we will use Microsoft Teams. If you are able to take part, please email: paul.maher@open.ac.uk and Paul will send you a Teams invite.
Firstly some very sad news: Tom Smith (Dr. Thomas Buckley Smith) G0PSU, became silent key on 21st November 2022. As one of our founding members, Tom had always been a generous and staunch supporter of the club, and especially so in its early years. The transceiver we used when the club started, and cobweb antenna, were both Tom's. He was often the one up a ladder fixing antennas (with safety harness of course), or cutting back bushes from our mast guys. Tom was our diligent equipment officer for many of the club's formative years. Tom grew up in Evanston, a leafy suburb of Chicago. His father was a chemist, and Tom had an early interest in science and technology. For a schoolboy project he built a seismograph. He was first licenced as W9BOO (call since reissued) and was active from the family home on the HF bands. He studied at CalTech, then gained his Ph D at MIT. Tom continued his postdoc. studies here in the UK at Cambridge University and later Bristol. Tom was a Physics lecturer (and brilliant mathematician) at the OU from January 1971 until he retired after some 34 years service. He featured in many of the early OU TV science programmes, with his archetypal long hair, jeans and flowery shirts. Tom favoured teaching at Sterling residential schools, often travelling there on his motorbike. I remember hearing of him getting standing ovations for his lectures there. As a keen cyclist, he said he'd covered 300,000km on his cycling commute to the OU from Bedford, a forty mile round trip. A journey that he continued to make long after his retirement, although his bike went on the train more frequently then. Tom also enjoyed cycling time trials, running, motorcycling, was a competent classical guitarist, bread maker (he baked all his own bread). An audiophile, he built his own valve Hi-Fi amps. Radio wise, Tom constructed a large magnetic loop antenna in his loft, with a vacuum variable capacitor remotely tuned by servo motor. This complemented the vertical and cobweb antennas in his garden. In later life he enjoyed repairing and restoring valve radios, harking back to when he worked in a radio repair shop as a teenager. Tom was a character, certainly one of a kind, and is very much missed. He leaves behind his partner Diana, and his brothers' families back in the States.
The OU is of course no longer in lockdown, although many staff are continuing to work primarily from home. It seems that the full car parks at Walton Hall are a thing of the past. As club members we are urged to continue taking sensible precautions against Covid when visiting campus.
I'm pleased to say that the top winch cable of our P60 mast has been replaced, with the correct length, so the mast can finally be extended to its full height. Unfortunately though, while replacing the cable, the contractors managed to break our new 80m dipole at the feed point, and that still needs to be fixed. Not so easy as H&S restrictions prevent us from carrying out many of the tasks that we've always done ourselves. The trees near the mast have now been trimmed so when the weather improves we hope to drop the tower down and make the necessary repairs at ground level.
Back in July we sold the club's M100 mobile mast. It was a sad occasion seeing it being towed away, the end of an era, and the end of the club's big signal on the lower bands. However, we had been informed by Estates that we were no longer allowed to use the big mast on H&S grounds, and later that the land where it was located was needed for other use. So we were left with no choice.
Earlier this year our shack PC lost its network connection. It transpired that it had become too outdated to be allowed on the network. Many thanks to Paul for negotiating with IT and obtaining a brand new W11 machine for us, plus two larger monitors.
The big news this time is that the proposed replacement of our ageing, scruffy, but much loved shack and store/workshop has indeed gone ahead. We had acquired use of the caravan (mobile office) shack back in 1990 when the club first started, and inherited the adjacent hut from the then Science Faculty soon afterwards. We are very grateful to Estates staff and the OU Club for facilitating this. In preparation, January saw us having a massive clear out of the shack and store, much of it going for WEEE recycling via the OU Porters. Back in July, we cleared out the entire contents of the shack and adjacent store/workshop. We were given the use of a nearby storage container while we awaited the installation of the new units. Following some delays the new units have been installed and are in the process of being fitted out. The electrical installation and IT networking has been completed. All the antenna/rotator cables have now been routed into the new shack. Adrian has been very busy installing shelving and getting things ship shape. Thanks also to Ian Terrell for all his hard work with the move too. Once finished, we'll certainly have a very tidy and comfortable set up. Again, we are indebted to Estates and the OU Club for their hard work and generosity in seeing this project through. We understand that our old caravan shack is to be relocated somewhere on campus as a wild flora and fauna habitat! We have plans to name our new shack the Tom Smith Memorial Shack.
That's about all the news for now. Hope to see some of you for the online AGM. Meanwhile have a great Christmas and New Year.