Our Meetings


4th Wednesdays of the month
Formal Nights for talks, demonstrations, lively discussions and activities: 7:30pm: Heeley Green Community Centre, 344 Gleadless Rd, Heeley, Sheffield S2 3AJ.

Other Wednesdays in a month
Check out our events and Member's Hub on Facebook, as we either go out for meals and socials, contesting evenings, or we do portable evenings.

The only Amateur Radio Society in Sheffield to offer FREE membership with great talks, events, venue & training…

Welcome to the website of the Sheffield & District Wireless Society. We have members from all walks, of life, bringing with them a very long wealth of history and knowledge with a common ground to agreed a very relaxed, different and refreshing set of membership aims and objectives. Do come and join us in our Facebook Member’s Hub where most of our daily activity takes place. Just bring yourselves along, your ideas and together we can enjoy what is a fantastic life long hobby to pursue!

Since 2013, we have always offered FREE membership and no subscriptions chipping in with funding via junk sales and donations when we need to. We welcome new members who are interested in getting involved in amateur radio, who want to take up training for Foundation, Intermediate and Full License, enjoy our lectures and social nights, or typically, become a part of our strong and vibrant contesting team where we do have a strong recent history of being at the top of the league tables.

Feel free to visit our website and Facebook promotional page, or better still, come along to one of our Society meetings, talks or events where a very warm welcome awaits. 

SDWS is very grateful to M0IRQ, owner of Intraxplex CCTV and Alarms, for sponsoring this website.

SDWS AGM & AWARDS PRESENTATION 2023

22 March 2023

Minutes of the AGM: These can be download here:

http://sheffieldwireless.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/The-minutes-of-the-Sheffield-and-District-Wireless-society-Annual-General-2023.pdf.pdf

The whole meeting, including the Awards Presentation is available in PDF format (32GB) at:

http://sheffieldwireless.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SDWS-AWARDS-EVENING-2023.pdf

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Details for Sheffield’s DMR Repeater

The banner image containing the frequencies for the GB7SR DMR Repeater has been corrected and updated for the GB7SR Facebook Group. Our apologies for any confusion caused.

SDWS News … March 2022

Sheffield and District Wireless Society held its AGM and Awards Presentation Night on Wednesday 2nd March 2022.

The AGM reports and presentations can be viewed in PDF format at SDWS AWARDS EVENING 2022 V2 while the Minutes can be read at Minutes of March 2022 SDWS AGM

The Society is doing very well indeed in spite of the recent restrictions due to the Covid pandemic.  Face to face meetings are once again taking place at the Rutland Hotel on the first Wednesday of each month and a full programme of talks and other events is now planned up to the end of the year. These can be accessed via both the  public and members only SDWS Facebook pages.

The AGM resulted in a several committee changes. The General Secretary, Peter G3PHO, decided to step down after some 60 years (!) or so of being on various radio club committees.  David M0GDX kindly volunteered to take on the Programme Secretary’s job. Likewise, Graham G3YJR handed his Treasurer’s job over to a younger person.  We also have a new Chair man in the shape of Andy M0GAV.  All these and more can be read in the Minutes PDF file.

The highlight of the Awards Presentations were the October 2021 Construction Competition awards. These are shown below in the photos…

The Award for Progress in Amateur Radio was, this year, given to Pat Davies, M7PAT, the partner of Dave Shaw, M5DWI. Pat is a relatively new licencee and, since getting her callsign,  has made significant progress in contesting and is now coming well up the league charts in both HF and VHF contests. She has won a number of RSGB Contest certificates for being the highest place Foundation Licence holder. Well done Pat!


Annual Junk Sale Wed 1st Sept 2021 RUTLAND HOTEL

SDWS MEETINGS & CVID 19

This starts at 8pm prompt. Doors open at 7.30pm.

Bring along your surplus radio junk and help the club through a 10% levy for club funds.

The sale will run as an auction like you see on Bargain Hunt!

Anti Covid precautions apply…. Masks to be work in public areas of the hotel such as the reception area and corridors, members attending to have had two anti covid vaccinations, do not attend if you have any covid symptoms such as persistent cough, a temperature, etc.

ANNUAL PORTABLE EVENING AUGUST 2021

ANNUAL PORTABLE EVENING

WED 4TH AUGUST (7PM TO 8.30PM BST) :

(OPEN TO MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS)

** SUBJECT TO COVID RESTRICTIONS AND WEATHER CONDITIONS**

Location: Individual locations to be chosen by the participants
Operators: Single Operator only (couples may enter a log each by sharing the time allowed)
Equipment: HF and/or VHF mobile or portable transceiver and matching antennas
Categories: (1) HF 100W maximum.
(2) HF 10W Maximum
(3) VHF 100W maximum
(4) VHF10W Maximum
HF is defined as 1.8 to 30MHz. VHF is 50MHz and up
Antennas: Any portable or mobile type.
Modes: Any mode allowed, including digital (FT8, PSK, etc)
Logs submission: Any format (paper, electronic, etc) provided the following information is recorded:
DATE
TIME GMT
FREQUENCY or BAND
CALLSIGN WORKED
REPORT RS(T) SENT
REPORT (RS(T) RECEIVED)
LOCATION OF STATION WORKED (Town, city or QRA LOCator).

FT8 reports may be in WSJT format rather than RST
The log should also state the entrants location(s) either by QRA Locator or Six digit National Grid reference

Send your logs to: sdws(at)g3pho(dot)org(dot)uk OR post to Peter Day G3PHO’s address as shown on QRZ.com
Deadline for log submission: Midnight Wednesday 11th August.

Awards: Achievement certificates in PDF format for the best DX on each band shown in the total entries. The definition of HF DX is based on the country’s rarity value rather than distance. On VHF DX is determined by the distance worked. The judge’s decision is final!

Results will be announced here on this website and on the SDWS public facebook page at www.facebook.com/sheffieldwireless



SDWS MEETINGS & COVID 19

…. an update

SDWS MEETINGS at the RUTLAND HOTEL

At the time of writing this post (mid March 2021) we are yet to decide on a firm date for when we can resume our “in the flesh” meetings in Sheffield. It is now one year since we met at the Rutland Hotel in Broomhill, Sheffield, and most of our local members have not seen each other since! Instead, we have been having video conference meetings in the form of a Sunday morning chat at 11am, using the entirely free Jitsi video conference software, which works like Zoom and Webex but does not require passwords. There are no time limits and apparently a very generous allowance re numbers of participants. The Jitsi meeting is only available to bonafide Society members so if you wish to take part you will need to either look for the weekly reminder on the members Facebook page or email the club secretary for the link.

We also run a weekly 2m FM net on 145.475MHz. You do not need to be a club member to join in so if you are interested in SDWS why not call into the net at 8pm each Wednesdsay evening? Due to the hilly nature of Sheffield not all members can hear each other so be prepared to have a little difficulty hearing some of the net members. If you hear callsigns such as M0RPK, G8BMI, 2E0YTV, 2E1WCB, G5TO you will have found us!

At the moment the greatest proportion of club activity takes place on our members Facebook page. This is really a very active Social Media outlet for SDWS and is well worth joining Facebook if for nothing else. Here you can make new friends as a member, get the answers to radio problems, especially when they concern antennas and software.

We are also very active in the contest field … especially the RSGB weekly 80m Club Contests, the weekend VHF/UHF RSGB Contests in the VHF Championships and the AFS Superleague and the Autumn Series of RSGB 80m Contests.

If the Covid regulations allow it we hope to put on a VHF Field Day station at our contest portable location at Wharncliffe (IO93FL) on the 3rd/4th July and the RSGB SSB Field Day in early September, from the same location. We are most grateful to the Wharncliffe Estate for giving use permission to use their Wharncliffe Chase site for all our portable contesting. No other clubs or individuals from other clubs are allowed this privilege

SO WHAT OF MEETINGS AFTER THE COVID RESTRICTIONS ARE FINALLY RELAXED FOR GOOD?

The committee have had preliminary chat about this and at present we have no firm decisions to take. We have a number of scenarios that we could undertake..

1. Revert back to preCovid meetings… ie a formal meeting for talks at the Rutland Hotel on the first Wednesday of each month, plus social meetings in the Rutland Bar on all other Wednesday evenings.

2. For the coming year have club talks online only using video conferencing. The RSGB are presently using this system very successfully. We will need someone in the club to organise and co-ordinate the video meetings. PLEASE OFFER YOUR SERVICES! In addition we would meeting in a centrally based pub for social evenings and/or meals.

3. Look for a cheaper meeting room than the £50 a night room we rented at the Rutland. If anyone knows of such a room (free if possible!) which we would need for 7.30 to 10pm one night a week please email the club secretary Peter, G3PHO (email address can be found on his QRZ.com page).

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS AS WE APPROACH THE LIFTING OF COVID RESTRICTIONS.

G5YL , Krystyna Haywood, appointed RSGB Region 4 District Representative

SDWS |are proud to announce the appointment by RSGB of our former Chairperson, Krystyna Haywood, G5YL to the office of Region 4 District representative

Sheffield and District Wireless Society is delighted and proud to announce that founder member and former Chairperson, Krystyna Haywood, who recently qualified for her Full Licence as G5YL, has been chosen to represent RSGB Region 4 as its District Representative for the Sheffield and South Yorkshire area. This means she will be working with the Region 4 Regional Rep and will be available to visit affiliated clubs and societies and well as helping individual RSGB members.

This is an important job and SDWS have every confidence that Krystyna will carry out her RSGB duties to the full and in her usually very thorough way.

Congratulations Krystyna !

Celebrate 100 years of SDWS during September’s RSGB SSB Field Day

It’s that time of year as a society to start coming together to quickly prepare for a fabulous weekend of fun with competitive contesters working with newer members to have a great fun weekend, teaching contesting, learning how to log and getting to grips with the real excitement of radio sport contesters with members old and new, side by side, shoulder to shoulder!

Whilst we are in it to win and get some good scores, it is a great opportunity to learn from the masters and to come up in the ranks. Hopefully going away at the end of the weekend with a new passion and set of goals in contesting for Sheffield Wireless.

The RSGB’s SSB Field Day is an annual fun contesting event, and takes place over a 24 hour period between the 7th & 8th September between 1300 hours UTC.

To make this work, we need a commitment of equipment, tents/shelter and operators to work on a 1 or 2 hour rota. Some contesters may choose to stop the whole 24 hours, setting up, stopping over, and closing down, whilst others might come for a few hours. We need all hands on decks where everyone gets to have a bash and have a great weekend of fun.

To make this work, we need the following commitments so please reply to us on our member’s hub and let’s get this great event moving forward;

  • Tents, Caravan and/or campervan
  • Antennas for 80, 40, 15 and 10 metres
  • Radio Equipment, mics, headsets etc.
  • Laptops for logging
  • Generators
  • Volunteers for setup and closedown
  • Operators on a Rota basis.

To start make preparations, a meeting will be held in the Rutland Hotel’s bar from 8pm on Wednesday the 21st August!


Please come along and give us your commitments!

Meanwhile, here are the rules;

1. Objective

To work as many stations and multipliers as quickly and accurately as possible, operating under portable conditions.
2. Date & TimeCW FD (NFD)  –  1st/2nd June 2019     1500-1500 UTC
SSB FD  –  7th/8th September 2019    1300-1300 UTC
3. Frequencies and PowerCW FD – 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m – max 100W
SSB FD – 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m – max 100W
Only one signal may be transmitted at any one time.
4. Entrants and SectionsTo be eligible for a certificate or award, portable stations must register on-line at least 7 days prior to each contest – click here to register for CW NFD and here to register for SSB NFD. (non-UK&CD entrants, ‘QRP Get on the Air’ stations and Fixed stations do not need to register)  Entries may be from RSGB Affiliated Societies, groups of RSGB members, individual RSGB members or any non-UK groups or individuals. Operators of Affiliated Society stations need not be members of the RSGB. Click here to see the latest list of stations who have registered for CW NFD 2019 and click here to see the latest list of station who have registered for SSB NFD 2019  (these links only become active after registration has started)QRP Unassisted Portable: Single transceiver, 5W max. One single antenna (vertical, dipole or loop) comprising a single element with traps and/or removable links – maximum of two elevated supports not exceeding 15m above ground. Receiving with more than two receivers or receiving while transmitting is not allowed.QRP Get on the Air, Renewable Energy, Unassisted Portable: Single Operator, Single transceiver, 5W max. Total operating time is a maximum of 6 hours; off-periods, if taken, must be at least 60 minutes. One single antenna (vertical, dipole or loop) comprising a single element with traps and/or removable links – maximum of two elevated supports not exceeding 15m above ground. Power must be from batteries or a renewable energy source.Low Power Unassisted Portable: Single transceiver, 100W max. One single antenna (vertical, dipole or loop) comprising a single element with traps and/or removable links – maximum of two elevated supports not exceeding 15m above ground. Receiving with more than two receivers or receiving while transmitting is not allowed.Low Power Assisted Portable: 100W max. No restriction on equipment, aerials or assistance.Fixed: No restriction on equipment, power, aerials or assistance. Fixed stations may only work Portable stations for QSO points, but can work any stations for DXCC multipliers.Operation must be from a single Station location where all transmitters, receivers, and antennas are located within a circle of a radius no greater than 500m. Remote receivers outside the Station location are not permitted.Remote operation of a Fixed station is allowed where the operator is situated within the same country on the DXCC list. Additionally an operator’s home station, as shown in the licensee’s licence documents, may be remotely operated from a location in another country.A remotely operated station must obey all station licence, operator licence, and category conditions. The callsign used must be one issued or permitted by the Regulatory Authority of the remote station location. The address of the operator must be included in the ‘Address of Operator when operating Remote from Station Address’ box on the Station Information Page and the address of the remote station must be included in the Cabrillo header ‘ADDRESS:’ box. The RSGB HF Contest Committee may place remotely operated stations in a separate results table.In the Unassisted sections, the following are not permitted: public internet based assistance such as RBN, DX Cluster or private off-site assistance, and also local/on-site Skimmers.Special Contest Callsigns or Club Callsigns may be used. All Portables must sign /P.For portable stations, the installation of the station and antennas must not start earlier than 24 hours before the beginning of the contest. In addition portable stations must be powered by generators or batteries and must not be set up in a permanent building or structure, and the use of existing or previously installed equipment is not allowed.
5. ExchangeRS(T) plus serial number – starting at 1 and incrementing by 1, irrespective of band. If you are not sent a serial number, log a zero.
6. ScoringPortable station Sections : 
Portable and Mobile stations in Europe (including UK&CD): 4 points per valid QSO. 
Portable and Mobile stations outside Europe: 6 points per valid QSO. 
Fixed stations in Europe (including UK&CD): 2 points per valid QSO. 
Fixed stations outside Europe: 3 points per valid QSO. 

Fixed station Section : 
Portable and Mobile stations in Europe (including UK&CD) : 4 points per valid QSO. 
Portable and Mobile stations outside Europe : 6 points per valid QSO.For all Sections in CW Field Day, contacts on 160m score double points.Fixed stations may only work Portable stations for QSO points, but can work any stations for DXCC multipliers.Multipliers: 
DXCC entities per band. The final score is the total of QSO points multiplied by the total DXCC entities.
7. Log Submission 
        and Adjudication
Submit in Cabrillo format here within 5 days of the end of the contest. View the correctCabrillo format for this contest.
Single Operator Portable entrants should indicate that they were Single-op when uploading their log.
If the robot finds format errors, it will reject the log and ask for resubmission of a corrected logfile. Second and subsequent log uploads may be subject to analysis of any changes that have been made.
If you have difficulties preparing or uploading your Cabrillo logfile, please contact the contest adjudicator to ask for assistance, before the submission deadline.
Adjudicated results will be online and will include online logfiles for all entrants. Errors will incur penalties as outlined in the RSGB HF Adjudication Principles. This penalty will be the loss of an additional 2 QSO points.
The use of CAT Control to log the correct frequency and mode is highly recommended – you will lose QSO points for frequency and mode errors.

At the present time, it is not possible to automatically enter logs into the Region 1 (DARC) Field Day Contests. If you wish to also enter the Region 1 Field Day Contests, please submit your log for the Region 1 CW Field Day Contest here and for the Region 1 SSB Field Day Contest here. The rules for the Region 1 Field Days are available here.
8. Results and AwardsThere will be separate tables of results for UK&CD entrants and a combined table for non-UK&CD entrants.Awards for RSGB HF Contests are shown here. The trophies for these contests are for UK&CD entrants.Winners of awards, section winners and the highest scores on each band will be indicated in the results tables complete with downloadable certificates. A certificate may also be downloaded by all entrants showing their position in their entry section.
9. Supplementary Rules(a)  All portable stations may be inspected at their registered location by a representative of the HFCC or CSC, both before and/or during the contest. 
(b)  Any infringement considered to be outside the spirit of the contest may result in QSOs being disallowed, the entry being reclassified as a Checklog, or the entry being disqualified. 
(c)  Self-spotting or asking to be spotted is not permitted.
(d)  Call signs logged must be the same as those exchanged over the air by the entrants during the QSO. Correction of logged call signs and exchanges after the contest, by use of any database, recordings, email or other methods, is not allowed.
(e)  All requests for contacts, responses to calls, and copying of call signs and contest exchanges must be accomplished during the contest period using the mode and frequencies of the contest.
(f)  You must send your callsign at least every 3rd QSO and no less often than once a minute .
(g)  Proof of contact e.g. an MP3 audio recording, may be required as part of the adjudication process.
10. DeclarationBy entering any RSGB HF Contest you declare that:(a) Your station was operated strictly in accordance with the rules and spirit of the contest, within the conditions of your licence, and that the power output from your transmitter was no greater than that permitted in the section of the contest that you are entering.(b) You agree that decisions of the RSGB HF Contest Committee will be final in cases of dispute.(c) By submitting a log entry, entrants give the RSGB permission to score, amend, publish, republish, print, and otherwise distribute that entry by any means.
11. Adjudicator
CW: Mike G3VYI
SSB: John G4CZB

The way forward with Foundation & Intermediate Licence Training

For several years I have been the Wireless Society’s main Trainer for Foundation and some intermediate, with support from a range of members pitching in to help out.

I have in the past year taken much needed time out to learn for, and gain my full amateur radio licence. I am looking forward to receiving my callsign with great pleasure, and am currently enjoing a much needed break. I cant tell you how wonderful it feels to chill out for a bit, and long may that feeling last..!!

Next month, September 2019, heralds a new era for Foundation and Intermediate licences as the syllabuses have changed considerably, and it is going to take some time to prepare and plan a new course with a new format of learning that is easy for us all to manage and cater for.

The new Foundation Licence syllabus has 250 items to learn, which is a massive jump from the 130 items in the previous syllabus. Getting the course right requires time and planning, and unfortunately, the resources of Sheffield Wireless are limited in that we do not have a training room facility. However, this has never been a barrier in the past.

If you think the increased learning is a tough change for Foundation Training, then consider that the Intermediate Training has also been toughened up which will require much more training and far more time, time that we are limited to as trainers, pitchers and supporters.

This means we will have to do things differently, and I think we can acheive that in a way that encompasses the very ethos of amateur radio being a hobby of self learning and experimentation, with a facility of using on line learning resources.

I still continue to be approached as a main trainer since standing down for a break, and as you can imagine, my planning is only in the thinking stages where I am beginning to consider the best way to progress forward on training, although a priority for me, is also preserve my valuable limited time and that of the training supporters.

I no longer have any intention of doing classes, as we do not have the meeting resources available to us. However, a more useful way of managing my time is to provide training videos on YouTube, and also, having used Google’s Classroom for the Full Advanced Group, this feels to me the best way forward for both Foundation and the Intermediate Licence.

My frst priority, is to focus only on the Foundation given the extent of the changes in both. I will not be giving the 2E0 a second glance, placing this on the back burner for sometime in the future. No timescale is set for this.

There is nothing to stop students reading the Course Handbooks, which is what students should be doing in any case of part of their own self learning. Regular members of the society, both at meetings and on the hub are more than happy to answer questions and discuss topics, so we can easily buddy you up with a named 1:1 fully licensed amateur who you can build a good close rapport with during your learning. The videos I plan, along with Google Classroom will also complement each other very well I think.

So, the structures I will be working on, starting from January 2020 will be as follows;

  • Hints and Tips on How to Study
  • Course Book Reading
  • YouTube Video Presentations at your leisure
  • Google Classroom Online Group
  • 1:1 Buddy Support with a licensed amateur
  • Practical Sessions around May/June, and, November/December.
  • Exams will be undertaken in January and July with exam room paid for by Sheffield Wireless.
    • NB: You can request to take your exam at any other time, but you, or your group, will be responsible for the payment of your exam room booking, currently £50.
  • You are responsible for the cost of the exams, and any materials you need to use.

If you need to contact me, or have any questions, then please use the contact us section on the top of our website, or ask a question in our ‘Member’s Hub’ on Facebook.

Thank you and best 73

Krystyna 2E0KSH (awaiting my full callsign!)