Video Tribute Honours New Zealand CW Op

The YouTube tribute by Nick ZL2NEB to his friend Gerard ZL2GVA, is a video QSL card of sorts, the final courtesy for a contact that changed his life and brought him into the amateur radio community.

Gerard, who was originally licenced in 1992 as PE1ONB, opened the door to ham radio for Nick and became his Elmer and later, fellow operator, on his POTA adventures.

Gerard, who was an enthusiastic CW operator and a net control operator for the NZ Net, died of cancer at age 59 in November of 2024. On the 1st of February, a celebration of his life was held in New Zealand. Nick's video, posted on YouTube a day later, is an appreciation on a personal level, a reflection on what friendship can mean, especially in a tight-knit community of radio operators.

Nick urges Hams to continue being communicator and always say what needs to be said - on and off the air.

UK Amateurs Start to Use New Privileges

Pete Sipple M0PSX, of Essex Ham, and Mike Lynn G1KOT on 3rd March flew out of Southend Airport over Essex and operated Aeronautical mobile on the 2m band.

Callum, M0MCX - owner of DX Commander - using 1KW on 40m to Japan

"Underground Radio" has a Different Meaning Inside a Bunker

A Cold War-era bunker that was one of the last to be taken out of service in the UK in 1991 has become a base for a ham radio club on the North Yorkshire Moors. Like so many radio operators before in the Royal Observer Corps, the hams are surrounded by concrete walls, 5 metres deep into the underground, as they transmit important information and take measurements. Now, however it is signal reports they are sending to other hams - not levels of radiation that would have followed the dreaded nuclear blast.

The station GBØROC of the Guisborough & District Amateur Radio Club is underground radio at its finest. Like the other bunker sites, this location was once a secret. Now you can't miss its high visibility on the map of various amateur radio awards schemes: It is part of the Bunkers on the Air scheme as B/G-0919, within Parks on the Air number G0003, Worldwide Flora and Fauna area GFF-0012 and Worked All Britain square NZ60. Its video on YouTube also shows how the club welcomes visitors who walk in or, in this case, climb in - since access to the radio room requires careful descent down a metal ladder.

The bunker is a restored symbol of history of a time when the world was on edge. Now its business of radioactivity is simply just that: friendly activity on the radio.