History
Radio has a long history in the Poole area, going back over 120 years.
Marconi
In September 1898, Marconi moved his experimental station from Bournemouth a few miles west to the Haven Hotel, Sandbanks at the entrance to Poole Harbour. He erected a 30m high mast and installed transmitting and receiving equipment in his laboratory and workshop. By 1899 Marconi was experimenting with tuned circuits and the range of transmissions increased to the extent that contacts with France were being made. Marconi continued to use the Sandbanks site until 1926. The picture, reproduced with the permission of Marconi Corporation plc, shows the station in 1904.
RADAR
During the Second World War, in 1940, the Air Ministry's
radar research establishment moved to Worth Matravers in the Purbeck Hills,
near Poole. Several important developments in RADAR were made here,
including the GEE and OBOE systems. Today little remains, apart from a
memorial at St. Aldhelm’s Head. Click here and here for information
about the achievements at Worth Matravers.
Formation of Poole Radio Society
Poole Radio Society (formally Poole Radio Amateur Society) was formed in 1975 when the founder, Dave G3ZPR, considered there were enough Amateurs in the Poole area to justify a local club. In October of that year an inaugural meeting was held at the college in Poole, where a caretaker committee was formed to carry things through to the first AGM in October of the following year.
Meeting Places
Until the end of 2005 Society met at a number of locations
within the Poole College of Further education premises. In the early
years meetings were held monthly during college term time only, later
increasing to weekly when we obtained the use of a dedicated shack. There
we installed antennas for the lf and hf bands as well as vhf and uhf.
In 2001, we built our main hf antenna, a VK2ABQ Moxon rectangle – whilst designed for the 10, 15 and 20m bands, we also obtained good results with it on 12 and 17m. With major redevelopment of the college site pending, we reluctantly said our farewells.
From the start of 2006 we met at the Old Chapel Hall in Cabot Lane in Creekmoor. Initially meetings took place on Wednesday evenings. From August 2006, meetings took place most Fridays with an occasional Wednesday. From January 2008 meetings took place every Friday.
From the start of July 2015, we met every Friday evening at St. Osmunds’s Hall in Florence Road, Lower Parkstone (at the rear of the ST. Dunstan of Canterbury Orthodox Church).
We moved to St Aldhelm’s Church Hall from February 2018, meeting on a Thursday evening. Click here for an up-to-date schedule of future meetings and activities.
Members
Since 1975 membership has fluctuated between about 20 and 50 members. Members’ interests and activities cover most aspects of the hobby on bands from lf/hf to microwaves, using cw, phone, data and television modes.
Committee
The day-to-day organisation of activities is largely in the hands of the committee who are elected each April at the Annual General Meeting. The committee consists of the Chairman, Treasurer Secretary and several other committee members. In addition, we have a President, who provides some continuity, by remaining in-post for a number of years.
Meeting Subjects
Most of our main monthly meetings have and continue to be
based around topics of interest to radio amateurs. Subjects covered have
included most aspects of the hobby such as Satellites, Home Construction, DXpeditions,
Antennas, Microwaves, hf Propagation, QRP, Test Equipment, Contests, Packet
Radio, Amateur Television (fast and slow scan) and visits from several local
amateur radio suppliers and kit manufacturers.
Sometimes the subject may be rather more loosely related to the hobby such as telescopes, fibre optics (light is after all just another part of the electromagnetic spectrum), the use of radio by the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (who have their Headquarters in Poole) or a fascinating talk by the local kite flying club – one of our members uses a kite to lift his long-wire antenna!
Activities
Besides our main meetings, most years club activities have
included construction (mainly QRP), contests (perhaps you have worked us?),
special event and exhibition stations, field 
days, visits, barbeques,
an annual dinner and stands at local rallies (maybe you have seen us at the
Bournemouth Rally or at Hamfest?).
Days in the Field & Park
Our version of field days we call ‘Days in the Field’, as we generally are not out to win contests, but perhaps to take part or just have some fun working a few stations running low power from some batteries or even solar power. We usually take along several stations, some operating on lf or hf bands, some operating on vhf, uhf or microwaves. We usually use an accessible local hill-top or a local park, choosing days when the weather is likely to be fine.
Visits
We have visited Bletchley Park and the Amberley Chalk Pit Museum twice, and we still haven’t seen everything to see at these places. We have also visited Rampisham Down to see how the BBC World Service was transmitted using transmitters running 250kw which you can walk inside!
Newsletter
A newsletter has been produced at varying frequencies for most of the club’s existence. Over this period production methods have changed from manual typewriter to computer. The primary role of the newsletter has remained the same: providing members with a definitive programme of club meetings and events.
Notable Events
Our first major event was a special event station at the Haven Hotel at Sandbanks. We returned there again for our 10th anniversary special event station and dinner. 2CR, our local radio station even broadcast a slow-scan television picture as part of our celebrations!
The RSGB announced that Poole Radio Society was Region 11 Club of the Year for 2012 and was the Region 11 Centenary Club of the Year for 2013.
Newcomers & Training Courses
We have always been keen to encourage newcomers into the hobby. We published a useful guide for newcomers, which the RSGB liked so much that one of our members enlarged it and it was subsequently published by the RSGB. For a number of years after the introduction of the ‘Novice’ licence we sponsored and ran a contest to encourage newly licensed amateurs. For many years we ran training courses for the various amateur radio exams. We ceased doing this after the numerous changes to the syllabus and lack of trainers.
Poole Radio Society is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB).