Two Amateur (HAM) Radio stations were active for “Brookwood on the Air” on Saturday 12th September at St Saviour's church and Ofcom granted a special call-sign GB4STS for the day, which coincided with the national Churches on the Air (CHOTA) event.

We were very fortunate to have Peter M0URL, an ex-Merchant Navy Radio Officer giving a superb live demonstration of Morse code communications, still in use in this century!

Radio propagation conditions were not very helpful on the day (sunspot activity) and although a number of Russian stations were heard, the furthest two-way contact (QSO) was with Zola HG30CW in Hungary at a distance of nearly 1,500km, all in Morse code! Continental QSO's included France and Germany. Closer to home, we had a brief conversation with the National Trust at Polesden Lacy.

A number of youngsters tried their hand at the Morse Mouse computer game (courtesy of Charlie M0PZT), usually beating their parents and sending messages using Morse Code practice keys. One resident brought in a Meccano Morse key he made about 25 years ago, which he showed was still working and Walky-Talky's were seen clasped in earnest young hands striding purposefully around the church.

Also on display was a large screen showing live aircraft movements in the South East as seen by Air Traffic Controllers using secondary radar signals (ADSB). This was augmented with an Air-band radio feed from Farnborough Airport. A group of young boys thought this was fascinating and helpfully repeated the initial explanations to any new visitor...

A Raspberry Pi computer (credit card sized) showed a global map screen with tracks of radio satellites and the International Space Station.

Cutting edge technology in the form of Software Defined Radio (SDR) was ably explained by Dave Lugton.

Speaking to visitors, the common theme was “I didn't know there was so much in Radio!”