Airfields On The Air

The South Dorset Radio Society commemorates an historic RAF Airfield at Chickerell near Weymouth.

The South Dorset Radio Society is a group of local amateur radio enthusiasts who use low-power short-wave radios to communicate with other enthusiasts by using the sun’s ionisation of the upper atmosphere to reflect their signals over long distances.

The club recently moved to a new clubhouse shared with the Weymouth Air Scouts troop and situated within the perimeter of the now almost forgotten RAF Chickerell airfield which was operational in both World Wars and remained open until 1959 after which it was used for housing and the Granby Industrial Estate.

Before the pandemic arrived the SDRS club decided that it would be an excellent opportunity to take part in the RAF Amateur Radio Society “Airfields On The Air” event and chose last weekend the 18^th and 19^th of April to take part.

The arrival of the pandemic put paid to their plans to operate together from their new Scout-Hut home, but they didn’t give up, seeking special permission to operate from their home stations using their already granted Special Event callsign GB0CAF (Chickerell Air Field).

Seven members took part, taking it in turns to operate in multiple 3 hour sessions.

By midnight on Sunday the team had logged a total of 156 contacts with stations all over the UK and into Europe. (We are currently going through a period when the Sun is generating few sun-spots so bouncing signals to Australia wasn’t an expected result this year!)

The team spent time discussing the details of this small but historic RAF station with many radio hams who usually had never even heard the RAF Chickerell name, and certainly didn’t know that it had, among many other things, helped in the development and testing of the famous Dam Busters bouncing bomb!

Although the team likes to work together for these special events, they proved that with a little ingenuity life goes on, despite social distancing, and that amateur radio is a perfect hobby in these difficult times!

Ray Coles, Chairman, South Dorset Radio Society.