On Wednesday 21st Feb 2024, we had our second regular meeting of the year. We were delighted to be visited by Bob (M0HNL), and John (G5JNX) from the York Radio Club. Who came to see what sort of activities we do at the UoYWS and about possible joint activities with the York Radio Club in the future. One such activity included joining the Friday evening net on the GB3HG repeater. We hope to see them both in the future thoroughly enjoyed their company.

As a society we discussed what other activities and event we wanted to do. Nat (M0IST) suggested a trip to the Emley Moor transmitting station. We also want to start doing some portable work when the weather permits!

Pieter demonstrated some of his LoRa Meshtastic nodes - other members are waiting to buy their own nodes and join the mesh.

The society had its first AGM (Annual General Meeting) on June 7th, with the approval of its constitution and the election of the first committee and roles. Pieter Smit was elected as chair, Mike Walker as treasurer, Leandro Soares Indrusiak as secretary, Ben Cumberlege as events officer and Nat Lasseter as training officer. 

Two weeks later, the society "organised" the first WPS (Wireless Portable Shenanigans) for members to show and improve their skills in portable radio operation. Radio contacts were made using handheld radios in the UHF and VHF bands, directly or using the amateur repeaters GB3HG and GB3CY. 

The society's first open meeting took place on March 15. More than 20 people came to the meeting, discussing possible ways to organise the society, sharing ideas on how to improve the constitution draft, and talked about membership fees. There was also a demonstration of the M0UOY amateur station, using the SmartSDR software to remotely control the SDR transceiver, and JTDX software to decode the FT8 digital signals received on 14.074 MHz.