Gilmore Radio Club – How we were formed, and what has changed

Gilmore Radio Club is an amateur radio club in Manchester which had its inaugural meeting onboard Narrowboat Royal Oscar on November 30, 2021. Four good friends who are also amateur radio enthusiasts came together to form a small friendly club. The club meets on the first Thursday of the month at St Marys Church Hall, Reddish, Stockport from 7.30pm.

The purpose of the Radio Club is to enable people interested in the many facets of amateur radio to meet, discuss, and to exchange information and have friendly chats mainly to do with radio. Visitors are very welcome both at the club and on our various nets.

In March 2022 we were pleased to announce that GRC now has a dedicated CW Division –North West Morse – which is run jointly by Chris M0KCJ and David M0WDD. All the dates for the CW sessions are listed on the calendar on the right hand side of the page

Our First Year

The original team would just like to say thank you to everyone who has joined us in our first year.  There was those doubters out there who said we couldn’t do it, but here we are 1 year later. 

On November 30, 2021 we met on Narrowboat Royal Oscar at New Mills Marina to discuss the possibility of setting up a radio club.  The four original members took various task on and two weeks later Gilmore Radio Club was formed.  The website built and populated, club callsign received, affiliation to RSGB and NARSA received, emails set up, members joining us, and venue found.  After the very first net, our inbox became very busy with fellow radio hams requesting membership details.

Our first year has been a strange one with the passing of a members wife and also Heth’s mum (Nigel’s mum in law), and the club rallying round myself, Nigel and the family with lots of support.   GRCs club stand at NARSA, with lots of good wishes from other clubs and the NARSA management, our first outdoor event at Bugsworth Basin with lots of members coming along to play radio onboard NB Royal Oscar.  Not forgetting the North West Morse team, Chris M0KCJ and David M0WDD who set up and the North West Morse club and joined GRC to run a dedicated morse section, which has gone from strength to strength with weekly morse nets, and also the Morse Corner in the Gazette.

There are so many members that we need to say thank you to, but this email would be too long.  So a BIG THANK YOU to every one of our members.  We would not be GRC without you.

Our Second Year

Well our second year did not start off that well. We lost our first member who went SK in December 22. Andy 2E0GCL had been a member of the club from the start, and his passing at the young age of 60 will weigh deeply in our hearts.

We attended our second NARSA event. Heather M6HNS has become part of the NARSA team doing all their social media post and updating their website. What a surprise it was for us to be told we had won best website. Another great event.

In May 23 we were sad to see a team members step down for personal reasons. In July the remaining team met with North West Morse for an update on their plans and ours. It was agreed between the three remaining members of the team and Chris M0KCJ to bring the two groups together as one club, and push everything forward.

In August 23 another member of the team stepped away ‘enjoy his amateur radio’. We really didnt want him to move away, but respect his decision. A press release was put out on August 11th about the changes. A New Era