ABOUT US

HISTORY OF THE CLUB

The Andover club started life in 1978 when Martin Bushnell and Peter Wright G8GYS decided to winkle out other like minded electronics enthusiasts in the Andover area.  Peter was running fast scan TV at the time and others were able to use ordinary TV sets to monitor his transmissions.  In fact the firm of Link Electronics in Andover was a breeding ground for members housing as it did G8ADM Dave Mann and G8AER John Tanner.

After the club started to meet regularly the membership snowballed and other licensed amateurs joined in preferring the local club to the well established but somewhat distant club at Salisbury.  ARAC has always been happy to accept members with widely differing backgrounds and it absorbed many from the CB fraternity alongside experienced signallers from the Services and engineers from the radio and TV trade.

The club’s venue has moved about over the years in an attempt to find that perfect location ie plenty of room for antennas and cars.  So at the present time we are located in the village of Wildhern (now becoming well known for the Spring and Autumn Car Boot sales that we hold there).  The club operates from the Village hall there which is well elevated for VHF operation and is remote enough from the village houses to cause no interference to TVs and the like. For a full copy of our current constitution (from 2000) please click on here > ARAC Constitution.

The club provides Foundation and Intermediate courses on a demand basis under the control of Keith GØHKC and Andy G6JRS and has had a 100% pass rate to date.

MEMBERSHIP

Every existing member needs to complete a Membership Application Form once a year, this is normally tied in to the AGM. If you are not currently a member but would like to join the Andover Radio Amateur Club, please download the PDF form and pass the completed application to either the Secretary or the Treasurer. Please click on this link to download by clicking here : Membership Application Form

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 6th Dec 2011

The AGM was quite well attended this year, to view the minutes, please click here : AGM MINUTES 2011

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES 2012

The Committee is currently looking to update the ARAC Constitution. These changes will be passed out to the membership at least three weeks before the Extraordinary General Meeting that must be called in order for these changes to be ratified.