The latest news from SOARC:
2026:
September:
NEWARK HAMFEST!! Members of SOARC will be hosting a club table alongside GB3IN repeater group and holding a used equipment sale at the show to raise funds for the shack. We will also be promoting the club within Sherwood Observatory and how you can get involved. Please do come and see us and maybe help us towards the shack build.
We have received the exciting news that we have been given the green light for SOARC’s radio shack presence at the Observatory. This will be our fixed base there where we can house equipment, operate and train from and we are very much looking forward to this progressing as the start is now under way. Updates will follow here at least to show it growing out of a converted wooden store! We as a club are going to be making contributions towards the construction and of course its fit out too.
We have now advertised our first Foundation Licence training sessions to Sherwood Members which also includes an in-house on site RSGB examination using our approved factilities at Sherwood. We will be looking to progress members onto their next levels in due course too and also hopefully be able to accept external non-members onto training and on site examinations too in the not too distant future. These details are to be finalised with the Obs and will be communicated when we are able to. Any enquiries please use the contact form on this site.
The final QO-100 gear install has now been postponed until the shack is complete as otherwise it would have had to have been moved shortly after installing as the final location will be within the shack. We felt our time would be better served preparing for the shack than double handling the QO-100 equipment within weeks. It is however all repaired and ready to go so when the new shack is complete then it can be simply installed and connected to the then very nearby dish above (the shorter the TX feeder the better of course) and be ready to operate after testing and commissioning. Watch this space too for this project!
July:
June:
We are currently waiting for more news on the much anticipated SOARC SHACK provision at the Observatory and much work has been going on behind the scenes. Hopefully we will be able to give more news on this important matter soon!
We also continue ot meet up as a club at the Observatory with Observatory members demonstrating topics, including DMR and FreeDMR where we have programmed and even purchased new hotspots and HTs for FreeDMR programming. We have also started a local club net too, esp. to help newly licenced members practice on the air too. A whole section will be given to DMR in due course, along with some other exciting software that members are coding/writing. Early demos at club meets look exciting!
May:
April:
February:
Feburary: MEMBERSHIP NEWS!
As per advised elsewhere unfortunately SOARC can’t itself offer direct membership into us as every member has to be a member of Sherwood Observatory. HOWEVER, the Obs membership year runs from the 1st March each year and we usually now simply take people from the waiting list to fill the spaces made by anyone who has decided to not renew. So now is the time should you wish to join SOARC and of course benefit from everything the membership of the whole society offers (see Membership Page) is to join the waiting list! Full details available on the Sherwood Obs website: https://sherwood-observatory.org.uk/support/membership-of-sherwood-observatory/
January/February:
We have been busy, in fact so busy we’ve not updated here!
We have held further public open events and had various set ups running inc. CW and SSB using GB2SO and VarAC keyboard to keyboard text data mode. We are aiming to have a presence at all the monthly Open Events throughout the year at the Observatory to continue to showcare amateur radio to the public whilst they are mainly attending to look at the night (or day) sky, see our planetarium shows and the various other demonstrations we have running at the time.
QO-100: Further tests and configurations are continuing and we have found we have needed a new dish as for WB ADTV the dish we had just didn’t allow enough signal throughput so we have just installed a new dish on site. We have been testing the equipment and software and building the comms cabinet, which has changed locations to where we were going to initally install it. The bad WX has not been helping either, but we are hopeful this Feb to get some proper NB/WB operations working on it as per the identical test rig at a member’s QTH which has shown the new dish works well.
This is the old dish now replaced (you can just about see the mast concrete base too):
Antenna Mast: The mast has been now permanently insatalled onto a solid concrete base. It was taken off the trailer and put into place with the help of the RAC team to which we thank for building the base too. The trailer has now left site which also helps to tidy up that area too. Again, due to poor WX we have not been able to re-install the HF beams. Hopefully again as soon as the WX improves this will happen.
Meshtastic: Some of the team have got nodes and we are looking to run some workshops for club members to assit those who want them and to perhaps build their own too from kits of parts. This is new to the club and we are looking to see what other opportunities we can use with Mesh, LoRa and such like. especially with the good highup location the observatory offers of course (along with our newly installed mast of course!).
Training: We have asked all Society members if anyone wishes to undertake Foudation Level training or should they already have this level (we were happily surprised with the numbers of Obs members who were in fact licenced) then they could enquire too ref Intermediate Level. We are now looking to set dates for training soon. Our ultimate goal is to provide external training for the general public (non Obs members) and hold exams on site too and this is something we are actively working towards! We are hoping to test this with internal members initally and we of course require to be RSGB/OFCOM certified to be able to hold exams to which we are looking into as well. We hope to have more news on this soon! Feel free to use the contact form now should you wish to enquire at least in the first instance to see where we are with this and to what we might be able to offer in the hopefully near future.
Shack build news: No news yet although we are making representations as we do need a proper secure and workable operational base at the Obs.
2025:
November:
Testing starts on the Oscar-100 (QO-100) ground station. Thanks to the team who have done well!
On Saturday 22nd November SOARC held a further public STEM outreach event evening during the Open Evening at Sherwood Observatory in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. We had running SSB voice, CW, and VarAC. Much public engagement and interest in these different modes. We were also showing some information about QO-100 operations.
New website launched (and if you can read this then it’s working!)
Works starts installing our Oscar-100 (QO-100) Satellite Ground Station! See Projects page!
Special Event Callsign (GB2SO) Permanent status approved by Ofcom
October:
Third Obs public open event attended by SOARC setting up an event station for public engagement
First general monthly (Obs) members meeting is held (to be held for Obs members on a monthly basis)
September:
Second Obs public open event attended by SOARC setting up an event station for public engagement
Inaugral SOARC core team meeting
August:
First Obs public open event attended by SOARC setting up an event station for public engagement
Special Event Callsign approved: GB2SO
New club callsign is allocated: M0OSW
SOARC is formed at Sherwood Observatory