About us


	Furness Amateur Radio Society (FARS) began in its present form in the early 1970s but has links going back to the original club formed in 1912 which we understand was the fifth such club to form in the UK.

		We meet most weeks at 8.30pm on a Monday evening at the Farmers Arms, Newton in Furness but all tuition, lectures and other special activities take place at Gleaston Water Mill, Gleaston. This property is owned by Mike Brereton (G8ALE) and his wife. Mike is also our Chairman. We are able to use their commercial display and tuition facilities. G8ALE has a permanent station at the Mill using GB2GW callsign which licensed visitors can use and the building also houses a club library. We have a caravan, a trailer mounted lattice tower and various items of club equipment for activities away from the Mill.


	Club activity has waxed and waned over the years like most clubs but during the last decade, interest has surged and we have seen participation in a variety of events. Barrow is the premier naval shipbuilding yard in the country and when 100 years of submarine building were celebrated in 2001, FARS put on a special event station using the callsign GB100SUB. We hold regular 2m DF “Foxhunts” during Summer months in pursuit of a Fox trophy. Our proximity to the Lake District national park and its hills means most in the club have an interest in the Summits On The Air (SOTA) activity. We have many activators and more chasers of SOTA and have even managed a couple of group outings to the nearest SOTA hill, LD-049 or Kirkby Moor. We have occasional group forays into construction, one project of which was a 3 element portable 2m yagi beam typically for SOTA use. We normally operate special event stations annually for Mills On The Air, Lighthouses On The Air and Railways On The Air. Regarding the latter, since 2009, we were the only club who put stations on at 2 different Railway sites. We have operated for a number of years various Scout stations, taking part in both Jamboree On The Air but also several local events in conjunction with local Furness Scouts. These operations led several youngsters into the hobby and taking the Foundation exam or higher.

		We can provide tuition for all classes of exam in the UK. The number of successful candidates at Foundation level exceeds 30 and we have done several Intermediate classes with successes and one member was helped with the Advanced exam which he was subsequently passed.

We seem to have gained a reputation as a friendly club and whilst most members live locally, we also have some resident in London, the Isle of Man, Blackburn, Leicestershire, Leeds and Wisconsin in the USA. Members have use of a Yahoo reflector to exchange comment and receive news on a closed group. We also have weekly nets on 2m and 80m.