PROLOGUE
Wrexham Science Festival 2003...............
This time, we had more of an idea, this time, we knew what we wanted to do (and achieve)
I think you get the drift. Planning for Science Festival 2003 started a little later than last year, however, looking at it now, I feel we should probably start about August/September this year, in time for 2004. We decided to stay with the bits that worked, and add to them. We kept with a 40M Station, and a 2M Station, but we added HF and VHF Data Stations - Now that there are some more data moders amongst the club.
Ian and myself put the idea to the club, and this is what came about. It was late Spetember-Early October, but we knew what we had to do - I set about my task!
E-Mails to Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu - provided a positive start, all were happy to supply us literature and promotional material for the event, all I had to do was to e-mail them a little nearer the time. I also e-mailed Rob Mannion at PW, who also said that PW would be more than happy to support the event, My E-Mail to PW had arrived at an opportune time, as Rob, and Tex were clearing out the old stocks of magazines - However, these would now be saved, and would come with Rob on his journey North, to give a talk at Chester ARS in January - Originally we had planned to meet Rob at his hotel, but it was decided to go see Rob give his talk (And a most interesting & entertaining talk it was too!)
We were already aware that our event, would co-incide with CQ WPX SSB Contest - The talk about tactics relating to the event and ours, and what we should do went on almost as long as planning for the event itself.....
We decided to run the web cam again, as this was considered useful in many ways.....I contacted Jason at NEWI, and arrangements for the web cam were made.
By now it was nearing christmas - I had decided on a few ideas of my own - Firstly some radio kits for raffle - I decided to aim this mostly at the youngsters, and so accquired some kits from Maplin, which are pretty similar to the Tandy kits I used to have - I figured that an AM/SW, a 2-Transistor and a Crystal Radio Kit would all be worthwhile prizes - I would purchase them nearer the time. I'd also decided to make some mini business card CDs of the club sites - I had suggested these would be given away for a donation, but in the end they were just taken.....
We had decided to make use of GB4FUN for our event. Initially we had tried to see if we could meet GB4FUN at as venue, or get someone to drive it near to us, and we'd pick it up - However, in the end, we bussed Steve and John to HQ to pick the bus up..
January was time for Rob's talk at Chester - Having found out exactly where he was giving the talk, myself, Ian, Arthur and Steve all decided to go and meet Rob, watch the talk, and then unload the PWs and SWMs from Robs car - I must tell you all now, that Rob's car was almost dragging along the ground - Rob commented that he'd had to adjust the headlights, in order to compensate! - Myself and Ian transferred the magazines, thanked Rob, and we parted - Ian's car now heavier to the tune of 6 crates of magazines!
Very little was done in the week or so after that, Most of the framework was in place - The licence was sorted, the plans for what setups to run was sorted, GB4FUN would later get sorted also, but at the time, it looked like it was impossible! - A lot of phoning, E-Mails and texts, and it was all sorted...That as they say is "a story for another time"
The promotional material started to arrive in February......The study was filling up! - However, I felt like a kid at Christmas every time something arrived - I did an inventory of what we had and mailed it to Ian, so as he could sort out the raffles and so on.....
February was a long month......Slowly, all the loose ends were getting tied together, some took longer than others, But it was all coming together...I loaned my RigBlaster to John who would be my 'partner in crime' on the data side of the station - In the few short weeks he had my RB, he probably gave it more use than I did !.....
March came, and soon we knew there was no turning back...Tickets bought to get John and Steve to PB, everyone was briefed as to what, how, where and who....Our final clear up in early March got everything together.....We were ready to go..
We had also managed to get into NEWI on the day before, in order to set up the room, and a good thing we did, it took nearly an hour to sort the PW/SWMs - we felt that we'd leave the roof until the morning, which on reflection we should have got sorted on the Friday! - The webcam PC gave us a few issues, but we got them sorted....
Our team assembled, the setups and layouts ready to go, all the promo sorted, competitions sorted....All we had to do was turn up, set up and play radio!
SETTING UP ON THE FRIDAY
Magazines as far as the eye can see! Geoff (GW0EMB) Sets up our Club Display