To
Download a GB special event callsign application form from the RSGB.International Museums Weekend
General Guidelines for the event
[ Please do invite your own museum to take a look around this site ]
QSL Cards
Participating groups are encouraged to emphasize the potential marketing aspects of an attractive QSL card, and to invite the museums' publicity teams to assist with the provision or overprinting of the cards. The cards should be overprinted "International Museums Weekend 2002", with if possible the events logo (as seen on the front page of this site).
Where possible QSL'ing should be 100% via bureau, even for stations intending to QSL direct
A special note for those running a GB special event station within the UK..... There are a large number of unclaimed QSL cards from the NMW 2001, remaining with the GB callsign QSL managers. If you took part in the NMW event and believe you may have QSL cards outstanding, then please send an SAE.
May I take this opportunity to remind all those who plan to activate a Special Event Station for IMW2002 to either supply the RSGB QSL Sub Managers with suitable stamped addressed envelopes, or if cards are not required to do them the courtesy of letting them know. The Sub Managers are - For GBnA to GBnM Mike Evans MW0CNA and for GBnN to GBnZ Graham Ridgeway G8UYD/M5AAV both of which are QTHR
Awards
T he event will run from 0001 GMT/UTC on Saturday 15th June 2002 for 48 hours, but night-owls are warned not to expect too much activity from stations, outside their normal museum opening times (local time)!
PLEASE SEE THE ITEM ON THE NEWS PAGE ABOUT THE AWARDS FOR 2002
The Charity: Any surplus after production and despatch costs of the Awards will be donated to the Ragged School Museum, close to the Mile End Stadium, in East London (Reg. Charity 800538). http://www.raggedschoolmuseum.org.uk/index.html
They are a registered charity, providing a range of educational activities for children. In particular, they provide free holiday activities for local children, and each year over 16,000 children visit the Museum to take part either in the schools programme or to take part in the workshops they provide. The Museum is open to the public, and I understand admission is free. I have made checks with the governments Charity Commission, they have reported that everything is in order with this particular charity, and they are properly run and organised registered charity.
Shortly after the event, a set of detailed accounts will be published on this web site (see 'The Accounts' page). I anticipate a payment of perhaps slightly more than 30% of the total income (from the awards), will in fact be able to be paid to the above named charity.
Registration is free of any cost, and should preferably be by using the on-site Registration form set up for the purpose, which will not even cost you the price of a stamp. Telephone registrations will of course be accepted if you have no Internet access (how are you reading this?), but please make use of the on-site form wherever possible. Harry +44 (0)113 2866 897.
We need you to register so we can add your station to the 'Museums List' of qualifying stations for the Award scheme. Only museum stations which have registered, will be considered to be valid ones for the award. In other words if they are not on the list, please don't include them in your list, if or when you attempt to claim an award. The Museum List may not be finalised until the Tuesday following the event (18th June). So please check again after this date, if a museum reported itself registered but you are unable at first to find it. Please also use Ctrl + Refresh to ensure you are seeing the latest copy of the rapidly changing IMW pages.
The station should of course be located within the premises of the museum, unless there are very exceptional reasons why this is not practical.
UI-View/ Lat/Long information...
It is suggested that as many museum stations as possible be equipped with the UI-View system, with its attractive graphic map display. This will allow museum visitors to be easily shown the locations of the other museums. Stations not intending to use the system may also be plotted on the map if they have supplied their Lat/Long in advance of the event, in the 'registration' form.
Local Media Publicity
G
et as much local publicity for the event as possible, on local
radio, TV, freesheets and newspapers, but always with the agreement of the
museums press officer.
Health and Safety
P lease discuss carefully the layout and positioning of your station with the museum staff to maximize the safety of the visiting public, museum staff, and yourselves. Ensure power and antenna cables are run, and routed tidily, well out of the way of members of the public, and that of your own group. Preferably this should be behind barriers, to prevent access.
Your antennas should be erected away from public areas, in a safe and workmanlike way. Supporting guy lines should be adequate and well marked, so no one trips over them. Expect to have to at the very least, remove feeder cables which pass through doors and windows each evening, so the museum can be properly secured, and alarmed. Make sure ALL equipment is unplugged from the mains supply socket at the close of the station each evening.
It is safer to run all your equipment from one single wall socket, and to advise all members of your group where this wall socket is located. This will ensure you can quickly cut off all supplies in an emergency. There is also the possibility on these type of premises, that a potential of 415v may exist between two adjacent sockets, if the two happen to have been wired on two different phases of the mains!
There may be a requirement by some museums, to have all your equipment which carries mains potential, checked for safety. This is called a PAT or Portable Appliance Test. You may have already seen green and white PAT sticky labels, on ex-commercial equipment which you have purchased at rallies. The PAT should include all extension leads, 4 way mains strips, power supplies and directly mains powered equipment etc. It does have to be carried out by a qualified individual, with the appropriate PAT equipment, but it only takes a minute or two per item. No doubt there will be some qualified member of your group, able to carry out this very simple test and inspection task.
Experience has taught our own group, that the best layout for operating tables, is with the rear of equipment (power and antenna cables) to a wall, thus presenting rather rudely, your backs to the visitors. This enables visitors to see the equipment from the 'drivers side', and puts a barrier between visitors and the cables/voltages at the back. Depending on the station, one or two operators may be required, with an additional member attending to the station log. Someone may need to be on hand (perhaps a resting operator), to welcome the visitors, encourage their interest, and explain the proceedings. Remember the main point of this event, is to promote our great hobby, as well as the museums to the visitor.
Whilst on the subject of visitors.... It would be a good idea to be prepared provide those visitors who do express an interest in the hobby, with details of your local club, the courses it is able to provide towards obtaining a license, and where more information about the hobby is to be found. Perhaps a printed list of the local clubs, any local colleges still offering NRAE/RAE courses, and their contact numbers, and an open invitation along to your own club.
Insurance
I think it would be only sensible to ensure you are covered by insurance, just in case there are any "little accidents" to the museums property, or to your visitors. Insurance is of course, NOT a substitute for taking proper and adequate care. My understanding is that most well organized clubs WILL already have proper cover for their field events anyway. I am advised Cornhill do offer insurance cover for such events, and at a very reasonable cost.
"Museum-C" (or-Think about EMC)
T o achieve your technical ideal from a portable station you will need to instal your transceiver and antenna to minimise losses, maximise ERP and keep nasty noise sources at a healthy distance. But think about a modern museum - it's going to be positively humming with systems - audio-visuals, computers, telephones, public address, all sorts of alarms, air conditioning, not to mention those natty little electronic low-voltage lighting systems. And they'll all have a CE mark somewhere meaning - not a lot really.
I remember going to an electronics exhibition where the nice lady running the Eddystone Radio stand (it was a while ago) had arrived at a state of near panic by 10.30 in the morning because she could not hear one real signal on any of her beautiful exhibits. She was using a 25 ft bit of wire flung out of the exhibition window, and preferred to believe she was going mad rather than contemplate the possibility that all her receivers had broken at once. Microprocessors were fitted in everything except the Eddystones, and together with VDUs and thyristor burst modules the noise floor was actually on the ceiling, with the AGC working flat-out. Trying to get signals through the window was a real waste of time, but at least her sanity was restored.
Digital electronics has moved on a bit (most of the clock frequencies are now in the VHF range) but there's more of it and it tends to come in plastic boxes these days with switch-mode PSUs and much bigger monitors.
Look for the boxes and wires, keep your antennas and feeders well away from them, and try to find a really good RF earth (which may be quite difficult). The mains earth will probably be a long way from the bonding point, so any stray RF getting to it will end up being fed all over the building. Don't use excessive power (I've worked all round the country on 100mW when 40 is in a good mood) and be prepared to reduce at the first hint of any problems. You obviously can't point out to your host that it's his badly designed equipment causing the problem; it's up to you to use your skill to find a solution - anticipate and plan ahead.
You all know all about this anyway, so sorry for the egg-sucking
course!
Congestion on the Bands
T here IS another relevant aspect to EMC, and that is between one station and another. 40M has at best about 20 phone channels, and at worst (everyone hating each other), thirty. Add upwards of fifty museum stations over a weekend and the noise floor will once again be on the roof. The project will end in chaos unless we plan for multi-band operation and multi-station nets on a reduced number of channels. Operators could be free to roam from net to net or band, or freelance, but it will be an interesting opportunity to see if we can make good, responsible use of our scarce resource on 40M. Eighty is unlikely to be much good during museum opening hours, but worth a try for limited range contacts.
We hope you will all co-operate to help us share informal 'museums network' frequencies, on each band in use, during the two days of activity. If many of us are together on shared frequencies, this should help reduce the congestion on the bands. Those stations which do find themselves to be well placed, should hopefully take control of the 'museums network' for a reasonable period, before eventually passing the responsibilty on to another well placed station.
Reminder (Only for those in the UK):-
You may wish to apply for special event GB-prefix callsigns, for your museum stations. Please allow at least 28 days notice. It does show promise of being a very widespread event, so it might be advisable to apply for for your chosen callsign as quickly as you possibly can, to both avoid the rush, and get a better choice. It is possible to obtain instant clearance and reservation of your GB callsign, with a quick phone call to the RSGB HQ. You will of course then need to follow this up with the necessary form.
Write to: RSGB, Lambda House, Cranborne Road, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, EN6 3JE.
Phone on: +44 (0)870 904 7373 or +44 (0)1707 659015.
To
Download a GB special event callsign application form from the RSGB.
This is a pdf printable file (Adobe Acrobat),
Please register your interest as soon as possible-
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