VMARS

The Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society Website

VMARS

The Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society Website

VMARS

The Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society Website

VMARS

The Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society

VMARS

The Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society

VMARS

The Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society Website

VMARS

The Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society Website


 

VMARS Special Heavy Metal Net Saturday 13th February 2021 07:30-08:30 GMT

Net Controller Martin Smyth, M0MGA

To listen to the net, click on the picture of the heavy metal WS53/R107 station with owner Martin Sweeting G3YJO above

The recording was of reception in NW France at the home QTH of F4VSC. Stations which were unreadable have been edited from the recording.

 

Special Borders Net 12th December 2020

A special early one hour Saturday morning net, beginning at 07:30 GMT was arranged on 3615 Khz. in order to attract more Scottish VMARS members and other AM operators in Scotland, Ireland and in the English Northern borders region to Society radio nets.

Conditions were generally good, with the earlier part of the net enjoying long skip conditions providing excellent reception of stations 400- 600 miles (640 - 960 Km) distant.

 

Click on the Wireless Set No.52 receiver above to listen

This net was recorded in central Brittany, NW France between 07:20 and 08:30 GMT on a Perseus SDR receiver located at the QTH of Ian Underwood, F4VSC, The net is controlled by Andy Wright, G4OJY from his location in Tow Law in County Durham, about 452 miles (723Km) north  of the receiving station.

Distant stations joining the net were GM4OAQ, David, located at Forfar, about 17 miles north of Dundee and 580 miles (928Km) north of the receiving station, GM3VXI, Allan,  located on the Isle of Skye, but unfortunately not readable in Brittany at 656 miles (1050Km) distant, GD3YTE, Peter, in the Isle of Man and PA3BOH, Trevor, in the Hague.


 

 
VMARS & SRS Net Saturday 11th April 2020
 
This Amplitude Modulation net using vintage equipment was arranged between the UK based Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society and the Netherlands based Surplus Radio Society as a celebration of 25 years since the foundation of the SRS in 1995. Stations from Germany and from France also joined the net.  The recording was made by Trevor Sanderson PA3BOH, and was of signals received at the web-SDR owned by John Somerville MW0XHO and located at Conwy in North Wales, about 60KM WSW Liverpool.
 

       

VMARS & SRS Net Part 1                                                  VMARS & SRS Net Part 2    
Click on the pictures to listen
 
This two part recording has been faded out and edited to remove silent periods when audible signals were not being received and when significant local QRN at Conwy blocked reception, so it is not a complete recording of the net. Breaks in transmission are because the original Web-SDR recording file became full and a new file had to be opened to continue the recording. The files have been joined in edit where appropriate. The first six minutes recorded are of the pre-net.


 



VMARS Saturday morning prenet & net 6th October 2018

          

Prenet recording: Click on the AR-88 receiver
Features ON/M0MGA and ON/G3YYH operating portable from the WW1 battlefied site located at Polygon Wood in Belgium   


                 
Net Part 1                                                                                             Net Part 2
The net recording is in two parts of approximately 45 minutes each: Click on the DX100U transmitters to listen.

Today's net was run by Bronek Wedzicha, M0DAF from York.

The recording has been edited to remove stations which were unreadable at the recording location in Brittany, NW France.
Recording was ended a few minutes before the close of the net due to deteriorating propagation
 
                                                           
VMARS Saturday morning net on 22nd September 2018

The net controller is Tony Barron, G3YYH portable using an ex- British Army
Clansman VRC-321 transceiver from the back of his Landrover, located
in a Gloucestershire field.
 
      
    VMARS net first round                          VMARS net second round
 
Click on the pictures of the Clansman VRC-321 to listen
Recorded in Brittany, North West France by F4VSC



 
VMARS members activate the 1944 Gold Beach
Click on the picture below to view a 2 minute video compilation


June 2018. A two minute photo/video compilation. The earlier scenes are from the American sector beaches, the hotel at Saint Vaast and the nearby beach where the station was first set up for a few days. After relocating to Arromanches, VMARS members Tony G3YYH, Martin M0MGA and Ian F4VSC, activate the British Gold beach, King Red sector, with the wartime 1943 Bendix TA12-C transmitter for communications with other VMARS members in Britain and the Netherlands. A.M. communications in excess of 400Km were also achieved using the wireless set No. 46 running just 600mW.
 

 
Bonaparte Beach Expedition
F/GB0OB joins the net on 2nd September 2017
to celebrate a fascinating wartime story of bravery and daring.

Early morning start for a VMARS expedition to a secluded beach with story of bravery and daring
Click on the picture to link to a video of station F/GB0OB working into the VMARS Saturday morning net
This video has been removed temporarily


 

AM activity in the UK can be found almost every day on frequencies such as 3615KHz and 5317KHz.

VMARS hold a regular AM net on Saturday mornings on 3615 KHz starting at 08:30 local time and ending by around 10:30. There is usually an informal net on the frequency from around 07:30, which is then handed over to the designated Net Controller just before the controlled net is due to begin. Anyone is welcome to call in, there is no requirement to be a member of the Society or to be using vintage equipment; all that is required is a genuine interest in using AM.

Net Controllers ask participants not to tune up on the frequency when the net is in operation, even if you cannot hear anyone at the time. The Controllers will make a "tuning and netting" period available at the start of the net and will allow gaps for stations to call in. Joining stations will be added to the bottom of the list of stations already logged and waiting their turn.

VMARS Net Controllers Gallery

Below - Bronek Wedzicha, M0DAF, regular VMARS AM Net Controller located near York.

Bronek's recently built transmitter shown here being used on the Saturday net, has a line up of  12BY7A VFO, 5763 buffer, 5763 doubler/driver, 813 PA, modulated by a pair of 811A's. The audio front end employs a Datong Clipper followed by a MOSFET driver. The receiver in use when on air is either Racal RA17 or a Bendix RA-1B.



 

Below - Mike Duce, G4BQF, regular VMARS AM Net Controller located on Canvey Island, Essex

When Mike runs the Saturday net he uses his 1950's Minimitter transmitter and a Racal RA17 receiver, seen here in his fine collection of Racal equipment.

Below - Keith Yates , G3XGW, regular VMARS AM Net Controller located near Evesham, Worcestershire

Keith usually operates the VMARS net with a Labgear LG300 transmitter and a National HRO receiver but he has been known to come up on a Heathkit DX100U transmitter with an RCA AR88 receiver.Keith is pictured here in front of his 1940's Marconi T1145/R1155 RAF aircraft station famously used on board Lancaster Bombers.

View Keith's interesting radio website here

Below - Stuart McKinnon, G0TBI , regular VMARS AM Net Controller located in Kinver, Staffordshire

Stuart's main station for use on the net is an RCA ET4336 Tx and an AR88 D receiver. However, he will frequently be heard using some of his other sets, such as his Marconi T1509, a DX100U or KW Vanguard transmitters from his large collection of vintage and miltary equipment.

Below - Paul Craven, M1PVC , regular VMARS AM Net Controller located near to the village of Hartfield in the Ashdown Forest, East Sussex.

Paul operates the VMARS net with a Heathkit DX100U or Labgear LG300 transmitter in combination with a National HRO 500 receiver. Among other restored vintage wireless equipment to be found in Paul's shack and frequently heard on air are a T1154 and Bendix TA12c aircraft transmitters


Below - Martin Sweeting, G3YJO, regular VMARS Net Controller located near Guildford in Surrey.

Martin is pictured here seated  in front of his fully restored Wireless Set No.53 transmitter next to  an R107 receiver. As well as being on the Saturday Net controller rota, Martin can be regularly heard on air using one of his collection of British WW2 wireless sets which includes WS No's.19, 52 and 62, as well as the WS 53.

Below -  Bob Tucker,  G6AVI, regular VMARS Net Controller located near the town of Watton in Southwest Norfolk.
 
Bob  is pictured here using a Minimitter ‘tabletopper’ transmitter and his Collins 75A-4 receiver. He also has an interest in building his own equipment and his "Home Brew" 813 transmitter and modulator can also be seen.
 

 


Below - the shack of Tony Barron, G3YYH, located in the Cotswold Hills about 5 miles south east of Cheltenham.

Tony generally uses an HRO receiver from 1946 and a DX100U transmitter, with SDR on stand-by to resolve difficult signals.






Below - The shack of John Sommerville, MW0XHO regular VMARS Net Controller located in Conwy, North Wales.

John's extensive collection of equipment includes some heavy metal transmitters and receivers which include a Collins KWS-1 tx and 75A-4 rx "Gold Dust Twins" station, a Diplomatic Wireless Service Mk210 transmitter and his 1948 Marconi T1509 RAF ground transmitter pictured below. Receivers at John's QTH include an RCA AR88D and a Collins 390A.




 
Below - Jonathan Wymer, G8URE is a regular Net Controller operating from Chichester in West Sussex.

Seen here with his WW2 WS18, which he uses with a transverter to work on 3615 Khz, Jonathan can always be relied upon to turn up on net with some rare and sometimes exotic equipment combinations to entertain us on air.

 

Below - Ian Underwood, F4VSC , occasional VMARS Net Controller located near the town of Rostrenen in central Brittany, North West France.

Ian, who also holds the UK licence M0YMK, operates a 1950's Labgear LG300 or a Heathkit DX100U for net control. Other transmitters regularly used by Ian on VMARS nets are Bendix TA12c, Wireless Set No.52, Wireless Set No.19, Larkspur C11/R210. Receivers include National HRO 5T, RCA CR-91




Below - Martin Smyth, M0MGA, regular VMARS Net Controller located in Whitehill near Bordon in East Hampshire.

Martin uses a Heathkit DX100U transmitter and an RCA AR88 receiver for his turns as Net Controller. At other times he can also frequently be heard using his very distinctive Wireless Set No 12 transmitter.




 
Below - Martin Owen, G4JSX, regular VMARS Net Controller located near Rugby in Warwickshire.

Martin has a fine collection of Naval equipmemt dating from the 1940's into the 1970's, which can be regularly heard on air on the weekday SSB nets as well as on the weekly Saturday Morning AM net.


SSB nets
The society also runs SSB nets. A USB net takes place each Wednesday at 20:00hrs local time on 3615KHz +/-QRM to provide an opportunity for those who wish to use their unmodified military sets which operate in USB only. There is an LSB net on Friday evenings to encourage members to keep in touch on-air. This takes place at 19.30 and uses LSB on 3615KHz +/- QRM.

Special on-air events
From time to time, the Society runs special events, generally on the 40m, 60m and 80m bands, which specialise in use of vintage equipment or to commemorate some historic event with "wireless" connections. These are advertised to members in the News Sheet, and also on the Society’s website.

The VMARS call-sign is M0VMW

The SRS Nets
The Dutch Surplus Radio Society run AM and SSB nets for vintage enthusiasts, full details are on their website here .

Other AM Activity Frequencies
AM activity is increasingly found on a number of other bands, in particular: 5317KHz, 7143KHz, 14286KHz, 21425KHz and 29000 - 29150KHz. There are several local AM nets in the UK on topband.

FM Frequencies
For mobiles working into VMARS events, 2m calling in on 145.500MHz (S20) is usual, before QSY to a working frequency. At event locations where military equipment is in use, suggested FM "Centres of Activity" on VHF are 51.700Mhz, 70.425MHz (70.450MHz calling).

VMARS NETS & RECOMMENDED FREQUENCIES

All times are UK local
3615 KHzSaturday AM net 08:30 – 10:30
3615 KHzWednesday USB net for military equipment 20:00 – 21:00
3615 KHzFriday LSB net 19:30 – 20:30
3615 KHz  Regular informal net from around 07:30 - 08:30 and throughout the day
3577 KHz  Regular Sunday CW net 09:00 (Not currently in operation)
5317 KHz    Regular AM QSO’s, usually late afternoon. (Advanced licence required. 6Khz max bandwidth)
7143 KHz     VMARS AM operating frequency
51.700 MHzVMARS FM operating frequency, also used at rallies and events
70.425 MHzVMARS FM operating frequency, also used at rallies and events

VMARS Net Controller Rota for 2021/22 3615Khz 08:30 UK time

last amended 9th February 2021

 Click here to download printable rota January 2021 - February 2022

 
VMARS Members at play over the summer with some of their prized vintage equipment

VMARS is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain
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