At his first annual general meeting (AGM) our chairman, Paul M0ZMB, stated he would like to see the club with its own shack.  So I started talking to the Chantry staff about a convenient store room located next to the Buckingham room where the club meets each Wednesday evening.  Unfortunately it was under a rental agreement with a local Girl Guide Company, who had no wish to either share the room with us nor move out.

It became somewhat demoralising on club evenings as those wishing to operate the club radios found it hard to hear their radio contacts due to others talking in the room, and vice versa.  I tried to reach the Guide Company by leaving a typed note under the door in February of this year.  It finally paid dividends, as in March a friend informed me that a) she was the responsible person for renting the store and b) she had just cleared out all their tents and camping equipment.  I presented myself at the Chantry on the following morning at 09:00hrs and commenced negotiations for the room.  I was shown it and had pointed out to me that there was “a serious damp problem”. 🙁

Undeterred I persevered with negotiations until June when proposals were presented to the Chantry which they accepted. 🙂 We would refurbish the room and paint as required for which we would get 2 or 3 months of rent free use until September when we would begin a monthly long term sole rental.  It took 2 of us about 6 days of effort removing damaged plaster only to discover there was no damp problem at all – it was mainly condensation from storing wet tents in a non ventilated room. 🙂

We repaired the damaged areas to a reasonable standard, added 2 coats of brilliant white emulsion on walls and ceiling, new carpet tiles on the floor and a dedicated electrical and data supply into the room.  Finally 2 weeks ago the furniture was provided by our chairman and moved in ready for operation, the chairman also rerouted the antenna feed points into the shack and all was ready for operation.  It only remains to box in the cables in the hallway where they pass across the ceiling.

At last, on the club night of the 29th July 2015 our first contacts were made from the new shack. It is worth adding here that we now have some 30 paid up members, all anticipating their use of the shack.

We have a working party planned to re-jig antennas and maybe add a new HF one sometime in the near future.

Those responsible for bringing this amazing project to fruition are Stan G0RYM the club Treasurer, Richard 2E0RES and Paul M0ZMB, for providing the furniture, moving the antenna’s and John M0HFH for transporting the furniture to the Chantry. The entire project has cost us less than £200, has added a new vitality to the club, and hopefully will allow us to take part in more field days, contests and generally have more contacts with Amateurs around the world.

My utmost thanks to Richard for all his help and for Paul and John for providing and moving equipment

Stan
G0RYM