Thornbury and South Gloucestershire Amateur Radio Club were once again allowed to operate for Railways on the Air at the Vale of Berkeley Railway on Saturday 21st September 2019.
Railways on the Air (ROTA) usually takes place on the weekend closest to the 27th September. This date celebrates the anniversary of the first steam powered passenger railway which took place on the 27th September 1825. The first passenger train ran on a line in the North East of England from Darlington to Stockton.
A number of amateur radio stations operate from heritage railways throughout the country with the aim of contacting as many other stations as possible as well as any other radio amateurs who may be interested. TSGARC managed to contact 13 other railway sites from Helston in the south to Dufftown in the north.
We also managed to contact 2 other special event sations. One was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the KLM airline and the other was celebrating the 101st anniversary of the first Marconi wireless message from North Wales to Australia.
In total we managed 69 contacts in 10 countries including Italy and Slovenia. We were very pleased with the results of our day and would like to thank the members and trustees of the railway who put up with us for the day.
See Vale of Berkeley Railway Website for more information on the railway where the special event station was held.
Thanks also to Ron for the information.