Dear MKARS members,

Firstly, let me wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2022 and I hope you all enjoyed your seasonal break. I hope you are all keeping well. The HF bands have been kind to us over that time, with the SFI high, and some good DX to work without too much slog.

At the same time, we have had some great news on the results of our 2021 Contesting efforts with MKARS having its best ever performance in the UKACs and we are now a ‘top three’ Club. Thanks must go to Tim, G6GEI for leading this activity for us and building the team and its capability, and the many MKARS members that who contribute to our weekly score.

As we look forward to starting our programme, we seem to be in the midst of another major COVID surge with a new highly infectious variant. Thankfully with most of us double vaccinated and boosted and it being less virulent, hopefully this wave will be the final one and over quickly.

At the AGM in October, we started to hold meetings at our new location in the TNMOC at Bletchley Park and so far, despite the trials and tribulations of COVID, have regularly held weekly meetings there, sometimes assisted by Zoom, and managed several social nights, sometimes supported by Pizza or Xmas fare. Looking ahead to January, we have to reflect on the current virus situation, and we will revert to Zoom for virtual meetings, but we will review this and hope to restart meetings at the TNMOC in February.

We have also used the last few months to sort through the historical inventory of Club equipment, and reviewed what we think we will use in future and what has become surplus to our requirements. Some of the items held at the egg farm have already been sold, and some members who have held items on the Club’s behalf have also expressed interest in acquiring those items. We will start an exercise shortly to sell off these Club items.

Turning to Club meetings, our Programme for January now looks like this:

10^th January : MKARS Committee meeting on Zoom.

17^th January : MKARS : Open house with Committee – What do you want from your Club in 2022 ? – Zoom details to follow.

24^th January : Sell off of MKARS equipment that we no longer use. The process for this will be announced shortly.

31^st January : An introduction to Contesting – Joining the highly successful MKARS team – Tim, G6GEI. Zoom details to follow.

7^th February : MKARS Committee at TNMOC

14^th February : Bring and Buy Table Top Sale at TNMOC

21^st February : Skills Night -TBA

28^th February – Building radio kits – some tips and tricks – Phil G4FVZ

7^th March – MKARS Committee TNMOC

That’s it for now. Stay safe and very best wishes once again for 2022. May your dreams of DX, become reality (3J0Y?)

Phil G4FVZ