Introduction

You have arrived at the Website of the South Bristol Amateur Radio Club. On the various pages of this site you can find out about our current, past and planned activities, what you need to do to become a licensed Radio Amateur, how the Club is run and how and when the club was formed.

Perhaps most importantly you can find out where we are and how to get to us or contact us. We have a number of Social Media presences that you are welcome to follow or join whether or not you are a member:

Meetings

We would like to meet you if you have an interest in Radio. It does not matter if you just want to find out more or have been a listener or have used radio before in any form. The club meets on the first Thursday of the month at the Novers Park Community Centre from about 19:30hrs local time with events starting around 20:00hrs, and on the third Thursday of the month via ZOOM.

Our meetings follow a pattern:

  • The First Thursday of the month we try to hold a hybrid ZOOM meeting with a specific topic, details of these meetings can be found in the calendar.
  • The Third Thursday of the month is a ZOOM meeting, with people logging in from wherever they happen to be for a general catchup and chat. This is an opportunity for our more remote members to interface with the Club.

On the other Thursdays (i.e. the second, fourth and occasional fifth Thursdays – note there are usually 4 months in the year with 5 Thursdays, although in exceptional cases there may be 5 months with 5 Thursdays) things are more flexible and organised at shorter notice so it’s best to drop us a line to find out what is going on.

See the ‘Find Us‘ page which provides maps and written directions for all modes of travel. Finish time for meetings is variable but formal events usually complete by 22:00hrs local.

Joining Us

If you would like to become a member of the South Bristol Amateur Radio Club please drop us an email at the address in the footer below and we will reply with details of our application form and other miscellaneous items. We hope to have an online form available soon but until this is in place an email will suffice.

Subscriptions

One of the questions we are routinely asked is about membership costs, so to answer this one and be completely upfront about the costs, there are currently 3 methods of paying subs and which one is best for you will depend on the frequency of your attendance:

  1. Payment on Attendance
    1. Non OAP Members – A fixed membership payment of £10/year plus a payment of £1.50 per attendance. Assuming attendance at 45 meetings per year this will amount to £77.50 per annum
    2. OAP Members – A fixed membership payment of £4.50/year plus a payment of £1.50 per attendance. Assuming attendance at 45 meetings per year this will amount to £72.00 per annum
  2. Monthly Standing Order – Currently set at £7/month, leading to a total annual cost of £84
  3. Annual BACS Transfer – Currently set at £75/annum

The Clubs financial year runs from 1st October – 30 September however we collect subs in August/September to be able to register everyone with the Novers Community Association during their membership renewal period to avoid any administration charges from them for handling out of time membership renewals or new registrations.

New joiners who don’t coincide with the membership year are typically handled on a pro rata basis.