50th anniversary of 1st UK 10 GHz contact

January sees the 50th anniversary of the first UK two-way contact on the 10GHz band by G3BAK and G3LZ.

After WWII there were a few UK amateurs taking an interest in microwaves. Two of them, Des Clift, G3BAK and G3LZ, began experimenting in 1949 and, in January 1950, were rewarded with the first UK two-way contact on the 10GHz band.

Des eventually migrated to Australia where he carried on his microwave activities, mainly on the 5.6GHz band, until his death in early 2005. He was VK2AHC in New South Wales at first, but then relocated to South Australia as VK5ZO.

His 10GHz equipment for that 1950 contact with G3LZ consisted of a mains powered klystron transmitter/receiver and the path was just a "few miles" (actually about 1.75 miles) across the Manchester Ship Canal in North West England.

Of just as much interest was his use of 70cm for talkback. At that time even the 432MHz band was for radio pioneers!

A Brief History of UK 10 GHz Amateur Microwaves
http://www.g3pho.free-online.co.uk/
microwaves/history.htm

The UK Microwave Group (UKuG) produce a newsletter Scatterpoint 10 times a year and you can join via their website at
http://www.microwavers.org/

Back issues of Scatterpoint can be seen at
http://www.scatterpoint.org/