Big Lottery News at WRAA..

The National Lottery Awards For All Scheme have awarded the WRAA over £5000 to enable the club to provide even more for our members and others in the area.

At the end of January 2008, the WRAA received some great news from Lottery HQ, they had awarded us over £5000 in order to extend our current offerings to members and other people in the community.

Practical Wireless editor Rob Mannion, G3XFD (right) presents the Club with the cheque

On 8th March, Rob Mannion, G3XFD, the editor of Practical Wireless magazine travelled for 4 hours in order to present us with the all-important cheque. We had a great time, and many of the members were able to exchange stories with Rob.

We are all extremely grateful to Rob for coming all that way to spend some time with his fellow members; Yes, that's right - Rob is also an honorary member of the WRAA too.

Who are we?
Worcester Radio Amateurs Association is the only club for amateur radio enthusiasts in the Worcester area.  We have been existence since October 2006, but in that short space of time have established ourselves as a leading light in the world of Amateur Radio within the West Midlands. 

Since the beginning, our members have shown their true community sprit and shared their knowledge of radio with countless young people in and around the Worcester area; from Scout Association badge camps to hands on demonstrations in local schools, they have shown their worth. This community spirit has now been recognised by the National Lottery 'Awards for All' scheme to the tune of £5320.

What do we do?
Apart from regular club meetings at our ‘Radio Shack’ in Hallow the club members undertake many off site activities. So far our activities have been, Scouting Badge training camps, Girl Guide Association special events, a Jamboree On The Air special event, and down linking signals from the International Space station; general radio communication demonstrations and in school radio communication demonstrations.  Notably in 2007 the club provided a special event station for the celebration of 100 years of scouting, enabling several hundred scouts to retake their scouting promise whilst the whole world listened.

Alongside these activities the club is also very active in providing training for anyone who wants to become a licensed radio amateur.  We provide training courses enabling students to take the required examination to obtain a Foundation class licence and then be able to talk to other amateurs all over the world using their own radios. 

The Worcester Radio Amateurs Association regards training as one of its most important functions. WRAA have so far enabled more than 30 people, whose ages range from 10 to 70, to achieve their Amateur Radio licence. This is a fantastic achievement and one we are keen to continue with, planning for future courses to take place at least once every two months. It is the aim of WRAA to extend our current training courses to encompass computers and electronics in the near future and to set up a “mentoring” scheme for those interested in the more challenging aspects of the hobby.

Looking to the Future.
The award from National Lottery means that the association and its members will be able to provide even more to the community, and it aims to spread its wings into neighbouring towns too. “we are keen to promote amateur radio as a life long hobby” says the association Chairman Pete Badham; adding “we want to show everyone just what radio means in today’s world, where many technical advances are taken for granted”

Stop-by the WRAA website