Rochester, Kent

GB0MD

 The Club was formed in the early 1960′s when the Company was called Elliott Automation, and the radio shack at the time was based on the Company site at Rochester Airport: the callsign used was G3PBY.

 Sometime during the 1970′s, the Club closed and was forgotten, there being no trace of a shack left on the Rochester site. Some say it was located in a shed near the runway but that is hard to believe. The search for the radio shack began again in 1984 when Kevin Taylor (G6YTC) and another amateur first heard about the original Club and decided to try and reform it. Luckily, there was a good response to their various posters around the factory.

 The Company later changed its name to Marconi Elliott Avionics, employing approximately 6,500 employees on sites around the Medway towns.

 There were a few well-attended meetings on Site, but the Company would not allow the Club to have their own radio shack on the Airport site; however, one was provided for them at the newly-acquired social Club at Hoo, St Werburgh, about 3 miles from the Rochester Airport factory site.

 There was yet another Company name change to Marconi Avionics, and with it, a large, fairly well equipped radio shack was built at the Social Club site. The original Club callsign G3PBY was resurrected, and a ‘B’ callsign of G6VSN was also acquired. The Club prospered over the next few years, competing in various contests and special event days for the Company.

 Finally, there was yet another change to GEC Marconi Avionics – the current name – and when the callsign G6GEC was offered to Rochester, it was quickly accepted to reflect the new company name.

 Unfortunately, the Company made a lot of people redundant in the late 1980′s and this badly affected the Club  because a lot of members were lost. With this fall in membership, it was decided to ‘mothball’ the Club, but the bank balance was sufficient to keep the licences going for 10 years, and this was done.

 In 1994, Kevin (G6YTC) and a fellow amateur, John (G8JAD) became interested in Packet radio and TCP I/P, and because there was no TCP I/P coverage for the Medway towns, they decided they would put a router at the Club site for this. The Morse keys were dusted-off, and once again the shack door creaked open ! The router was set up with the callsign GB7GM (GEC Marconi), running 9k6 baud on 70cms and 1k2 baud on 2m, which now has approximately 20 local users and is growing all the time. There are plans to open a 23cms fast link and 1k2 baud 4m link to Essex.

 All this work has prompted a rise in interest in the Radio Club again, and membership currently stands at a healthy 15 members. Most of these are ‘B’ licencees, there being only 2 ‘A’ Class licenced members. The Club has started entering various events again, and last year’s International Marconi Day generated great interest within the Club. Unfortunately, because of the lack of ‘A’ Class licencees, only VHF was used.

In 2000, yet another company change took place when GEC Marconi Avionics became part of BAE Systems.   However, their historical connections remain and Rochester will again be on the air for IMD 2005.

This information was kindly provided by Kevin Taylor (G6TYC)