About

Catch us on the air!

You can often hear groups of our Club members operating on the air:

On 1.953 MHz LSB some weekday evenings, from 4:30pm
Around 70.475 MHz FM at various times
On 1297.5 MHz FM every Wednesday evening, from 8:30pm
Somewhere close to 144.3 MHz USB at various times

And usually on the first Monday of each month we have a net from 7:30pm, often on 2m FM (around 145.25 MHz), including our Club Call GX0BWC.

Please call in if you hear us.

History

The Bolton Wireless Club was originally formed in the 1980s, and held the callsigns G1ONE and G0BWC. It met in what was then the Beaumont Hotel (now the Britannia Hotel, where the Club met again in the 2010s).

The present Club was re-born in 2007, and the two Club Licences have been re-issued and can still be heard on air from time to time. We now meet at the Ladybridge Community Centre.

There was another Club in the town: the Bolton and District Amateur Radio Society, which most recently met in Horwich in the 1980s. We have a few former B&DARS members now in the BWC, and are delighted that we've got the old G8WY Club callsign back on air and are reviving some fascinating memories of local radio activity from past decades.

An HF demonstration station in Moss Bank Park around 1971
(including two of our present-day members in their youth!)

VHF Contesting

In 2009, Club members began to take part in the nationwide UK Activity Contests organised by the Radio Society of Great Britain. These take place every Tuesday evening, spread across nine different frequency bands. Thanks to the keen participation of dozens of our members, we rapidly became pre-eminent in these events, and won the prestigious UKAC Club Championship several times.

Several of our members are still active in the microwave UKAC events, helping us to be highly-placed in each year's Club Championships on the 23, 13 & 9cm bands.