Early in 2014 the ROA had been contacted by the Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society with an invite to attend their annual radio rally at the Newbury Showground just off the M4. Although the Association has attended these events before, it takes quite a lot of organisation, and of course trying to locate members who are available and willing to attend.
Dave Ellis contacted the Chairman who agreed that the presence of the ROA at the rally may prove beneficial in acquiring new members. Dave asked for volunteers to attend the rally and two came forward, Peter Gavin and Geoff Valentine, the latter arriving off an inbound Lanzarote flight at Gatwick airport early on the Sunday morning, luckily there was a motorway service station not far from the showground so a few hours sleep was possible before the event started.
Dave arrived in his nice new camper van about an hour before the rally was due to be opened to visitors.The three of us quickly set up the stand and also a working amateur radio station. The Chairman had also provided us with a well made self supporting banner, which as you can see from the photographs below really made the ROA stand prominent. This will of course be used at our future events.
We were also supplied with the last 7 copies of the The Long Silence Falls (TLSF) and around 200 leaflets.We managed to sell 4 copies of the TLSF during the event, and also gave leaflets to most who attended our stand, requesting that they pass on the leaflet to any ex R/O’s in their respective amateur clubs. Dave had ROA joining forms printed, and any ex MN R/O who visited the stand was given one, all in all there is a possibility of 15 further members.
