Station
The Shack
The shack has moved around several times. The oldest reference to a shack (of sorts) is a room in the New Engineering Laboratory (in 1922), when membership cost 2s per term! At the end of the 1940’s, it could be found in a converted toilet at Downing College and subsequently it was located in the basement of the Old Cavendish site (now the New Museums site), but increasing sensitivity of measurements being made by the physicists forced it to move out to the Cavendish Field Station at the Old Rifle Range on Grange Road. This site was later developed for housing during the 1971/2 academic year and the shack moved once again to its current location on the western edge of Cambridge.
The Equipment
The equipment changes from time to time, but at the moment there is equipment for most of the amateur bands below 70cm. There are two extending tilt over towers, the larger of which extends up to sixty feet, the smaller fourty. Both of these are equipped with heavy duty rotators. For HF there is a FT101ZD with a linear amplifier and external VFO. As an antenna there is a tri-band (TH3) 10-15-20m yagi antenna and a 40/80m vertical. On the smaller tower, we also have a beam antenna for the WARC bands, and a 6m five element beam (although there is no 6m equipment at the shack at the moment). Occasionally a horizontal dipole for 80m appears but the weather soon takes its toll. For 2m there is an FT221R and the society also has 70cm equipment. For both these bands there are dual polarisation yagi antennas on the main tower. Obviously it’s also possible for people to bring out their own equipment and simply take advantage of the beam antennas! We also have packet facilities on 4m linking into the UK DX Packetcluster system (via a PK232 TNC), and the society has plans to expand its packet work with a 9600 baud data link on the 70cm band. As a society we are affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain, which is the National Society representing radio amateurs in the UK. As a result we receive a copy of their magazine Radcom (from October 2005, we will receive a copy of the RSGB yearbook on an annual basis instead) and also can make use of their QSL service for G6UW contacts.
CUWS members must not operate the towers at the shack until they have read and complied with the CUWS tower instructions.