GB75UW was a special event station celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Cambridge University Wireless Society’s callsign, G6UW. Between 1 December 2007 and 28 December 2007, a total of 1,700 QSOs were made. If you need to QSL, please bear in mind that all QSOs will automatically receive a QSL card. For direct QSLs, please route to G7VJR (see qrz.com).

The Cambridge University Wireless Society was founded in 1920 and its original members included Professor Sir Ernest Rutherford (now known for his work on nuclear physics but originally a radio researcher) and Professor EV Appleton (known for his discovery of ionospheric layers, made while he was a CUWS member). Other members have included Dr J.A. Ratcliffe (ionospheric researcher), Professor Sir Maurice Wilkes G5VF (ionospheric researcher and builder of EDSAC, the first practical stored program computer), Dr JB Gunn (inventor of the Gunn Diode), and Professor Sir Martin Ryle G3CY (Astronomer Royal and inventor of aperture synthesis radio astronomy techniques). Professors Rutherford, Appleton and Ryle are all Nobel Prize winners.

CUWS members made substantial contributions to the development of radar and other key technologies during World War 2 and have since played many leading roles in British industry and academia. Cross fertilisation of ideas in the British scientific establishment is evidenced by Professor Ryle’s citing of Professor Wilkes’s contribution to the use of computing in radio-astronomy in Cambridge.

CUWS is one of the last university amateur radio clubs active on a regular basis in the United Kingdom, and is a source of practical training for the RCF/Ofcom radio exams for university members and the public, as well as an active HF DX and contest club.