100th Anniversary of the First Brede Scout Group.

On the weekend of the 3 rd and 4 th of July the 1 st Brede Scout Group held their Centenary camp. The Group was founded in June 1910 by the then pastor of St George's Church, the Reverend Cyril Frewer. More details about the 1st Brede Scout Group history.

Events during the day consisted of hand printing - paint your hand and put it onto paper - signing 100 pennants to display in the hall, camp fires to cook pastry sticks, football, Morris dancing, icing cakes and Radio Scouting.

The Brede Steam Amateur Radio Society (BSARS) were asked, by Colin and Jonathan, if they could be on site for the weekend to assist with ‘Radio Scouting'. As BSARS have a hut on site – a space kindly lent to the group by the 1 st Brede Scout Group – and a call sign of GB1FBS had already been assigned to the 1st Brede Scout Group on a permanent basis, all that remained was to make sure enough hands were on board to make the event successful.

BSARS were asked if it were possible, to mark the event by contacting 100 other amateur radio stations. 100 contacts is not insurmountable for a weekend but when you have to give a brief history of what is going on and why, then time fly's by and before you realise it the weekend is over! With this in mind it was decided that we should raise another antenna, a vertical and use this for digital modes and the G5RV would be handed over to Jonathan (M6FBS) for him to run another station outside of the shack. This would allow him to use the whole of the HF frequencies and, if he wanted, to run the station into the night. We also erected a 2 meter yagi so that we could take part in the VHF field day.

On the 3 rd Jonathan was set up with his FT897 under a gazebo and his first contacts were with other Scout Groups around the country on the “Saturday Morning Scout Net”. This was good advertising for the group and lots of chat ensued between him and several other like minded Groups.

On the rig in the shack – TS2000 – Sam (M6BSB) was making contacts on HF. Although he had not used the radio since passing his exam in 2009 it did not take him long to get back into the swing of things. Sam's second contact was with an amateur radio station in Namibia. (There are amateur radio stations that have been operating for 40 years who have never had a contact with Namibia.) He went on to make many more contacts during the day on both the TS2000 and the FT897. Other Scouts also used the radios to make contacts Kieran (M6KPB) used the FT897 and made contacts on both Saturday and Sunday.

Jonathan had arranged for 4 Scouts and 1 parent to do some practical training (for their Foundation License) to take part during Saturday. This was carried out by Phil (G3MGQ) and Steve (M0SSR). This involved operating and understanding how to use VHF and HF equipment, as defined by the Radio Communications Agency (RCF). Their training will continue over the next few weeks and will culminate in them taking an examination. This examination consists of 25 multiple choice questions, of which they must get 18 right. If you think you would like to know more about the examination and training then please contact one of the above.

Many stations were contacted during the day by members of BSARS and by the end of the day there were 78 stations logged, all of whom had been given information as to what the special event was about. There were many tired and voice broken operators at the end of the day.

Sunday the 4 th bought more challenges for BSARS members and for the 1 st Brede Scout Group. BSARS had to get the balance of the remaining 100 stations logged. This they did quite early on with the furthest station logged by Antony (G4CUS) in the Congo (Central Africa). Further contacts were made using Digital Modes and on the 2 meter band in the VHF contest.

Mike (M0EDU) was also putting together his ‘ATV' unit that is run by steam. This consists of buckets, pipes, wires, a small colour TV and a fire. The TV and receiver were placed outside the shack and the fire and transmitter was some 30 meters away. The scouts and cubs enjoyed this event a great deal, as did all the visitors.

The 1 st Brede Scout Group had Wayne Bulpitt visiting the Group to officially open the new extension that had been built. Wayne is the UK Chief Commissioner and arrived at Brede in the morning and spent a great deal of time talking to as many people as he could before leaving. There were many leaders from other groups within the Hastings and Rye area who attended this event, which shows the commitment within the Scouting fraternity to support other Groups and their activities.

The club wishes to thank the Awards For All team for their Grant and giving us the chance to move forward.