When Farnborough and Dis-trict Radio Society members give contact details they probably will not give a mobile phone number or email address but a letter, followed by a number and three letters.

Anyone in the world with  their own radio can tune in to those frequencies and talk to them.

The society is made up of amateur radio users in and around Farnborough of differ-ent backgrounds and experiences in radio.
 
Jon Powell, 50, of Bagshot, became interested in short wave radio three years ago when he wanted a hobby to fill his hours when he planned to retire. 

He said: “I had no back-ground in it at all but now I’m really into it.

“My wife’s getting a bit ann-oyed with all the wires coming out of the house.”

He said the society’s bi-weekly chats on Monday and Friday evenings, when members can tune their radios to the same frequency and talk, is like a low-tech version of social networking sites like Facebook.

He is in charge of training, and since earning his amateur radio licence, which allows him to transmit, he has taught many of the members about using radios so they can earn the same qualification.

He said: “I’ve taught members of all ages from eight to 80 to get their qualifications.

“It’s really satisfying to be giving people the training I received myself just a few years ago.”  

Aldershot Military Museum offered the society the chance to set up an amateur radio station during the Cody Anniversary week to talk to the world about the centenary of Samuel Cody’s first powered flight in Farnborough.

For the occasion radio regulator Ofcom gave the station a unique frequency — GB1CODY — rather than the standard format which ends with three letters.

The society began transmitting at the start of the week, talking about Cody and inviting anyone who could hear them to talk back.

Among those who responded was a man in Iraq.

He was intrigued about the event and talked at length about Cody but said he could not answer questions about what he was doing in Iraq.

“That made us think he was a member of the Armed Forces,” said Mr Powell.

“The places we got responses from depended on the time of day.

“When we set up first thing at 9am we usually got people in time zones ahead of us talking to us in places like eastern Europe.

“Then as time went on we’d turn our signal towards America and Canada.

“We got a lot of people talking to us in America. There’s a lot of interest in Cody over there because he was an American.”

The station stopped transmitting after the week having spoken to around 100 people around the world.

As well as their radio chat the members meet at Farnborough Community Centre on the second and third Wednesdays of the month for informal socials.
 
A society member usually gives a talk on a subject, often radio-related such as ‘an introduction to fuel cells’, or another subject a member is interested in, such as the history of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War.

Anyone interested in getting started is welcome to the meetings.