It started as a CB club way back in 1981 when CB was all the rage. The late John Chumley, Len Mann G0xx and George Cant all SK (silent key - RIP) now were the prime members who started the club at Crockenhill village hall.

I wasn't a member in those far off days. I know that Len Mann and John Chumley both did the RAE course but only Len Mann went on to take the exam. JC liked building stuff. Len having passed the exam suggested to others to take it and several did including George Cant though it took him several attempts to pass.

Because I did shift work at the MoD I didn't join the club until the early 90's. About this time the CB club had become the DVRS but at this time I wasn't even a CB operator but eventually I did but only on 934MhZ. I had bought my rig from George Cant for the pricey sum of £200. ( I sold it at a junk sale for a tenner) It was known as the Gentleman's frequency because the rigs were so expensive unlike the 27megs which were reasonably cheap to buy and obtain. When there was a lift on one could work into East Anglia on 934.

We also belonged to the 934 club and were given numbers not call signs or Handles There were several licensed operators using the frequency like Len Mann but eventually the powers that be took the frequency away from us for mobile phone use. It was then suggested by the licensed ops' we take the RAE so in 1996, I had retired in 1992, I took and passed the RAE having attended a class run by an amateur who lived in Meopham.

There were only five of us in his converted loft shack and we all passed first time. It was then a City & Guilds amateur radio certificate, I was now "B" licensed with the call sign M1AEY, I had just missed out on the "G".

Two years later I took the Morse test, it was a requirement to get on HF in those days but the test speed had to been lowered from 12wpm to 5wpm. Another old timer, Brock G0WAR used to send Morse over the radio to us, both me and Paul M0HAL passed this way though Paul went on to pass it at 12wpm. I became M5ABO eventually they gave us the full license and I took the call sign M0RAW (my intials). By this time we had several operators include Ray G0FDU who was a brilliant operator especially on field days now SK.

We had one chairman, who will be nameless, when we were getting short of members decided we should close the club and pocket the funds! but we, about six of us, voted against him so he decided to go. How did we survive? It was difficult but we soldiered on and eventually recruited more operators.

We had been doing VHF Field days for some time and then in the early 2000's it was decided we would try HF field day, using Harvest Field Crockenhill as a base. It was a bit awkward because we had to have the local council gate keys to get on and off the site however we used it for several field days.

Eventually I spoke to David a local farmer who also plays the organ at our church he said we could use his field at Cacket's Bank, free of charge, but only when the hay had been gathered. As you may know we have been using it, mostly, ever since until now, hopefully that time will come back again when this pandemic is over.

Now that we have more members thanks to the likes of Mike, Chris, Phil and Mark doing the training classes for that coveted amateur license.