Pred 17 rokmi sa anglickej rádioamatérskej organizácii RSGB podarilo presvedčiť britské ministerstvo telekomunikácií, že skúšky rádioamatérov z telegrafie by bolo najlepšie robiť pod dohľadom RSGB. Na počesť tohto úspechu logiky RSGB každoročne v prvej polovici mája usporiada v sobotu a nedeľu (00.01 – 23.59 hodín) dni telegrafnej aktivity, na ktorej sa zúčastňuje veľké množstvo rádioamatérov. Začiatočníci tu majú možnosť nadväzovať spojenia pomalým tempom a tí starší a skúsenejší idú rýchlejšie a keď treba, tak spomalia pre začiatočníkov.
There are stations in operation with a special prefix GB0 and a suffix according to the district in which they are located. These stations represent testing centers where CW exams are held for would-be radio amateurs or those upgrading their grades. For example, GB0KNT is a test center station in Kent County. GB0CW is the head of the RSGB examination committee and GB0MTS (Morse Test Service) is the examination center. GB0BFD is in the county of Bedfordshire, GB0HFD is in the county of Hertfordshire, GB0ARM is the county of Armagh in Northern Ireland, GB0GRN is the county of Grampian in Scotland, etc. Everyone is trying to do QSO with these special stations. Mostly on 3.5 and 7 MHz, because another international race is running at the same time. For 10 connections with different of these special stations you can get a diploma. If you are interested, I will send you the address where you will apply for the diploma. The diploma costs £2.50. However, you can send your request with an extract from the diary to me in Vrútok together with a fee of 180 Sk and I will arrange the rest.
However, be careful on the band, as the water and wind mills activity days also take place at the same time, when radio amateurs broadcast from various old mills under other special GB brands. European stations use their special prefixes.
Of course, make QSOs with "millers" as well, but these connections are not valid for the RSGB diploma. On many QSL the "millers" tickets have nice photos of old mills. The GB prefix is used in Britain for special event stations.
I wish you good luck on the bands and the joy of telegraphic connections with the peculiar GB prefixes, whatever event they celebrate or commemorate.
Alex OM6SA