W & S Open Day June 2012 Report

Today, Sunday 03 June 2012 is the annual Open Day at Waters and Stanton in Hockley.

Essex Ham was there, blogging away, and this page has been updated several times throughout the day to reflect the day’s events, and show a few of the highlights.

Despite the less than ideal ‘summer’ weather, and the Jubilee celebrations taking place in Essex, the day was very well attended, with lots of familiar faces, and several newcomers, including three recent “passes” from the CARS Intermediate course (no doubt looking for 50 watt bargains)

Waters & Stanton, Main Road, Hockley
Waters & Stanton, Main Road, Hockley

As well as the chance to meet other local hams, and to do a little Sunday shopping, W & S laid on free teas and coffees, plus biccies and sausage rolls. Those not looking to pile on calories, were able to shave a few pounds off, at just about everything in store had 10% knocked off today. For even better bargains, the first floor was home to the Service Department tabletop sale, where there were some real bargains to be had. I managed to grab a W-620 SWR and Power Meter for £5, plus a desk mic (minus lead) for less than the price of a Costa Cappuccino, and several ham buddies managed to pick up some other great bits, including power supplies and mains power pack inverters.

W & S put on three talks today, held upstairs on the second floor.

Murray Niman G6JYB telling an enthusiastic audience about the Olympics spectrum and how it affects amateurs.

Murray G6JYB and the Olympics
Murray G6JYB outlines the 70cm changes for the Olympics

Peter Waters G3OJV have an interesting talk on microphones, and Justin Johnson G0KSC spoke passionately about Yagi design, LFA Yagis, some rather expensive RF pattern software, and the range of InnovAntennas products.

Justin Johnson G0KSC LFA Yagi Talk
Justin Johnson G0KSC LFA Yagi Talk

Also onsite were reps from Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom. Thanks to Yaesu for the free hat, amateur radio map and logbook, and also for the information on their just-announced FT1DR/E digital handheld.

Waters & Stanton Yaesu Table
Waters & Stanton Yaesu Table

Also at the W & S open day, several member of the CARS (Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society) committee, the ERG (Essex Repeater Group) and Mark Sanderson M0IEO manning the RSGB bookstore (with 10% off).

Mark M0IEO and Clive G1EUC at Waters & Stanton
Mark M0IEO and Clive G1EUC at Waters & Stanton

Well done to the W&S team for putting on this annual shindig in Hockley – Special thanks to Steve, David and James for the catch-up and the great personal service. The day wrapped for up at around 2:30pm, after the presentation to the Region 12 Club Of The Year, LEFARS (Loughton and Epping Forest Amateur Radio Society), and the raffle.

LEFARS, collecting the Region 12 Club Of the Year Prize
LEFARS, collecting the Region 12 Club Of the Year Prize

Six lucky winners picked up goodies including a Kenwood TV-D710E, Icom IC-E80D, Yaesu FT-60E, bhi noise cancelling speaker, Quansheng TG-UV2and a goodie bag

Gathered Crowd - Waiting For The Raffle
The gathering crowd, waiting for the W&S raffle
The winner of the top prize, the Kenwood TV-D710E
The winner of the top W&S raffle prize, the Kenwood TV-D710E

Well done to the lads and lasses at Waters & Stanton, and great to see so many of you at this year’s open day. Next one? As far as we know, it’ll be the Christmas Get-together. www.wsplc.com

2 Comments

  1. Colin Page 5 June 2012 Reply
  2. Jeff Stanton 5 June 2012 Reply

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