| The Amateur Radio Society of Barbados was founded in 1955 and is located on the site of an old sugar plantation whose Mill-wall still stands as a landmark of our headquarters and operations centre. The site overlooks the picturesque West Coast of Barbados and from our balcony, you can see for miles up and down the West Coast, complete with the most beautiful tropical sunsets. The ARSB is a member of the International Amateur Radio Union, the IARU. The ARSB Clubcall 8P6AW and can be heard on the bands usually after club meetings which are held on the 3rd Friday of each month at 7:30 pm. The ARSB sponsors a Sunday morning net on 7.185 Mhz at 12:30z. The Net Control Operator is Ron, 8P6JB. It also hosts a VHF net on one of the two repeaters - on Wednesday evenings at 00:00z or 8:00pm local time on 146.910MHz, -600KHz input. This net is hosted by Rodney, 8P6FH. The ARSB is also responsible for organising net control stations for the Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net when it is Barbados's turn to act as net control. This net meets at 1030Z and 2230Z daily on 3.815MHz. During the morning session however, if conditions are poor on 80m, it convenes on 7.162MHz. The operations centre is equipped with an Icom IC-738 as the main transceiver and an Icom IC-730 as back-up. Antennas include a KLM KT34XA on a 45ft. self-supporting tower. An evolving array of vertical and wire antennas are available for operation on 30, 40 & 80 metres. Two VHF transceivers round out the modest station. One is used for FM voice while the other is dedicated as a 1200baud packet digipeater on 145.010 MHz. The two ham repeaters on the island are open and enjoy nearly island-wide coverage:
The ARSB also operates an incoming QSL buro with plans to start an outgoing buro shortly. The buro address is: |
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