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Make a bowl perhaps?
Make a Waistcoat with John
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Learn the Drums, or Come & Play

Railways on the Air Amateur Radio Event September 2021

Railways on the air (ROTA) weekend usually takes place every year on the weekend closest to the 27th September. This date celebrates the anniversary of the first steam powered passenger railway, which took place on 27th September 1825, in the North East of England from Darlington to Stockton.

The valleys have also needed rail lines, not just for commuting, but for the transport of coal and various ores that Wales smelted for the rest of the UK, up until recently. Unfortunately, many tracks have been replaced by cycle tracks, but some heritage railways still run steam locomotives locally.

The Old Station, Cymmer, was a very busy railway junction and marshalling yard, providing not only a passenger rail service but the mineral railway that served collieries in the valley and beyond.

This area has an immense history in mining and therefore the need for a railway was very important.
The line, as well as the station, has had many changes of name throughout its history, The South Wales Mineral Railway, Rhondda Swansea Bay Railway and GWR. Old Cymmer Station, which was a temporary station was called Cwm Cymmer and later Afan Cymmer, it is now known as The Refreshment Rooms and is a restaurant and public house run by Bethan and Neil.

The Wales Digital Radio Group (WDRG) signed up for this event to celebrate the Welsh valleys railways and made a base, with the help and power from The Refreshment Rooms, outside the Old Station Cymmer. Attending the event were Simon MW0GSR, Daryll MW0TTF, Chris MW7CCS, Ceri MW7WAP, Sooty M7EMH and Neil MW6FGN. They applied for a special callsign, GB0RSB, the GB0 is an Amateur Radio prefix and the RSB is for Rhondda and Swansea Bay. The event took place over the weekend of 25th -26th September.

The event was a great success, with three radio stations operating throughout the weekend, an HF (High Frequency mainly 80m, 40m and 20m SSB) station that was operated by most of the members, an FT8 (digital packets sent across HF and VHF bands) station operated mainly by Ceri and Simon and our VHF/UHF Digital voice station operated by Chris.

The 100th Wales Digital Radio Group Ragchew Net went out on Saturday and was hosted by Chris and Ceri. It was live-streamed across Facebook and linked to several repeaters, nodes and cross mode links. This was a great milestone in the group’s history and was received very well by those who took part.

Sunday saw plenty more contacts, with FT8 doing particularly well with some great DX (other continent contacts), even though the weather was poor. The weather did improve long enough for Daryll to demonstrate how to effectively tune an antenna with great results.
The group had several amateur radio visitors over the weekend including Mark 2W0OKW, as well as a steady influx of members of the public, interested in what was going on. They went away with, not only a better understanding of amateur radio, but also an appreciation of the history of the railway that used to be there. It was estimated that over 150 people approached members of the group for a chat,  most reminiscing and sharing their memories of the railway and surrounding area.

The club gives a big thank you to the members of the group, who camped out over the weekend to put on the event. A huge thank you must go to Bethan and Neil for letting the group use their facilities in the pub and supplying the mains power for the equipment, not forgetting the delicious food and several well needed pints of liquid refreshment. The Refreshment Rooms can be found at The Old Station, Cymmer, Port Talbot, SA133H.tel no 01639 850901.

The Wales Digital Radio Group is already planning their next adventures and events for 2022. These will hopefully include the R.N.L.I. SOS weekend, H.R.H. Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee, some Parks on the Air (POTA) and Beaches on the Air activities.

Come and see us on Facebook or at an event, you will be extremely welcome.

Tanio Cymru

Shed Day

We had a visitor to the Shed today. It was Ruth Morris from Tanio Cymru. Ruth is their “Programme Manager for the Arts in Health”, project. Tanio is the organisation, that runs the “Breathing Space” groups across Bridgend County and are based in Bettws. The “Breathing Space” sessions are a free, weekly, drop in sessions. The aims of the groups are to encourage the development of confidence and communication through creativity.


At the moment they have 5 groups:


Bettws
Bridgend
Bryngarw Country Park
Porthcawl
Pontypridd


They are hoping add a group in the Maesteg area, to that list. If anyone is interested you can contact them by phone on 01656 729246 or by e-mail on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Mike Gives Us The Finger

Apart from the usual activities in the Shed today, Les showed us some videos of simple but effective painting techniques. Some of the lads are going to have a go with acrylics in the next few weeks, we already have a couple of budding artists.

We also discussed making some Cigar Box Guitars, Les is going to source the materials for our workshop, then we will be ready to go.

Mike gave us a short talk about his new acquisition and I asked him to repeat it for the video below where he demonstrates the sound using finger picking and a bottleneck for old country slide effect.

Chris Smith-Robbins has been running a Ham Radio Digital Net for over 18 months now. He is a very active and enthusiastic Amateur Radio operator living in Croeserw, North of Maesteg, his callsign is MW7CCS. Over the past couple of months, the local Ragchew Net group have been contemplating creating a digital club, they have already been on an outing (field trip) and are booked to go to Llansteffan in August.

Chris and the gang are also getting ready for a Railways on the Air (ROTA) activation, locally, outside The Old Station, Cymmer, Port Talbot SA13 3HY on the 25th and 26th September, the station is now a restaurant called The Refreshment Rooms. The new Club Callsign is MC5WRG. If you want to see how much fun Amateur Radio is, come along and have a look.

Ham Radio is a great way to combat isolation, there is always someone to talk to, especially on the digital modes, where you can talk to people all around the world, without massive antennas or expensive equipment. It couldn't be easier to get into Amateur Radio now, the exams are in three levels and can be taken on your computer at home.

Below is a video taken today 31/07/21 of Chris using the new club callsign on the 2m Band using Single Side Band mode. For more information on Amateur Radio, come to ShedQuarters Maesteg on a Thursday after 10:30am.

The Facebook page for W.D.R.G is here: Facebook W.D.R.G.

Today's Action Filled Episode

I went upstairs in the Conference Room to find John Gates (Master Fabric Engineer) being serenaded by some of the ShedHeads This was after we had successfully downloaded software for our laser engraver, to enable cutting or engraving next week. We are due to have a film crew visit us in August and they are very interested in the music, unfortunately two members of the group were away today.

John Gates is in the process of making waistcoats for the band. In the woodwork room, there were some carpenters banging nails into some wood, I'm sure it wasn't random, perhaps it would have been a good idea to ask what they were making....... next time.

In the main room downstairs, others were putting the world to right as usual. But hopefully in the near future we will get them involved and active in two of our new projects, thought up by our members, making cigar box ukes and painting using acrylic paints.

As it was, everyone was doing something, which can only be a good thing.

We could do with some musicians, if you know anyone (Male or Female) that would like to join in, improve their playing, learn to play, or just sing. We have various instrument at the Shed to have a go on, including keyboards, guitars, drums, ukuleles and even a 5 string banjo.  

A Boxing Day Mining Disaster at a Maesteg Colliery


You can just imagine the news paper headlines in 1863.


At the meeting of the Shedquarters Men’s Shed last Thursday 10th June, Mr. Roy Meredith gave a talk and power point presentation on the disaster at the “Gin Pit” Maesteg. No it was not names the Gin Pit because they produced gin. It did produce coal and also iron ore to be used in the iron works. Which was where the Tesco’s store is situated today, just below the Gin Pit. It is believed it was named the Gin Pit after the horse driven machinery that wound the coal and iron ore up the shaft. The depth of the shaft was only 345 feet deep. Maesteg town centre is built where the coal seams come very close to the surface.  The coal was worked on an incline, so the actual workings would have been lower than that.
The colliery shaft is situated in what is now Maesteg Welfare Park, in front of the hospital. The area is fenced off because whatever they used to fill the shaft has started to settle. There is now a memorial to the 14 man and boys who died on the 26th December 1863.
The coal part of the pit was worked using the “Pillar and stall” method. The stall was a narrow road way driven into the coal in a grid fashion. Leaving the pillar squares to help hold up the roof. The stalls are worked to the boundary and then worked in retreat. It is then that the coal within the pillars is removed and the roof allowed to fall in. This method of working was notorious for the difficulty of ensuring good ventilation for clearing any gas(methane) out of the workings.
During the inquest it was stated the on an inspection that took place on Christmas Eve, the “Fireman” did not find any gas. Christmas day was a holiday so no inspection took place. It was when the work started back up on Boxing Day that the incident took happened. The incident was blamed on a 21 old man and a 14 year old boy who it is thought took a naked flame into the workings and that was what caused the explosion. The verdict of the inquest was accidental deaths. Both the 21 year old and the 14 year old were among those who died in the explosion.
It was not known what compensation was paid to the families of the men and boys killed.

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