Welcome

 

Welcome to the new Radio Communication Museum of Great Britain.

This is a brand-new museum which, as the name suggests, is focused on all aspects of Radio Communication. It is located in the city of Derby in Central England.  The museum a registered charity and is being funded and built by enthusiasts and volunteers.

This web site is under construction and will be expanded as the museum itself is built.  It will grow to become both an overview of the museum, as well as an information resource for people with an interest in radio communication.

We have been a little slow at implementing web site updates (for which we apologise)  but we have been focused on developing the building, cleaning and displaying the collection and the education outreach aspects of the charity.  Hopefully, the implementation of our new marketing plan should start to produce more regular updates!

The museum building is now complete and volunteers have created:

  • a mechanical workshop which not only has traditional tools such as pillar drills and grinders but also a modern “state of the art” 3D printer and shortly a laser cutter and table
  • a well equipped, five work position ESD electronics workshop for radio equipment maintenance, cleaning and repair.  Also a facility for volunteers and members of our clubs, to build, test and maintain their own equipment
  • The computer networks are installed providing both internal and visitor access to the internet and central resources.
  • an Operations Room where ultimately over 100 active radio receivers and transmitters will be powered up for visitors use.  This room is already used as a teaching area for some of our clubs, as it has great high speed fixed and WiFi network accessibility and multiple high resolution, large, wall mounted screens for presentation purposes.  Radio equipment has started to populate the work surfaces and racks.
  • the first phase of external antennas has been installed which includes:
    • 144MHz (2 metres),  432MHz (70cm) and 1296Mhz (23cm) rotatable beams with elevation control, for tracking and communicating with orbiting satellites and the International Space Station
    • Vertical for VHF and UHF FM communication
    • HF loop antenna for shortwave reception
    • in the next few weeks an LF and HF multiple band transmitting vertical will be erected
    • shortly followed by  a multi band HF StepIR horizontal rotary beam
  • Volunteers have been involved in building and renovating display cabinets for our upper and lower galleries.
  • Our NCRS communications trailer has been located at the museum complete with its HF transceivers, and Cold War era computer communications complete with pneumatic mast.

In May 2017, we started our education outreach programme.  We are running  after-school and weekend, free to attend, Coding Clubs for children aged 9 to 11 using SCRATCH and PYTHON languages on PCs, Raspberry Pi and BBC Micro:Bit computers.   These clubs are a great way to introduce children to programming (coding) computers. We are using material provided by Code Club UK  for initial training.   When children have completed the various Code Club projects and become proficient with Python and for older children, we have more complex PYTHON, PHP, C and C++ projects again using the Raspberry PI, BBC Micro:Bit, Arduino and other embedded platforms.

These advanced projects will involve the control of electronics, software defined radios and even working on space science projects, linking to orbiting satellites and the International Space Station.  Follow this link to find out more about our Coding Clubs.

In September 2017, we are started our Electronics Club for Beginners.  This was initially be for children between the ages of 10 and 16 who were confident in Python coding.  Aimed at the complete beginners it enables children to learn how electronics work, how to construct projects and use electronic test equipment.  In January 2018 a more advanced club will also run, to which children can transfer when they have grasped the basics.  Follow this link to find out more about our Electronics Clubs.

Later in 2017, we plan to start a  Space Science Club as well as training courses for Amateur Radio Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced  licence examinations to enable people to obtain their amateur radio licences.

We expect to have several thousand items of radio equipment on display and hope to be open by arrangement to radio enthusiasts from Spring 2018 and the general public later in the year.  Initially, we expect the museum to primarily be of interest to radio amateurs and engineers to look at our collection and use the equipment.  Over the next few years the supporting graphics will be installed progressively, which will make the museum of greater interest to the General Public.

Please follow our blog and twitter feed to find out our progress on the creation of the museum. Bookmark this page now and return regularly.  Even better, become a volunteer and get involved

If you would like to get involved with the museum as a volunteer, either in a technical role restoring and operating equipment, or in a supportive role in marketing or administration, then follow the link to that  section of this web site.

We are also keen to talk with people who have worked either as designers, engineers or users of radio equipment e.g. military, marine, aeronautic, telecomms etc who can share their experiences with us.  This could be face to face, or over the telephone, internet or even radio meetings!

If you just want to be updated with our progress then please subscribe to the quarterly news-sheet and we will email it to you.

If you would just like to know when we are open to the public, then tick that box and we will contact you nearer that time.

Many thanks for taking the time to visit our web site and we hope to welcome you to the museum in due course.