In 1944 the US Air Force (USAF) 438th Troop Carrier Group were based at RAF Greenham Common Airbase, near Newbury, Berkshire UK. This would be critical in transporting men of the US Army 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions in the build up to D-Day in June 1944. The airbase had over 400 of the Waco CG-4A gliders (figure 1), along with their Douglas C46 & C47 towing aircraft, and were used to carry troops, jeeps and munitions for the D-Day operation.US General Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force, himself paid an important visit to Greenham Airbase on the eve of D-Day and saw the first of the Airborne troops take off for France (figure 2).
June 6th 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the recently restored air traffic Control Tower at Greenham is being recognised as an important part of the WW2 commemoration in West Berkshire. To make a contribution to this very important time in WW2, the Newbury And District Amateur Radio Society (NADARS) will be using a very special call sign at our permanent HF radio station at the Control Tower
Earlier this year, Phill Morris G6EES submitted a detailed proposal to Ofcom (the UK Government Regulator) requesting that we be issued with a very unique callsign GB80DDAY (80th D-Day). This is unique because GB special event call signs are usually only a single number and two or three letters (we needed two numbers and four letters ! ). After requests for more information from Ofcom they granted us the call sign.
Pierre (VE3KTB) will be qrv from the Eureka Weather Station on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut (IOTA NA-008) between 27th July and 7th of August 2024 as VY0ERC.
Team Leader – We’re still negotiating the contracts for a DX-pedition to Bouvet Island. This DX-pedition will be a large scale operation with 20-24 operators and we are searching for 4-6 more CW/SSB operators to complete the team 
”Team YJ0VK is heading back to Vanuatu 20-27 August 2024.
I have uploaded the entire 7O8AD log to LoTW – 43.000 QSOs. Thanks for being in the pileup – it was great fun! 7O8AE will also be uploaded now.
A re-design of cards for Chris ZL7DX on the Chatham Islands. The new card features Chris’ wife Catherine. Her Call is Callsign ZL7QT (nice suffix 
Qsl Card design now completed (tnx 
In 1944 the US Air Force (USAF) 438th Troop Carrier Group were based at RAF Greenham Common Airbase, near Newbury, Berkshire UK. This would be critical in transporting men of the US Army 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions in the build up to D-Day in June 1944. The airbase had over 400 of the Waco CG-4A gliders (figure 1), along with their Douglas C46 & C47 towing aircraft, and were used to carry troops, jeeps and munitions for the D-Day operation.