10 year old M3LFC to raise money for RNLI
David Hughes (M3LFC), a member of the Southport & District Amateur Radio Club (SADARC), is to embark on a three month fund raising marathon which will hopefully see him obtain as many QSL cards as possible for contacts made between January 1st and March 31st, 2006. As well as his interest in Amateur Radio, David is a keen member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's (RNLIs) junior branch, Storm Force, and loves to visit the stations and see the various boats that are in service. To date, he has seen boats from all over the country; from Tyneside to Cornwall and Sussex to the Isle of Man. The idea for the marathon came from the Radio Society of Great Britains (RSGBs) Foundation Award. The award is only available to Amateur Radio Foundation Licence holders during their first twelve months of being licenced and requires the operator to obtain 100 points - each unique contact on the 50MHz and 144MHz bands earns 1 point, whilst unique contacts on the 70MHz and 433MHz bands earn two points. David has been a licenced Radio Amateur since June, having passed the Foundation course a month earlier. By the time David found out about the award, several months had already passed so it was decided, after much discussion with his dad, that he should go for it over a shorter period of time and raise sponsorship for their favourite charity at the same time. Having informed the RNLI of their plans, David received an e-mail from the Northern Area Fundraising Manager, Lisa Cooke, wishing him all the best on behalf of the volunteer crews, hoping that he succeeds in his target. If you hear David on the air, please do reply to him, but more importantly, please do send him your QSL card as it is the receipt of the cards that will determine the amount of money raised for the RNLI. Unfortunately, electronic QSL cards are not accepted in this instance.For those of you that would like to sponsor David, there is an on-line sponsorship form that can be filled in on the SADARC web-site where the total amount of pledges received will also be posted on a regular basis. David also plans to operate an on-line diary where news will be posted of his activities. Details of the diary will appear on the club’s web-site shortly. Icom UK Marketing - marketing@icomuk.co.uk01/01/2006