The sixth of June 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of the launching of Operation Overlord with the D-Day Landings in Normandy.
In order to commemorate all those who took part in this momentous historical event, a small team from the Torbay Amateur Radio Society (TARS) in Newton Abbot are organising a chain of five special event stations along the South coast of the United Kingdom.
Each special event station will be based in the geographical area of a ‘Beach Landing Force’ point of departure, and will use a call sign relevant to that Landing Force.
TARS will be activating a site above Brixham Harbour in Devon, which was a departure point for many of the US forces who later landed on Utah Beach; we will be using the call ‘GB75UF’.
Other clubs will be activating similar relevant locations and using one of the following call signs (see attached map):
- GB75OF – Omaha Beach – South Dorset Radio Society.
- GB75GF – Gold Beach – Southampton ARC & Soton University Wireless Society.
- GB75JF – Juno Beach – Itchen Valley ARC & Waterside New Forest ARC.
- GB75SF – Sword Beach – Fort Purbrook ARC.
Further to the five SE Stations in the UK, we hope to have two club stations from the Normandy area in France activating sites on the beaches! Making a total of seven special event stations on the air at the same time, working predominantly HF (other bands and modes are at the discretion of the station coordinators).
Logging is being co-ordinated centrally, and stations who contact two or more of the stations within the chain will be able to download a suitable certificate to commemorate their achievements.
Details of logging, certificates and operating frequencies will be available (by the time the events starts) on the TARS website at http://www.torbayars.org.uk and other participating club sites.
The organising team for this event can be contacted via email at [email protected]