INWED inspires students

In June, the UTC South Durham radio club (M1UTC), celebrated International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) 2026. The school is a STEM-focused site with an emphasis on engineering, where approximately 25% of the students are female.

The students were keen to use the school club call sign to get involved with INWED. Although the club has some Foundation licence holders, they were all busy with exams so Professor Ian Neal, G7IGN, the club lead, stepped in to supervise students who hadn’t operated before.

There was good propagation on 23 June and the students used a borrowed IC-7610 with a DX-Commander vertical multi-band antenna. Contacts were made using SSB and FT4/8 mostly on 20m and 40m. Operating as M1UTC, the group achieved 34 QSOs, mostly in Europe but with several in America too.

Although they didn’t hear anyone else on the air to mark INWED, they did hear special call sign GB1500M which was active to mark the closure of BBC Radio 4 Long Wave transmitters.

The students have a special QSL card for anyone who contacted them and ask that you let them know via email the time of the QSO and a signal report. Contact details are available via QRZ.com

Everyone who took part thoroughly enjoyed themselves and Professor Ian Neal was happy to discover that most have indicated they will be joining the club’s Foundation course next year. This means they should have their own call signs ready for INWED 2027 – a fantastic achievement and brilliant to see the impact participation in a campaign like this can have!

Category: INWED, School Zone stories, Your stories