Vintage and Military ARS

The Vintage and Military Amateur Radio Society (VMARS) was formed with the broad aims of preserving our wireless heritage and assisting like minded individuals with restoration and operation of equipment, including items such as radar, radio altimeters, mine detectors, IFF sets and similar devices

VMARS members have a strong following of early amateur, marine and commercial transmitters and receivers, and of military communications sets, many using amplitude modulation, making the promotion and continued use of AM, as well as other early modes such as CW, one of our primary aims. This leads to another important element of the Society, which is to encourage projects involving the design and construction of equipment for use in these early transmission modes, usually employing valves but frequently using more modern techniques.

The Society maintains two excellent web sites, one for manuals, circuit diagrams and other technical information and another for Society news, events video and photographs and vintage radio and equipment related films, documentaries and recordings among other items of interest. These sites can be found at www.vmars.org.uk and are freely accessible to all users of the internet. VMARS also operate two Yahoo Group forums which are for members only and are for technical and VMARS related discussions and for trading items of equipment and spares between Society members.

VMARS events are a highlight for many members. As well as undertaking our Annual General Meeting, which is held during the summer months at an interesting location, the Society attends various radio related events and rallies around the country, where members have the opportunity to meet each other, view and operate vintage and military equipment  and enjoy the facilities of our chosen location.

Another aim of the Society is to promote the interchange of radio equipment between members and a regular feature of the VMARS calendar year are the Society auction sales of vintage and military equipment, which provide a very good opportunity for members to purchase items for their collections at very reasonable cost. We also hold occasional bring and buy sales for members. Details of all these events are published in our monthly News Sheet, along with member’s equipment and spares sales, news and photographs of events and personalities in the Society and articles of general interest. VMARS publishes a first class quarterly A4, 40 page technical journal called SIGNAL which is full of interesting articles. To see extracts from these publications, click here.

All licenced radio amateurs are most welcome to join our regular Saturday amplitude modulation nets on 3615 KHz beginning at 08:30hrs local time. This is a controlled net which sometimes has up to 20 plus vintage and military equipment stations taking part in order to exchange reports and equipment details. SWL’s are invited to send reports. A list of nets and frequencies regularly used by VMARS members in the UK is shown below.

3615 KHz          Saturday AM net 08:30 – 10:30

3615 KHz          Wednesday USB net for military equipment 20:00 – 21:00

3615 KHz          Friday LSB net 19:30 – 20:30

3615 KHz          Regular informal AM net from around 07:30 – 08:30 and throughout the day

3577 KHz          Regular Sunday CW net 09:00

5317 KHz          Regular AM QSO’s, NoV required

7073 KHz          Wednesday LSB 13:30 VMARS Collins 618T special interest group

7143 KHz          VMARS AM operating frequency

51.700 MHz       VMARS FM operating frequency, also used at rallies and events

70.425 MHz       VMARS FM operating frequency, also used at rallies and events

VMARS membership details can be found on our website