General guidance on sending news and features

**Tips for sending material to RadCom and GB2RS**

Here are some simple tips if you’re planning to send us some information for publication. Please note that you should only send original material to us, which has not been previously published, and is not on offer to any other publication or media outlet.

Please only send editable information (eg a Word document, or an unlocked PDF – not a scan of a printout!)

Deadlines

Deadlines for the next two editions of RadCom are listed in the red box at the start of the Around Your Region section. We also maintain a longer list here. If there is a discrepancy between dates then we will normally honour the later of the two (unless there’s an obvious mistake such as us listing the wrong month in RadCom, which has occasionally happened).

The deadline for GB2RS is 10am on the Thursday before the Sunday broadcast.

Around Your Region reports

We accept Around Your Region reports from any RSGB Affiliated Club (we do normally check this).

Please send everything to radcom@rsgb.org.uk and please don’t cc or bcc it to any other RadCom-related address. Ironically, sending material to more than one address actually increases the chances of it getting missed.

Please keep your report short – no more than about 200-250 words. We do welcome longer submissions: see ‘Event reports’ and ‘Feature articles’ below.

Any photos must be high resolution, in focus, adequately lit and sent to us as an email attachment, NOT embedded in a document or the email. We prefer ‘action’ images rather than rows of people clutching exam certificates. There is more info on taking photos for publication below, including very important notes on copyright and photos of young people.

Club Calendar information

We accept Club Calendar information from any RSGB Affiliated Club. Again, we do normally check affiliation.

Please send information as early as possible – even a year in advance is fine – and include your club name (FULL club name, not just the initials), RSGB Region number, the club contact’s name, callsign & phone number (and/or email address), then the date and details of your meetings. Please keep the format as simple as possible. An ideal submission is something like this:

Fraser Road Radio Club
Region 9
Contact: Steve, M1ACB, 01234 832 700, steve.thomas@rsgb.org.uk

October 2018 programme
1 talk on disposing of batteries in a responsible manner, Clive Smith, Bedford Council Environmental Department
15 club net on 145.550MHz from 8pm (please specify if it’s a club net or open net)
29 talk on Meerkat Farming by Phil, G9ABC

November 2018 programme
12 club net on 145.550MHz from 8pm
26 practical session on radio cabinet refurbishment

and so on.

If you need to change information you’ve already sent us, PLEASE (a) tell us it’s a change and (b) only send us the change details (or at least highlight the changes – some clubs make us spend ages playing ‘spot the difference’ on long lists of events).

Please note that we unfortunately cannot accept entries along the lines of ‘we meet every Tuesday’ – our system requires firm dates. We are working on a new database system that will overcome this, however (as of August 2018) it has not been completed.

Information for GB2RS

We accept information for GB2RS from all sources, whether or not they are affiliated with the RSGB.

We use the same database for GB2RS as we do for RadCom Club Calendar, so there’s no need to send things twice. We prefer to receive information as far in advance as possible.

Anything that misses the RadCom deadline but still arrives before the relevant Thursday 10am cutoff will normally go into the appropriate GB2RS script.

Please note that, as with RadCom, we unfortunately cannot accept entries along the lines of ‘we meet every Tuesday’ – our system requires firm dates.

Event reports

(Field Days, Something-On-The-Air days, Special Event Stations etc)

We often run features that cover what clubs (and sometimes individuals) have been doing, for example a two-page photo-led article on Mills on the Air.

If you’ve taken part in this sort of event, please send us a report of 500 words or so along with one or two (or more!) photos to radcom@rsgb.org.uk – if we’re running such a feature we’ll almost certainly include it. If we’re not running a feature we’ll probably put a shortened version in Around Your Region.

Any photos must be high resolution, in focus, adequately lit and sent to us as an email attachment, NOT embedded in a document or the email. We prefer ‘action’ images rather than rows of people clutching exam certificates.There is more info on taking photos for publication below, including very important notes on copyright and on photos of young people.

Feature articles

If you want to publish or suggest a longer feature, contact us first via email to radcom@rsgb.org.uk – we’re always on the lookout for interesting material so the door is wide open. We’ll want to discuss what you’d like to write, how long it will be, what sort of images you’ll use and so on.

We normally sub-edit everything we receive. Please don’t try to format your work to look like a RadCom page: we take care of all the formatting in our professional DTP software and actually have to strip off any special formatting. It’s worth knowing that this includes basics like bullet points and numbered lists – they simply do not transfer across, so please use them sparingly.

We normally send authors a typeset draft of their article before publication so they can check for errors or make any other comments. (We don’t do this for ‘Something-On-The-Air’ or Around Your Region entries).

Technical articles

We have a page about sending technical articles here – this contains information about technical vetting and so on.

Important – photos and other images

By sending a photograph or other image to us for publication you warrant that the image was taken or made by you, or you have the copyright owner’s express permission to use the image in RadCom and derivative works.

If a photograph includes identifiable young people (ie anyone under 18) then you must have their parent or other legal guardian’s permission to send the photograph for publication.

Note that, with very few exceptions, images downloaded off the internet are NOT acceptable for publication. Just because something is on the internet does NOT mean that it’s copyright-free. Breaching someone else’s copyright can have serious consequences.

File formats

We prefer to receive text entries for Around Your Region as plain text in an email. Longer entries and features can be a Word document, OpenOffice or equivalent. As mentioned earlier, please don’t try to format your work to look like a RadCom page.

Photos can be .JPG, ideally with minimal compression (=big file size). All photos should be sent as attachments (NEVER embedded in either the email or a document), at high resolution, uncropped, unedited, and with no overprinting – straight off the camera is best. Please send the highest available resolution – an absolute minimum of 1000 pixels wide. Although lower res images might look OK on screen or even on a home printer, the publication process places great demands on original images.

Special measures are necessary for screendumps and other ‘line art’, which get ruined by the .JPG compression algorithm. Please see here for more information.

Members’ Ads

All the information on sending a Members Ad is on this page.

Finally

Thanks for taking the time to read this. We care about ensuring RadCom contains the widest range of subjects and best possible images, and we can’t do it without your help.