West Manchester Radio Club - Red Rose Winter Rally 2016

Today was the West Manchester Radio Club annual winter rally so I decided to go down and check it out. I'd not been to a rally in 11 years; the last one being Llandudno 2005 so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was pleasently surprised! There was a huge turnout despite the snow that had fallen overnight which possibly hampered things a little but there were lots of traders and equally lots of visitors too.

The rally was organised by West Manchester Radio Club and held at the George H Carnall Leisure Centre, Kingsway Park, Davyhulme which is near the Trafford Centre. The venue is easily accessible from junction 9 of the M60 (opposite the Trafford Centre itself) and has disabled facilities with good access as it is all on one level. There is a large free car park and a café on site which is always nice to see. Doors opened at 11am and we queued to get in too which was also nice. It sort of reassures my faith in the hobby to see so many turn out.

There was plenty of stands there such as Lamco, Total Mast Solutions, RSGB and UKFMGW along with numerous radio club stands. The sports hall was divided into two halves with the main sale area on the left, and the right half had the clubs stands, bring and buy, and UKFMGW.

I got some bargains too, the main one being a Kenwood Trio TM-411E, a Maxon SM-2450 UHF ex PMR radio (£3 working!), a Key UHF ex PMR radio with mic (£3 working!) and a nice Pye Telecom handheld in a charger which doesn't work but it looks nice in the shack for £2.

All in all a great day at the rally and really good organisation by West Manchester Radio Club.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.