GB50RS - How GB2RS News Began
On Sunday 25 September 1955 an ambition of the amateur radio movement in the UK was fulfilled, when at 10.00 GMT the first RSGB News Bulletin was broadcast from the station of Council member Frank Hicks-Arnold, G6MB, of Walton-on-Thames in Surrey using the newly-created headquarters callsign GB2RS.
 Behind this simple statement lay two years of frustrating negotiations with the General Post Office (GPO) before the GB2RS News Service was able to start. The RSGB’s Technical Committee (TC) minutes of 30 September 1953 make what is possibly the earliest reference to the project. They record that the GPO had declined to allow the HQ station to be used for broadcasting purposes. Fred Charman, G6CJ, who had been President in 1952, pointed out that a number of national radio societies were officially authorised to broadcast news to their members. These included the ARRL (using the callsign W1AW), the SARRL and the WIA. The Secretary therefore agreed to enquire from all national societies what news broadcasting arrangements they had.
The Lead-Up
 At the TC meeting held on 19 January 1954 the Secretary was able to report that the majority of national societies were authorised to transmit news bulletins to their members. On 11 February 1954 the TC agreed that the proposed bulletins should be of about 15-minutes duration and might go out on Sundays at 11.00am local time. It was also stated that the transmissions would be made in Morse telegraphy at between 12 and 18WPM in the CW portion of the 3.5Mc/s (sic) band using a possible new callsign, GB3RS. It was agreed that the GPO should be approached accordingly.
To establish the reliability of a single transmission propagating across the UK during daytime, RSGB Secretary John Clarricoats, G6CL, askedJimmy Porter, GI3GGY, in Londonderry to carry out some test transmissions from his home in Northern Ireland on 7047.5kc/s using AM telephony. Jimmy commenced an experimental newsreading under his own callsign on 14 March 1954. This unofficial experiment explains the half-century of news reading by GI3GGY that was featured in the June 2004 edition of RadCom.
In the meantime, on 29 April 1954 an RSGB delegation met with Mr D C Balaam of the GPO to discuss their proposals. They advised him that 20 of the 24 IARU societies that they had approached confirmed that they were officially authorised to operate amateur news bulletin services. They agreed to provide Mr Balaam with a series of six ‘typical messages’.
At the TC meeting of 19 September 1954 the Secretary reported that the GPO “was not yet in a position to give a reply to the RSGB’s request for permission to operate a News Bulletin Service”. Indeed, the GPO, he said, had explained to the Society that “the proposal raised issues of rather wide import which needed careful scrutiny”. It became apparent that the GPO was concerned that such a news broadcasting service might be considered to be available to the general public which was then the exclusive prerogative of the BBC. This was duly reported to a meeting of the RSGB Council on 14 October 1954.
On 8 February 1955 the GPO’s Miss E M Perry said that they regretted they were not yet in a position to give a final decision on the matter, but they hoped to be able to do so within one month. She explained that “the views of various Empire and Foreign administrations, who permit societies to operate an amateur News Bulletin Service, had been sought”.
At a follow-up meeting in the GPO Headquarters at St Martins-le-Grand in London on 20 July 1955 Miss Perry advised the RSGB team that the GPO was now prepared to allow the Society to “broadcast news bulletins to its members”. During the same meeting it was agreed “that the broadcasts would be made on Sunday mornings on a frequency in the 3.5 to 3.8Mc/s band, and that telephony and/or telegraphy may be used”. The GPO also stated that they were prepared to consider requests from the RSGB to broadcast on a band additional to 3.5Mc/s.
The First Readers
 At the Council meeting on 16 August 1955 Frank Hicks-Arnold, G6MB, was nominated to be the main station operator, whilst Arthur Milne, G2MI, was appointed to operate from his own station in a standby capacity. The General Secretary was asked to write the weekly news scripts. It was also decided that the frequency to be employed would be 3600kc/s and that the transmission would comprise of a voice bulletin followed by a Morse telegraphy summary.
On 13 September 1955 the General Secretary reported to Council that the GPO had decided to issue the callsign GB2RS for news reading purposes rather than GB3RS and that the service could start at 11.00 BST on Sunday 25 September 1955. He further stated that the GPO was holding in reserve the callsign GB1RS, which the Society had previously used for frequency marker purposes on 3500.25kc/s, in case the RSGB wished to introduce some other special service at a later date. He explained that the callsign GB3RS would continue to be held by the RSGB’s headquarters station for use on such occasions as the RSGB required.
The 10 October 1955 meeting of Council resulted in a minute which read as follows. “The News Bulletin Service commenced at 11.00hours BST on Sunday 25 September 1955. By first post the following morning more than 50 reception reports were received at Headquarters.” One can only marvel at the efficiency of the postal service in those days! The reports were sent to G6MB for acknowledgement. It was also noted that Mr E H Hutchins of Boscombe, Hampshire, had kindly donated a special vibration-free microphone holder for use at the GB2RS station, and this is featured in the photograph above of Frank Hicks-Arnold at his operating desk. On 14 May 1956 the Secretary informed Council that the GPO had agreed to a transmission being introduced in the 7Mc/s band. This subsequently commenced on 7047.5kc/s under the GB2RS callsign from the station of Jimmy Porter, GI3GGY, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
Gordon Adams, G3LEQ
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