What Amateur Radio is NOT all about...Going nuclear!

Last month, the Radio Society of Great Britain's magazine, RadCom, contained a wanted advert from a radio amateur advertising for a 1KW HF amplifier for use in his experiments into thermonuclear fusion.

This has raised many eyebrows in the amateur community over the last few weeks, but yesterday, the Times newspaper picked up on the story, which you can see here, as well as a comment from Giles Read, Technical Editor of RadCom.

As far as I'm concerned, much of the good work that many people have done promoting the hobby of amateur radio over the years has just been undone with that advert. Readers of the Times article will be left with the feeling that radio amateurs are fiddling around on their benches trying to set off a nuclear reaction. Just marvellous!

What are the RSGB doing about it? Nothing, as far as I can see. There's no mention, no retraction, no explanation on the RSGB's website

So, just to be clear, I, for one, would wish to distance myself from such experiments as would, I imagine the vast majority of responsible radio amateurs. This is NOT what the hobby is about.

Still, perhaps we can look forward to an article in RadCom next month about 'Building a Time Machine'.