During the year of 1937 a small but dedicated group of experimenters got together to form the Slough Radio club. The newly formed club was made up of licensed amateurs, artificial aerial holders and short wave listeners. They met in the local public house The Nags Head, Windsor road or in one of their front rooms. Some of the founder members were Jim Bramhill G2BMI, Jack Paine G6PR, Ken Sly 2FU, Mr Luck, Mr Baldwin, John Gilbert 2DDG, Mr Tuckfield 2HOX, and Jim White 2DAJ, The clubs activities were brought to a sharp halt with the outbreak of war in 1939, most went off to war but amateur radio activities ceased with all transmitting equipment being confiscated. Jack and others would reform the club after the war.

Jim Bramhill moved away from Slough and it was left to Jack Paine and others to reform the Slough club after the war. Meetings were held in Jacks house in Alpha St, others who were around in the early days were Bob Holmes (G6RM) Chief engineer at McMichaels Radio, Les Coote (G3AHB), Ken Sly (G2FU) of Langley, Jim White (G3XH) of Chalvey and John Gilbert (G2DDG) of Slough. A lot of the clubs activities revolved around NFD. The early QTH for NFD was at Taplow Court, this hilltop site with a commanding view of Maidenhead saw the small band of enthusiasts come high in the scoring, 1947 10th, 1948 3rd, 1949 8th and 3rd again in 1950. However, in 1948 and 1949 they had the top scoring 'A' station, years later an early picture of the group was featured on the front of RadCom. The aerials in the early years were all design by Dud Charman, large batteries and rotary converters supplied power. HRO receivers, 10 watts only power out and horrors of horrors not a PC in sight for logging, CW was the mode used. During this time Hamfests were run, in 1948 The Slough & District Hamfest took place in The Crown Hotel on October 3rd, doors opened at 3.00pm. Again in April 1951 a Hamfest was organised this time in The George Hotel. During the period of 1947 to 1949 Mr Tuckfield G2HOX a founder member was secretary handing over to Mr R Young G3BTP in October '49. Each club member at the time could obtain a supply of QSL cards from the Slough Borough Council depicting the town, pity that is not available today. From February 1950 club nets took place on a Sunday morning starting at 11.30 am on a frequency of 1904Kc/s.

In the early sixties, club equipment was a problem. One of the group Cliff Bray who owned a tobacconist and confectionery shop in Farnham Common, offered his garage to store all the tents. The Village Hall being round the corner was then used for meetings and being close to the Beeches the clubs name was changed to the now Burnham Beeches Radio Club. During the sixties and early seventies the clubs fortunes changed a lot. All the problems we face today, from a growing membership to decline and the dedicated few carrying the club through. It is interesting to note that as today some of the most active members left only to move away from the area. All the types of meetings we have re-invented today, DX picnics, Junk sales, the Christmas do were all introduced during this period. Les G3AHB pushed the club to go in for VHF NFD, the site he choose was Christmas Common, Stockenchurch, apparently at the time you could see the M40 being built from the site! The G8s in the club supplied 70cms home brew gear, other bands used converters, Les supplied a 2Mtr rig with a 320A in the final and a Nuvistor converter feeding an HQ100 tunable IF. Apparently it was all good fun, but as noted in one of the committee meeting minutes the cost of petrol to and fro from the site was a real problem, a six channel audio mixer was constructed at one time as payment for the use of a local Bands transport. Taplow court was still used in 1980 for HF NFD but equipment had moved on and the 'A' station used a Drake TR7 and a generator for power. Although a few carried on with contesting during the eighties, interest from the new membership took the club in different directions. The real contesters split from the club to form their own group, and club involvement in contests is only now starting to re-appear.

During the sixties and seventies the club was involved as now with Jamboree on the Air. Many special event station were run and of course in 1976 a special station was put on from Windsor Castle GE3WIR in celebration of Her Royal Highness The Queens Jubilee. We were to operate from this site again to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the RSGB in 1988 using the call GB75ER. The club became affiliated to the RSGB in 1968, the year before, G3WIR was issued to the club, it was not until 1982 that G6WIR was issued, the club at that time sported more class B operators than class A ones. In the late eighties GB7WIR the clubs sponsored packet BBS took to the airwaves. The magazine 'BeechLog' was re-introduced in the early eighties, it features news and articles written by members and is published six times a year. A newsletter had been produced during the seventies but faded out, it took an old editor to rejoin the club G3PBA and suggest giving 'Beechlog' a new lease of life. It was at this time that the clubs logo was designed, this has gone from handdrawn to computer generated, our anniversary logo is the latest incarnation. However the original idea by G6CQO is still the basis of the design.

Although the clubs HQ is now the Farnham Common Village Hall, as it was when the name changed to the Burnham Beeches Radio Club in the early sixties. The club has moved around a lot, from scout huts to a site just round the corner in Slough from the Nags Head, to the Haymill Centre in Burnham Lane.

The Burnham Beeches Radio Club has had a long, but sometimes difficult past. Today we seem to be going through a similar phase we shall have to see if it will last another sixty years. One thing came across to me in researching the clubs past, those who I contacted have enjoyed the club which in the end is what its all about. This is only a small potted history of the club, you can find out more by joining us at meetings. Happy birthday Burnham Beeches Radio Club.