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For the last 3 years I’ve favoured begin part of one special event station. SOS radio Week. It is one of those events that seems to bring in a few QSO’s from all round the country to support one of the countries most easily forgotten about emergency service. Unless of course, like me, you live by the sea. The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) has been running in some form or another since the year dot and its volunteers save lives at sea in all conditions. It is entirely funded by donations and the Workington club are once again putting on 3 stations and our sister club at Furness will be putting on a fourth to make up the ‘LBC’ or Lifeboat Cumbria set.

St bees is a very small village in West Cumbria and our lifeboat is thankfully not called out to often. My first close up encounter with them was a few years ago when they were called into action to rescue to young boys who had been jumping off the rocks and got into difficulty. During last years operation they were called out to rescue a fishing boat that had lost power and was drifting towards the head. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a £250k rib driven by a £350k submersible tractor down the slipway and into the water with such speed. There’s nothing particularly appealing about the Irish sea in January and I’d imagine that being under it is a tractor is even less appealing.

So this year, as with all years, we’ll be attempting to raise a bit of cash as well as awareness. the LBC group of stations have raised over £3000, approximately a third of the total raised by the whole country. This year we’ll add to that total and support our volunteers as best we can. Please keep an ear out for the stations between the 25th January to the 2nd February 2014 or have a look on the website SOSRadioWeek for all the other stations around the country. Band to be decided but this year we’ll have 2 stations, one for domestic and one for DX.

Gb1LBC – Silloth

GB2LBC – Workington

GB4LBC – St Bees

GB5LBC – Barrow

SOS Radio Week 2014 – 25th Jan to 2nd Feb