A recent video on the Waters & Stanton YouTube channel featured the role of Amateur Radio in telling the world about the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas if you were cheering on Argentina at the time – we’re not taking sides here HI!)
The video tells the story of Laurie G3UML, an Amateur working for the BBC in London, who had a contact with Bob McLeod (VP8LP, according to qrz.com), in which he learned that an Argentinian warship had turned up unexpectedly. The rest of the world, including the British Foreign Office were caught off guard by this, and initially relied on information from Bob relayed via Laurie.
The video includes links to an interview with Laurie, with audio of the actual HF contacts from the islands.
Previously classified information about the war was released ten years ago, under the “30 year rule”, and this BBC new item features Laurie retelling the story of the early days of the invasion.
So, what does all this have to do with our club? It turns out that Laurie has been a visitor to MWRS, when he was visiting family in Sydney, and operated from the shack of club member, Patrick VK2PN in 2016 (as VK2UML).
Just another of numerous club connections to significant moments in (Amateur Radio) history.
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