National Mills Weekend Open Day
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Organiser: Secretary/Assistant Secretary invites the Worthing & District Amateur Radio Club.
Date: Sunday of Second Full Weekend in May
Website: SPAB National Mills Weekend
National Mills Weekend is promoted by the Mills section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and occurs annually on the second weekend of May. We open on this Sunday, which often falls on a regular open day. SPAB encourages mills that are not usually open to the public to open over this weekend and mills that charge for entry to offer free admittance. We do not offer free admittance - mostly due to this normally falling on one of our regular open days - so we do not participate in SPAB's advertising for the event.
Worthing & District Amateur Radio Club (WaDARC) are invited to the mill and they operate a special call-sign, GB0HSM, that is only used at the windmill on this day. They reach out to mills around the world and keep track of contacts on a board in the roundhouse. Each participating mill will be hosting their own local amateur radio club who will be broadcasting with their own mill-specific call-signs. The photographs shows mills, and their call-signs, that were contacted in 2014.
Apart from the presence of the radio hams, who may wish to be in attendance over both days of this weekend, and who will need early admittance so as to erect their radio mast and aerial, there is usually no special activities on this open day and no additional volunteers are required. It is helpful, if a suitable wind has been available, to ensure that we have plenty of milled flour to sell.
