The Drowned Rats are a group of radio amateurs loosely based in the Home Counties / North West of London though we have members in Devon, East Midlands and the Wirral! We are firstly a contest group and secondly a learning and activities group. We believe that there is no better way to learn about the world of amateur radio than to engage in competitive activity with like minded people across the UK and around the globe.

The Rats do contests, because it’s fun and they enjoy it, and are keen on spreading the word introducing others to the world of contesting. If you’re a seasoned ham looking to re-engage in the hobby, or maybe you’re a new M7 looking to learn and have fun then we are the right place to start. Jump over to our Joining or Contact  pages and we look forward to hearing from you.

What we do

We mainly work on the VHF, UHF and SHF bands, but we also participate in the RSGB AFS contest on top band, 80 and 40m; and are increasingly doing more HF contests.  If you have never done contesting and want to find out what it is all about The Rats can help, explaining, demonstrating, assisting with station engineering and mentoring.

If you have dabbled with contesting and now want to get more involved learning with a group is a good way to progress. We’re serious about contesting but also about having fun while we do it, the two things are not mutually exclusive! The Rats enjoy good food, wine and beer – and perhaps a post-prandial brandy or whiskey!

Where we do it

We do not operate from just one site. We have our favourite locations for certain types of contests but also travel to try new sites both locally and around the country – discovering and trying different sites is part of our enjoyment. Lately we have been contesting from an excellent site near Lydd in Kent where we have won the March VHF Championship twice and also had top 3/4 finishes in VHF NFD.

What we look like

(M0HRF/P) DRRG – NFD 2019 team. Right to left – M0ICR, G0CAG, M0MPM, M0UGA, G8FUO, G7LRQ, M1SMH, M6IXY, M0SAT