RADIO enthusiasts may be hearing a very special calling sign across the airwaves this month as the Chippenham and Amateur Radio Club is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

To mark the occasion the club, which was founded in 1966, has been given the special calling sign of GB5CRC and hopes to try and speak with as many people as possible both locally and worldwide.

Currently made up of more than 30 members, the club was previously based at Chippenham Boys’ High School before moving to the Chippenham Sea Cadets site TS Tiger in 1981, where it remains and meets every Tuesday evening.

The club uses a 60ft radio tower, which was built in 1990, to transmit around the world.

Jon Wheeler, a member of the club, said: “I was originally a member in the 1980s but dropped out and moved away but I came back in 2009 when the club was offering training courses and my son, Matthew, who was nine at the time he passed the foundation course and that rekindled my interest.

“We speak to individuals and clubs around the world and we have people who say out of the blue from Cyprus or other places that they did their national service in Chippenham.

“We’ve spoken to places like the Falklands and during the Yugoslavia conflict amateur radio was one of the few means of communicating. Amateur radio is not a dying breed but with today’s technology communication it’s maybe less attractive to youngsters.”