The club has its origins back in 1921 when on 10th February that year the first meeting of The Lincoln & District Wireless Society (the forerunner of the LSWC) took place at Spread Eagle Hotel – now the site of the Waterside Shopping Centre on Lincoln High Street. Although initially the principal interest of many of the members was the reception of broadcast for entertainment purposes, there was a nucleus within the Society whose main interest was in the development and operation of transmitters and receivers for communication.
All amateur transmitting was banned throughout the duration of WWII but it is on record that Lincoln was selected by The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) as a venue for a number of meetings as a direct result of the large numbers of RSGB members serving in HM Forces around the City. Furthermore, several members of the Lincoln Club were able to use their radio communication skills gained during their service in the armed forces throughout the war. After the war radio licenses were once again restored and there were many newcomers to the hobby as a result of experience gained by service personnel during the war and the availability of much government surplus electronic and communications equipment, which provided a relatively cheap means of setting up an amateur radio station.
A notice appeared in the Lincolnshire Echo inviting any person interested in reforming the LSWC to attend a meeting at the Lincoln YMCA on September 1st 1948. Some 30 people attended and the club got off to a good post war start with an offer of accommodation for further meetings at the Lincoln Technical College. Throughout the 1950’s the club was very active providing a series of informative lectures, demonstrations and visits, as well as entering contests and organizing the annual Lincoln HAMFEST amateur radio rally, now held on the Newark Showground usually in September. In 2006 commercial development forced the club to relocate outside the Lincoln City boundary for the first time since being founded.
Today the club has a similar program of events and activities which now includes the training of people wishing to become licensed amateurs and also organising events aimed at raising money for charity. The club has also established a Radio Room at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, East Kirkby near to the market town of Spilsby, which was opened by the actor, Richard Todd OBE in August 2005. The Radio Room was the culmination of an idea following a LSWC Special Event Station at East Kirkby in August 2001 when the call sign GB2CWP was inaugurated. Other Special Event Stations were operated at the Centre on a temporary basis each year using GB2CWP, until it was agreed in 2004, by kind permission of Fred and Harold Panton, the owners of the site, that a permanent station, operated by members of the LSWC and co-located with a ‘WWII Radio Museum’ would provide a focus for the important role communications played in the war whilst at the same time providing a fitting tribute to their brother Christopher Whitton Panton (hence the call GB2CWP) and his fellow airmen who lost their lives in the conflict.
Since the mid 1980s the Lincoln Repeaters with units for VHF, UHF and amateur TV have been maintained and operated from the central tower of Lincoln Cathedral by members of the LSWC.
