With this first succesful year behind them, a second year began in September, and on the first evening of the second session, former local MP and well known political figure Cyril Smith M.B.E. was invited to present the pass certificates.

After five weeks a move was made to the nearby and much larger Oulder Hill Community School, where Chris worked as a teacher, and rooms F30/31 and F29 in the science block were allocated for their useage. These rooms were adequate for the task, not to mention convenient for the school canteen, but there was a pressing need for another room which could accomodate morse teaching and other activities, and consequently, Chris was able to negotiate a fine sets of rooms in the CDT (Crafts, Design and Technology) Block.

The autumn of 1994 saw the class housed in two decent sized classrooms, with a small room available for use as a shack. This now allowed aerials to be installed permanently on the roof of the school, and for both packet and HF/VHF operation to take place. The extra rooms also meant that RAE classes could also be held, and a number of the people who had passed the first Novice course were now hard at work studying for their Class B licences. As well as the evening classes Chris also ran a school branch of the club, and this met during school lunch breaks, and after school, and introduced a good many youngsters to the delights of Amateur Radio, and helped to generate interest in scientific subjects via membership of the STELAR organisation.

As time passed and members gained their callsigns, it was apparent that the time would soon come when they had achieved their goals, and the question arose of what would happen next. Over the first several years many members had become firm friends, and no one was really keen to give up the Monday Night sessions, and somewhere along the line it became obvious that starting a club and running it alongside the classes would make a lot of sense. With many members gaining both Class A and B callsigns, and with other local amateurs coming along, the decision was taken to form a club, and so the Oulder Hill Amateur Radio Society became official. A club constitution was agreed, and affiliation to the RSGB sought, and as well as a number of courses the club now offered a weekly programme of events and operating nights.

By 1998 club membership had risen to around the 35/40 mark, and as the school were keen to redevelop the CDT Block a move was made to a new location in the Information Technology (IT) Block. Aerials were relocated, and regular operating now took place on all bands and modes. In 1999 one of the most significant developments occurred when a grant was made by the local Community Council, which allowed the club to purchase some badly needed new equipment. A Yaesu FT840 HF Transceiver and a Kenwood dual band 144/432 MHz rig now found its way into the shack. Not only has this allowed us to operate the club callsigns (GX0UQA and GX7RQL) on a more efficient basis, but has also allowed us to venture out into the community and operate a number of special event stations from various local sites, including Jamboree on the Air for a local scout group, and a very popular and now annual event from the town's "Ellenroad Steam Museum" at the old Ellenroad Mill site.

In 2002 a reorganisation of the rooms used for the various evening school courses meant another move for us, and this time it was to a new club room in the Language Lab. This is by far the best room we have had so far, and not only do we again have a room available for use as a dedicated shack, but all of the rooms are situated at ground level, and having excellent facilities for the disabled, offers easier access to all areas than our previous rooms did.

Perhaps the biggest change of all for the club came right out of the blue in September 2004. On returning from our Summer break, the club was told that due to the school's plan to become a PFI school we had two weeks to vacate the premises, needless to say that this came as a shock, and was very annoying to our members, especially considering all the work we'd done in providing a radio club for the school's pupils in the previous 12 years. Also, being told that we had to leave just as we returned from a five week break was not the best of timing, a this meant that we had to now try and find a new set of premises, not easy after most evening classes have already begun, and many other venues are already full up. This created quite a problem for us, and after removing all of our equipment we were forced to store it in the garage of one of our members. Pleased with the way we were treated we most definitely were not!

After months of fruitless searching for a new venue things looked really grim, and it was thought that if something didn't turn up soon the club would be forced to disband. Thankfully the new Rochdale City Learning Centre came to our rescue, and offered us the use of their wonderful facilities, and at a very much nicer location than our previous one at Oulder Hill. Following an EGM in early December, we were able to inform members of the new location, and plan for the future rather than say our goodbyes to them. The club then re-commenced at our new location on Wednesday 12th of January 2005. As of January 2008 we again found ourselves homeless, but thanks to our friends at the Ellenroad Steam Museum, from February 2008 we are now permanently based at the Ellenroad Steam Museum, and now have a new name of the 'Ellenroad Radio Club'.

At the 2007 AGM the club decided to broaden our scope, try to make the club more welcoming to the many radio enthusiasts who might not be interested in Amateur Radio. To this end we chose to rename the club as the "Shawclough Amateur Radio & Radio Listeners Club", and attempt to encourage more non-Amateurs into our ranks. With the majority of our members also being keen Airband, Scanning, Broadcast and Utility Dxers, this seemed like a logical step, and although we have always welcomed non-hams into our ranks, we felt that many clubs have the image (an unfair one in most cases) of not being that welcoming to them. Non-hams with an interest in any of the non-transmitting aspects of our great hobby will always be welcomed to join our friendly little group. With the change of name in February 2008 we decided to just call ourselves 'Radio Club' rather than 'Amateur Radio Club' to denote the fact that we have a broader range of interests and members than just the Amateur side of the hobby.

Full details of our programme of events and courses, and further information about these can be found elsewhere on this site. The club is very friendly and down to earth, and any potential members can be sure that they won't find themselves ingored if they feel like coming along to one of our meetings. We welcome visitors to our talks and lectures, and any amateurs visiting to area and just wanting to come along for a night are most welcome to do so, you can find out how to reach or contact us from the details in the 'Meetings' page.

Well that's the story so far, but it isn't over yet, and we'll no doubt be adding more information here as the years progress. All the above information is based on extracts taken from our club archives, and anyone wishing more detailed information can find this by contacting our club archivist (details in the 'Contacts' page). I hope that brief look at our our club came into being helps to give you some idea of how and why we came into being, and who we are.