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Archive for October, 2012

Club Calls Contest is Coming!

October 18, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Contest, Fun

One of the perennial favourite contests in the RSGB Contest Calendar is fast approaching.

The “Club Calls” Contest, originated by the Verulam Radio Club, has always been a fun relaxed event on 160m. Wythall Radio Club started taking part in this contest a little more seriously over the last two years.  In 2011, our club station actually managed to finish in 3rd place and won a certificate!

This year the event is on the evening of Saturday November 10th (2000-2300) and we are hoping to try to get as high as possible in the results table, but it has to be said, we do treat the event as a fun event first!

Dave G3YXM (of “Olympics” fame – see the previous post) is our lead member when it come to this event and has been entering it in one guise or another for many years. This Tuesday at our regular club meeting he is going to tell us a bit more about the history of the contest, how easy it is to enter it and what we can do to improve our standings in the results table!

As always, it will be a fun event. 2030 in the Club Shack this Tuesday 23rd October, at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ. See you there?

Wythall Radio Club Member thanked by Ofcom for helping during the Olympics

October 17, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

Dave Pick G3YXM (left) receiving the Wortley-Talbot Trophy for best technical article in RadCom from RSGB President Dave Wilson M0OBW in 2010

Wythall Radio Club member Dave Pick G3YXM has received an honourable mention from Ofcom this month.  It was for his assistance in and contribution to the success of the London 2012 Olympics. The statement from Ofcom reads “We could not have provided such a good service to our customers without (your) help”

Dave was one of the Spectrum Engineers in Ofcom’s “River Zone” team. He worked primarily at the ExCel Centre and in North Greenwich for the duration of both the Main Games and the Paralympics. He was one of 7 UK Radio Amateurs singled out for praise in the official statement made by Ofcom, which has been published in the November issue of RadCom, the Radio Society of Great Britain’s monthly journal.

Needless to say, Wythall Radio Club is also very proud of the work Dave did during the Olmypics.  Dave is well known to many via his regular LF column in the RadCom magazine, as he is also one of the UK’s foremost authorites on LF (Low Frequency) design and operation.

The Good News just keeps coming…

October 16, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

Hot off the press from our esteemed Treasurer, Ian M0IDR…

Martin Lynch and staff awaiting Wythall Radio Club’s arrival!

“The paint was hardly dry on our new Kenwood TS590S when yet more good news arrived from our friends at Martin Lynch and Sons. Wythall Radio Club has won the MLS raffle which ran for the duration of the National Hamfest! Our prize is a very generous £600 gift voucher to be spent on goodies at Martin Lynch’s shop!

Our sincere thanks go to Martin, who not only gave us an unbeatable deal on our new TS590S but has now given the Club the opportunity to add further value to the Club Station. We will enjoy spending the voucher and we are already browsing the pages of the Martin Lynch website to choose some goodies!”

Wythall Club Members visit RSGB Convention

October 15, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

Peter Hart G3SJX’s talk on HF Transceivers

The annual RSGB Convention is a weekend of lectures and demonstrations with some good Ham Socialising added in! It was good therefore to see a few members of Wythall Radio Club getting down to Milton Keynes this weekend just gone to visit this prestigious event.

Tim M0URX with Chris G7DDN

Many friendships were revisited or even made anew.  It is surprising how many faces one is able to put to callsigns at the Convention. More specifically, Chris G0EYO was seen lurking on the Saturday while Chris G7DDN and Tim M0URX were even pictured there together on the Sunday! We even had some exciting news for the Club from Martin Lynch, but more of that in a day or two.

Perhaps next year we can expect a few more visitors from the club to make the short journey to Buckinghamshire for what is a superb programme put on by our National Radio Society.

An excellent weekend!

Another new licensee!

October 11, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

Chris G0EYO congratulates Roy Friar (right)

Wythall Radio Club’s training programme continues apace. A handful of candidates continue to study the Advanced License Course every Monday evening throughout the Autumn under the tutelage of lead instructor Chris G0EYO, but meantime, we have had yet another successful Foundation License Pass!

Roy Friar is the latest in a long line of folk to pass the Foundation License at Wythall and the happy candidate is pictured here with Chris G0EYO receiving his pass slip.

Roy will be doubtless foaming at the bit to get his callsign from the Ofcom website just as soon as he can! Meantime, we hear through the grapevine that he is yet another person who we will be seeing regularly at club nights – a little bird has even mentioned that he may be interested in starting to learn Morse Code! Tuesdays at 1945 Roy!

The “Perfect Mobile Radio” from Atlas Inc.

October 10, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

This coming Tuesday, Wythall Radio Club welcomes a speaker almost “white hot” from the RSGB Convention, Mark Hill G4FPH.

Mark is a friend of the club, often helping out at our annual Radio Rally, and has visited us before, educating us about such concepts as remote operation (interestingly, this coming Sunday, the RSGB Convention gets the benefit of his knowledge on that subject!)

A nice example of an Atlas 180

On Tuesday 16th however, Mark is coming to visit us at Wythall to share his encyclopaedic knowledge of the “Perfect Mobile Radio from Atlas Inc.”

Atlas radios are part of the venerable history of Ham Radio and Mark will doubtless be showing off some fine examples and explaining what HF mobile radio was like in the early days of Solid State Transceivers. Not to be missed – Tuesday 16th October at 2030 in the Darts Room in Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ

Wythall Radio Club Morse Class resumes this week

October 07, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club

The popular Morse training class run by members of Wythall Radio Club starts again this week.

From this Tuesday, 9th October, Chris G7DDN and Barry M0DGQ will be starting a new class for the year. Both absolute beginners and “old hands” alike are welcome. We try to make learning the code as fun as possible and at all times try to ensure that you learn by sound rather than any other way.  CW is all about sound and that’s the correct way to learn it!

These classes are now into their third consecutive year and have proved very popular with students. So if you have been promising yourself a shot at learning Morse Code, why not turn up this Tuesday at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall at 1945? (see other links on this website for more information on our meeting place and how to get to it). You will be made very welcome.

Wythall Radio Club Member in SPRAT – again!

October 04, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

SPRAT (Small Powered Radio Amateur Transmitters) is the club magazine of the G-QRP Club, QRP being the amateur radio code for “low power”.  Many radio enthusiasts like to see how far their tiny QRP signals will travel, often from simple home-made transmitters, receivers and antennas.

Barry, M0DGQ, is one member of Wythall Radio Club who enjoys doing just this kind of thing and for the second time in recent months, one of his home-brew projects has appeared in the SPRAT journal. This time, it is a companion receiver to go with the transmitter he has already had featured for the 40m shortwave amateur band.

Getting an article into SPRAT is no mean feat, but then Barry is no ordinary amateur! Take a look at his homepages at m0dgq.co.uk to see what sorts of things Barry does with his hobby!

Meantime, congratulations to him for another top class article published for the world to enjoy!

Wythall Radio Club featured in RSGB Yearbook

October 03, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

It’s been a great year for Wythall Radio Club.

Just browsing through the posts on this website shows how busy members have been with all kinds of projects.

How good then, to see Wythall RC featured as one of the Amateur Radio Clubs in the 2013 RSGB Yearbook.

Since it is well known that “all publicity is good publicity”(!), it can only be a good thing that so many Radio Amateurs and enthusiasts will read of the Club’s most recent achievements.

The RSGB itself is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2013, so an even more appropriate edition of the yearbook to be featured in, we cannot think of! Visit the RSGB website to get more information and maybe even order your copy!

New Radio for the Club Shack

October 03, 2012 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

Thanks to our friends at Martin Lynch & Sons and Kenwood UK, Wythall Radio Club is now the proud owner of a top-notch transceiver in the club shack.

The Kenwood TS-590S is a very high performance radio, capable of excellent receive operation.  The old adage “If you can’t hear them, you can’t work them” is certainly true. Receive performance is often the limiting factor in amateur radio communications. No longer for G4WAC! Wythall Radio Club has taken a leap into the 21st Century with the purchase of the TS-590S with its excellent specifications.

The ceremonial “unboxing” took place in the club shack last night and it wasn’t long before members were on the amateur bands working the world via our excellent triband beam on the club tower.

Our thanks once again to the staff at Martin Lynch and Kenwood UK for their help in securing an excellent deal for the club – this radio is going to get a lot of use!