wythall radio club

Hot on the heels of Wythall Radio Club’s appearance in Practical Wireless magazine, the club is now featuring in the RSGB’s monthly magazine RadCom.

The January 2014 issue is being delivered to all RSGB members this week and features Wythall Radio Club on pages 68 & 69 under the title “Amateur Radio at its Very Best”. The article is about our activation of G100RSGB and the visit to the station of Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid Javid MP.

As well as featuring in the main G100RSGB article, our group of female operators also makes an appearance on page 84 in the West Midlands Regional News section of RadCom. They are pictured in somewhat frivolous mood, in keeping with our club motto of “having fun with RF”!

Our thanks to RadCom’s editor Elaine Richards G4LFM  for reminding us of some of the great bits of the fun time we had with the G100RSGB callsign.

Following Wythall Radio Club’s highly successful activation of the G100RSGB callsign on 31st October & 1st November, it is good to see the club getting some national publicity for its work.

Practical Wireless magazine is a long standing Amateur Radio publication in the UK and they have picked up on one of the many stories that made the news for the Club at that time.

Click on the article (above right) in this post to see a larger version of the news item that appears in PW’s January 2014 edition, available now. We think there may be a few extra copies sold in the Wythall area this month!

With so much going on at Wythall Radio Club just at the moment, it almost escaped notice that eight intrepid members travelled down the M40 last Saturday to represent the West Midlands at the famous Martin Lynch Hog Roast.

Arriving around 0900 (just in time for bacon sandwiches!) were Chairman Mike G4VPD, Secretary Anita M6DUO & Treasurer Ian M0IDR – also along for the ride were Committee Members Phil 2E0WTH, Jim 2E0BLP & Pete M5DUO. Ordinary members Dave G3YXM & Chris G7DDN completed the party.

A great time was had by all, but then since a picture tells a thousand words, just click on the pics below and you will see for yourself. No explanations necessary!

The question is, will Martin and his staff want to see the rabble again next year?

David G7IBO (left) with Juliet M6RSC (right) at a club construction evening with Barry M0DGQ acting as registrar! “With this soldering iron, I thee wed…”

Now it is not often that you will see a posting like this one at Wythall Radio Club! Yes, two of our members are “getting spliced” this week.

David G7IBO and his partner Juliet M6RSC have decided to tie the knot and they are doing so tomorrow (Friday 6th December).

As it is, how shall we say, maybe not the first time around, the event will be a small affair with just close family and friends attending.  But nonetheless that doesn’t mean that their fellow members will not be celebrating with a drink or two tomorrow night either!

The members of Wythall Radio Club wish all the very best wishes for the happiest of futures to David and Juliet as they continue to build their lives together.

With many readers all around the world, the Wythall Radio Club website is becoming very popular. We get many requests asking if there is a way you can be kept informed about our news feeds.

You can be kept in touch via the orange RSS “Subscribe” button up on the top right of our home page, but our resident “webmeister” Callum M0MCX has now implemented a rather “cool” email alert system for you.

Just go to our home page and look at the top left for the “Subscribe to new Posts” section.  Leave us your email and you will get an automatic reminder whenever a new news item appears on this website.

Like all the best ideas, simple but effective! Why not do it now?

Wythall Radio Club is extremely sad to announce the untimely passing of one of our members. Colin Truran M0GJM died yesterday morning, it was announced today.

Colin was a man who was much loved by all in the club, starting out as a Foundation License holder, later rising to attain his Advanced license and eventually become Secretary of the Club.

A former employee of Birmingham Airport, Colin loved his radio, especially the club fox hunts. He was just 64 years of age.  All the members of Wythall Radio Club send their condolences and best wishes to his widow Jill and his children.

A fuller appreciation of Colin’s life and contribution to the club will appear on this website later.

You could be forgiven for thinking that certain members of Wythall Radio Club are only interested in food! What with curry nights, party nights and barbecues, we certainly know how to enjoy ourselves!

However, this Saturday 30th November, it is not our turn to host but to be the visitors – it is time for our annual trip to Chertsey to visit our friendly Ham Radio dealer Martin Lynch and his family and staff.

Every year he puts on a Bacon sandwich breakfast and a Hog Roast lunch for any radio enthusiasts who wish to visit his shop in Surrey. Last year we had a fantastic time, enjoying the company of friends old and new as well as inadvertently purchasing too much radio equipment! Oops…

This Saturday we will be winging our way down the M40 again and looking forward to seeing the folk we have got to know better over the year – and it is still a banker that several members will be returning with something heavy in the car boot!

One of the slightly better things about the dark evenings here in the UK is that indoor activities take more of a centre stage. That is certainly the case this week at Wythall Radio Club, as our meeting on Tuesday sees us re-living some of the lighter nights and warmer days by taking a look back at our Field activities this year. 

Paul 2E0ULC has been putting together some videos from his camcorder, which was running most of the time during VHF and HF SSB Field Days and this is the week that Wythall Radio Club Members will gather to watch the fruit of his labour!

Visitors are of course very welcome – the meeting starts at 2030 in the Club shack at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ.

Perhaps we will see you there?

It may even have escaped the more eagle-eyed members of Wythall Radio Club that this year has seen the release of a new Amateur Radio Band here in the UK.

472 kHz has been granted to us after quite a few years of experimentation under a Notice of Variation to the licence on 501 kHz.  472 kHz is at the bottom end of the old Medium Wave band and probably constitutes new territory for many amateurs, not just “Wythallians”. 

To help unravel the mystery of MF operation, RadCom columnist and low bands expert (and Wythall Radio Club member, we should add!) Dave G3YXM is giving a presentation this coming Tuesday at the Club. He will be opening up the mysteries of this band and explaining just how we can get active on it.

Strangely this talk coincides with an article in the just-released December RadCom magazine where Mike G3XDV writes about the very same topic. They must have been watching our club calendar to time their articles to fit in with us!

So why not pop along on Tuesday 19th November at 2030 to the Club Shack, Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall. B47 6LZ? Visitors as always are very welcome.

Now that Wythall Radio Club members are beginning to “wake up” again after the efforts of putting on G100RSGB(!), here is a gallery of a few photos from our activation of the event.

Feel free to browse and click for full size pictures – captions will give you a little more information about each one.

We are hoping to post a video of our two days of operation soon too, so keep checking this site for more information!