wythall radio club

Following the success of our recent talk on “Getting Started in D-STAR”, where close on 40 people turned up, Wythall Radio Club is now pleased to announce a “Hands-on” Workshop day.

On Saturday 15th November, Chris G7DDN will be in the club rooms, taking members (and visitors) through the steps of programming for D-STAR and how to get the best from the D-STAR ecosystem.

There will be plenty of opportunities for Questions and Answers and with Wythall House bar open across lunchtime, there should even be some drinks and snacks available.

The day will start at 1100 and go on till about 1400 or 1500, or whenever people have had enough. Our friends at Icom UK have also promised to send some giveaway goodies to make the day go well.

If you are interested in taking part, please register for the day with Chris G7DDN who is at g7ddn@g7ddn.com and remember to bring your radio if you have one – we already have around 15 delegates booked in and there may have to be a limit!

Is it really that time of year already? When the members of Wythall Radio Club start getting into gear for one of their favourite events of the year? Well, yes it is!

Can we get a higher placing than 3rd place this year?

The RSGB’s annual Club Calls Contest is almost upon us again. It takes place next Saturday evening and requires as many members as we can persuade to get out a signal on 160m.

Wythall Radio Club have finished 3rd for the last two years in this event, but not too many points behind the winners. So maybe this year…?

This Tuesday evening’s meeting at the club will be hosted by Dave G3YXM, our resident 160m expert and veteran of this contest. He will be taking us through the rules of the contest and what our strategy will be to try to get higher in the placings this year.

Should be an inspiring evening, so feel free to pop along to Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ anytime from 1945 on Tuesday – we will start the meeting around 2030 down in the shack.

Perhaps we will see you there?

Marshalling means you don’t get the best view, but at least you get a view!

It doesn’t take much to enthuse the members of Wythall Radio Club when it comes to “having fun with RF”.

Our hosts and landlords at Wythall Community Association put on an annual Bonfire and Fireworks display at Wythall Park and each year the call goes out for volunteers to help with marshalling the thousands of people who come to enjoy an evenings out with their families. Well…  …any excuse to get the handheld radios out and play with RF at the same time as helping out in the community!

It’s not the first time the members of Wythall Radio Club have been doing that this year – regular readers of this website will recall the fun we had in the Summer assisting with communications on the Wythall Fun Run.

The weather may not have been as warm or bright, but much fun was had with RF and AF last night. So it’s a big thanks to the 9 members who turned up to help out. The evening finished with a few drinkies in the shack, so we did get warm in the end…

The results for the 2014 RSGB SSB Field Day contest are now out and it’s a big improvement for Wythall Radio Club.

Lee G0MTN hard at work at this year’s SSB Field Day

In the restricted section, we came in a very creditable 4th place out of 28 stations across the UK.

Our intrepid operating team of Callum M0MCX, Tom M0RMY and Lee G0MTN put in a sterling performance across the weekend in early September. They were ably assisted by many others from the club, including Phil 2E0WTH, Kevin 2E0NCO.

We hope to improve on these results next year as we have plans to keep the station operating through the night, something logistics sadly prevented this year.

Check out the full results at the RSGB Contest website here.

The latest edition of the Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is now available.

Just click on the newsletter sidebar on the left of any page on this website and it should download to your desktop!

Enjoy!

This Tuesday, the thoughts of Wythall Radio Club members are turning Digital! That’s because this week, our guest speaker will be taking the lid off one of the Amateur Digital modes, D-STAR.

D-STAR has been around for over 10 years now and is very popular with many hams, but more especially in Japan and the USA. It doesn’t help that it can seem like a complex world in which to get involved. 

So this Tuesday, in the newly refurbished club shack, club member Chris G7DDN will be attempting to encourage those who haven’t yet had a go with this aspect of Amateur Radio to get their feet wet and try it out!

Visitors are welcome as always. The talk starts at 2030 at Wythall House, Silver Street Wythall. B47 6LZ. See you there!

The shack at Wythall Radio Club is looking very different this evening!

Thanks to a team led by Kevin 2E0NCO, the whole of the club interior is a whole lot more tidy and fresh.

It has been a few years since the whole shack had a refurb and while not everything is yet complete, the pictures tell their own story.

Thanks Kevin for your hard work – we all appreciate it.

It’s been another great year for Wythall Radio Club. Just browsing through the posts on this website shows how busy members have been with all kinds of different projects.

As we prepare for our Annual General Meeting this evening. how good it is then, to see Wythall Radio Club appearing once more as one of the featured Amateur Radio Clubs in the latest edition of the 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 all around the world will read of the Club’s most recent achievements. Tonight we will hear about those once again, as well as looking towards another new year with newly elected Officers and a new Committee.

Visit the RSGB website to get more information about the yearbook and maybe even order your copy! And if you want to come along this evening, be in the Board Room at Wythall House before 2000!

Some of the members of Wythall Radio Club have literally been watching paint dry today!

A small team, headed up by Kevin 2E0NCO, ably supported by Chairman Mike G4VPD, Phil 2E0WTH, Ian M0IDR (have I missed anyone out lads?) have been hard at work on the mammoth task of painting the club rooms!

Starting with the upper staircase and walls and floor, they have been working their way slowly into the teaching room.  And by the evidence of these photos, they have been doing rather well too! Click the thumbnails for a closer view.

At this rate, we will have a really welcoming environment to meet and train in and it will also match our brand new antenna systems too! Nice work lads!

Wythall Radio Club are pleased to announce that we will be holding not one, but two Foundation License Courses starting in January next year!

One will be a traditional course at the club – this will take place on Monday evenings from 8pm onwards, beginning on 26^th January 2015 – it will last for 6 weeks with the exam on Monday 2nd March.

Simultaneously, for those who cannot make it along to a classroom course and are looking for home study, we will be running one of our innovative online Foundation courses culminating in the same examination, again on Monday 2nd March.

Further information on both courses is available by clicking here.

If you are interested in either course, just drop an email to our Training Coordinator Chris G0EYO – he doesn’t bite!

Contact him at g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk and good luck with your studies!