wythall radio club

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Archive for January, 2022

2E0BLP wins 2E0BLP in Christmas Contest!

January 27, 2022 By: Chris G3YHF Category: Club, Contest, Fun, News

Jim 2E0BLP won the ‘Voice of the Midlands’ 2E0BLP Trophy in the Wythall Radio Club’s Christmas Contest 2021!

The Trophy was named for Jim’s longstanding involvement in Wythall Radio Club, and until recently he often topped the 2meter/70cm section of the contest.  This time, his 96 QSOs with 30 Club members over the 7 day contest knocked Kev 2E0NCO in to second place after several years at No. 1!  Miles 2E0YZW was in third place.

In the ‘all bands and modes’ section, Don G0NES made a spectacular charge to first place.  He secured this with 75 contacts with Club members and a clean sweep of the band, operating and mode bonuses.  

Don secured the maximum 450 band bonus points by working Club members on 160m, 80m, 40m, 10m, 6m, 4m, 2, 70cm and 23cm!  The 23cm qso was achieved at the last minute with a borrowed handheld, and saw Don gradually driving closer and closer to David G7IBO’s qth to bring him in to range to secure those elusive 50 extra points!

He also gained the maximum 300 bonus points with QSOs on all modes – FM, SSB, CW, FT8, Network Radio and Digital Voice – and the maximum 100 by operating portable and mobile!

David G7IBO and Chris G0EYO came second and third.

In our ‘Top Scoring Foundation Licencee’ section, Sylwia M3SSP came first in the 2 and 70 category and Clive M7OCB in the ‘all bands and modes’ section.

Some Wythall Club members braced themselves for the cold, and operated portable and mobile.  

Clive M7OCB (photo left) and Chris G3YHF spend a chilly 40 minutes at the top of Lickey Hills using handhelds and a 3 element SOTA beam.  Lee G0MTN and Sylwia M3SSP visited the site a few days later and grabbed some QSOs (photo right).

Chris G3YHF was out ‘bicycle mobile’ around Wythall on several mornings, while other members operated /M from the comfort of their cars! 

QSOs between Club members averaged over 100 per day, with over 30 members active, demonstrating the Club’s motto of ‘having fun with RF’! 

Attention now turns to a February activity weekend and the Easter Contest in April.

 

400+ Squares Worked on 6M in 2021!

January 10, 2022 By: Chris G3YHF Category: Club, Contest, Fun, News

Over 400 squares were worked by Lee G0MTN and Mike G4VPD on 50 MHz during Wythall Radio Club’s 2021 ‘6 meters and up’ Challenge!

The map shows contacts as far apart as Japan and central America!  

Lee achieved 461 squares, just pipping Mike on 447, both making great use of FT8.

Impressive results were also achieved on the other bands.

Mike G4VPD worked 94 and 87 squares on 4 and 2 meters respectively, while Simon G4TVR achieved 18 and 12 squares on 70cms and 23 cms respectively.

Keep tuned to those higher bands during 2022 and see what can be worked!

Lots of DX in Wythall’s Annual DXCC Challenge

January 03, 2022 By: Chris G3YHF Category: Club, Contest, Fun, News

Over 100 countries worked by Wythall Radio Club’s operators in the annual DXCC Challenge 2021!

Tim M0URX came top in the ‘full licence’ section with 148 countries – all on SSB – just ahead of Chris G0EYO, Mike G4VPD and Ian M0LQY with 141, 139 1n 135 countries, all using FT8.

On the left is the map of Tim’s contacts.

So on this occasion, snappy SSB operation got the better of FT8’s weak signal advantages!

There were impressive results in the intermediate and foundation licence sections. 

Kev 2E0NCO caught 72 countries using FT8.

Meanwhile, confirmed QRP and CW op. John M6KET worked 76 countries on the key with a maximum 10 watts to a doublet.  Nice work!

Leading scores this year were lower than in 2020.  Then, the top ‘full licence’ section score was 160 and both foundation and intermediate top scores were 100 or more.  

The difference seems to be that in 2020 leading scorers were often using multiple modes, while in 2021 they stuck to one mode.

With conditions on the higher HF bands improving, lets see what the 2022 challenge can achieve!