Club Diary

• Tuesday 5 Sep Committe Meeting
• Tuesday 3 Oct Annual General Meeting
  
• Tuesday 7 Nov Commitee Meeting
• Tuesday 5 Dec Committee Meeting
• Friday 15 Dec Christmas Party

Events Diary

• 22 / 23 Sept Leicester Show
• 13 / 15 Oct RSGB HF Convention
• 12 Nov MARS Stockland Rally

Contest Diary

• 1 Oct 21/28 MHz SSB
• 7 Oct EU Sprint SSB
• 14 Oct EU Sprint CW
• 15 Oct 21/28 MHz CW
• 7 / 8 Oct 432 MHz - 248 GHz IARU
• 16 / 31 Oct 432 MHz Cumulatives
• 15 Nov 432 MHz Cumulatives
• 1 / 16 Dec 432 MHz Cumulatives
• 21 / 22 Oct Worked All Germany
• 22 Oct 50 MHz
• 28 / 29 Oct CQ WW DX SSB Contest
• 4 / 5 Nov 144 MHz Marconi
• 11 Nov Club Calls
• 3 Dec 144 Mhz AFS

Summer Foxhunt

After a keen response for the Christmas foxhunt, a summer foxhunt on a Tuesday evening had been proposed, and on Tuesday 20th june our teams met prepared for battle.

Our valiant players were: Lee G0MTN and Ben, Chris G0EYO and David G0ICJ, Vaughan and family and Chris G6KMQ, Pete M0COP and Jason, with a brief appearance by Pete G1DUO/M. The playing area was the same as usual - being the bottom half of the OS map for Birmingham - centred on Wythall.

Pete and Jason were the first fox and were found by Vaughan after about an hour. Vaughan then found a very good hiding place - nobody could find his Discovery. Certainly Ben and I got extremely close but couldn't go the final 500m in the right direction - curse these country lanes. It was possible to get very close by triangulation, but then our navigation skills seemed to let us down. "They are around here somewhere but I can't find the road to take me to them" seemed to be a common sentiment.

Eventually we lost the light and had to return back to Wythall. The next round of foxhunts will probably be after Christmas - please let me know of any suggestions for rules changes etc.

MW0COP/P in 2m Contest

I went to LLanbedr on the west coast of Wales to do some walking in the Rhinog mountains on 28-30/8/00, and as the 2nd 2m cumulative contest was on the 29th. I took my FT 290, amp, a 5 ele compact beam and a 4m mast and worked portable from IO72WU, south-east of Harlech, overlooking the sea.

The qso's were scarce but the view and the sunset were great. Just 7 qso's were made, 2 from the south-west with 59 reports, 1 each from Northern Ireland and Eire again with good reports, 1 from Blackburn, 1 from north Wales, and with a great effort, 1 from Andy, G4PIQ near Colchester, the only easterly qso. I think the 2000+feet mountains must have had some effect.

I packed up after an hour and a half as 30 minutes of calling "cq" without a reply into a very dark night had taken its toll on my throat. So I retired to the Victoria Hotel in LLanbedr for a welcome pint (or two) of Robinsons to end an interesting day.

G0EYO Wins his Planning Appeal

Following a complaint from my next door neighbour to Bromsgrove Council about the VHF/UHF beams sited on the corner of my house, I decided to apply for planning permission for a mast at the bottom of my garden. Thus was started a saga that was to last 18months; result in two planning refusals and a successful appeal to the Planning Inspectorate; cost me £120 in fees plus three days off work. Not to mention a lot of heart-ache and, at one point, seriously thinking about giving up the hobby.

I have been a radio amateur at this location for about 14 years. Like most of us I made do with unauthorised antennas mounted on the rear or side of the property and with a 26ft pole down the bottom of the garden supporting one end of a wire antenna. For all of those years I only ever had one comment about TVI and none about the visual impact. Then the husband of one of my neighbour dies and the suppressed feelings of his widow about my 14 years of operation come to the surface. As you all know I am an easy going sort of guy who likes to get on with everyone so I played it by the book, no confrontations, no histrionics. I thought I would test my democratic rights and apply for planning permission for a modest 14.5m mast to support a couple of VHF/UHF beams and a compact HF tri-bander. I followed the guidance given in the RSGB booklet on planning plus an excellent RADCOM article from September 1996. ( I also had the experience of gaining planning permission for the clubs mast in the late 1980's). I also sent plans to my other neighbours in the hope that they would not object to the application.

Four months later I get my first refusal on the grounds of impact on visual amenity adjacent to Green Belt. I then rang up the planning officer and got him to come around and give me his advice as to what would be acceptable. I scaled my proposal down from a 14.5m Strumech to an 8m Tennamast which only had a 90mm square section tube supporting a 50mm diameter pole. Wait another four months and yet another refusal. This was a shock. I was then advised to visit the Council offices and view my file. (For some obscure bureaucratic reason the Council will not send you copies of your file). This made depressing reading. One of my other neighbours to whom I had sent details of my first application had written a long letter of reasons why the Council should not give planning permission to my first application. I had no knowledge of this, they never said a word to me. The original complaining neighbour also wrote in as I expected. They repeated their objections to my second application. I was also shocked to find that the planning officer whose advice I had followed also recommended refusal. This was my lowest point. I felt like giving up and for several months did nothing.

It was reading the Council's bumpf that came out with council tax notices that stirred me to action. Buried in the 'how great we are in serving your needs' was a sentence that said that they lost 30% of their planning refusals on appeal. Why not?, it was free so I decided to see it out to the bitter end.

You have up to six months following refusal to make your appeal. After three months I made my submission. You have the choice of a written submission or a public meeting. I chose written submission as it was the norm although I have been told subsequently that asking for a public meeting is so much trouble to everyone that the Council often give in at this stage. Your written submissions and the Councils are circulated to the other party as well as the Inspector. Neighbours who have objected are also advised of the process.

Choosing the grounds for my appeal was clearly going to be important. Through a friend I discovered a Planning and Policy Guidance Document issued by the Dept of the Environment concerning planned development for telecommunication structures (cellphones etc). Basically they allow development of up to 15m without the need for planning permission. In this wordy document there is one sentence devoted to amateur radio which basically means that planning authorities have to have a very good reason for refusing amateur radio masts. I decided to show that I had been very reasonable in my requests, that I had had prior use for many years without any problems and that the council had not taken the PPG document into account.

Eventually a site inspection was made. Everything was very formal. The planning inspector introduced himself to me as the appellant and the planning officer as the plaintiff. You are only supposed to answer his questions rather than bombard him with your views as how unfair the whole process was. He wanted to know what was staying, what was to be installed and what was to go on it. He had viewed the point of development from the road and from the private land to the rear. He also viewed it from my neighbours garden and upper bedroom. I felt he was sympathetic to my appeal but of course he gave nothing away. The discussion with the neighbour showed that he had not visited the council to see any of the proposal plans and had raised his objections solely on my first proposal. His objection to my second proposal was in effect irrelevant because he had no knowledge of what he was objecting to. This was not lost on the inspector. Well in the end the Inspector issued is judgement and that was that my appeal was allowed and that the proposal was a reasonable one.

I have had lots of advice, nearly all of it too late to be of any help but with hindsight what would I do next time. Here are my tips if you want to put up a mast:

• Try and make sure that your neighbours will not raise any objection
  Just build it anyway because after either two or four years without complaint they cannot make you take it down.
  
  
• Apply for permission just for the mast as that is the permanent development, say that the antennas will be temporary and will vary considerably. Show them a Cushcraft catalogue!
  
  
• If you get a refusal go and read your file and make notes of who said what and when.
  
  
• Be reasonable, very few urban gardens will get permission for a 100ft heavy duty Strumech.

Anyway I have five years to build this mast, I am in no hurry, like a good wine I think I will take my time and savour the thought that the longer I leave it the more of a shock it will be for my neighbours who think they have probably won!. Probably won't be an 8m Tennamast anyway!

Chris G0EYO

Wythall Radio Club Summer Quiz

Following the success of the quiz format at the Christmas Party last year we staged another on Friday 14th July as a summer event instead of skittles. Teams attended from South Derbyshire, South Birmingham, and three smaller others were linked to our own club. The quiz was put together by Myself and Darren G7HOC with valuable support and help both before and during the quiz from Tracey and Carol (thanks girls!). Dougie Munro provided the loan of a PA system for which we are extremely grateful, it really helped the club out.

The evening in hindsight was something of a disappointment for those of us who planned quite a lot and staged the event. This was due to the low attendance from our own ranks at Wythall which failed to match the promised numbers we had been led to believe would be there - future events will have to be by rsvp to alleviate this happening again we think. The room was half empty which took something away from the event for us as some of the teams bought as many with them as we had Wythall members present, but with some hard fought competition amongst the teams a fun evening was had by all - those who did not attend, or were unable...you missed a great night.

To those who attended, thank you indeed, we hope you`ll attend other events in the future.

On a final note we held a raffle on the evening and raised a small amount which was donated to a childrens charity on behalf of the team (and all there) who won the quiz - well done Vic M0AEJ & co!

Les COK

Has it really been 10 years?

In September 1990
We travelled up to Brum
We left behind our childhood
Our lives our friends our mums
But we settled down in no time
And the wireless helped a lot
But people sounded different
Than they did back home in splott

Now our neighbour is a radio ham
And he took me down to MARS
And I met some lovely people there
But they didn't have bar.
Then one night I heard some lads
They were chatting on S8
They were KEA and TVR
And I listened in 'till late.

Then a few days on I listened 'round
And I heard these guys again
I just popped in to say hello
But instead I found two friends.
Now a few nights on the S8 net
I knew I'd found a home
And for the first time in the Midlands
I never felt alone.

Then KEA and TVR and G8OBV
Said "Come along to Wythall Club
It's the best around. You'll see"
I left it for a little while
But the rest is history.
Now ten years on it's time to leave
And head back home to Wales
But I'll tell you all about our news
Through my poetic tales.

Now we're going to miss our little club
Although we'll not lose touch
We'll keep in touch through e-mail
If the wireless proves too much.
We'll still come up for NFD
And rallies and the like
But coming up for Tuesday nights
Is a bit too long a hike.

So now it's time to say goodbye
Or is it au revoir
We're only down in Cardiff
It's two hours away by car
And the only thing that left to say
Is thank you from Carol and me
To us your not just a radio club
You're more like family.

De G(W)7 HOC