wythall radio club

One Sunday in every August, the villagers of Wythall and surrounding areas come together to celebrate with a village carnival and this year, Wythall Radio Club members are somewhat more heavily involved than in the recent past.

The Fall Guys Stunt Team will be “dropping in” to the Club Stall, no doubt!

While some of the more regular hardy souls will be helping out with car parking and marshalling at the event, which takes place tomorrow, Sunday 11th August, another group of members is putting on a stall to advertise the club and its activities.

PR is a part of modern day life and based on the old adage that “all publicity is good publicity”, Wythall Radio Club will be setting up a demonstration station and “hands-on” activity stall, showing all that is good about Amateur Radio and Wythall Radio Club in particular.

So why not come and say hello? We will be set up at Wythall Park, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ from 1400, enjoying the promise of good weather, making contacts and chatting to members of the public about the great hobby of which we are privileged to be a part.

You can read more about the carnival and what is on offer here. Along with a fun dog show, a Classic Cars exhibition and the local choir performing, there is even a demonstration from a stunt team called the “Fall Guys” – should be a lot of fun!

Wythall Radio Club members have recently been celebrating a very special birthday!

Colin G6ZDQ is a founder member of the Club, dating back to 1981. This year he was celebrating his 65th birthday, and in honour of this, he threw a party at Wythall House to which all Wythall Radio Club members were invited. It was a great evening, meeting friends old and new and seeing how well (or otherwise!) a few could dance to the disco!

Chairman Mike G4VPD and Simon G4TVR, two more founder members of the Club, were also there to celebrate, so it was great to have 3 “originals” with us on what was a very happy evening, both for Colin and the Club.

The highlight was a very special birthday cake made in the shape and detail of a mobile radio. A nice touch!

All Wythall Radio Club members wish Colin all the best in his “official” retirement and much fun with RF in the future!

Thanks to everyone who turned up to put a great show on for Wythall Radio Club’s IOTA entry. We made nearly 600 contacts all over the world and generally had a good time.

Operators included James M0YOM, Lee G0MTN, Stan G4JGV, Dave G3YXM, Mark M0MSE, Rob 2E0MEX and myself, Callum M0MCX. I may have missed someone, please let me know.

I’ll do a write up for the next Wythall Radio Club newsletter. In the meantime, a picture tells a better story anyway!

Members of Wythall Radio Club have been living up to our club motto and having lots of fun with RF this weekend with our “Islands On The Air” station, M5W.

Stan G4JGV on the “Graveyard” shift!

Masterminded by Callum M0MCX, a hardy group of members has been up on Wythall Park all weekend, braving the rain to try to make as many contacts as they can, while remaining as dry as possible!

Stan G4JGV was reportedly on air all night on SSB and CW, whilst Rob 2E0MEX, Mark M0MSE, Dave G3YXM and of course, Callum M0MCX and others took turns on the microphone. James M0YOM and Lee G0MTN also helped out and gave some of the overnighters a little rest! Other members lending support included Colin M0GJM, Mike G4VPD and John G4OJL.

Needless to say, the intrepid team have been somewhat damp(!) but are now drying out after a busy weekend. It doesn’t help when the coaxial cable needs changing in the middle of a downpour!

Doubtless there will be more up-to-date news to report from M5W very soon…

We are pleased to announce that Wythall Radio Club will be running an Advanced License Course this autumn.

The classes will begin on Monday 2nd September 2013. The 14 week course is delivered in the club shack on Monday evenings from 8.00pm – 10.00pm, though you should note that there are a couple of Saturday morning requirements during weeks 7 and 13. The actual Advanced Examination is scheduled for Friday December 6th at 7.00pm.

The total cost of the course is £60. This includes the official course book, course materials, exam fees and all admin costs.

If you are an Intermediate Licence holder and you are interested in doing this course, please contact Wythall Radio Club’s Training Co-ordinator, Chris G0EYO at g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk as soon as possible.

This coming weekend, 27th and 28th July, sees Wythall Radio Club members taking part in one of the premier international contests of the year.

“Islands on the Air” is the Radio Society of Great Britain’s international contest event. It involves working as many islands as possible during the weekend and is hugely popular all over the world.

Wythall Radio Club member and top UK Contester, Lee G0MTN, is planning to enthuse us all to have a go in this year’s event with a talk this Tuesday evening. Entitled “IOTA Contest Tales from Four Countries” , Lee will be taking a retrospective glance at the contest and some of his own personal activities in it over the last 15 years!

It will be a very relaxed evening with lots of photos and tales of putting together both large and small stations in different part of the world. Just what we need to get us into the IOTA mood!

2030 this Tuesday in the shack at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ. If you are reading this and have been contemplating popping along, this would be a great evening to be a first-time visitor!

There is a rumour going around that there could be a bigger entry from the club than expected this year too – more news soon… :-)

Wythall Radio Club member Barry M0DGQ is not one for sitting around idly in his hobby. Most club members know Barry as one of the leading lights in our Morse Code revolution, but he is also well known in Wythall Radio Club and indeed around the UK, for his construction exploits.

His latest “bit of fun” is  a new Morse Code transceiver, primarily for use on holidays. It is small and lightweight, thus making it ideal for air travel. Covering the 40m, 20m and 10m Amateur bands, it is capable of a full 20 watts output power – a very useful amount given its design brief.

With full CW break-in and a measured 1 microvolt sensitivity, this represents a fantastic piece of kit.  Listen out for Barry this summer – you may well be working him on a radio he built himself!

In the rush to become a licensed Radio Amateur and get “on the air”, it is all too easy to overlook some very important aspects of safety. The possibility of a lightning strike for example, is something that all Wythall Radio Club members should be aware of. But another area for some essential knowledge is in that of the role of Earthing in the Ham Radio station.

So this Tuesday at Wythall Radio Club, we have a specialist Guest Speaker coming to visit us to demystify these aspects of our hobby. Mack M0CUS BEng CEng M.I.E.E is our guest speaker and as an Electrical specialist, there isn’t much he doesn’t know about this subject! We are expecting another fascinating talk and visitors are of course very welcome.

Tuesday 16th July at 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ. We hope to see you there!

Further to the great news in the last post, we have now heard that Mark 2E0MSE has passed his Advanced exam so he joins the ranks of the Wythall Radio Club Full Licence holders.

Mark has been studying hard over the Spring and Summer via the Distance Learning Course run by Steve G0FUW from Bath. Wythall Club Member Chris G0EYO is a tutor on that course and was Mark’s mentor for the duration of it.

So we welcome Mark as M0MSE to the fold now.

With all these new callsigns, Wythall Club members are going to be having a hard time remembering them all!

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to announce that Dawn, wife of club member John M1JSS, has now received her Foundation licence callsign.

She will be joining the ever growing ranks of female Wythall Radio Club members with her new callsign, M6UDY.

Dawn finally received her callsign late yesterday but by 8pm had apparently already used it on air. We are all looking forward to hearing her on air from her home location near Bromsgrove and maybe mobile too!

Congratulations Dawn from us all at Wythall Radio Club and here’s to many happy years “on the air”!