wythall radio club

It seems to be coming thick and fast at the moment – publicity for Wythall Radio Club, that is!

This time the Redditch Standard has published a piece not too dissimilar to the one the Redditch Advertiser did a little while ago. Thank you to our friends at the Standard for picking up the story and running with it.

Any publicity is good publicity, or so they say.  The members of Wythall Radio Club hope it will help our club become better known around the communities where we operate.

You never know who’s reading…

Once again it is pleasing to report that both Wythall Radio Club news and members are making it into the Radio Society of Great Britain’s monthly journal.

The September edition of RadCom is now hitting doormats across the UK as we write and so news of our impending repeater, GB3WL will also be getting out, as you can see from the snippet. The article appears on page 84 but if you click on the picture of the article (left) you can have a sneak preview!

That’s not the only mention for our members this month though, as club member Dave G3YXM is also quoted a few times in the Mobile section of Peter G3LDO’s Antennas column on page 68. Well that’s what happens if you run 400 watts when out mobile on the HF bands!

We do seem to playing spot the Wythall Radio Club members in most RadComs these days – long may that continue!

Wythall Radio Club is today saying a very big thank you to our friends at Kenwood (UK).

That’s because they have helped us out with our future training courses thanks to a generous donation of some USB sticks – and they are not just any USB sticks, they are in the design of a Kenwood Handheld Transceiver!

Chris G0EYO, our Training Co-ordinator, is moving away from using CDs for his course material, preferring to use USB sticks instead. And when David Wilkins G5HY at Kenwood UK heard about our need for 10 of the devices, he was more than pleased to help us out.

In future then, all our trainees will be the proud owners of these rare Kenwood USB sticks, while they are on our courses at least! They will have to hand them back once they have “graduated” – they aren’t keeping them forever!

It’s always gratifying to see our local press, in this case the Redditch & Alcester Advertiser, printing a story about Wythall Radio Club.

In the most recent edition, they have an article about our new repeater antenna and how we were helped with it by our friends at Western Power Distribution.

WPD gave us a generous grant in order for us to purchase a 4 stacked dipole antenna towards our new relay station GB3WL. You can read more about that here.

News like this is always of interest to our colleagues in the press and Wythall Radio Club try to let them have as much community-based information as we can, if for no other reason, it helps enhance our club’s profile in our local community.

So thank you, Redditch & Alcester Advertiser!

Every August, the villagers of Wythall come together to celebrate with a summer carnival and this year, Wythall Radio Club members are heavily involved again.

Having fun with RF at the 2013 Carnival!

Some of our hardy souls will be helping out with car parking and marshalling at the event, which takes place on Sunday 10th August at 1400, while another group of members is putting on a stall to advertise the club and its activities.

You can read more about the carnival and what is on offer here. Expect the usual Classic Car exhibition, Dog Show & lots of stalls, together with a Birds of Prey display and some dogs playing “Flyball”! Sounds like great fun!

The members of Wythall Radio Club will be setting up a demonstration radio station and a “hands-on” activity stall, showing all that is good about Amateur Radio and Wythall Radio Club in particular. This Tuesday evening (5th August) we will making our final preparations for the event so it is important that you turn up if you fancy being involved!

So come and join us at 2030 in the Club shack at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ.

Tomorrow evening sees the last of the RSGB Centenary talks at Wythall Radio Club.

A multi-wire Cage Antenna 36″ in diameter – you don’t see many of these around today!

During this year we have been following the presentations produced by our national society in re-visiting its first hundred years of existence.

So far we have looked at how the RSGB came into being and the role of the early amateurs in wartime; we saw how the race to cross the atlantic with amateur signals unfolded, and tomorrow we will take a look at the history of amateur antennas.

The presentation starts at 2030 in the Club Shack in the basement of Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ and visitors, including you, will be very welcome!

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to announce that we are putting up some brand new antennas to replace the old ones on the club mast.

We can’t wait to try this monster out!

The antennas at Wythall House have been showing their age a little in recent times – they have served us well for about 25 years though!

A decision was taken earlier this year by the committee to completely strip the mast down and rebuild it with new antenna and cabling.

With the help of our friend Justin at Innovantennas, we are now the proud owners of a new 9 element HF array, a 6m/4m Dual Band Yagi, a 13 element 2m beam and a 19 element 70cms beam.

Martin at Martin Lynch & Sons has helped us out with a discount on our new Heavy Duty Rotator and Westflex cable runs, so we are good to go.

Now for the fun part – finding the volunteers to spend a weekend stripping down, cleaning up the mast and rebuilding the antenna tree!

Watch this space!

As reported recently, all six of Wythall Radio Club’s Intermediate candidates passed their recent exams and they have now been getting news of their new callsigns!

Kevin 2E0NCO, Kevin 2E0???, Dawn 2E0MIS, Craig 2E0DEM, Anita 2E0DUO, Darren 2E0UDM

Club Secretary Anita was the first to get hers – she is now 2E0DUO. The others followed on quickly, so we are pleased to report that Kevin M6NCO is now 2E0NCO; Darren, who was M6UDM, is now 2E0UDM and our other lady candidate Dawn M6UDY now holds the callsign 2E0MIS.

Craig has confirmed that he is 2E0DEM but we await news on our other Kevin (formerly M6KOR). Our heartiest congratulations to all the new Intermediate licence holders.

With Wythall Radio Club’s next Advanced class starting early in September, we suspect there may be quite a few people back in Training Co-ordinator Chris G0EYO’s classroom working toward the final exam.

In fact, there is a pretty well-substantiated rumour that all 7 places on the Advanced may have already been taken before the course has even been advertised! Phew!

One very pleased George, M0HQV

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to welcome one of our Intermediate members, George Ifrim, to the ranks of the Advanced licence holders!

George is originally from Romania and it should not be underestimated how difficult it is to study for the Advanced using English as a second language.

He was so keen to progress in the Amateur Radio Licensing Scheme that he took lessons as quickly as he could and we are very pleased that he now has his new callsign, M0HQV.

Work commitments mean that George is not always available to visit the club as often as he would like, though we always enjoy seeing him when he does appear, such as at our last Friday Social meeting. From all the members of WRC, well done George!

Meanwhile, our 6 Intermediate class students have all passed their exams with flying colours and we are just awaiting their new callsigns.

More news on that very soon!

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to announce that we are running our second on-line course for those seeking to gain their Foundation licence. It is planned to start on the 14^th July and be completed by 14^th August.