wythall radio club

Members of Wythall Radio Club had great fun today at Wythall Park’s 50th Anniversary Carnival. 

While we haven’t been around as long as Wythall House and Park itself, we join in by taking a stall to show off aspects of our radio hobby and at the same time, support our community as best we can.

It was great to meet lots of prospective new members and old friends as well as local people we know – it’s a great, if busy, day out, and of course there’s the chance to play radio in the great outdoors…

Thanks to all members who came and supported us in any capacity but a special thanks to project leader John G3VRF who always suffers sleepless nights in the run-up to the day.

Here’s to another half century of Wythall Park Carnivals!

Pictures from today below…

Latest news from our Training Department – there is to be an Advanced Licence course at Wythall Radio club this autumn. 

It will take place every Monday evening in the Shack at Wythall House from September 5^th onwards.

The exam is scheduled for Monday 12^th December.

There will also be one Saturday morning practical set for 26^th November.

The course runs over 15 weeks altogether and the total cost is £60 – this includes the course book, course materials and the exam fee and all other costs.

Anyone who wishes to do this course, please get in touch in the first instance with Chris via email on g0eyo(at)blueyonder.co.uk

And we wish you good luck!

Stu M0NYC & Treasurer Ian M0IDR on duty at the Fun Run a few weeks ago

This Tuesday, the members of Wythall Radio Club are looking forward to a rather special visit.

Richard and Dave from the Wythall Fun Run Committee are popping in to our monthly open meeting with something nice for us!

Every year we provide field communications for the Wythall Fun Run and very kindly, their Committee give us a donation to help towards the running of our club.

And this Tuesday is the day Richard and Dave will be visiting us with a cheque.

And funnily enough, it’s one of our Treasurer’s favourite days of the year…  Wonder why?  :-)

This weekend saw members of Wythall Radio Club taking to the field once again!

We are very fortunate at our meeting place, Wythall House, to have access to the private park, which makes a great place to do some outdoor radio.

Combine this with our legendary love of food(!) and a club BBQ and you have the ingredients for one fun weekend.

With the weather staying fair and dry, a good time was had by all, as can be seen from the photos below.

For those who were there, enjoy reliving the fun – for those that weren’t, there’s always next year…

Reader Anita 2E0DUO & Dave (soon to be a 2E0 himself)

More great news from the Wythall Radio Cub Training department.

This weekend, Club member David M6KND took his intermediate examination and passed. But what makes this particularly newsworthy is the fact that David is blind.

Just to put on the exam involves having extra people on hand – we thank our invigilators Ian M0IDR and Roger M0GWM, for example. But one of the hardest jobs was the one our Chair Anita 2E0DUO took on – the role of reader; David listens and then has to remember the question and the four possible answers before deciding on the correct one – just imagine doing that for yourself!

Apparently the whole process was quite exhausting for bother reader and candidate.

But what a fantastic result!

We fully expect David to enrol for Advanced class starting in September and we know this is going to challenge both candidate, tutors, invigilators and reader even more than it has up to now – but we are up for it!

The club tower in the field last year

This weekend, 30th & 31st July, Wythall Radio Club are taking to the field – to take part in the “Islands on the Air” radio contest.

IOTA, as it is known, is the Radio Society of Great Britain’s largest competitive event – and since the UK is an island, we get to be a multiplier for the contest!

Normally, we take part in VHF Field Day for our annual outdoor radio event and club barbecue, but this year, we thought we would try something different and join in with an HF contest instead.

We will be on Wythall Park fields all weekend (it’s a 24 hour event!) with our trailer tower and hopefully the bands will be humming with both voice and morse code transmissions.

We will set our sights high and see how we get on. Who knows? If it is successful, we might even repeat it next year!

The latest edition of the Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is out today! 

Hot off the press from editor Chris G0EYO, this edition features M0IDR going QRP.

Also busy is M0MCX getting to grips with the WSPR mode, and a report of members visiting G4JGV in the Canary Islands.

More from M0IDR on the new Digital Fusion mode and how to use it with a DV4Mini dongle and of course there is the usual Training, editorial and Club news, with more about the Lew Williams Shield award, won recently by Kev G4XLO.

It’s a bumper edition, as always, and can be found here, or by clicking on the Newsletter Graphic on the right of this article.

Enjoy!

Wythall Radio Club members are proud to announce a new arrival in the club shack! 

Yesterday we took delivery of a new Icom IC-7300.

This is a radio which is taking the world by storm.

It is a true software-defined radio, but unlike most SDRs it doesn’t need a computer to work it. It has its own screen and software built in.

What is more, it is styled to look and work like a traditional analog radio, meaning the learning curve is very gentle.

The demand for these has been great worldwide and thanks to our friends at Martin Lynch and Sons, we have finally managed to get our hands on one!

At last night’s Committee meeting, Chairwoman Anita 2E0DUO perfumed the ceremonial unboxing (pictured) before a large group of excited members got their paws on it.

It’s early days but it looks like it is going to be the most popular radio in the Club shack already!

Why not click on the pictures for a closer view?

Last weekend was VHF Field Day here in the UK – and for a change, Wythall Radio Club decided to do it from the club shack!

9 members and visitors activated the club callsigns and made plenty of contacts.

It was particularly pleasing to see some folk who wouldn’t probably consider themselves contesters taking part and getting some operating experience.

Phil WTH and Roy HDF in particular took up the mic and worked a few stations. Even more nerve-wracking than usual with a few onlookers!

Conditions on VHF/UHF were not inspiring – no signs of any E’s or tropo, and online we could see that many other groups had showers and storms. Best DX on 2m was to France.

There was a break for a fish and chip (or kebab) dinner, where 2016 NFD will go down in history as “Curry-Sauce-Gate”. Don’t ask – especially don’t ask Pete M5DUO!

We will be out in the field soon though – IOTA weekend at the end of July is our big event this year – and of course there will be the annual club BBQ! Yum yum!

Fantastic news from the Wythall Radio Club Training Team – we have yet another 100% success from our latest Intermediate Course.

Michael M6GWQ, Terry M6KKO, Stuart M6GYF & Rob M6FRF with pass certificates

Lead Trainer Chris G0EYO explains, “I am pleased to confirm that last night’s four candidates passed their Intermediate examination with excellent scores, one even got 100% but I won’t embarrass Stuart by mentioning his name!”

Chris continued, “My thanks to the training team and invigilators who ran the course & exam very professionally as always.  Click on the pic for the smiling faces.”

All four have expressed an interest in doing our Advanced Course starting this September.