wythall radio club

One of these might be up in the sky at the Wythall Rally!

It’s the time of year when Wythall Radio Club members start thinking about their forthcoming Rally.

Held on Sunday 8th March this year, the event is returning to its roots at Wythall House and leaving behind the rather impersonal halls of the school we used for a few years.

However there will be an added attraction this year! Roger G4ROJ, the Kite Antenna man famous from the TX Factor programme, is going to be in attendance flying kites on Wythall Park fields!

Roger contacted the club recently and suggested that, since he would be flying kites anyway that weekend, why not combine it with our rally and fly them on the huge fields we have at our new venue?

There may even be a short presentation in the clubhouse for those wanting to find out more about how to fly kite antennas. Watch this space!

Another reason to get that date in your diary – Sunday 8th March!

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to announce a new date for the visit of our Regional RSGB representative.

Due to bad weather, the decision was reluctantly taken to cancel this week’s planned visit from Martyn G3UKV, the Regional Manager for RSGB Region 5. However a new date has been agreed for the evening of Tuesday 3rd February.

Please note however that this revised date will mean the meeting will start earlier than usual at 2000 rather than 2030.

There will be a reminder of this on the website nearer the time.

Great news! Our friends at Radioworld will again be the top attraction at this year’s Wythall Radio Club Rally. Dave Hayward, Radioworld’s proprietor (pictured right at last years’ event) confirmed yesterday that his company would indeed be attending our Radio fair on Sunday March 8th.

Radioworld is the Midlands’ leading supplier of Ham Radio and Computer Gaming equipment. Dave and Annette are among Wythall Members’ favourite traders for our Radio Rally and have been coming along for more years now that some of us care to remember!

Why not visit their site here and start thinking about pre-orders for the day? Dave always gives excellent deals for attendees of the rally and there’s no postage charges to help keep the prices low.

Meantime, we will see you on Sunday 8th March at Wythall House – remember the new venue!

2015 may well see the members of Wythall Radio Club stepping up to the plate to help our country. For the first time, we are being invited to consider participation as a UK HQ Station in the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) HF World Championship Contest. 

The objective of this event is to contact as many amateurs as possible but especially IARU member society HQ stations around the world.

This 24-hour contest takes place on the second full weekend of July from 1300 Saturday to 1300 Sunday, so places a lot of responsibility on the HQ stations involved. The UK HQ station is known as GR2HQ and Wythall RC is being considered to operate on one of the bands for this event.

This Tuesday, well-known Scottish contester Chris GM3WOJ, is going to outline what participation in this event might mean for Wythall Radio Club so we can decide whether we are up for taking part in it. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, he can do so without venturing south of the Hadrian’s Wall!

Be there for 2030 in the Club Shack, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ this Tuesday to find out more!

The Officers, Committee and Members of Wythall Radio Club wish all radio amateurs worldwide the very best of New Year wishes.

May all your New Year radio desires come true in 2015! 

Remember to subscribe to our site via email (left) to make sure you keep up to date with all the news from our busy club!

For our part we will be having fun with RF throughout 2015 with lots of events planned and a full programme of events to keep members happy.

See our events page for details!

The latest edition of the Wythall Radio Club Newsletter has just been issued in time for 2015. That’s the hot-off-the-press news from Editor Chris G0EYO.

With articles on the recent Wythall Radio Club Christmas Party, our Christmas Foxhunt, a Portable D-STAR Repeater, Building a Successful Contest Station coupled with the latest from the Club’s Training Department, it is available just by clicking here or by clicking on the Newsletter icon and graphic on the left of this post.

We hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it!

“The Future of Amateur Radio” is the title of an interactive discussion evening this coming Tuesday night at Wythall Radio Club.

G4FPH also has novel ideas about how he likes his curries!

Friend of the Club, Mark G4FPH, has been gathering more than a few thoughts about where he thinks the hobby may or may not be headed in the 21st Century. What is more, he has a number of very radical proposals!

This Tuesday evening in the Club Shack, he will be laying out some of his personal thoughts, with invitations for Wythall members to feed back in person what we think of them! Sounds dangerous! We are certain to keep it polite in true WRC manner, but it is shaping up to be a very interesting, if controversial evening.

Can you afford not to be there? Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ on Tuesday 30th December at 20:30.  It could be a fascinating way to end your year!

Once again we are proud to report that one of Wythall Radio Club’s members has made it into the national radio press.

Barry M0DGQ is one on his own, a real home-brewer of radios and accessories in the time-honoured radio amateur tradition.  A quick glace at his personal website reveals a man steeped in “proper” radio expertise.

For those readers of the esteemed G-QRP club’s quarterly magazine SPRAT, Barry’s name is becoming quite well-known.  The latest edition carries a fascinating article authored by him on a homemade Valve-based Regenerative Receiver. Covering 1.6MHz to 8MHz and even medium wave, it is of very sensitive design and even drives a loudspeaker to reasonable volume too.

Barry’s article appears on pages 18 & 19 of the new Winter 2014/2015 edition of SPRAT – a must read, we at Wythall Radio Club think!

The Wythall Christmas Foxhunt results are in and Colin G6ZDQ is celebrating today.

Foxhunting supremo 2014, Colin G6ZDQ

10 members joined the hunt this morning; last years’ winners Steve 2E0SDD and Stacey M6STJ were joined by Callum M0MCX and his wife Wendy, Kevin 2E0NCO and his partner Marian, Stu M0NYP, Jon M0JMM, Phil 2E0WTH, husband and wife team Pete M5DUO & Anita 2E0DUO together with Colin G6ZDQ.

A rather flu-ridden Steve and Stacey played first fox as reigning champions(!) and were found by Callum and Wendy. They in turn became fox 2 but were duly hunted down by Stacey and Steve!

To prevent the day becoming a two-team event, Phil and Jon volunteered to be fox 3 and were duly found hiding in a country lane by Pete, Anita and Colin.

50+ miles was enough for a morning’s fun so a welcome carvery and bar followed, where it was agreed that Colin G6ZDQ should be awarded the M0GJM Memorial Trophy for 2014.

See you again next year!

Packed in like sardines at the previous D-STAR Workshop last month!

Following the success of our recent talk on “Getting Started in D-STAR”, and a practical workshop in November, which nearly 20 members attended, Wythall Radio Club is now pleased to announce a second “Hands-on” Workshop day.

This Sunday morning, 28th December, Chris G7DDN will be in the club rooms, taking members (and visitors) through the steps of programming for D-STAR and how to get the best from the D-STAR ecosystem.

There will be plenty of opportunities for Questions and Answers and with Wythall House bar open from lunchtime, there should even be some drinks and snacks available.

The day will start at 1030 and go on until folk have had enough. If you are interested in taking part, please register for the day with Chris G7DDN who is at g7ddn@g7ddn.com and remember to bring your radio if you have one.