wythall radio club

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. 

The members of Wythall Radio Club have their fingers crossed for our latest batch of recruits to the hobby of Amateur Radio.

Candidates completing the practical assignments at the recent Saturday workshop

It’s almost time for the Intermediate Exam for 6 of our Foundation Licence holders.

Over the past few weeks they have been very busy completing their practical assessments and studying towards getting the next stage of the licence.

And if they are successful, Wythall Radio Club will be welcoming a new batch of 2E0 callsigns coming our way very soon.

So it’s congratulations to all of them on finishing the course – now we wish them all the best for the exam tonight (Monday) – we hope to have news of some new callsigns within a week or so!

This year’s Wythall Fun Run took place yesterday (Sunday morning) around the village. Despite the name, it’s a pretty serious event with 1.5 km, 5 km and 10 km courses attracting some even more serious entrants!

Checkpoint Anita M6DUO! She tells us she enjoyed watching fit young men running past her… Well!

For the members of Wythall Radio Club though, it was an opportunity for fun of a different kind!

This year we were asked by the organisers to help provide communications for the event. So some of us took a break from our Field Day event to go and help make sure the Fun Run went without a hitch, which it did!

Wythall Club Member John M1JSS rallied the troops into action – all those some folks along the route with handie-talkie radios or perhaps sitting in their cars handling communications traffic for the event were all Club members, having fun with RF in yet another guise!

And it’s really quite satisfying to use our love of radio communications to put something back into the community!

A lonely M0MCX operates on 144MHz while everyone else barbecues! Don’t worry, he eats well!

VHF Field Day is one of the highlights in the Wythall Radio Club calendar. Not just for the fun and camaraderie we have around taking part in the biggest VHF outdoors contest, but also because of the fun we have socially.

Last year’s event was one of the best (if not the very best) Field Days in the memory of most people in the club, from founder members to new recruits. It will be difficult to better but we are keeping our fingers crossed for good weather, which always helps!

This Tuesday sees a very important evening at the club, as it is traditionally the evening where we “dot the i’s” and “cross the t’s” in terms of getting our final preparation right for the big day.

It’s a good evening to come to especially if you harbour any plans about turning up on the actual day!

2030 in the Club Shack in the cellar at Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ.

Is this the ultimate 80m antenna?

Please don’t think that the members of Wythall Radio Club are about to burst into a Mary Poppins song – really, that is something no-one would want to hear!

When Radio Amateurs talk kites, we are usually thinking about getting a wire antenna strung into the air!

Roger Stafford G4ROJ is perhaps the best known amateur in the UK when it comes to using kites to string up antennas. He is an expert, not just on the antenna side of things, but also in his knowledge of kites themselves. His work has recently been featured on the Amateur TV Channel the TXFactor.

Fortunately for us, Roger is this Tuesday’s visitor to Wythall. He is planning to give us a talk and possibly even (weather permitting) a demonstration of using a kite to hoist up an antenna safely.

We welcome visitors to come along and see just how much fun one can have with RF in the great outdoors. The talk will start at 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House, B47 6LZ but may (or may not) be outdoors too (and may therefore be earlier around 1800! – email ian.radioworkshop@hotmail.co.uk for final details!)

Perhaps you might “breeze” in for a visit?

Western Power Distribution’s John M1JSS (left) presents the cheque for GB3WL’s antenna to Chairman Mike G4VPD (right). Project Manager Chris G7DDN & Repeater Keeper Dave G3YXM look on, with GB3WL itself in the foreground.

Wythall Radio Club are pleased to announce the arrival of the new antenna for forthcoming repeater GB3WL.

Once cleared by Ofcom, the 70cms unit will transmit to a wide audience across the West Midlands thanks to a brand new commercial quality antenna that will soon be installed at the club.

The stacked array of 4 folded dipoles has been professionally built exactly to match GB3WL’s frequencies and has been purchased following a generous donation from Western Power Distribution, the electricity distributor for our local area.

Club Chairman Mike Pugh said: “We are delighted to be able to purchase the highest quality antenna that we can afford. This is in no small part thanks to the financial help we have received from our friends at Western Power Distribution. We are pleased that, like us, they can see the value to the wider community in having a repeater station like this installed underground to give continued coverage in the event of any kind of emergency.”