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Morse Mad!

June 13, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Training

Wythall Radio Club has been going Morse Mad this May!

John

Lee G0MTN (adjudicator) with John and Certificate

In honour of our late president, Lew Williams, who coached many senior members through the old 12 words per minute Morse test, we nominated each May as a month in which members can make a special effort to improve their code skills. We award a shield to the person who in the adjudicator’s opinion has shown the most progress. It is not a competition, more of a nomination for progress. This Tuesday the results of the 2013 award were announced.

G1MJO

Alf G1MJO and his certificate with Lee G0MTN

Two certificates of merit were awarded before the “Lew Williams Shield” was presented; John (no call-sign yet!) joined our club Morse class during 2013 as a precursor to getting a licence. His progress has been phenomenal and when he passes his license later this month, he will be Wythall Radio Club’s first ever Foundation Licensee to make his debut on air on CW!

Alf G1MJO is in his late 80s and never passed the old Morse test but has shown real stick-ability and persistence, even appearing on air and taking some faster Morse sent by other members with a very high level of accuracy.

G4OJL

John G4OJL, proud winner of the Lew Williams Shield for 2013

The main award however went to John G4OJL who was a founder member of the club in the early 1980’s. He rejoined us last autumn, having never used CW on air, indeed he was not on air for nearly 30 years! Returning to the club, he found a new love for radio and especially learning the code and has spent every day (bar one!) since last autumn doing 30 minutes of practice a day! Now he is exclusively a Morse Man on HF.

Tuesday was a very moving evening for those present. We trust the pictures give you a flavour of what it was like to be there!

Holiday time?

June 11, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

BeachWhenever there is a little hiatus in the posts on the Wythall Radio Club website, it is usually because there is something going on!

This time it has been holiday time! Quite a few members have been away from the Midlands enjoying the unseasonably sunny weather we have recently been experiencing in the UK.

G0EYO was spotted in Wales; G7DDN has been heard on CW from South Devon; 2E0BLP has been fishing in Warwick and making contacts in his spare time; G3YXM has been in Scotland and Chairman Mike G4VPD has been working back to club members from Spain on 14MHz with his little Elecraft KX3. And there are others who have been away from home too.

So just because the website has been quiet, it doesn’t mean Wythall Radio Club members aren’t still “having fun with RF”!

An All-Band Transceiver – homebrew style!

May 29, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Fun, News

One of Wythall Radio Club’s most active “homebrewers” is busy again! Barry M0DGQ reports that construction has started on an ambitious new all band, all mode HF transceiver.

Using a Direct Digital Synthesiser (DDS) for the VFO, the controller is a two-PIC circuit, which can be found here. It has all the bells and whistles of an upmarket commercial transceiver with such niceties as dual VFO’s, memories & splits.

Ingeniously, Barry has used bits and pieces from redundant equipment – for example, he has salvaged the keypad from an old telephone unit and the blue switch array from a discarded fax machine. This is doubly advantageous as the buttons are both easy to use and see for us amateurs of advancing years! :-)

As Barry himself admits, “…by today’s demanding standards, this would not be suitable for a contest grade receiver due to the low level spurious outputs on the higher frequencies as these can mix with very strong out of band signals, however with good front end band pass filtering, this radio should be fine for most uses.”

We look forward to progress reports and to seeing the finished article!

 

The Joy of QRP Portable

May 19, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, News

For many radio amateurs, low power (or QRP) operation is a way of life. It is a real challenge to make radio contacts with other stations when you are only running the power of a kid’s night-light! This coming Tuesday evening at Wythall Radio Club, our visiting speaker will be telling us of his exploits in the world of QRP.

QRP Portable

QRP Portable setup in Wythall Park

Tim G4ARI is one the UK’s leading QRP exponents. He is to be found in most contests, HF or VHF, somewhere in the countryside, high or low, putting out his flea power signals. Indeed this has led to his nickname of “QRP Tim”!

We are very fortunate to have Tim coming to visit us this Tuesday, as it is not often that we get to peek into the mind and operating practices of one of the most dedicated operators of QRP that this country has. To operate this way needs a certain mindset and members at Wythall Radio Club are looking forward to learning from Tim’s adventures.

An evening not to be missed! 2030 this Tuesday, the 21st May at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ. Visitors, as always, are very welcome.

REPORT – GB1DGW Mills on the Air 2013

May 12, 2013 By: M0MCX Category: Club, Fun, News

Wythall Radio Club put on a superb Special Event Radio Station on Saturday 11th May 2013 for Mills on the Air, activating Danzey Green Windmill, hence the call GB1DGW.

A full report will follow. For the time being, this is the beginning of the photographs.

Preparation for Mills on the Air GB1DGW (2013)

May 09, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Fun, News

This weekend sees the UK radio event known as “Mills on the Air” and Wythall Radio Club members will be out in force at one of our local mills with a special event station.

Mills OTA

The 2012 station we set up at Avoncroft

We will be setting up the temporary shack near the mill at the Avoncroft Museum of Buildings in Bromsgrove. This is a fantastic museum which is home to over 27 different structures which have been rescued and re-built in rural Worcestershire. The Museum is spread over 19 acres and includes a wildflower meadow, period gardens, a traditional cider and perry orchard (yum!) as well as the fantastic collection of buildings.

Wythall Radio Club will be setting up our radio station underneath one of the barns near to the mill (see photo). Why not come down and not only have a great day out, but say hello to some of the hardy souls who will be erecting antennas and setting up this computerised hi-tech station? We will be there on Saturday from 0900 till about 1630. Ask for Callum – anyone there will know who you mean!

Another famous Wythall Radio Club Member!

May 03, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Contest, News

Looking back through recent posts, you will see that a number of Wythall Radio Club members are appearing individually in the hobby press or seem to be getting very well known for their Radio Activities.

G0MTN

Today it is the turn of Lee G0MTN. Lee is one the UK’s best known and respected Amateur Radio contesters. In the current (May 2013) issue of CQ Magazine (a US publication but read worldwide) a photograph of a slightly younger(!) Lee appears in the article entitled “The VooDoo Contest Group in Africa – The End of an Era”” written by another “famous” radio ham, Roger Western G3SXW.

The photo, reproduced above exactly as it appears in CQ Magazine, was taken in 2001/2002 when Lee was involved in the VooDoo Contest Group taking part in one of their CQ Worldwide contest activations – this time in Burkina Faso as XT2DX

It is really good to see another Wythall Radio Club member making waves in the world of Ham Radio! And why not take a look at CQ? It’s a darned good read!

A Month of Morse Code

April 28, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Fun, News

As May approaches, the thoughts of Wythall Radio Club members turn to a special event in honour of our past President.

Lew Williams was a grand man who taught many of the senior members of our club the joys of Morse Code (CW). When Lew passed away, it was thought appropriate to honour his memory in a suitable manner and so the “Lew Williams Shield” was born.

In order to win this trophy, Wythall Radio Club members are asked to view the 31 days of May as a “Morse Code Activity Month”. The trophy is awarded to the club member who has shown some kind of commendable contribution to the event. It will probably involve some evidence of improvement, however small, in some aspect of his/her Morse Code skills.

In order to explain a little more about how we can take part, even if we might not know much about the Code, Lee G0MTN will be giving a short talk this Tuesday evening. He will take us through what the Lew Williams Shield is about and how ANY member can submit a valid entry to try to win it.

Perhaps we will see you there? Visitors very welcome – this Tuesday, 30th April, at 2045 at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall. B47 6LZ

 

Easter Contest Results are out!

April 24, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Contest, Fun, News

easter contest 004

Jim 2E0BLP receives his prize from Chairman Mike G4VPD

Last night saw the results and presentation evening for the annual Wythall Radio Club Easter Contest. You can read more about how the event works here.

6 lucky winners were revealed and Mike G4VPD, Club Chairman, took great delight in presenting both certificates and Easter Eggs to the first, second and third placed entrants in each of the two sections, 2 Meters FM and Open. Bizarrely, Mike came second in the Open section so had the strange task of congratulating himself!

Jim 2E0BLP won the 2m FM section and is pictured above right – just click on the pictures below to see a few of the other happy winners!

Easter Contest Results Night

April 22, 2013 By: Chris G7DDN Category: Club, Fun, News

As regular readers of our website will know, Tuesday evening is the main meeting night at Wythall Radio Club and this Tuesday’s meeting is one that quite a many members will have been looking forward to.

easter-eggs-4That’s because it is time for the results of our “in-house” Easter Contest.

Just as at Christmas, we hold an event to get as many members on air and working each other as possible. Points are given for each member worked and each discrete member worked across the period also counts as a multiplying factor (or multiplier) to attain a final score. It sounds complicated but we have a clever Excel spreadsheet which makes life simple, a fact to which lead adjudicator Lee G0MTN will testify!

Tomorrow night is Easter Egg Prize night and, while we cannot yet publish any information about winners and runners-up, suffice it to say that there are going to be quite a few surprises in store! 2030 at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall, B47 6LZ. Visitors are, of course, most welcome!