wythall radio club

The clubs newsletter is now available for >download<.

Meet Jake Brookes. He is just 14 years old and is the latest successful candidate to pass the Foundation License exam with Wythall Radio Club.

Jake took the exam last night (Monday 8th) just before the main club meeting and passed with flying colours.  He now has the callsign M6SXD.

And it is quite a family affair! Jake is the younger brother of Daniel who also studied with us – he became M6BNP in March –  and both are grandsons of club member Peter Brookes G0HPH.

Peter and Jake are not stopping there either; both are enthusiastic members of our weekly Morse Code class!

Fancy learning Morse Code instantly? Next Tuesday maybe you could!

Steve White, G3ZVW, former RadCom Editor and currently Editor of the annual RSGB Handbook certainly thinks you can. And to prove it, he will be our guest at Wythall House on 15th May doing what he terms an “interactive demonstration” on how it is possible to learn the basics of the Code from scratch and in one session!

We have a few “guinea pigs” on standby to try this out, but perhaps you too might be brave enough to come along and experience for yourself exactly what Steve will be proposing.

Wythall members are intrigued by this coming evening – its been shrouded in semi-secrecy since we booked it and no-one quite knows what to expect.  All we know is that Steve has done this demonstration in front of a big audience at a recent RSGB Convention, so we are in good company!

See you there!

Each Sunday, Wythall Radio Club meets on 145.225 FM. A regular hard-core of circa 25 members drop in from time to time. Being a bank-holiday weekend, less of us turned up but we did have one visitor, Arthur (M1BHA) from Wellsbourne.

Sunday eve's 145.225

• M0MCX – Callum
• 2E0SDD – Steve
• M3PMP – Paul (Redditch)
• 2E0BLP – Jim
• G1VLT/P – Paul
• M6AUL – Howard
• G0HPH – Peter
• G4VPD – Mick
• M0MAJ – Mel
• G4TVR – Simon

Non Club

• M1BHA – Arthur in Wellsbourne

If you hear us, by all means please drop in and say hello.

Elsewhere on this website, you can read a tribute to Lew Williams,  former President of Wythall Radio Club and our original CW tutor.  Many current members took their first steps in Morse Code with Lew.

Some time ago, after Lew sadly passed away, it was thought appropriate to honour his memory in a suitable manner and so the Lew Williams Sheild was born!

In order to win this trophy, Wythall Club members are being asked to view the 31 days of the month of May as a “Morse Code Activity Month”.  The shield will be awarded to the club member who has shown the biggest contribution to the event, and/or shown the greatest improvement in Morse Code skills.  Certificates may be also awarded for various levels of achievement.

Morse Code Activity Month

The quantity of contacts will not be the most important factor. Log submissions and personal statements will be equally important in the judging process.  The sort of things the judges will look for include… “First live CW QSOs on HF”,  or “First CW QSOs not using an automatic reader”, “First ever CW QSOs, but did use receive assistance”,  ”Log shows 20 Wythall club members contacted using CW”, “Log shows 30 countries worked during the month.”

As a fun, friendly event, it is hoped that members will recognize improvement in their fellow club members and submit feedback and nominations for them. Like the Oscars, the Lew Williams Shield can be largely decided by your peers!

So it may be time to dust off that key and finally see what you can do with the code!

Field Day Vertical

With the longer nights (if not warmer weather yet here in the English Midlands) on the way, many of our thoughts turn towards getting out “in the field” and playing Ham Radio in the great outdoors.

There is always something magical about doing radio in the open air. Perhaps it is a sense of getting “back to nature”, or having to use one’s ingenuity to come up with inventive solutions to the problems of power generation and antennas.

Whatever flavour of playing radio outdoors you may have attempted, you will be aware that things do not always go to plan! :-)

This coming Tuesday at Wythall Radio Club, prepare for Callum M0MCX to dish the dirt on some of the disasters that have befallen him on Field Day events.  Bound to be an amusing and enlightening evening. Tuesday 24th April at 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House. See you there!

A few years ago, I decided it was time I had a go at a Morse Code (CW) contest.  Having picked a short evening event in the UK, I was surprised (perhaps I shouldn’t have been!) at how simple and formulaic the exchanges were.  Plucking up some courage and dusting off the straight key, I managed to complete my first faltering contacts using little more than my callsign and a few numbers!

With Wythall Radio Club’s “Morse Month” coming up this May, it seemed a good time for Lee G0MTN, one of our resident CW experts, to pop along and give us a short presentation, about how feasible it really is to make some excellent contacts on CW without actually knowing much more than how to read a callsign and send a few numbers!

There can of course, be much more to it that this, but nonetheless, it makes a jolly intriguing title for a talk, so why not pop along next Tuesday 17th April and hear for yourself how easy it can be to make contacts with just an initial limited knowledge of the code?

Who knows? You might even be tempted to take it further!

Frank Breedon, G3MZU, SK

It was with great sadness that the club learnt of the passing of honorary member Frank G3MZU on Thursday, 23^rd February aged 83. Frank died in his sleep at his nursing home in Clent where was being cared for.

Franks obituary has been posted to the main club site here:

• https://www.wythallradioclub.co.uk/about-wythall/frank-bernard-breedon-g3mzu-silent-key/

He took a great interest in the club during its early years, helping out at field days, social events and of course the big project of installing the mast at the back of Wythall House.

“I well remember several Saturday’s spent digging out the foundations with Frank and others”, said Chris, G0EYO.

This time next week, Easter will be almost upon us, and while the young-at-heart among us will doubtless be tucking into our chocolate eggs, members of Wythall Radio Club will also be busy on the airwaves.

Thursday sees the start of our Easter Contest, a shorter version of our Christmas Contest. While members will be busy from 1000 local time trying to work each other across the holiday period, everyone is welcome to call in and say hello. The contest ends on Easter Monday at 2200 and members will be submitting their best 3 days to see if they can win an extra Easter Egg or two!

But there’s more! The club is also putting on a Special Event Station this weekend at the Hanbury Vintage Steam Fair. Look out for the club station on the field on both Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday with keen members making contacts on both VHF and HF. The fact there is a good flow of real ale on site plays only a little part in our interest! ;-)

Wythall Radio Club wishes you and your families a very happy Easter Holiday.

In years gone by, thermionic valves were the staple diet of the Ham Radio enthusiast. You still see lots of them for sale at Radio Rallies throughout the country! It was not until the 1950’s and moreso the 1960’s that transistorised solid-state equipment began to become commonplace. We all probably remember our first examples of broadcast transistor radios – the ones we nicknamed “trannies”!

And while valves are still the main drivers in high power linear amplifiers for example, there has been a resurgence of interest in homebrew valve technology in recent years. Even kits have become available for beginners to make QRP transmitters for example.

Valve technology however can be a bit of a mystery to many of us, so this Tuesday night at Wythall Radio Club, why not come along and learn a bit more about them?

Barry M0DGQ is a designer and builder of radio equipment using valves and will be presenting a talk called “A Beginner’s Guide to Valves”. It is bound to be an interesting evening and promises to enthuse many of us into having a go at building something using valve technology.

Can’t wait!