wythall radio club

Wythall Radio Club’s latest Foundation Course begins this evening.  With a full complement of students, we are hoping for yet more successes at Foundation level.

All at Wythall Radio Club send their best wishes to our new students for a successful course and we hope to hear new callsigns on the air come March.

Remember if you are interested in becoming a Radio Amateur or just have any queries with regards to what the Foundation Course is all about, just drop a line to Chris G0EYO at g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk anytime.  He will be more than pleased to give you any advice.

The latest issue of the Wythall Radio Club newsletter is now on-line and available.

January 2012 Newsletter (opens PDF in new Tab)

Amateur Radio operators around the Midlands might wonder what’s going on down at 145.225 FM most hours of the day and night. It’s the Wythall Christmas Contest. The rules are biased to encourage club members to work each other, every day over the Christmas break between Christmas Eve and New Year’s day.

There are two sections; the “restricted” section, which is 2m only and then the “open” section where bonuses are achieved for modes and band slots. Full rules here: https://www.wythallradioclub.co.uk/contest/xmas-contest-rules/

At the time of writing, late on Boxing day, over 50% of club members have been active and exchanged serial numbers with other club members. Serial numbers as high as 50 have been reported already.

A tremendous success!

Wythall Radio Club will be running a Foundation course at their club shack at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall, B47 6LZ from Monday 23rd January between 8-10pm, and every Monday until the examination on Monday 5th March. Cost for this course is £40 which includes, the examination fee, course book, course notes and membership of the Wythall Radio Club until our next AGM in October 2012. For those students 18 or under, or unemployed and on benefits, we have a reduced fee of £32.50.

Contact Chris G0EYO on g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk if you are interested or go to the Training page for more information.

Club member Chris G7DDN has been busy with his soldering iron already this winter, as the photo shows.  This is his version of the Hendricks “Weber  Dual Bander” kit.  See www.qrpkits.com/dualbander.htm.

Chris says, “This is a fantastic little kit, it came quite quickly from the US and attracted no extra duties or VAT. There were a couple of missing bits which were remedied by Doug at Hendricks Kits and despite the transformer windings being a little awkward to work out, a post to the Yahoo Group sorted it out quickly”.

He says, “I’m achieving 5w out on 40m and 7w on 80m”. Delighted with himself, Chris continued, “It’s a sensitive receiver with a 600Hz crystal filter and I’ve finished it just in time for the Christmas holidays – and the G-QRP Club Winter Sports!”. Chris has promised a longer report on the build of this kit in the next Club Newsletter in the New Year.

Good job!

We are pleased to announce that all four of our candidates (pictured) who took the Advanced course and exam with us in December,  passed and gained their coveted M0 callsigns. Well done to them.

The Advanced course is not a walk in the park and requires a  lot of work and effort to slog your way through the 15 sessions of theory and  practise and then face a 2 hour, 62 question examination at the end of it. But  it is achievable as our record at Wythall shows. It is almost 100% pass over  the past 5 years. Our next course will be in September 2012.

Pictured left to right: Paul, M0TVU, Paul K. M0PYT, Stu M0NYP and Mark M0RKX

Very well done.

After a break last year, Wythall Radio Club held its Xmas Social at Wythall House on Friday December 9th. As in previous years this was a great success with about 35 members and their family enjoying an American Supper together with some live music from Chris G7DDN plus skittles organised by Colin G6ZDQ. The whole event was put together very professionally by Stu 2E0NYC who had the added pleasure of also having heard that day that he was now M0NYP.

Lee G0MTN on balloon, Peter G4LWF and Tony G1PKG on balloons, Chris G7DDN on piano

The evening saw a super raffle of prizes generously donated by members as well as the famous stand up bingo, won this time by Walter M0GRO. The skittle winners were Roger and Liz (friends of Colin G6ZDQ and Janett), after a play off between them and Peter G4LWF and Mo.  The food was of a very high standard with competing (or is that complementary) curries from Barry M0DGQ and Steve 2E0SDD. One final challenge was sliding a £1 coin towards a 1l bottle of whiskey, the one nearest being the winner, who was Roger.

The Club is hosting the Advanced Examination tomorrow, Monday evening 5th December 2011. Four intermediate license holders; Paul 2E0CVU, Stu 2E0NYC, Mark 2E0RKX and Paul 2E0DBL are in the hot seat.  Lead instructor Chris, G0EYO commented, “I know I speak for everyone in wishing them all the best of luck and hope to hear of their new M-Zero callsigns before Xmas”.

Good luck chaps.

This edition covers the Bat Detector by Barry, M0DGQ, Lord Pettitt’s Shooting Party and an outline of Chris, G7DDN.

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