wythall radio club

Steve G0TAN with his best friend, an IC-7300!

Advance notice for a couple of events coming up at Wythall Radio Club before the end of the month. 

Programme Co-ordinator John G3VRF explains, “On Friday 23rd February, Steve Venner G0TAN, Engineering Workshop Manager from Martin Lynch & Sons is driving up from London to give us a talk on ‘Life on the Other Side’.

He’ll be talking about issues encountered when repairing equipment and why some of that equipment needed repairing in the first place!” Sounds fascinating!

Please note this is a change of evening from our normal schedule, so pop Friday 23rd Feb in your diary and see you in the Darts room at Wythall House B47 6LZ at 8.00pm. Visitors, as always, are welcome.

Following that, on Tuesday 27th Feb, Chris G7DDN will be doing a presentation on “Network Radios – The Next Big Thing?”  This is a fascinating insight into how the latest technology is expanding the range and scope of Amateur Radio. It will also touch on exactly what Ham Radio may look like in the 21st Century. Chris will be giving this talk again for visitors to the Wythall Hamfest on Sunday 25th March, so if you cannot make it on 27th Feb, don’t despair, there is a repeat!

We look forward to seeing you at these events. If you are first-timer, please feel free to come along unannounced – we will give you as warm a welcome as we can!

Lee G0MTN presents Kevin 2E0NCO with the FM Trophy

Last night at Wythall Radio Club, it was celebration time! It was results night for our annual Christmas Contest. 

As is normal, the competition for the top slots is always very intense, but this year we had a new winner of the G7OJO Trophy.

Dave M0IFT, one of our relatively newer members, snatched the top spot by one QSO and one Multiplier from long-time contest stalwart and many-times winner, Jim 2E0BLP.

In the 2m/70cms FM only section though, the trophy was won by Jim’s son Kevin 2E0NCO, thus keeping it in the family, at least! Runner-up in this section was our club Treasurer Ian, M0IDR with an excellent effort from his home location near to Evesham.

As always, our members had lots of fun and several of our more recent additions to the WRC “family” appear to have caught the “bug”, as threats of antenna improvements and power increases have already been made!

We have our next Club Contest over the Easter weekend, so that will be the time to see if the threats become reality…

More pictures below…

Although not supported directly by Wythall Radio Club, one of our members, Pete G8CQH is closely involved with the 432 MHz UHF repeater near Banbury on Edge Hill, GB3EH. 

Pete was one of the founding lights of GB3EH and he informs us of some important news regarding the repeater.

GB3EH has changed channel – for many years it was on 433.200MHz with +1.6MHz split. This has now changed to 430.9625MHz with a +7.6MHz split. CTCSS tone access is 67Hz.

Eagle-eyed repeater users in the Midlands will notice this is right next door to the Wythall repeater GB3WL, which is on 430.950MHz.

On the one hand that is very useful; on the other hand, we hope there are no difficulties operating the two repeaters so closely together in frequency!

We are sure you will let us know if there are any problems…

Find out more about GB3EH by clicking here.

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to announce that the conversion of our UHF repeater station is nearly complete.

The new GB3WL was installed just before Christmas and was initially put into Fusion/Analogue Dual Mode for the festive season.

Reports so far have been excellent with coverage slightly improved on the old relay station and proving to be much closer to the coverage map expectations. Click on the map for more detail.

Last night, D-STAR was also activated for the first time and while not all reflectors are quite available yet, all the DCS reflectors are working on the repeater and it is left linked to DCS005H, the Worcestershire Reflector as a default.  Feel free to connect it elsewhere if you wish, but good protocol is to reconnect it to DCS005H when you are finished.

We will update the website when other permissions come through and other systems are linkable.

Meantime, we hope amateurs across South Birmingham will enjoy having two new Digital Modes to use via GB3WL.

Further information on GB3WL is available on this page.

The members of Wythall Radio Club wish all radio amateurs worldwide the very best of New Year wishes. May all your New Year desires come true in 2018!

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 2018 with lots of events planned and a full programme of events to keep members happy.  See our events page for details!

The very latest January 2018 edition of the famous Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is now available.

Just click here or on the Newsletter icon on the left of this article to access it.

Featured this issue are a report on the club trip out to Martin Lynch’s Hog Roast; first impressions of 2 new DMR Radios; a first PICAXE project; a fascinating personal account of getting into the Amateur Radio Hobby; and 17-year-old Jamie’s entry in the  CQ Worldwide Morse Contest.

There’s more than that too, so don’t delay – download your issue free today!

Leanne & Sam present Harry with his new radio

Meet Wythall Radio Club Member Harry Bacon. 

At the tender age of 8, Harry is currently the youngest member we have. Along with his dad, he recently passed his Foundation Exam and is now the proud holder of the shiny new callsign M6NKW. 

A few days ago, Harry was congratulated by our friends (and Wythall Hamfest sponsors) from Radioworld.

On a trip up to their shop near Cannock, a very excited young man was presented with a new dual-band Handheld transceiver. (Click the photo for a larger picture).

Now Harry is looking forward to getting on the air and getting more experience before tackling the Intermediate License.

He is already learning Morse Code at our club Morse class and learning it very quickly, so we hear. We at Wythall Radio Club wish him all the best.

Listen out for Harry in our Club Christmas Contest from 26th December – you might even have a contact with him via our repeater GB3WL.

Christmas is coming early to Wythall Radio Club this evening.  Here’s programme co-ordinator John G3VRF with more details… 

“Ho! Ho! Ho!… and what would you like Santa to bring you this year for Christmas? Well Christmas is coming to the club tonight, not with Kris Kringle, but with Chris G7DDN who will be looking at some of those wonderful Amateur Radio toys that could be around your Christmas tree this year.”

“Whether you can afford a top of the range transceiver or a crystal set based on a piece of coal, Chris will be covering it all.”

“So it’s time to gather in our basement Grotto at 8.30pm tonight. Get your seat early or you could be sitting on Santa’s knee!”

The latest Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is out now!

Find your copy by clicking here or on the newsletter graphic to the left of this post.

Articles this edition include… Six Decades of Morse Keys, an update on Club Contests, some news about our 3-15 evenings and a report of John M6KET’s adventures at the Essex CW club event.

As always, there’s loads more besides too, so just click here and enjoy!

Further to the post about Mark M0LXQ below, it’s now the turn of another Wythall Radio Club member John M6KET, to be a winner! 

Retired teacher John told us, “…just returned from a CW (Morse Code) Boot Camp run by the excellent Essex CW Club with some 30 delegates put through their paces by hardened professionals (well, keen amateurs!)”

“Honest feedback received on both my sending and receiving was handed out, as well as lectures on all things CW from keys to building your own speed monitor.”

“As I was the delegate who had travelled  the furthest, I won a CG Antenna PK-4 CW Pocket Keyer (sponsored by our friends from ML&S)”

John runs our well-known Morse Training Classes on Tuesday evenings here at Wythall and we congratulate him on a great day out and a new piece of kit for the shack!

Well done John!