wythall radio club

It’s finished and ready to go, almost!

Wythall Radio Club’s new 70cms repeater GB3WL is getting ever closer.

The modified Tait unit’s inner workings have been completed on the test bench of G1YFF in Cambridge and delivered to the club for public show at tomorrow night’s (Tuesday 10th June) Committee Meeting.

Repeater Keeper Dave Pick  G3YXM said, “This is another milestone in our repeater project. It is great to have the repeater complete and ready to go. As soon as the license to operate GB3WL arrives, we will aim to get the repeater on the air as quickly as possible”

Another recent development has seen Wythall Radio Club gain a community grant towards GB3WL’s antenna system.  A spanking brand-new commercial 4 stacked folded dipole array will be in use for GB3WL, courtesy of club member John Smout M1JSS and his employers, our friends at Western Power Distribution. We hope to have more news on this exciting development soon. 

So while we await the Notice of Variation that allows GB3WL to become “live”,  it seems that Wythall members have more than a little antenna rigging work to do!

Wythall – Gateway to the World!

The members of Wythall Radio Club have something to celebrate. The club is supporting a new Internet Simplex Gateway for Digital Ham Radio.

MB6IWL is a D-STAR gateway and it’s situated in Major’s Green, a nearby village. The project has been in the pipeline for a little while now; it was inspired by the number of club members who have been taking advantage of a rather good offer from our friends at Martin Lynch & Sons. He has been discounting the Icom ID-31E handheld transceiver and several members have been relieving him of them!

With around 12 Wythallians now on the D-STAR mode, it seemed a good idea to have a way of accessing the D-STAR Internet Reflectors world-wide, and so MB6IWL was born. Clearance from Ofcom was swift and the Gateway is on air daytimes as of now.

There is more information about the Gateway here, and though supported by Wythall Radio Club, anyone passing through the area is very welcome to make use of it.

As if it weren’t enough that we have a story involving the BBC below, this Tuesday we have a BBC employee coming to give a presentation for us!

Dogger, Fisher, German Bight? Jim G4AEH is a man who may actually understand the shipping forecast!

Jim Lee is one of the voices of Radio 4, a continuity announcer if you like. Well someone has to introduce the Shipping Forecast!

However, Jim is also a licensed radio amateur, holding the callsign G4AEH. He is also known to many radio hams across the UK for his appearances at the RSGB National Convention where he acts as chief compere.

This Tuesday 20th May, Jim is visiting Wythall Radio Club to give a talk entitled “From Top Band to Radio 4” which will look at varying aspects of his life and hobby.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming Jim to Wythall. Why don’t you come and see too? This Tuesday at 20:30 in the Darts Room at Wythall house, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ.

Rob 2E0MEX contemplating buying a new rig!

Regular readers of this website will know that quite a few members of Wythall Radio Club have had a lot of media publicity, especially in the last year or two.

Well here is a slightly sideways appearance on local TV, courtesy of Rob 2E0MEX.

In a recent BBC Midlands Today piece, our friends at Coventry Amateur Radio Club put on a special event station to commemorate the birth of Birmingham comedian Tony Hancock (GB8TH) and ran it from his birthplace in Hall Green – and the first callsign they are heard working is… you guessed it… Rob 2E0MEX!

Of course, this comes as no surprise to Wythall members – Rob is one of the most active members on 144 MHz FM, especially on our club channel of 145.225 MHz. He works as a courier and is often out and about mobile, so has many opportunities to get on the air.

Nonetheless, rather a nice little mention of his callsign on the BBC. Well done, Rob!

Watch out D-STAR, the Voice of the Midlands is coming!

The members of Wythall Radio Club are preparing for a very special occasion this week, the 80th birthday of one of our long-standing members.

Jim 2E0BLP is a grand fellow who is Wythall to the core! Often to be heard on the club frequencies, Jim has a very distinctive voice and with his broad “Brummie” accent has become known in these parts as the “Voice of the Midlands”!

Anyone in the local area cannot fail to have noticed his strong signals especially on 2m FM. Jim was a very active CB-er many years ago and becoming somewhat disillusioned with the behaviour of some on those bands, he migrated to the Ham bands where he has found a home at Wythall Radio Club.

We will be celebrating in style this Friday (his actual birthday) but meantime at last night’s Committee meeting, Jim was presented with an Icom ID-31E, bought for him by all club members chipping in.

Welcome to the Digital age, Jim and here’s to another 80 years!

Mark M0MSE watches Cal M0MCX operating (with a windmill of sorts on top of the TS-990S!)

This weekend, members of Wythall Radio Club have been enjoying getting on air.

In the UK we have an activity where radio enthusiasts activate many of the various Mills that dot our country. Called “Mills on the Air” it attracts a lot of folk, both activators and chasers.

As sometimes happens, this year our original plans were scuppered at the last minute, so we instead went indoors to the club shack and activated the callsign we had applied for,  GB2DGW (Danzey Green Windmill) from Wythall.  The actual mill itself is now housed  in a museum of buildings, but our shack is, in actuality, closer to its original location than where it is now, so we felt justified in continuing our activation.

And just to make us feel at home, Phil 2E0WTH provided a small device to sit on top of the radio to remind us we were really a mill on the air! Great fun!

Quite a few Wythall Radio Club members are celebrating a late Easter this morning. That is thanks to the prizes they have garnered as the winners of our Club Easter Contest!

Simon G4TVR was delighted to finish 2nd! Why??

With chocolate eggs on offer as prizes, there was quite a flurry of activity on the air over the holiday weekend and at the results evening last night, Stuart M0NYP scooped one of the top prizes as winner of the All Bands section. A large Easter egg, a smart certificate and a special trophy in memory of Walter M0GRO was his reward.

Kevin M6NCO took away a similar batch of goodies for winning the 144MHz FM section. No surprise really, as the usual regular winner, his dad Jim 2E0BLP, has trained him well!

Second place Easter Eggs went to Simon G4TVR & Mark M0MSE and third place mini eggs were the rewards for Gavin M6GWG and Rob 2E0MEX.  Chairman Mike G4VPD picked up a special certificate for operating from his holidays in the Canary Isles back to Wythall to add some spice into the contest.

Now everyone is looking forward to our Club Christmas Contest again – but hang on folks, there’s the summer and autumn to have some fun with RF yet!

Now click on the thumbnails below for a look at the happy winners!

Now we are into the month of May, the thoughts of Wythall Radio Club members turn to a special event in honour of a special person. Former Club President, Lew Williams was not actually a licensed amateur but was a grand man who taught many 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.

Current Club President Chris G0EYO was the first winner of the trophy and last year it went to a Founder member, John G4OJL.

To kick off this year’s event, we are “Having fun with Morse Code” as a hands-on taster evening for all members next Tuesday 6th May. This will be led by John M6KET and Chris G7DDN who have been leading the revived Morse Code class for the last 3 years or so.

There will be something for everyone so no need to be apprehensive, even if you have never tried Morse Code before! 2030 in the Club Shack at Wythall House B47 6LZ. We hope to see you there.

The history of the great hobby of Amateur Radio is a fascinating one. It is a story of early pioneering spirit peppered with a spicing of intrigue and even conflict! It is this subject that we are going to be visiting this week at Wythall Radio Club.

Our national society, the RSGB, has put together a set of presentations for local clubs like our own to give. These look at the early days of Amateur Radio in the UK and how the RSGB itself came into being. Over the next few months we will be seeing all 4 of these presentations which cover a variety of subject matter.

Some of the earliest QSL cards!

Later in the year we will be looking at the first Transatlantic radio tests, the role of Amateurs in the World Wars and at the variety of Antenna Experiments that took place in the early days.

This Tuesday however sees the first in the series, which takes us back to the earliest days of Radio and sets the scene for the talks to come.

Visitors are welcome of course, so if you would like to come along, head for Wythall House on Silver Street, B47 6LZ this Tuesday. The presentation starts at 2030 in the Club Shack in the basement. See you there!