wythall radio club

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!

As the May edition of the Radio Society of Great Britain‘s monthly journal RadCom starts to drop into mailboxes around the world, it is pleasing to note Wythall Radio Club making a little bit of a splash here and there in this edition.

Club stalwart Dave G3YXM has written a 4 page article on page 32 entitled “Getting Started in Test Equipment” – and an excellently authored piece it is too!

In the Sport Radio column on page 73, it is pleasing to see Wythall’s name mentioned in the breakout box for our achievements in the 160m Club Calls Contest as part of the Affiliated Societies Super League.

And then in the regional news on page 84, there is an article about some of our recent exam successes.

All in all a good read this month, especially for Wythall members!

If you are tune around the 2 metre band in the West Midlands area between Maundy Thursday morning & Easter Monday night and hear some stations exchanging numbers, you might just have stumbled upon the 2014 Wythall Radio Club Easter Contest!

Just as at Christmas, we hold an event to get our members on air and working each other. Points are given for each member contacted – 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 keeps score for us!

Just to ease the complication, tomorrow (Tuesday 14th April) we will have an evening where we can explain the idiosyncrasies of this annual event. Chris G7DDN will attempt to simplify the rules and the logging so that everyone can feel comfortable in taking part. 2030 in the Club Shack at Wythall House, Silver Street. B47 6LZ.

Incidentally, the prizes for the contest are Easter Eggs – is it no wonder so many Wythall RC members are getting ever larger?

We are very fortunate that,very near to Wythall Radio Club, lies possibly one of the best Indian restaurants in the area! The Monsoon is very popular with families all around South Birmingham and people travel for miles to visit it for a meal out.

Since Monsoon is just a short walk from the club HQ, it is no surprise that the members of Wythall Radio Club use it for a regular social evening! 

For those who don’t know, the social side of being in an Amateur Radio “family” like this is really important. For example, every Friday several of us meet for nibbles and drinks in the club shack; our Field Days and Training days are also excuses for more food and drink; and then every last Monday of the month, as this evening (pictured!), we descend on the Monsoon in force and present the staff with the difficulties of catering for 15 or so hungry radio hams! It all helps the bonding between members.

Just another part of life at Wythall Radio Club – albeit one that has too many of us going on diets so we don’t end up more “shack-bound”!

Wythall Radio Club’s Contest training day yesterday proved to be a real success!

We achieved our goal of providing an opportunity for club members relatively inexperienced in HF contesting to have a no-pressure guided play on-air. It was particularly encouraging that so many of our Foundation Licence holders and newer club members got their first taste of the huge event that is the CQ World Prefix Contest.

Getting on for 20 members worked many countries including Australia, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Ceuta and Mililla, China, the Netherlands Antilles, Palau, Puerto Rico, Sardinia, the United States, Venezuela, and West Malaysia.

Special mentions go to Dawn M6UDY, John M1JSS, Kevin M6NCO, and Terry G7NWA who all really got stuck in in a serious way! Dawn M6UDY worked Australia with 100w to our club doublet, and Terry G7NWA, who has recently returned to the hobby, was running a pileup of USA stations on 15m just before we pulled the big switch late into the evening.

What with a fantastic takeaway meal as well, all eating around one of the large club tables, a great time was had by all, participants and spectators alike! The question we are being asked now is, “When’s the next one?”