Wythall’s radio signals span the world!
Radio signals from Wythall Radio Club members reached remote parts of the world – including New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Mali, Seychelles, Guinea-Bissau, British Virgin Island and South Korea.
The Club’s annual DX Table involves members logging their two-way radio contacts with other countries. 
In 2019, Tim MoURX was top of the Table with 165 countries. He was closely followed by Jamie M0SDV and Lee G0MTN with 145 and 142 respectively. These are all in the Full licence category where operators are allowed to use higher power.
John M6KET won the Foundation licence category with 78 countries contacted, using QRP (low power) – no more than 10 watts output and a simple wire antenna.
During the year he passed the exams for the Intermediate licence, and also won that category with 63 countries – but continued to use low power and a wire antenna. He operated 100% CW (Morse Code) rather than using voice transmissions.
It shows what can be achieved with simple equipment despite the poor radio conditions.
Special awards were made to several Wythall members for achievements during the year. 
Tim M6OTN (photo) contacted A73A in Qatar – a small country in the Arabian peninsular – with his basic antenna, a short mobile whip. He won the ‘piece of wet string’ award – so named as wet string can be used as a very basic antenna to transmit radio waves!
Chris G0EYO won the ‘midnight oil’ award for contacting 50 countries on Top Band (160 meters), again using low power and a simple wire antenna. The award is called ‘midnight oil’ because Top Band contacts can normally only be made during nightime, due to propogation conditions.
And Neil M0LUH won the ‘pipped at the post’ award for achieving 99 countries by 31 December (the closing date for the DX Table competition) – but then contacting what would have been his 100th the next day!
The competition is also open to short-wave listeners who don’t have a transmitting licence.
If you don’t have an amateur radio licence, but would like to gain one, then come along to our Club one Tuesday evening or see the ‘Training’ section of the web site. A warm welcome awaits you.
There was intense competition in the ‘all modes/all bands’ section and little to separate the top three places. Success went to David G7IBO, who won the G7OJO Trophy (photo left). Ian MoLQY and Chris G0EYO were in second and third places.
Although radio conditions were not good during the evening, we did speak to stations in Germany, France and Scotland using short-wave radio on the 80 meter band. We also used vhf radio on the 2 meter band, and had contacts with stations around Bimingham, Redditch and Cheltenham.
As December is ‘
The specially designed course provides you with an exciting introduction to the hobby. After passing the straight-forward multiple choice exam, you can obtain your own callsign for use when communicating with other radio amateur operators worldwide.
We will set a date for the practical assessments (usually done as a group on a Saturday) and the exam when we know how many people will be on the course. These should be done in January or early February.
Having gained some knowledge and experience, the evening concluded with the Brownies sending greetings messages by VHF radio to Jan M3YXM, another Club member operating from her home. 
Activity started at 1030 Saturday with a small team erecting antennas and operating tents – as well as the well-equipped kitchen!! Several Club members camped overnight, enabling some late night and early morning radio activity. Pack-up took place on Sunday morning. The location was in the fields near the Club’s base at Wythall Community Centre.
With free parking, we will do our best to accommodate as many cars as possible on-site.