wythall radio club

On December 5th our four Advanced Course students (plus an outside candidate) took their examination at Wythall House. We are pleased to announce that four of those students passed the examination and now have the following M0 callsigns. Chris, 2E0ETH is now M0NAK; Tony, 2E0TKS now has the call M0TKS; Carl, 2E0CWC is now M0SER and external candidate Shaun 2E1BWN is now M0IMM. Jim 2E0BLP didn’t quite make it but may have another go in 2013.

The Advanced Course covers a large number of technical topics in some depth and passing the exam is a real achievement, essentially equivalent to an NVQ qualification. It is also the longest course the club runs with 15 two hourly sessions on Monday evenings and a couple of Saturday mornings. We can run these courses because of the commitment and expertise of Lead Instructor & Training Coordinator, Chris G0EYO together with his fellow tutors, Peter G4LWF, Barry M0DGQ and Dave G3YXM assisted by invigilators David G0ICJ and Mike G4VPD. It surely is a true team effort.

As a club, we are lucky to have the facilities of a classroom with multimedia technology at our disposal. Our next Advanced course will commence in September 2013. Meantime Wythall Radio Club will be running an Intermediate course at our well-equipped club shack at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall, B47 6LZ starting with a Saturday morning session on 26th January, and then every Monday 8-10pm until the examination, which will be on Monday 18th March. The cost for this course is just £50. This includes the examination fee, the course book, course notes and project work. There are small concessions for those under 18 or unemployed and on benefits. Contact Chris G0EYO on g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk for more details and let Wythall Radio Club help you to the next stage of your license.

Wythall Radio Club’s Chairman Mike Pugh G4VPD is celebrating today with the release of a new set of contest results. Mike has been our stalwart performer and has hit the top spot in the RSGB’s 144MHz UK Club Activity Contests throughout 2012.

Taking place every first Tuesday evening for 2.5 hours, the idea is to make as many contacts as possible within that time-frame. Mike won outright the “AL” Section of this event where only low power and one antenna may be used at any one time.

As the RSGB’s Contest Website reports… “G4VPD was the run-away winner scoring 7976 (points), topping the table in seven of the twelve sessions”. Even more remarkable is that Mike didn’t actually operate in all 12 events in the year – he actually missed January and December’s contest nights!

His scores and that of other members who took part lifted our club to 15th position out of 92 UK Radio Clubs who entered. We are very proud of these achievements and give our thanks and congratulations to Mike and all the other folk who came on during the year to get points for Wythall RC.

If you are interested in having a go yourself next year, click this link but be aware that the next session is on, wait for it… New Year’s Day! Will anyone be awake enough to take part?

Not long to go now before one of the events of the year in the Wythall Radio Club Christmas Calendar. Our in-house Christmas Contest started from small beginnings and is now a major part of the club’s calendar. Some amateurs have been known to join our club just to take part!

The G7OJO Trophy
& its little brother!

The idea is to work as many members as possible each day from 2000 on Christmas Eve till 2000 on New Year’s Day. You are allowed to work stations each day for points but each station worked also counts as a “multiplier” to your total score. So to win, you need to work as many members as you can across the 9 days but also try to make lots of contacts with those members every day too! As if Christmas wasn’t busy enough as it is! Your best 5 days totals are sent in and the adjudication team sorts the wheat from the chaff and declares the winners at a presentation evening in January. They are presented with the G7OJO Trophy and another as yet unnamed trophy (for members using 144 MHz only.)

So why are we telling you this now? Well this Tuesday 18th December, there is a presentation by Contest Supremo Lee G0MTN on the history and development of the Contest and on the innovations introduced in recent years, which include more points for using more bands and modes and a fantastic logging spreadsheet which scores you automatically!

It will be a fascinating evening for sure. So be there at 2030 this Tuesday 18th December in the Club Shack. It will be full so arrive early!

Tonight is the night that our four Advanced Course students (plus an outside candidate) take their examination at Wythall House. We wish club members Chris 2E0ETH and Jim 2E0BLP plus non-members Tony 2E0TKS and Carl 2E0CWC together with external candidate Shaun 2E1BWN the very best. We hope to hear their new M0 callsigns on the air as soon as they get them.

The Advanced Course covers a large number of technical topics in some depth and passing the exam is a real achievement, equivalent to an NVQ qualification.  It is also the longest course the club runs with 15 two hourly sessions on Monday evenings and a couple of Saturday mornings.

Chris 2E0ETH, Jim 2E0BLP & Tony 2E0TKS ready to roll

As Lead Instructor & Training Coordinator, Chris G0EYO has attended every session.

Nonetheless Chris paid tribute to his assistants. “Running this course would not be possible without the help and expertise of my fellow tutors, Peter G4LWF, Barry M0DGQ and Dave G3YXM together with invigilators David G0ICJ and Mike G4VPD. It surely is a team effort and I am sure all our candidates appreciate their efforts. As a club, we are lucky to have the facilities of a classroom with multimedia technology at our disposal.”

While we await tonight’s results, you might be interested to know that Wythall Radio Club will be starting an Intermediate course in January, so watch this space for more news!

This Saturday, 8th December, is a very special date in Wythall Radio Club’s Calendar. It is the date for our annual Christmas Party! Members come along and bring friends & family and we basically just have a lot of fun together!

We hire one of the larger rooms (with bar of course!) at Wythall House and have a mixture of excellent food and drink (in the “American Supper” style), live entertainment, games, raffles, and even a skittle alley!

Great chat, a relaxed friendly atmosphere and a “no pressure” environment, it’s the perfect way to start the festive season off with friends. This Saturday in the Britannia Room at Wythall House, Sliver Street, Wythall from 19:00.

What a fun day! Our first club visit to Martin Lynch’s shop in Chertsey, Surrey.

Six of us made the trip down a frosty, foggy M40 early this morning to enjoy the ML&S open day & hog roast and we were not disappointed! We arrived around 8.30am to find a Car Park space reserved for our Chairman Mike G4VPD. He won’t live that down in a hurry!

We then spent a happy few hours browsing the shop, enjoying a breakfast of unlimited free bacon sandwiches, free drinks and very friendly chat with the ML&S staff.

G5HY from Kenwood(UK) presents Mike G4VPD with our £600 voucher

This was also the day when we were presented with our £600 voucher, won in the ML&S raffle at the National Hamfest in September, to spend in store. Kenwood’s David Wilkins G5HY was on hand to present the voucher, which was very promptly exchanged in part payment for a Kenwood TS-590S!

Needless to say, there were a few other pre-Christmas deals done and Santa obviously came VERY early for all the members who travelled down!

A hot pork lunch and more drinks and soon it was time to leave, but not before we felt we had made a few new friends in the South-East.

Many thanks to Martin, Richard and all the staff and Martin’s family at ML&S. We look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.

There’s an exciting day in Wythall Radio Club’s calendar coming up this Saturday.

A group of members is travelling down to the Radio store of our friends Martin Lynch and Sons. Wythall Radio Club won the ML&S raffle which ran for the duration of the National Hamfest in September.  We are very much looking forward to receiving our prize, a £600 gift voucher to be spent on goodies in the shop!

Martin personally gave us an unbeatable deal on our new club radio, the Kenwood TS590S, and we look forward to meeting him again, together with David Wilkins G5HY from Kenwood UK who will be presenting our members with their goodies.  Needless to say we will be partaking in the famous ML&S Hog Roast as well as purchasing more radio bits for ourselves and for the club.  In the words of Wallace and Gromit, it should be “a grand day out!”

Imagine your correspondent’s surprise when he received a large A4 size letter postmarked from the USA recently!

Not expecting anything from “across the pond”, it was opened with a mixture of anticipation and wonderment.  It turned out to be a certificate for a placing in the 2011 CQ Worldwide Contest for CW.

Now this was a surprise! I had forgotten entering this event, probably as I only operated for a short time and made just 19 contacts on just one band, 80 metres.  It turned out that I had won 1st place in England in the Low Power section for a Single Operator on 80 metres. OK, so I was about 4th from the bottom in the world, but as no-one else from England had bothered to enter that section, I won it! Rather a nice piece of wallpaper for the radio room, methinks!

See, it’s always worth submitting an entry to a contest. You never know what can happen!

A strange title admittedly, but then not every radio ham is adept or as knowledgeable as they might be about antennas. That’s why, this coming Tuesday 6th November, Callum M0MCX will be telling us more about the basics of wire antennas for shortwave.

On another tack, this week’s offering is a good example of how being in a club like Wythall Radio Club can work for you. Someone posted on our internal email reflector that they needed help with an antenna and apart from getting that help, it prompted Committee Member Callum to offer one of his famous “short talks” so we could all benefit.

Most members know what we mean when we say Callum’s approach to presentations is… well… “unique”. Hence this week’s talk title, “Wire Antennas for Dummies”!

So why not come along to the Club Shack this Tuesday at 2030 to Wythall House on Silver Street and find out more? You will be made most welcome!

Dave Pick G3YXM (left) receiving the Wortley-Talbot Trophy for best technical article in RadCom from RSGB President Dave Wilson M0OBW in 2010

Wythall Radio Club member Dave Pick G3YXM has received an honourable mention from Ofcom this month.  It was for his assistance in and contribution to the success of the London 2012 Olympics. The statement from Ofcom reads “We could not have provided such a good service to our customers without (your) help”

Dave was one of the Spectrum Engineers in Ofcom’s “River Zone” team. He worked primarily at the ExCel Centre and in North Greenwich for the duration of both the Main Games and the Paralympics. He was one of 7 UK Radio Amateurs singled out for praise in the official statement made by Ofcom, which has been published in the November issue of RadCom, the Radio Society of Great Britain’s monthly journal.

Needless to say, Wythall Radio Club is also very proud of the work Dave did during the Olmypics.  Dave is well known to many via his regular LF column in the RadCom magazine, as he is also one of the UK’s foremost authorites on LF (Low Frequency) design and operation.