wythall radio club

Life so often seems to get in the way of the best laid plans, does it not?

While all the members of Wythall Radio Club have been looking forward to the results of our Christmas Contest, sadly our adjudicator, Lee G0MTN, has gone down with one of the many Winter sickness viruses that routinely does the rounds. The results presentation scheduled for this week has therefore had to be postponed, but the good news is only till next Tuesday!

Instead, this Tuesday, Chris G7DDN will lead an interactive discussion on the new Club Activity Ladder and related software.This is a new event in the club, which, depending on the uptake and demand, may end up being an all year round activity for club members. The support for the concept was overwhelming at the last full club meeting, so here’s a chance to see in more detail just what the fuss is all about!

Tuesday 22nd January at 2030 at Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ. Visitors, as always, are very welcome!

Almost every month at the moment, it seems one member or another of Wythall Radio Club is in the National Radio Press for some reason!

David G0ICJ operating the club’s new Kenwood TS-590S in the club shack

This month it is the turn of David G0ICJ, whose name and callsign appear in the February edition of RadCom, the national magazine of the Radio Society of Great Britain, out today. David appears in the Old Timer’s Honour Roll of Radio Amateurs who have had unbroken membership of the RSGB for 50 years or more.

David’s name appears in the 51 years list, alongside some other very well-known callsigns in the radio world, notably Peter Martinez G3PLX, inventor of the digital mode PSK31.  Don Beattie G3BJ, one of the leading lights in the reconstruction of the RSGB and Paul O’Kane EI5DI, writer of the very popular SD Contest logging software are also in the same list.

Our congratulations to David and here’s to another 50 years!

Rockall – a name familiar to most of us from the UK Shipping Forecasts on Long Wave, but what exactly is it?  An extremely small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, and therefore a very dangerous and inhospitable place to attempt a DXpedition to!

Rockall Islet

Indeed, not many have attempted it but one intrepid Belgian Group has; what is more, they made a DVD of their exploits so we can all share in the excitement of their trip.

Wythall Radio Club recently purchased one of these DVDs and next week, Tuesday 15th January, we will get to experience a little of what it felt like to mount one of the most dangerous DXpeditions to have taken place off our shoreline.  Costing over €35,000 to mount, that ‘s a lot of money to allow you to spend some of your valuable time on Earth sailing into a Force 11 storm!

For a taster of what is to come, you can visit this link but then make sure you come along this Tuesday at 2030 to Wythall House, Sliver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ to see (and hear) the whole story!

Following the very pleasant surprise about Wythall Radio Club winning the Martin Lynch and Sons Prize Raffle at the 2012 National Hamfest, it now seems the UK Amateur Radio press have cottoned on to the news too!

February’s edition of Practical Wireless magazine has just been released and it has an article about our day trip to the ML&S goodie store where Chairman Mike Pugh G4VPD together with other members received a cheque for £600 worth of radio goodies from the store.

Thanks to Rob Mannion, the editor of PW Magazine for picking this story up and giving the club another useful spot of publicity in the UK Amateur Radio scene.

Why not pop down to your local newsagent and get a copy?

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.