wythall radio club

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.

Hot off the press from our esteemed Treasurer, Ian M0IDR…

Martin Lynch and staff awaiting Wythall Radio Club’s arrival!

“The paint was hardly dry on our new Kenwood TS590S when yet more good news arrived from our friends at Martin Lynch and Sons. Wythall Radio Club has won the MLS raffle which ran for the duration of the National Hamfest! Our prize is a very generous £600 gift voucher to be spent on goodies at Martin Lynch’s shop!

Our sincere thanks go to Martin, who not only gave us an unbeatable deal on our new TS590S but has now given the Club the opportunity to add further value to the Club Station. We will enjoy spending the voucher and we are already browsing the pages of the Martin Lynch website to choose some goodies!”

Peter Hart G3SJX’s talk on HF Transceivers

The annual RSGB Convention is a weekend of lectures and demonstrations with some good Ham Socialising added in! It was good therefore to see a few members of Wythall Radio Club getting down to Milton Keynes this weekend just gone to visit this prestigious event.

Tim M0URX with Chris G7DDN

Many friendships were revisited or even made anew.  It is surprising how many faces one is able to put to callsigns at the Convention. More specifically, Chris G0EYO was seen lurking on the Saturday while Chris G7DDN and Tim M0URX were even pictured there together on the Sunday! We even had some exciting news for the Club from Martin Lynch, but more of that in a day or two.

Perhaps next year we can expect a few more visitors from the club to make the short journey to Buckinghamshire for what is a superb programme put on by our National Radio Society.

An excellent weekend!

Chris G0EYO congratulates Roy Friar (right)

Wythall Radio Club’s training programme continues apace. A handful of candidates continue to study the Advanced License Course every Monday evening throughout the Autumn under the tutelage of lead instructor Chris G0EYO, but meantime, we have had yet another successful Foundation License Pass!

Roy Friar is the latest in a long line of folk to pass the Foundation License at Wythall and the happy candidate is pictured here with Chris G0EYO receiving his pass slip.

Roy will be doubtless foaming at the bit to get his callsign from the Ofcom website just as soon as he can! Meantime, we hear through the grapevine that he is yet another person who we will be seeing regularly at club nights – a little bird has even mentioned that he may be interested in starting to learn Morse Code! Tuesdays at 1945 Roy!

This coming Tuesday, Wythall Radio Club welcomes a speaker almost “white hot” from the RSGB Convention, Mark Hill G4FPH.

Mark is a friend of the club, often helping out at our annual Radio Rally, and has visited us before, educating us about such concepts as remote operation (interestingly, this coming Sunday, the RSGB Convention gets the benefit of his knowledge on that subject!)

A nice example of an Atlas 180

On Tuesday 16th however, Mark is coming to visit us at Wythall to share his encyclopaedic knowledge of the “Perfect Mobile Radio from Atlas Inc.”

Atlas radios are part of the venerable history of Ham Radio and Mark will doubtless be showing off some fine examples and explaining what HF mobile radio was like in the early days of Solid State Transceivers. Not to be missed – Tuesday 16th October at 2030 in the Darts Room in Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ

SPRAT (Small Powered Radio Amateur Transmitters) is the club magazine of the G-QRP Club, QRP being the amateur radio code for “low power”.  Many radio enthusiasts like to see how far their tiny QRP signals will travel, often from simple home-made transmitters, receivers and antennas.

Barry, M0DGQ, is one member of Wythall Radio Club who enjoys doing just this kind of thing and for the second time in recent months, one of his home-brew projects has appeared in the SPRAT journal. This time, it is a companion receiver to go with the transmitter he has already had featured for the 40m shortwave amateur band.

Getting an article into SPRAT is no mean feat, but then Barry is no ordinary amateur! Take a look at his homepages at m0dgq.co.uk to see what sorts of things Barry does with his hobby!

Meantime, congratulations to him for another top class article published for the world to enjoy!

It’s been a great year for Wythall Radio Club.

Just browsing through the posts on this website shows how busy members have been with all kinds of projects.

How good then, to see Wythall RC featured as one of the Amateur Radio Clubs in the 2013 RSGB Yearbook.

Since it is well known that “all publicity is good publicity”(!), it can only be a good thing that so many Radio Amateurs and enthusiasts will read of the Club’s most recent achievements.

The RSGB itself is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2013, so an even more appropriate edition of the yearbook to be featured in, we cannot think of! Visit the RSGB website to get more information and maybe even order your copy!

Thanks to our friends at Martin Lynch & Sons and Kenwood UK, Wythall Radio Club is now the proud owner of a top-notch transceiver in the club shack.

The Kenwood TS-590S is a very high performance radio, capable of excellent receive operation.  The old adage “If you can’t hear them, you can’t work them” is certainly true. Receive performance is often the limiting factor in amateur radio communications. No longer for G4WAC! Wythall Radio Club has taken a leap into the 21st Century with the purchase of the TS-590S with its excellent specifications.

The ceremonial “unboxing” took place in the club shack last night and it wasn’t long before members were on the amateur bands working the world via our excellent triband beam on the club tower.

Our thanks once again to the staff at Martin Lynch and Kenwood UK for their help in securing an excellent deal for the club – this radio is going to get a lot of use!

Rockall – not just a name familiar from the UK Shipping Forecasts on Long Wave, but an extremely small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, and a very dangerous place to attempt a DXpedition to!

The Rockall Islet

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

Wythall Radio Club has recently purchased one of these and it seems a useful way in which to spend a dark Winter evening at the club. So be aware that on the 15th January next year, we will get to see one of the most dangerous DXpeditions to have taken place off our shoreline.  It cost over €35,000 to mount and sailing to Rockall in a Force 11 storm makes some interesting viewing too!

For a taster of what is to come, visit this link but then make sure you come along in January to the club to see (and hear) the whole story!