wythall radio club

Time to get ready for your new Wythall Radio Club polo shirts, t-shirts and fleece  jackets!   The “club tailor”(!) Peter Hall will be visiting us this coming Tuesday evening.

Many regular folks will have noticed the recent proliferation of club branded wear.  Peter will be doing a demonstration of how the logos are created and how his bespoke computerised machinery makes the garments.  He will also make a few shirts on the night for any last minute orderers, and bringing some pre-ordered garments with him too.

His first visit in November was excellent but this time, we will be meeting in the Darts Room, which will allow us to see more “up close” just exactly what goes on!

We are looking forward to welcoming him again, this time with his wife, Carol.

Don’t forget to bring your wallets, folks!

Wythall Radio Club’s latest Foundation Course begins this evening.  With a full complement of students, we are hoping for yet more successes at Foundation level.

All at Wythall Radio Club send their best wishes to our new students for a successful course and we hope to hear new callsigns on the air come March.

Remember if you are interested in becoming a Radio Amateur or just have any queries with regards to what the Foundation Course is all about, just drop a line to Chris G0EYO at g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk anytime.  He will be more than pleased to give you any advice.

The Radio Society of Great Britain and Ofcom have reached agreement on the optional use of special callsigns for two significant events during 2012.

For the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, all UK amateur stations will have the option of applying for a variation to their licence if they wish, to use a special prefix for a five week period. This will add or substitute the letter “Q” in the place of the Regional identifier in the callsign. For the period of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, a similar facility will exist for a seven week period, using the letter “O”. Both the above facilities will also be available to Amateur Club licences, so expect to hear GQ4WAC and GO4WAC during this year!

More info at http://www.rsgb.org/news/articlelinks.php?id=0263

The Club’s programme of events on this website has been further updated and is now accurate to the end of September 2012.

October – December 2012 will be added shortly.

The latest issue of the Wythall Radio Club newsletter is now on-line and available.

January 2012 Newsletter (opens PDF in new Tab)

We are pleased to announce that all four of our candidates (pictured) who took the Advanced course and exam with us in December,  passed and gained their coveted M0 callsigns. Well done to them.

The Advanced course is not a walk in the park and requires a  lot of work and effort to slog your way through the 15 sessions of theory and  practise and then face a 2 hour, 62 question examination at the end of it. But  it is achievable as our record at Wythall shows. It is almost 100% pass over  the past 5 years. Our next course will be in September 2012.

Pictured left to right: Paul, M0TVU, Paul K. M0PYT, Stu M0NYP and Mark M0RKX

Very well done.

This edition covers the Bat Detector by Barry, M0DGQ, Lord Pettitt’s Shooting Party and an outline of Chris, G7DDN.

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New Zealand amateur radio operators have had their power limit raised from 500W to 1000W (1kW) although their national website is still showing no news to this effect.

Coming into force on 30th Nov 2011, their Radiocommuinications Regulations, section 5.5 state:

Except as provided to the contrary in this notice,
transmitter power output must not exceed 1000 watts peak
envelope power (pX), as defined in ITU Radio Regulation
1.157

RSGB currently have an open agenda item with Ofcom to discuss the power limits for UK amateurs. The objective is apparently be give contest stations in the UK a lift in their power limits. More news on this topic will probably come available sometime next year.

Chris, M3IKN has just called to tell us that his Birmingham University student team are payload testing their electronics prior to a meteorological balloon flight shortly. The transmitter is sending on 434.650, LSB using RTTY with 20mW power output to a small antenna. The team hope to capture the telemetry using a hand-held yagi.

If you are near Birmingham and fancy a listen, have a go. If you have digital modes, you may be able to decode their telemetry too. Be aware that the device if close to the ground right now so you may not hear much.

Their real flight is sometime soon. They are aiming for 100,000 feet. We’ll keep you up to date.