wythall radio club

Exam time again at Wythall Radio Club and tonight it was the turn of the Intermediate Licence students. And our largest ever single class of Foundation licence holders are now all celebrating Intermediate success!

Paul, Howard, Howard, Andy, Tom, Darren and Rob show off their pass certificates

Seven students (pictured) successfully passed their exam with flying colours this evening and now lead instructor Chris G0EYO is looking to headhunt them to step up and have a go at the Advanced course which starts at Wythall in September.

Meantime the members of Wythall Radio Club send their congratulations to Paul, Andy, Tom, Darren, Rob and the 2 Howards.

UPDATE! We hear that Rob is now 2E0MEX, Darren 2E0LPD, Howard H 2E0TBR, Howard K 2E0KWH, Tom 2E0GSW, Andy 2E0VAZ and Paul 2E0ULC – Congratulations on the new callsigns, lads!

There is a section of the Ham Radio hobby, the fastest growing we are led to believe, which is known as “Radio Sport” or “Contesting”. The idea is to make as many contacts (exchanging the correct information of course!) within a specified time period. It is a very big part of the hobby of many a Radio Amateur!

To get Wythall Radio Club members in the mood to have a go at a big contest, our “top gun” Radio Sportsman, Lee G0MTN, is putting together one of his famous presentations to enthuse us to all to have a go at the next worldwide event, the CQ Magazine World Prefix Contest (known as CQ WPX) on the last weekend of this month.

There will be plenty of big gun stations like OH8X on the air!

You could try it out from home or even from our well-equipped club shack.  It is not too difficult to achieve a DXCC award (100 countries contacted) in one weekend during this contest!

So if you have little or no idea what the “contesting” bug is like, why not come and catch it at Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ this Tuesday at 2030?  Lee will be giving an introduction to all-band HF contests in general as well as this contest in particular.

There is even a rumour, that to encourage participation within the club, there may even be a “contest-within-a-contest” that we’ll run, just for fun, to encourage members’ activity in the WPX contest.

I wonder if there will be a prize in the form of a liquid refreshment for the winner? :-)

We’ve integrated a cool Facebook Like button for your delight. If you like one of our articles, just click the Like button.

If you are already logged into Facebook, your Like will be reflected in your status and your profile picture will also be picked up from Facebook and displayed under the Like button.

Give it a go and hit Like now :)

73, Callum.

Nice to see the national journal of the Radio Society of Great Britain is catching up with us here at Wythall Radio Club! :-)

“RadCom” is published monthly and Wythall RC member Dave G3YXM is one of their regular columnists, writing the LF (Low Frequencies) column.

In his column for April, which has just been published (page 48), is a mention (and photo) of an item that appeared on our website here just over a month ago. Click here to see it!

Amusing that, at least this time, Wythall RC’s website is setting the trend! :-)

2013 Wythall Radio Club Rally

What a fantastic day! Traders, club members and well over 500 visitors combined to overcome some minor obstacles to make the 2013 Wythall Radio Rally one of the best ever!

So a huge thank you to all involved; to our traders, many of who travelled long distances from the middle of the night to get to us early; to all our club members, who were involved in the menial tasks from putting out road signs to printing leaflets and humping tables and traders’ wares in and out of the halls; and to you, our visitors, for turning out in force in very cold weather, on Mother’s Day to boot, and having to cope with a few parking issues that were, thankfully, not of our making.

Pictures follow (click the link below)

Read the rest of this entry →

David G0ICJ prepares the Bring And Buy stall for tomorrow

Yes friends, the Wythall Radio Rally 2013 is almost upon us!

Members have been busy this afternoon preparing the halls at Woodrush School, Wythall, for the annual event that is the highlight of our year!

Called “Hamfests” by our cousins across the pond, radio rallies are an important part of UK club activities.  The modest fee (£2.50 in our case) that you pay on our door goes towards keeping our club going, and without the club there would of course be no rally next year, so to some extent it is self-perpetuating; come to our radio fair and there will be another one next year for you!

It takes 3 people (Steven 2E0SDD, Callum M0MCX and Dave G3YXM) to erect the antenna for the talk-in station!

As we half-expected, parking may be a small issue this year.

The school fields where we normally park are waterlogged after the massive amounts of rain and snow we have experienced this winter, so visitors will need to find on-street parking in the vicinity and walk a short distance to us.

We would ask that, since the school is in a primarily residential area, visitors remain aware of this and park with consideration for our local residents. Use talk-in on 145.550 MHz and watch out for our helpers as you approach for further assistance.

We can’t wait to see you tomorrow! We hope you have a great day!

Wythall Radio Club’s annual radio and electronics fair (known to Hams in the UK as  a “rally”) takes place this coming Sunday 10th March.

Members are pulling out all the stops to make sure that, whether you are a trader or a visitor, you enjoy your visit to us. This Tuesday, our weekly club meeting will be taken up with our final preparations for the big day. Visitors are, of course, welcome on Tuesday, though be warned, you may end up with a job to do on the day! :-)

The Wythall Rally itself takes place at Woodrush School, Shawhurst Lane, Wythall, (B47 5JW for those who have SatNavs!) and doors open at 10.00am.

It is worth noting that we may have less room for on-site parking this year, depending on the waterlogged state of the school playing fields where we normally are allowed to park. We will try to update you via the website nearer the time so that you know in advance if you need to park a little further away than normal in order to get to us. Talk-in will also advise you on 145.550MHz FM on the day.

Whatever the case, we look forward to welcoming you to one of Ham Radio’s best days out in the Midlands!

Wythall Radio Club members were certainly living up to their motto of “Having Fun with RF” last night!

Barry M0DGQ assists David G7IBO (left) & Juliet M6RSC

20 members crowded into the club classroom, soldering stations at the ready, to have a go at building the M0DGQ designed TRF Radio Receiver. In truth, most of us did not know what to expect, but Barry, the project designer, handed out our bags full of components and led us very professionally through the build. Suffice it to say that it did get rather warm with 20 or so soldering irons adding to the general bodily warmth(!) and as the photos show, things were a little cramped!

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

Nonetheless, all the participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves and much banter was heard during the 2½ hour session. We had started at 1930 but had to wrap up by 2200 as we were all getting too tired!

A couple of folk managed to finish the project to the point where they could get their receivers tested by Barry, but the rest will either be finished at home or at this Friday’s shack social evening.

Many comments were heard to the effect of “we must do more of this”. However, the preparation involved was considerable so thanks must go to designer and teacher Barry M0DGQ for his time and efforts in sourcing materials and preparing the project so well. We do indeed look forward to doing more construction work!

Further to yesterday’s post, we can now announce that all trader spaces  for the 2013 Wythall Radio Club Rally have now being booked. We thank our valued traders for their support for our event.

Perhaps this is a reminder that the popularity of Wythall Radio Club Rally, being ever growing, means that early booking for 2014 will almost certainly be essential!

Among our visitors this year are our friends from Radioworld, W H Westlake, JAB Electronics, Sandpiper, Bowood Electronics, FISTS CW Club, Czech Army Morse Keys, Surpelectronics, WonderWand Antennas UK, Peter Hall Embroidery (for those fancy embroidered callsign shirts!) and many more.

Click and take a look at our floor plans for full details.

The 2013 Wythall Radio Club Rally is just a fortnight away!

This is a day long event (this year on Sunday 10th March), where radio related traders from all over the UK descend on Woodrush School, Shawhurst Lane, Wythall, (B47 5JW for those who have SatNavs!) and ply their wares to radio, computer and electronics hobbyists of all kinds. It’s a fun day and you are sure to come away with a bargain or two!

Doors will open at 10.00 am and it is worth getting there early to snap up the bargains which will doubtless be on offer! And the real bonus is the £2.50 entrance fee – Wythall is still one of the least expensive events in the UK and has a reputation for being one of the friendliest.

Wythall Club Members are keying themselves up for a busy weekend on 9th/10th March as to put this event on involves a huge effort from everyone connected with the club.

Plans are being finalised to make sure the day goes as smoothly as possible. More updates will appear on this website so watch this space!