wythall radio club

A certain law predicts that as soon as one says things have gone quiet, they start perking up again!  Following the last published post, it came to our attention that Wythall Radio Club member Dave G3YXM had that very morning received a most unexpected surprise, courtesy of Royal Mail!

In the post arrived a letter and a rather fine commemorative plaque from Giulio, I2FGT on behalf of the IQ2MI 500 kHz Propagation Beacon Group.

The accompanying letter reads…  “The IQ2MI 500 kHz Group sends you this plaque as a token of thanks for having made your “grabber” available to the community of Radio Amateurs, giving us the opportunity to verify the propagation day and night of our beacon on a path of 1113 km.”

Amateur Transmissions recently ended on the 500 kHz Band as we now have an allocation at 472 kHz instead. However, most of the tests that led to the official award of these frequencies to the Amateur Community are assisted by hobbyists such as Dave taking such a keen interest in propagation.

So well done to Dave and we are sure he will be looking forward to working a few of you on 472 kHz this year!

It might seem to folk looking in from the outside that not much is happening at Wythall Radio Club just now. Well nothing could be further from the truth!

The fact is that many of us are now so busy monitoring our club frequencies (and using them!) that both this website and our club email reflector have seen an equivalent decline in activity! Long may that continue!

Since the whole point of being a Radio Amateur is to “have fun with RF”. as our club motto suggests, then it seems entirely appropriate that while there may be less chatter via computer,  there is most definitely a lot more going on on the airwaves!

Following the excellent turnout for Wythall Radio Club’s Christmas Contest (see below!), we have decided to try out a new way of getting members on air all year round. Our new Activity Ladder scheme starts in a few hours time at midnight on 1st February.

The idea of this is to give points whenever club members work each other. It is not a contest as such; there is no exchange to record, for example. However, whenever members work each other, rag-chew style, they can enter that contact in their new club logging spreadsheet.

This clever piece of coding allocates points depending on who they are working. The Club Station is worth 10 points, the Chairman 9, Secretary and Treasurer 8 and 7 respectively, and Committee Members 6 points. Ordinary Members are worth 5 points. In addition, members can claim bonus points for working mobile, portable, from each other’s stations and for operating our Club Callsign G4WAC.

Each month, our Ladder Co-ordinator Colin M0GJM, will produce a “League Table” of how members are doing and we hope this will encourage all of us to come on the air more to chat with each other.

Time will tell of course, but early indications are good, in that several members are reputed to be awaiting the “off” with some anticipation!

This evening has seen the announcement of the Wythall Radio Club Christmas Contest results and what an exciting evening it has proved to be!

Chris G0EYO receives the G7OJO Trophy

Participation in this event has gone through the roof again and for the 3rd year running all records have been broken.

The overall winner in the Open Section, and thus the winner of the Reg Brown G7OJO Trophy for 2013 is Chris G0EYO. David G7IBO finished in second place and Chris G7DDN picked up the 3rd place certificate.

Lee G0MTN presents Stu M0NYP with the 2m FM Trophy

In the 2 metre FM section, it was Stu M0NYP who came out on top, just pipping the “Voice of the Midlands” Jim 2E0BLP into second place. Third was a very creditable showing from Ian M0IDR, as he lives a long way from the club near Evesham.

Over 50 club members were on air during the contest making this the most inclusive event ever in the Club’s History.

Our thanks to Lee G0MTN for sterling work on the organisation, adjudication and software fronts – and for putting adjudicating our contest ahead of some small event he also helps adjudicate called “CQ Worldwide”!!!

Every year between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, Wythall Radio Club holds its Christmas Contest.

Club Member Sylwia M3SSP
A rare multiplier in the Christmas Contest!

Designed to encourage activity between our 70+ members, it has become a firm favourite with just about everyone. Indeed some people have been known to join the club just to take part in this event!

It is designed as a relaxed fun “party” exchanging serial numbers and generally having fun on air in keeping with our club motto. It has to be said though, it does bring out the competitive side in more than a few!

There are two trophies up for grabs as well and this Tuesday at 2030, we have our “Results and Presentation” evening. Adjudicator Lee G0MTN has been very busy wading through 40 or so Excel logbooks (designed by club members just for this event) and he will have come up with two winners. They will be presented with the G7OJO Trophy and the 2m FM trophy this week. Other certificates will be given out too.

This is one of the most anticipated evenings in the Wythall RC calendar so space is likely to be limited – an early arrival is advised! Tuesday 29th January at 2030 at Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ. Visitors, as always, are very welcome!

It is with regret that we advise members that long-time Wythall Radio Club member, Alan G0HBC, passed away on Friday 5th of January 2013 at the age of 90 years. Alan will be greatly missed by his wife Rosemary, his three sons and his family and friends.

Alan was a very active member of the club from the early 1980’s until the late 1990’s when hearing problems forced him to give up the amateur radio hobby. He was known as a kind gentleman, who served his country in the RAF during World War II, including spending some time as a POW. He also served in his local church.

We are proud to have known you Alan. Thank you and RIP.

A fuller appreciation of Alan’s life can be found here.

The results are out for the RSGB Club Calls 1.8 MHz Contest and it’s great news for the members of Wythall Radio Club!

51 Club Teams from across the UK took part and Wythall Radio Club’s ‘A’ team of G7WAC, G3YXM, G7DDN & G4WAC finished in overall 3rd place. A great effort and winners of the certificate pictured!

Our ‘B’ team of Pete M0COP, Don G0NES, Jim 2E0BLP & John G4MTG finished 16th and even our ‘C’ team (we were the only UK club with a ‘C’ team!) of Pete M5DUO, Barry M0DGQ, David G7IBO & Alf G1MJO finished 40th out of the 51 entrants!

In the individual scores, 3 of Wythall Radio Club’s stations finished in the top 10 (from 73 entrants) with G7WAC (operated by Callum M0MCX, Jon M0JMM & Stu M0NYP) ending up in 6th place. Dave G3YXM was 8th and Chris G7DDN came 9th.

In the Club table, G4WAC (operated by Lee G0MTN, Mike G4VPD, Stan G4JGV, Mark M0RKX & Phil 2E0WTH) finished 9th out of 33 Club stations.

The full results are tabulated at the RSGB’s HF Contest Website. Meantime our congratulations go to the 18 members who took part on air, plus the support teams who helped out with food, drink and in so many other ways! Special thanks to Dave G3YXM who co-ordinated all the efforts.

Great fun and we will be back next year!

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!