Busy Spring at Wythall RC!!
RadCom ‘Club News’ for April reported on Wythall Radio Club.
Here’s an edited version…..
It’s been a busy Spring at Wythall Radio Club.
Our annual Christmas Contest attracted keen competition between members. Lee G0MTN, our contest supremo, announced the results to an expectant meeting in mid-January, with the top scorers only separated by a few points.
David G7IBO won the 2/70cm FM section, and Mike G4VPD found a couple of extra multipliers to gain first place in the all-bands/all-modes section.
The 6-day competition involves Club members contacting eachother on various bands and modes, with bonus points and multipliers leading to keen competition – although there is always time to chat! We are delighted to report increased activity from members compared with previous years.
Lee GoMTN made remote QSOs from Poland, Munich, and the centre of Birmingham, using his mobile phone to access his home rig. There was much greater use of CW, with 5 members active most days.
Some QSOs were on 12 meters, where ground wave propagation enabled contact between members 10-15 miles apart. Good use was made of the Club 145.225MHz frequency and GB3WL repeater.
Our new members are making a very positive impact in the Club. Martin, who joined the Club in 2023 as an SWL, has made rapid progress through the exams with the help of tutoring by our training coordinator Chris G0EYO and the Bath scheme, and now has his full licence – M0XFI.
Like several other members, he participated in the Club’s ‘How low can you go?’ QRP month in January.
Impressive results were achieved using a maximum of 5 watts on CW and 10 watts on SSB/digital, including working north and south America and Asia. 
In our ‘miles per watt’ challenge, the top scorers were John 2E0XET with a stupendous 3543 miles/watt for his 1-watt CW qso with Virginia USA and Lee G0MTN’s 713 miles/watt from his 10-watt digital contact with Argentina.
The Club has a growing group of CW operators, many of whom used this mode to work other members during the Christmas Contest. Clive M0KNP, having recently achieved his full licence, is participating in the CWOps training programme (and just completed the first module – well done, Clive!) and made his first QSOs on the key, as has Neil G1TZC.
And not just CW operating! Chris G0EYO has continued the restoration of his historic Morse code key collection…. as you can read here.
In February, a large gathering of members welcomed Jamie M0SDV, to talk about the 8R7X dxpedition to Guyana that he co-led in 2024.
Jamie obtained his Foundation licence through our training scheme and is now a highly experienced contest and dxpedition operator and leading advocate for younger amateurs. His talk provided an amusing and insightful look at this very successful operation.
Our re-established Friday-in-the-Shack, held monthly, has a good attendance. The focus is ‘bring and show’ hands-on activity and technical discussion.
Recent sessions have covered John G3VRF’s modular QC100 rig and Phil 2E0WTH’s mag loop. 
Amateur television is an interest of Derek G1INC and Neil G1TZC’s – both also new members – including home-brewing gear. Thanks to their work, the Club has applied to host a SSTV repeater using the existing collinear on the chimney and spare 2-meter FM rig (this is now active, details here).
Club meets every Tuesday evening and visitors are always welcome here and at our special events, the programme for which is here and on our web site.