wythall radio club

Jamie 2E0SDV on the mic with Lee G0MTN logging at this year’s SSB Field Day

Great news today for the members of Wythall Radio Club.

We have just heard that we have finished in a “podium” spot in a European-wide contest.

Back in early September, a team of Wythallians took part in two concurrent events, the RSGB’s SSB Field Day Contest and the IARU Region 1 SSB Field Day Event.

The results of the EU contest have been released and our club station G4WAC/P finished in 3rd place out of the 15 entrants.

A very well done to all members involved, including team organiser Callum M0MCX and his “little helpers”, Lee G0MTN and Jamie 2E0SDV and everyone else who took part and supported our team.

A great result – and who knows? Maybe an even better result in 2016?

Lee in “contest” mode!

Well, kind of… To be more precise, one of the lectures from the 2015 RSGB Convention is coming to Wythall Radio Club this evening.

Lee G0MTN, who is a regular speaker at the RSGB event, is also a long-time member at Wythall Radio Club and is also one of the world’s top contesters.

Mind you, with a young daughter in tow, he hasn’t been able to be quite as active as in recent years (but that’s a different story!)

Tonight in the club shack, Lee will be giving the talk he gave in Milton Keynes last month entitled “HF Contest Station Design Tips”.

A talk from Lee is always eagerly anticipated at the club and tonight is no exception.

It’s a great evening to come along as a first-timer too so feel free to join us at Wythall House in Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ anytime from 2000 – the talk begins at 2030.

Click the picture once, then click again for more information on Jamie’s scores

Yet more good news for 15-year-old Wythall Radio Club member, Jamie 2E0SDV.  We have just heard that young Jamie has performed very well in the recent CQ Worldwide Radio Contest.

Jamie recently spent the majority of a 24 hour period on the radio, trying to get as many contacts as possible (without falling asleep for too long!) And it looks like he succeeded. Recent raw scores show him in 16th place in the world for his section, 40 metres low power.

Jamie’s licence restricts him to just 50 watts output power, but he certainly uses it to good effect. Using a SOTAbeams dipole, his raw score of 26,325 points also places him 11th in Europe, but a rather magnificent 1st in the UK.

Adjudicated scores are yet to be finalised, but we would bet Jamie will still be there or thereabouts.

Certificate on the way? We hope so!

The members of Wythall Radio Club are feeling pleased today with the release of the results of a recent National contest.

Jamie 2E0SDV on the mic, aided and abetted by Lee G0MTN

HF SSB Field Day is a shortwave radio event we enjoy at the beginning of September each year and this year was no exception.

Our small operating team of Lee G0MTN, Jamie 2E0SDV and “Captain” Callum M0MCX worked tirelessly over the 24 hours to make contacts on all allowable bands from 80 metres to 10 metres.

Aided and abetted by other club members supplying support, both emotional and physical, throughout the weekend, we now have the results and it’s a great success for our small band of operators. Wythall finished 6th out of 28 UK Clubs taking part in the “Restricted” section.

Our heartiest congratulations go to Callum, Jamie and Lee and all those who supported them. Perhaps a top 3 podium finish is within our grasp for next year?

(More photos can be viewed by clicking below…)

The Club’s Mobile Mast even put in an appearance!

This weekend, the members of Wythall Radio Club have been enjoying themselves in the grand outdoors.

National VHF Field Day is a 24 hour radio contest and though we don’t take the contesting part of it too seriously, we always make sure we celebrate the Saturday night with a barbecue. Regular readers will not be surprised at the emphasis on food!

A great time was had by all, as can be seen from the photos…(thanks to Steven 2E0SDD & Chris G0EYO)

There is even a short video of us getting up to mischief here, thanks to Lee G0MTN’s small camera-toting quadcopter. Looks like it was quite windy for a small drone!

At Wythall Radio Club, we are fortunate to have in our possession a rather excellent 100ft tall Mobile Versatower.

Thanks to a good turnout of club members this morning, we were able to give it a good check over and clean-up before its use on the forthcoming VHF field day on July 4th & 5th.

After a few years of non-use, we were delighted to find no major problems like stuck brakes or flat tyres and the winches both worked OK.

Grease, oil, and WD40 were liberally applied to various parts before the whole thing was trundled across Wythall Park for a blast with a power washer.

It’s now no longer quite as green as it was(!) and we should be able to put out a nice big signal with our aerials high up this field day.

We would like to say thanks to all club members who turned up to help and to Phil 2E0WTH who bullied us into doing it!

This Tuesday, the results of the Wythall Radio Club Easter Contest will be revealed!

1st, 2nd & 3rd place prizes! Yum yum!

For the last couple of weeks, adjudicator Lee G0MTN has been sifting the wheat from the chaff and coming up with the winners to present at this week’s club meeting.

Wythall’s Easter Contest is a relatively relaxed affair compared with the busy-ness of our Christmas contest and is much enjoyed by members over the holiday period.

This Tuesday though, someone is in for a late Easter prezzie! The first, second and third placed winners in two sections all receive an Easter Egg – that means there will be no less than 6 lucky winners this week!

Come and see what the fuss is about in the Club Training Room at Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ at 20:30. Who knows? The winners might even share some of their chocolate? Then again, maybe they won’t!

The members of Wythall Radio Club wish all readers and visitors to this website a very happy Easter!

It’s been a great year for our club, as you can see by a visit to our News Time Machine in the right hand column of this home page. One of the best rallies in recent history and the setting up of no less than 4 repeater stations comes to mind, among many other memorable moments…

At the moment, we are deep into our members’ Easter Contest.

Those of you within earshot of the area will doubtless have been a little bemused by lots of number exchanges going on. Don’t worry, it will all be over by tomorrow night and the airwaves around here will be settling down once more into some sort of normality.

This Tuesday we will having a rest from our usual hectic weekly programme – it’s a “Free ‘n’ Easy” night – a great evening to pop along if you were ever thinking of coming to visit us sometime.

Find us in Wythall House on Silver Street B47 6LZ from 2000, “chewing the fat”(!)…

Chairman Mike G4VPD receives the G7OJO Memorial Trophy from Contest Adjudicator Lee G0MTN

The cat is out of the bag! The winners of the 2014/15 Wythall Radio Club Christmas Contest have been announced.

And it’s a triumph for Chairman Mike G4VPD and Committee Member (and one the most senior members in years at least!) Jim 2E0BLP.

At the presentation evening last night at the Club HQ, Mike fought off tough opposition from David G7IBO to take top spot in the Open Section, while husband and wife team Pete M5DUO and Anita 2E0DUO vied for 3rd place.

Pete got that by the smallest whisker of margin – and he’s not going to be fed for a few weeks now, so we hear…

In the 2 metre section, it was equally a family affair with Jim 2E0BLP snatching the trophy from his own son, Kevin 2E0NCO, who pushed him all the way. Founder member of the club Colin G6ZDQ came third.

Lee G0MTN presents Jim 2E0BLP with the 2m FM Trophy

Special certificates were awarded to the top Foundation Licensees in each section, duly won by Sylwia M3SSP and Jamie M6GDI. Special “out-of-town” awards were also made to Darren MW5HOC and his family, all of whom came on air from South Wales during the event.

John M6KET picked up an award for top CW operator and Chris G7DDN was awarded a certificate for the largest number of D-STAR contacts during the contest.

However, the real winner was the club itself – “Having fun with RF” is our club motto and, boy, did we all have fun over Christmas?

So much so indeed that many of us are still too tired to come back on the air!

2015 may well see the members of Wythall Radio Club stepping up to the plate to help our country. For the first time, we are being invited to consider participation as a UK HQ Station in the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) HF World Championship Contest. 

The objective of this event is to contact as many amateurs as possible but especially IARU member society HQ stations around the world.

This 24-hour contest takes place on the second full weekend of July from 1300 Saturday to 1300 Sunday, so places a lot of responsibility on the HQ stations involved. The UK HQ station is known as GR2HQ and Wythall RC is being considered to operate on one of the bands for this event.

This Tuesday, well-known Scottish contester Chris GM3WOJ, is going to outline what participation in this event might mean for Wythall Radio Club so we can decide whether we are up for taking part in it. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, he can do so without venturing south of the Hadrian’s Wall!

Be there for 2030 in the Club Shack, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ this Tuesday to find out more!