wythall radio club

The Wythall Christmas Foxhunt results are in and Colin G6ZDQ is celebrating today.

Foxhunting supremo 2014, Colin G6ZDQ

10 members joined the hunt this morning; last years’ winners Steve 2E0SDD and Stacey M6STJ were joined by Callum M0MCX and his wife Wendy, Kevin 2E0NCO and his partner Marian, Stu M0NYP, Jon M0JMM, Phil 2E0WTH, husband and wife team Pete M5DUO & Anita 2E0DUO together with Colin G6ZDQ.

A rather flu-ridden Steve and Stacey played first fox as reigning champions(!) and were found by Callum and Wendy. They in turn became fox 2 but were duly hunted down by Stacey and Steve!

To prevent the day becoming a two-team event, Phil and Jon volunteered to be fox 3 and were duly found hiding in a country lane by Pete, Anita and Colin.

50+ miles was enough for a morning’s fun so a welcome carvery and bar followed, where it was agreed that Colin G6ZDQ should be awarded the M0GJM Memorial Trophy for 2014.

See you again next year!

G0MTN presents the G7OJO Trophy to Stu M0NYP, overall winner of last year’s event

It is that special time of year again, when the airwaves around Wythall (and a bit further afield too!) will be full of stations exchanging numbers. No, it’s not a spy extravaganza, it’s just the Wythall Radio Club Christmas Contest again!

Lee G0MTN congratulates Jim 2E0BLP, last year’s winner of the 2m Trophy

Members are encouraged to work each other as often as possible between Christmas Eve at 20:00 and New Year’s Day at 20:00.

The rules are a little difficult to explain here but suffice it to say that at the end of the event, we take our best 5 days scores and submit them to the adjudicators. They then come up with the results, which are celebrated with a presentation evening in January.

It is all about “having fun with RF” as our club motto states, and it invariably lives up to its name.

So if you hear strange goings-on on the airwaves (especially on 145.225 MHz FM or perhaps even on our new repeater GB3WL) over the Christmas holidays, don’t be alarmed – in fact, please join in and say “hello”.

Once again, Wythall Radio Club has done brilliantly in the annual 1.8MHz RSGB Club Calls Contest.

Mark M0RKX operates G0WRC out portable in this year’s Club Calls Contest

This year’s contest took place last month and the results have just appeared on the RSGB Contest website.

Congratulations to our Club Station GX4WAC which finished 3rd in the individual places out of the 99 stations taking part. The team, comprising Lee G0MTN, Stan G4JGV and Anita 2E0DUO, scooped 5171 points just 453 points off the top spot.

In the club rankings, Wythall again finished in 3rd place (out of 49 Clubs) with our team of GX4WAC, G3YXM, G0WRC who were out portable and G7DDN. With the top two spots in the contest taken by “serious” Contest Groups, that makes Wythall Radio Club the top “ordinary” club in the listings.

Even better arguably, our ‘B’ team, comprising Simon G4TVR, Chris G0EYO, Rob 2E0MEX and David G0ICJ finished in an incredible 8th place, beating many club’s A teams!

Well done to everyone who took part. Perhaps next year we might even catch those Contest Groups up!

Now December is almost upon us, the thoughts of many a Wythall Club member start to turn to the annual “in-house” Christmas Contest.

This event, probably the most popular in the Wythall Radio Club Calendar, started from small beginnings and has now become a major feature of members’ Christmas Celebrations. Some amateurs have been known to join our club just to take part in it!

The idea is to work as many members as possible every day from 2000 on Christmas Eve till 2000 on New Year’s Day.  It is not quite as straightforward as it seems though and there are bonuses to be gained for using different bands and modes as well as going portable, mobile and operating from each other’s houses! Phew!

The G7OJO Trophy & the 2m Trophy

The eventual winners are presented with the G7OJO Trophy (for all bands) and the 2 Meter Trophy (for members using 144 MHz only.)

This Tuesday 2nd December, there is a presentation by Contest Supremo Lee G0MTN about the history and development of the Contest and on the innovations introduced in recent years, which will include more on the latest updates to our fantastic logging spreadsheet and some online goodies to increase the fun level during the holiday season.

It will be a fascinating evening for sure. So be there at 2030 this Tuesday 2nd December in the Club Shack. It will be full, so arrive early!

The “G0WRC” WYTH team went /P this year to Paul Marland’s farm at 1,000 feet, a couple of miles south of Broadway Tower. Just 95 in the log this year which is a wee bit lower than we’d wished for. The good news is that three club members operated, all at different “contest” skill levels so overall, a very good show and a super experience.

We used a tuned dipole at around 50 feet with a manual coax tuner to increase the bandwidth. I had made a 25 turn RG58 balun on a 4.5 inch former prior to the event which failed – probably a rubbish connector. Dropping the mast (in the gale!) and taking that out of line was the only option.

Rain and cold hampered us but the wind dropped in the end which gave us a break by the end of the contest. Tearing the station down only took one hour and we left by midnight.

As well as myself, M0MCX, I thank M0RKX & M0JMM for running the rig- and double thanks to M0NYP and 2E0NCO for helping out and letting me shout at them in the gales as we guyed out the mast!

Many other club members were heard and worked including our Club Station, GX4WAC, our Top Band experts; G3YXM and Chris G7DDN and also Simon G4TVR, who seemed to be running hard and fast. I also heard Chris G0EYO and Rob 2E0MEX. I know there were others from WYTH and I’ll unpick the log sometime to work out who was on.

73, Callum, M0MCX

Is it really that time of year already? When the members of Wythall Radio Club start getting into gear for one of their favourite events of the year? Well, yes it is!

Can we get a higher placing than 3rd place this year?

The RSGB’s annual Club Calls Contest is almost upon us again. It takes place next Saturday evening and requires as many members as we can persuade to get out a signal on 160m.

Wythall Radio Club have finished 3rd for the last two years in this event, but not too many points behind the winners. So maybe this year…?

This Tuesday evening’s meeting at the club will be hosted by Dave G3YXM, our resident 160m expert and veteran of this contest. He will be taking us through the rules of the contest and what our strategy will be to try to get higher in the placings this year.

Should be an inspiring evening, so feel free to pop along to Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ anytime from 1945 on Tuesday – we will start the meeting around 2030 down in the shack.

Perhaps we will see you there?

The results for the 2014 RSGB SSB Field Day contest are now out and it’s a big improvement for Wythall Radio Club.

Lee G0MTN hard at work at this year’s SSB Field Day

In the restricted section, we came in a very creditable 4th place out of 28 stations across the UK.

Our intrepid operating team of Callum M0MCX, Tom M0RMY and Lee G0MTN put in a sterling performance across the weekend in early September. They were ably assisted by many others from the club, including Phil 2E0WTH, Kevin 2E0NCO.

We hope to improve on these results next year as we have plans to keep the station operating through the night, something logistics sadly prevented this year.

Check out the full results at the RSGB Contest website here.

A lonely M0MCX operates on 144MHz while everyone else barbecues! Don’t worry, he eats well!

VHF Field Day is one of the highlights in the Wythall Radio Club calendar. Not just for the fun and camaraderie we have around taking part in the biggest VHF outdoors contest, but also because of the fun we have socially.

Last year’s event was one of the best (if not the very best) Field Days in the memory of most people in the club, from founder members to new recruits. It will be difficult to better but we are keeping our fingers crossed for good weather, which always helps!

This Tuesday sees a very important evening at the club, as it is traditionally the evening where we “dot the i’s” and “cross the t’s” in terms of getting our final preparation right for the big day.

It’s a good evening to come to especially if you harbour any plans about turning up on the actual day!

2030 in the Club Shack in the cellar at Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ.

Quite a few Wythall Radio Club members are celebrating a late Easter this morning. That is thanks to the prizes they have garnered as the winners of our Club Easter Contest!

Simon G4TVR was delighted to finish 2nd! Why??

With chocolate eggs on offer as prizes, there was quite a flurry of activity on the air over the holiday weekend and at the results evening last night, Stuart M0NYP scooped one of the top prizes as winner of the All Bands section. A large Easter egg, a smart certificate and a special trophy in memory of Walter M0GRO was his reward.

Kevin M6NCO took away a similar batch of goodies for winning the 144MHz FM section. No surprise really, as the usual regular winner, his dad Jim 2E0BLP, has trained him well!

Second place Easter Eggs went to Simon G4TVR & Mark M0MSE and third place mini eggs were the rewards for Gavin M6GWG and Rob 2E0MEX.  Chairman Mike G4VPD picked up a special certificate for operating from his holidays in the Canary Isles back to Wythall to add some spice into the contest.

Now everyone is looking forward to our Club Christmas Contest again – but hang on folks, there’s the summer and autumn to have some fun with RF yet!

Now click on the thumbnails below for a look at the happy winners!

If you are tune around the 2 metre band in the West Midlands area between Maundy Thursday morning & Easter Monday night and hear some stations exchanging numbers, you might just have stumbled upon the 2014 Wythall Radio Club Easter Contest!

Just as at Christmas, we hold an event to get our members on air and working each other. Points are given for each member contacted – each discrete member worked across the period also counts as a multiplying factor (or multiplier) to attain a final score.  It sounds complicated but we have a clever Excel spreadsheet which keeps score for us!

Just to ease the complication, tomorrow (Tuesday 14th April) we will have an evening where we can explain the idiosyncrasies of this annual event. Chris G7DDN will attempt to simplify the rules and the logging so that everyone can feel comfortable in taking part. 2030 in the Club Shack at Wythall House, Silver Street. B47 6LZ.

Incidentally, the prizes for the contest are Easter Eggs – is it no wonder so many Wythall RC members are getting ever larger?