wythall radio club

Wythall Radio Club’s Contest training day yesterday proved to be a real success!

We achieved our goal of providing an opportunity for club members relatively inexperienced in HF contesting to have a no-pressure guided play on-air. It was particularly encouraging that so many of our Foundation Licence holders and newer club members got their first taste of the huge event that is the CQ World Prefix Contest.

Getting on for 20 members worked many countries including Australia, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Ceuta and Mililla, China, the Netherlands Antilles, Palau, Puerto Rico, Sardinia, the United States, Venezuela, and West Malaysia.

Special mentions go to Dawn M6UDY, John M1JSS, Kevin M6NCO, and Terry G7NWA who all really got stuck in in a serious way! Dawn M6UDY worked Australia with 100w to our club doublet, and Terry G7NWA, who has recently returned to the hobby, was running a pileup of USA stations on 15m just before we pulled the big switch late into the evening.

What with a fantastic takeaway meal as well, all eating around one of the large club tables, a great time was had by all, participants and spectators alike! The question we are being asked now is, “When’s the next one?”

Many Wythall Radio Club members enjoy the radio sport of contesting. It is fun, after all, to test your station and your operating skills against other radio enthusiasts, whether locally, in the UK or worldwide. Yet taking part in a contest can seem pretty daunting for newcomers to the hobby, even downright frightening for many more experienced ones too!

Club husband & wife team, Dawn M6UDY & John M1JSS operating the Elecraft K3 in a recent pile-up

With one of the largest world contests taking place this weekend on most of the shortwave bands, it seems like a good time to help folk improve their Radiosport operating skills and give members a taste of the excitement that is radio contesting.

CQ WPX (World Prefix) is the training ground and the Wythall Club shack and equipment are the weapons of choice. This is not a “serious” entry, just a great opportunity for members to be helped in how contests work, learn how to operate logging software and try to to improve one’s technique so as to get maximum enjoyment (and maybe points too!) from the activity.

Starting at 1300 tomorrow, Saturday 29th March, come and join top UK contester Lee G0MTN and a few other club contesting maestros for some hands-on fun! Mistakes are very welcome as that is one of the ways to learn, so don’t be shy.

We will be on the air until at least 1800 when we intend to finish the day with a mass takeaway of all world cuisines to match the world-wide contacts we will have made! With all the fun going on and it being a 48 hour contest, I wonder what time we might finish though?

There is a very popular section of the Amateur Radio hobby known as “Radio Sport” or “Contesting”. The idea is to make as many (accurate!) contacts as possible within a specified time period. It is something which appeals to many Wythall Radio Club members!

Some stations will be using antenna arrays like this one at OH8X! Phew!

To get us 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 take a shot at entering the next large-scale event –  the CQ Magazine World Prefix Contest (known as CQ WPX). It takes place on the last weekend of this month.

This year we thought we would have a go at something a little different – Lee is going to use the Saturday of the contest as a kind of “Beginner’s Guide to Contesting” workshop using the WPX event as a practical training ground. We will be training all afternoon and hope to finish the day off with a traditional British curry! This will be a fantastic way of learning the “how to’s” from some of the club’s top guns!

One of the lesser talked about aspects of the great hobby that is Amateur Radio is that of Satellites. For many years, Amateur only satellites have travelled around the earth providing world-wide contacts for those of us more earth-bound.

And this Tuesday, the members of Wythall Radio Club are to get genned up on the very latest information – that’s because AMSAT-UK member Dave G4DPZ is visiting us to talk about the FUNcube project.

Putting the finishing touches to a CUBESat

This is one of the most innovative projects in recent years.  Launched by AMSAT-UK, the project has created educational “CubeSats”, just 10cm in size, which are intended to enthuse, excite and educate young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. The primary mission is to provide downlink telemetry that can be easily received by schools and colleges for educational outreach purposes.

The project includes the development of a simple and cheap ground station – the ubiquitous FUNcube Dongle, a USB dongle which will receive signals direct from the satellite and transfer the data to specially developed graphical software running on any Windows PC.

Wythall Club members have been buzzing about this visit for some time and we are expecting a large turnout this Tuesday. Visitors are as always very welcome but turn up early to get a seat! 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House, Silver Street B47 6LZ. We look forward to seeing you there.

Stu M0NYP takes the top prize for 2013

Christmas Contest results night at Wythall Radio Club tonight was full of surprises as always! Participation in this event has gone through the roof again with over 50 members taking part and over 40 logs submitted, an all-time record.

The overall winner in the Open Section, and thus the winner of the Reg Brown G7OJO Trophy for 2014 is Stuart M0NYP. Chairman Mike G4VPD finished in second place and David G7IBO picked up the 3rd place certificate.

Jim 2E0BLP is presented with the 2m FM trophy by Lee G0MTN

In the 2 metre FM section, it was quite a family affair with the “Voice of the Midlands” Jim 2E0BLP coming out on top, just pipping his own son(!) Kevin M6NCO into second place. Third was a very creditable showing from club founder member, Colin G6ZDQ.

There were sterling efforts too from our lady members with Dawn M6UDY and Stacey M6STJ also winning certificates. Ian M0IDR completed the certificate winners with a special award for the highest score from a non-local member.

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

Wythall Radio Club members are now looking forward to April and our Easter Contest where there is the little matter of chocolate eggs to be won!

Tuesday evening is a big night for Wythall Radio Club members – the results of the 2013-2014 Christmas Contest will be out.

Every year between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, Wythall Radio Club hosts this in-house Contest, designed to encourage activity between our many members. It has become a firm favourite with just about everyone – some people have been known to join the club just to take part in it!

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 folk! There are two trophies up for grabs too and this Tuesday at 2030, we have our presentation evening.

Adjudicator Lee G0MTN has been busy wading through over 40 entries and has come up with 2 winners. They will be presented with the G7OJO Trophy (for all modes/all bands) and the FM trophy (for 2m FM only entries) this week. 2nd & 3rd place certificates and other certificates of merit 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! This Tuesday 28th January at 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ. Visitors, as always, are very welcome!

With 2013 fast approaching its end, the members of Wythall Radio Club have been celebrating some successes in the end of year contest results. 

Chairman Mike G4VPD is celebrating a win in the AL Section of the year-long 144MHz 2013 UK Activity Contests. He also came second in the 50 MHz and 70 MHz contests – a fantastic result! Club member Mark M0RKX also made some excellent showings for the club in these events.

Also recently released are  the results of the 1.8 MHz Club Calls Contest, where Wythall Radio Club finished in 3rd place overall for the second year running, albeit closing the gap on the two other teams in front of us.

The detailed results can be found here, but our special thanks to Dave G3YXM for organising this one and finishing as top individual Wythall Station in front of Chris G7DDN and Simon G4TVR. We are especially proud of our Club Station GX4WAC, operated by Mike G4VPD, Stan G4JGV and Callum M0MCX. which came 2nd in the list of Club Stations in the UK.

A great end to a great year at Wythall Radio Club!

(Please click on the certificates for a larger view)

Stuart M0NYP won the 2m FM Trophy in 2012

It is that time of year again, when the airwaves around Wythall (and further afield too!) will be full of strange stations exchanging numbers!

No, it’s not a spy extravaganza, it’s just the Wythall Radio Club Christmas Contest again!

Members have to work each other as often as possible between Christmas Eve at 20:00 and New Year’s Day at 20:00. We can work each other once every day for points and each unique member contacted acts as a “multiplier” to our scores.

Chris G0EYO won the G7OJO Trophy last year

At the end of the event, we take the best 5 days scores and submit them to the adjudicators who then come up with the results, which are celebrated with a presentation evening each 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) over Christmas, don’t be alarmed – in fact, please join in and say “hello”.

You are not valuable to members as points, but you will make a few new friends!

Not long to go now before one of the events of the year in the Wythall Radio Club Christmas Calendar.

Our in-house Christmas Contest started from small beginnings and is now a major part of the club’s calendar. 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!

The G7OJO Trophy & the 2m Trophy

To win, you have to be active and available on the bands over the Christmas period – as if it wasn’t busy enough as it is!  The section winners are presented with the G7OJO Trophy (for all bands) and the 2 Meter Trophy (for members using 144 MHz only.)

This Tuesday 17th 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 which scores you automatically!

It will be a fascinating evening for sure. So be there at 2030 this Tuesday 17th December in the Club Shack. It will be full, so arrive early!

The results of the RSGB’s VHF Field Day are out and it’s good news for Wythall Radio Club.

Members achieved a creditable 7th place finish in the overall Mix and Match section of this large summer radio contest. 50MHz and 70Mhz saw the best showings but that came as no surprise on the basis of antennas used and manpower available.

Since VHF Field Day is also an excuse for our summertime BBQ and social, the contest station was not manned all the time – there was superb food and drink and great company to enjoy.

Perhaps next year we should stop eating meat and drinking beer and wine and get on the air even more – or maybe not!