wythall radio club

GB3WL now has been relaunched with full FM, D-Star, C4FM (Fusion) and DMR capability.

During the past year, the project to make GB3WL multi-mode has involved many Club members including Derek G1INC, Mike G4VPD, Ian M0LQY and David G0HVN.

Much testing and reconfiguring towards the end of 2025 enabled Club members to use all the available modes during the Club’s annual Christmas Contest – and score those valuable ‘mode’ bonuses!

(Christmas contest results and highlights follow shortly!).

Our new ability to talk to other radio amateurs internationally via handhelds will be a great bonus for our public events locally.

For details of how to access GB3WL – click here – or see the ‘Repeaters’ tab on the web site.

If you cannot access the repeater, it may be in use with a mode your radio cannot receive – NB on FM, there is no ‘Bleep’.

And don’t forget to try our 2m SSTV repeater – MB7TW!

THE JIM TONGUE 2E0BLP 2M/70CM TROPHY (L) THE REG BROWN G7OJO ALL MODES TROPHY (R)

As the Wythall Club prepare to do (friendly) battle again this Xmas Lee G0MTN whetted our appetite with a trawl through the origins of the competition  (going back some 32 years?) and outlining  the basic rules.: very simple .. get active over the period of the competition, work as many members as you can, on as many different  modes as you can and have some fun.. spreading Xmas cheer as you go!

It really is a friendly event designed to stimulate radio activity in whatever mode (AM/digital/CW/SSB etc) and perhaps provide a respite from the demands of the festive season!

Great to see new members in the Club and look forward to hearing them on the bands over the Xmas period.

          JANUARY 1ST 2026 HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

watch this space for details!

The murky gloom of a rain-drenched Midlands evening couldn’t dampen the spirits of Wythall Radio Club members…..

….as they gathered for our ‘show and tell’ evening of construction projects.

David G7IBO demonstrated his self-designed instrument for obtaining highly accurate resistance and voltage measurements (photo right).

On the radio front, we had various QRPLabs and Kanga projects, including the QDX and QMX multiband qrp transceivers and the Rooster xtal controlled 2-watt cw rig (and its predecessor, the Foxx 3 in a Cadbury’s tin).

Phil 2E0WTH brought along a simple direct conversion receiver.

The pint of Guinness shows the compact size of Martin M0XFI’s satellite-controlled clock, contrasting with David’s home-built and cased electronic Enigma machine.

There was also a balun, Kanga ATU, audio amplifier and Sotabeams keyer on display.

Ten members braved the weather and the demos and discussion went on late into the evening.

NEXT EVENT……  NEXT WEEK

Tuesday 11th November, 8pm – Construction for satellite activity with Neil G1TZC

ALL WELCOME

Wythall Radio Club have 2 ‘show, tell and demo’ evenings coming up….

From simple DIY projects to complex kits – and all points between!

On Tuesday 4th November, Club members will be bringing some of the homebrew projects they have been working on.

It will include kit radios and accessories by Kanga, SOTABeams and QRPLabs as well as DIY antenna projects.

We’ll look at the build process, hints and tips for home construction and try out some of the finished projects.

On Tuesday 11th November, we’ll focus on Neil G1TZC’s construction activities as part of his QO100 satellite station.

Club members are encouraged to bring any homebrew projects along to either of the evenings.

From 8pm in Darts Room, Wythall House – all welcome.

See our annual programme here!!

STOP PRESS:  Just published – Wythall Radio Club programme for the next 15 months.

Available on our Home Page (see photo) – or click here

There’s lots of fun radio-related activity, including:

• Raspberry Pi for amateurs – workshop sessions run by Ian M0LQY will cover the basics right through to using your Pi with your transceiver.
• We’ll be looking at Club members’ home construction – from basic crystal controlled CW transceivers through to the latest QRPLabs kits, with David G7IBO, Chris G3YHF and other members.
• Neil G1TZC will be giving the inside story on a transverter for operating through the QO-100 satellite

The old favourites will be there: a ‘brains trust’ Q and A (where the members are the experts!), foxhunt in Wythall Park, and Xmas and Easter contests.

PLUS – our 3 field-day events at Transport Museum Wythall, Plug and Play in Wythall Park, and Stoke Prior Steam Fair.

We’re also running a communication evening for our local Scout Group – and also for the Beavers and Cubs.

Our programme will be updated as we organise further activities.  Check at Club Activities on right hand of our web site home page.

This time last year we had strong winds and lashing rain for Wythall Radio Club’s annual activation at the  Transport Museum Wythall.   The weather was so bad that two of the gazebos on site were damaged by strong gusts. 

So as you can imagine, when last Saturday’s forecast was for storms we weren’t impressed.  Fortunately we only had over-night rain and a day of sunshine and breezes!

All the prep work was done on the Friday.  Simon G4TVR kindly supplied his van to move all the gear the mile from our club room. 

Dave G3YXM – who usually catapults a halyard over a tree branch – was in GM-land, but luckily Simon has an arboreal catapult (photo below).  This monster lauched a line attached to our OCFD over the top of 15m high trees.  This ended up with it being even higher than last year.

Ian decided to try locating the HF vertical on the other side of the trees and directly at the end of the wire antenna.  We lashed it firmly to a wooden fence with bungy cord. 

On the previous visit there had been huge issues with the HF stations interfering with each other.  The new positions seemed to resolve this issue.

We all turned up on the Saturday, from 8.30am to put the radio equipment in position, for the general public to start arriving at 10.30am for the Transport Museum open day where there was a visiting fleet of green London Transport buses.

As usual there were one or two snags.  We had tested the 2 HF antennas on the Friday, but on Saturday the OCFD antenna had very high SWR indicating open circuit. 

Swapping coax feeder didn’t solve the problem.  Using Phil 2E0WTH’s RigExpert analyser and Ian M0LQY’s homebrew dummy load, we checked the rig and cables.  Finally we traced the fault to the short piece of coax supplied with the antenna and containing several ferrites. 

Removing this and connecting our coax feeder direct to the antenna solved the problem – and didn’t cause any new ones with RF on the feeder.

So all was well.

In total, five stations were run on the day.  These were split between HF, VHF and satellite. 

On HF, we had separate FT8 and CW/SSB stations.  Conditions were very poor and the CW/SSB station struggled to make contacts. 

But by early afternoon 40m was open for inter-G and we had a couple of pile-ups on SSB.  Many thanks to all the stations who called in.  

The audio from the CW/SSB station was piped through a small PA, and attracted a number of visitors – including some current and prospective radio amateurs.  It competed well against the noise of passing buses and the model steam train whistle! 

Some visitors tried our CW demo kit, and were awarded certificates for sending their names.

Neil G1TZC brought his portable, solar-powered QO100 satellite station.  A highlight was working Garry ZD7GWM – a DX member of our Club – via QO100.  Several members took the opportunity to have a chat.  

The team comprised: John 2E0XET, Phil 2E0WTH, Winston 2E0EGP, Simon G4TVR, David G7IBO, Gary G5RGS, Ian M0LQY, Neil G1TZC and Chris G3YHF. 

Come 3.30pm, we quickly dismanted the stations and everything was back in the Club room by 4.30.

The great thing about these days out is that you get to experiment in the real world to see if your station does what you want it to do.

Saturday June 14th – that’s the date for Wythall RC’s annual demonstration station at Transport Museum Wythall.

It’s a chance to see our satellite station in operation, as well as digital, voice and Morse Code on short-wave and VHF radios.

And you can also experience a ride on the Museum’s fleet of buses and their visiting iconic London ‘green’ buses.

We’ll be talking to radio amateurs around the world.

Watch as our signals travel 22,000 miles up to the QO100 satellite, which will retransmit them the 22,000 miles back to earth – so we can talk to other radio operators across much of the world.

You can try your hand at sending Morse Code – it’s great fun!

We welcome visitors – come and chat to us. 

We’ll be there during the Museum’s normal opening hours.

Wythall RC portable operators were bathed in the spring sunshine!

Meanwhile Ian M0LQY was using a QRPLabs QDX 5w digital transceiver and a SOTABeams bandhopper antenna to make FT8 contacts over a wide area. 

• F5VMJ (Paul in Paris) – OP Winston 2E0EGP
• VU2GRM (Ram in Bangalore) – OP Neil G1TZC
• OE4EIE (Tom Bergenland) – OP Lee G0MTN
• ON7SX (Michel in Diepenbeek) – OP Lee G0MTN
• DL8SDQ (Juergen in Nordheim) – OP Neil G1TZC

Simon G4TVR was a surprise winner in Wythall Radio Club’s Easter Contest 2025!

He topped the 2m/70cm FM section and Lee G0MTN won the all band/all modes category.

This year members made much greater use of different modes and bands. 

There were contacts on 40m, 12m, 10m, 2m and 70cm bands. 

Members made use of FM, SSB, CW, FT8, D Star, Echolink and SSTV (slow scan TV – using the Club’s MB7WL SSTV repeater). 

They also accessed the GB3WL and GB3XO repeaters (with thanks to the GB3XO team in Redditch). 

Mobile contacts were also recorded. 

And Lee G0MTN operated remote into his home station via his mobile phone while on a shopping trip.

That’s dedication!

There was even an AM (amplitude modulation) contact between Winston 2E0EGP and John M6KET!  Now, that’s real old-time radio!

Wythall RC runs club contests during the Christmas and Easter holidays. 

Members try to contact each-other, with a point awarded for each contact and a multiplier for each member worked.  

The final score for each member is calculated from their best 3 days.

COMING UP AT WYTHALL RADIO CLUB……

Tuesday 20th May 7.30 onwards

Portable radio activity on the lawn at Wythall House, and chatting in the bar later on.

Visitors welcome

Tuesday 27th May 8pm –

Lee G0MTN will be talking about the forthcoming World Radiosport Team Championship. 

In the Darts Room, Wythall House.

Visitors are welcome.