wythall radio club

As part of an occasional series, we are featuring some of the new traders you will see that this year’s Wythall Radio Club Hamfest. 

The SNS Workshop near Wythall

Stick ‘n’ Stitch are a local embroidery company who produce, among other things, the Wythall Radio Club Polo Shirts and other clothing. 

In addition they produce other promotional items such as mugs. 

Wythall Radio Club members have been pre-ordering purchases from Stick ‘n’ Stitch, as there will be a limited amount of embroidery they will be able to do on the day, due to time limitations.

If you are interested in having your callsign on a piece of clothing, why not have a look at their website and pre-order too?

Remember the Wythall Hamfest is on Sunday 25th March at 10am. Don’t miss it!

Wythall Radio Club Newsletter Editor Chris G0EYO has informed us that the March edition of the Club Newsletter is out now.

Click here to see a copy or follow any of the newsletter links on the left sidebar of this site for more information.

We hope you enjoy your latest read!

Scary Radios? Find out on Tuesday!

Another fascinating talk is in store for you at Wythall Radio Club this coming Tuesday.

Chris G7DDN is giving a presentation entitled “Network Radios – The Next Big Thing?”

There has been a buzz in recent months in certain parts of the Ham community about these devices. Many have not even heard of them or understand what they do.

Chris will be trying to take the lid off the can of worms that is Network Radios – and in so doing he tells us he has found some real challenges they pose to the very nature of the hobby.

According to Chris, “It will be a talk that will, in turns, enthuse, provoke, annoy and fascinate you – and it will challenge what it means to be a Radio Amateur in the 21st Century”

Sounds scary – be there in the Club Shack at Wythall House B47 6LZ this Tuesday 27th Feb at 8.30pm to find out more… Visitors welcome, as always!

Just a reminder that Steve Venner from Martin Lynch & Sons is visiting Wythall Radio Club this Friday 23rd February.

Steve is bringing the very eagerly-awaited new IC-7610 SDR from Icom with him to the club.

Apart from listening to Steve’s stories of “Life on the Other Side”, what a fantastic opportunity to see one of the latest ham radios close up and have an unfettered play! 

Remember, the talk is at 8pm (earlier start than usual!) in the Darts Room at Wythall House, B47 6LZ and visitors are welcome!

I’d get there for 7.30 and get a drink from the bar & reserve my seat, if I were you. :)

Further to the news that Steve Venner from Martin Lynch & Sons is visiting Wythall Radio Club on Friday 23rd February (see previous post), we have some additional news to add.

Steve has informed us that he will be bringing the very eagerly-awaited new SDR from Icom with him to the club.

What a fantastic opportunity to see one of the latest radios close up and have an unfettered play! We wonder if we can persuade him to forget to take it back with him… Hmmm…

Remember, the talk is at 8pm in the Darts Room at Wythall House, B47 6LZ and visitors are welcome!

Steve G0TAN with his best friend, an IC-7300!

Advance notice for a couple of events coming up at Wythall Radio Club before the end of the month. 

Programme Co-ordinator John G3VRF explains, “On Friday 23rd February, Steve Venner G0TAN, Engineering Workshop Manager from Martin Lynch & Sons is driving up from London to give us a talk on ‘Life on the Other Side’.

He’ll be talking about issues encountered when repairing equipment and why some of that equipment needed repairing in the first place!” Sounds fascinating!

Please note this is a change of evening from our normal schedule, so pop Friday 23rd Feb in your diary and see you in the Darts room at Wythall House B47 6LZ at 8.00pm. Visitors, as always, are welcome.

Following that, on Tuesday 27th Feb, Chris G7DDN will be doing a presentation on “Network Radios – The Next Big Thing?”  This is a fascinating insight into how the latest technology is expanding the range and scope of Amateur Radio. It will also touch on exactly what Ham Radio may look like in the 21st Century. Chris will be giving this talk again for visitors to the Wythall Hamfest on Sunday 25th March, so if you cannot make it on 27th Feb, don’t despair, there is a repeat!

We look forward to seeing you at these events. If you are first-timer, please feel free to come along unannounced – we will give you as warm a welcome as we can!

Lee G0MTN presents Kevin 2E0NCO with the FM Trophy

Last night at Wythall Radio Club, it was celebration time! It was results night for our annual Christmas Contest. 

As is normal, the competition for the top slots is always very intense, but this year we had a new winner of the G7OJO Trophy.

Dave M0IFT, one of our relatively newer members, snatched the top spot by one QSO and one Multiplier from long-time contest stalwart and many-times winner, Jim 2E0BLP.

In the 2m/70cms FM only section though, the trophy was won by Jim’s son Kevin 2E0NCO, thus keeping it in the family, at least! Runner-up in this section was our club Treasurer Ian, M0IDR with an excellent effort from his home location near to Evesham.

As always, our members had lots of fun and several of our more recent additions to the WRC “family” appear to have caught the “bug”, as threats of antenna improvements and power increases have already been made!

We have our next Club Contest over the Easter weekend, so that will be the time to see if the threats become reality…

More pictures below…

Although not supported directly by Wythall Radio Club, one of our members, Pete G8CQH is closely involved with the 432 MHz UHF repeater near Banbury on Edge Hill, GB3EH. 

Pete was one of the founding lights of GB3EH and he informs us of some important news regarding the repeater.

GB3EH has changed channel – for many years it was on 433.200MHz with +1.6MHz split. This has now changed to 430.9625MHz with a +7.6MHz split. CTCSS tone access is 67Hz.

Eagle-eyed repeater users in the Midlands will notice this is right next door to the Wythall repeater GB3WL, which is on 430.950MHz.

On the one hand that is very useful; on the other hand, we hope there are no difficulties operating the two repeaters so closely together in frequency!

We are sure you will let us know if there are any problems…

Find out more about GB3EH by clicking here.

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to announce that the conversion of our UHF repeater station is nearly complete.

The new GB3WL was installed just before Christmas and was initially put into Fusion/Analogue Dual Mode for the festive season.

Reports so far have been excellent with coverage slightly improved on the old relay station and proving to be much closer to the coverage map expectations. Click on the map for more detail.

Last night, D-STAR was also activated for the first time and while not all reflectors are quite available yet, all the DCS reflectors are working on the repeater and it is left linked to DCS005H, the Worcestershire Reflector as a default.  Feel free to connect it elsewhere if you wish, but good protocol is to reconnect it to DCS005H when you are finished.

We will update the website when other permissions come through and other systems are linkable.

Meantime, we hope amateurs across South Birmingham will enjoy having two new Digital Modes to use via GB3WL.

Further information on GB3WL is available on this page.

The members of Wythall Radio Club wish all radio amateurs worldwide the very best of New Year wishes. May all your New Year desires come true in 2018!

Remember to subscribe to our site via email (left) to make sure you keep up to date with all the news from our busy club!

For our part we will be having fun with RF throughout 2018 with lots of events planned and a full programme of events to keep members happy.  See our events page for details!