wythall radio club

The very latest January 2018 edition of the famous Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is now available.

Just click here or on the Newsletter icon on the left of this article to access it.

Featured this issue are a report on the club trip out to Martin Lynch’s Hog Roast; first impressions of 2 new DMR Radios; a first PICAXE project; a fascinating personal account of getting into the Amateur Radio Hobby; and 17-year-old Jamie’s entry in the  CQ Worldwide Morse Contest.

There’s more than that too, so don’t delay – download your issue free today!

Leanne & Sam present Harry with his new radio

Meet Wythall Radio Club Member Harry Bacon. 

At the tender age of 8, Harry is currently the youngest member we have. Along with his dad, he recently passed his Foundation Exam and is now the proud holder of the shiny new callsign M6NKW. 

A few days ago, Harry was congratulated by our friends (and Wythall Hamfest sponsors) from Radioworld.

On a trip up to their shop near Cannock, a very excited young man was presented with a new dual-band Handheld transceiver. (Click the photo for a larger picture).

Now Harry is looking forward to getting on the air and getting more experience before tackling the Intermediate License.

He is already learning Morse Code at our club Morse class and learning it very quickly, so we hear. We at Wythall Radio Club wish him all the best.

Listen out for Harry in our Club Christmas Contest from 26th December – you might even have a contact with him via our repeater GB3WL.

Christmas is coming early to Wythall Radio Club this evening.  Here’s programme co-ordinator John G3VRF with more details… 

“Ho! Ho! Ho!… and what would you like Santa to bring you this year for Christmas? Well Christmas is coming to the club tonight, not with Kris Kringle, but with Chris G7DDN who will be looking at some of those wonderful Amateur Radio toys that could be around your Christmas tree this year.”

“Whether you can afford a top of the range transceiver or a crystal set based on a piece of coal, Chris will be covering it all.”

“So it’s time to gather in our basement Grotto at 8.30pm tonight. Get your seat early or you could be sitting on Santa’s knee!”

The latest Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is out now!

Find your copy by clicking here or on the newsletter graphic to the left of this post.

Articles this edition include… Six Decades of Morse Keys, an update on Club Contests, some news about our 3-15 evenings and a report of John M6KET’s adventures at the Essex CW club event.

As always, there’s loads more besides too, so just click here and enjoy!

Further to the post about Mark M0LXQ below, it’s now the turn of another Wythall Radio Club member John M6KET, to be a winner! 

Retired teacher John told us, “…just returned from a CW (Morse Code) Boot Camp run by the excellent Essex CW Club with some 30 delegates put through their paces by hardened professionals (well, keen amateurs!)”

“Honest feedback received on both my sending and receiving was handed out, as well as lectures on all things CW from keys to building your own speed monitor.”

“As I was the delegate who had travelled  the furthest, I won a CG Antenna PK-4 CW Pocket Keyer (sponsored by our friends from ML&S)”

John runs our well-known Morse Training Classes on Tuesday evenings here at Wythall and we congratulate him on a great day out and a new piece of kit for the shack!

Well done John!

A member of Wythall Radio Club has won top prize at a prestigious UK Radio event. 

Mark M0LXQ looked as nonplussed as this when he won the raffle!

Mark M0LXQ was one of 12 members enjoying the Radio Society of Great Britain’s Premier UK event this weekend – the three-day Convention held at Milton Keynes.

Mark arrived on the Sunday to join those of us in residence for the whole weekend, ostensibly to sit his USA Licence exam (Mark’s wife is an American citizen, so it makes sense for Mark to have a US license in case he and his wife decide to reside in the USA in the future).

He passed his Extra Class (Advanced) licence with a staggering 94% mark but was left further gobsmacked at the end of the day, when it was revealed that he had won the top raffle prize, a brand spanking new Icom IC-7300 Software Defined Radio worth £1200 – not bad for a fiver’s worth of tickets!

Mark, who is a fully qualified paramedic, said later that his first thoughts “I’m going to have to convince my wife that I haven’t actually spent money on buying this!”

Don’t worry Mark – the next RSGB Radcom magazine will have the photographic proof! 

News of some developments on the repeater front at Wythall Radio Club.

The antenna stack at GB3EH

Firstly, GB3WL will hopefully be undergoing some upgrades later this year. Part of the recent money donated to the club from the Wythall Fun Run is being ploughed back into GB3WL in the form of an upgrade, initially to a dual-mode Analogue/System Fusion Digital box.  

This will of course be subject to clearance from Ofcom.  

Later we intend to look at upgrading it still further to a D-STAR and DMR unit too, so that it can be used in 4 modes in total. Watch this space!

And our friendly companion repeater GB3EH near Banbury, with which some of our club members are very closely involved, is having a frequency change soon.

It is moving from a 1.6MHz split to a 7.6 MHz split and coincidentally it is going to be right next door in frequency to GB3WL on channel RU77 – GB3WL is on RU76.

That should make it very easy to change frequency while driving up and down the M40!

Chair Anita 2E0DUO receives the cheque from the Fun-Run Committee

Wythall Radio Club are celebrating today. That’s because we are a little better off than we were a few days ago! 

On Tuesday at the Club, we were presented with a rather fulsome cheque – this was in recognition of our assistance at the recent Wythall Fun Run.

Several local charities also benefitted and the Fun Run Committee allocate money according to the help given to the community and the number of volunteers who help them out.

On that front, WRC managed well over 20 folk helping with marshalling and radio communications around the 10km course and it seems the Fun Run folk are very grateful for our help, though it has to be said we enjoy doing it too!

Thank you to all members who helped out in any way and thanks too to the Fun Run organisers for putting on what is a great local event.

We are ready looking forward to next year’s!

The 2016 Radio Club Stall – click for a close-up

It’s that time of year in Wythall – Carnival Time! And Wythall Radio Club will be out in force on display this Sunday. 

Wythall Carnival is a fantastic celebration of our village – most local organisations have a stall. And there’s classic cars, children’s entertainments, arts and crafts and a cornucopia of stalls selling all kinds of wares. There’s plenty of food too of course…

Like other societies, Wythall Radio Club will have a stall where you can come along and see what we do, chat with enthusiastic members and maybe see and listen in to some contacts being made live on the air!

It’s a great opportunity to say hello or take your first tentative steps in finding out what the hobby is about in a non-threatening environment, so please come and say hello and ask difficult questions!

Please support Wythall Carnival by coming along and we hope to see you on Sunday at Wythall Park from 1pm.

Wythall Radio Club member Jamie M0SDV is celebrating today. 

He has been crowned the winner of this year’s Lew Williams Shield award.

Each May, we designate the month as our Morse Activity month and members are invited to show evidence of progress in learning and/or using the Code in the Radio hobby.

This year Jamie, (who is still only 16, even though he is tall!) was nominated the winner by the judging panel. This comes hot on the heels of him recently gaining his Full licence callsign a few months ago.

It’s been an exciting few weeks for the young man, who is pictured here at last weekend’s Field Day and BBQ, receiving his awards from judge Lee G0MTN. 

Well done Jamie, from everyone at WRC!