wythall radio club

Steve 2E0SDD won the FM Section

…and the results of the Wythall Radio Club Easter Contest are out – and there are new names in the top spot positions!

Despite heavy competition, the winners of both sections of the WRC Easter Contest are first-time first-placers.

Simon G4TVR won the Open Section

In the 2m/70cms FM section, Steven 2E0SDD was victorious over David G7IBO, while in the All Bands section, it was Simon G4TVR who won top prize from Dave M0IFT, who has now finished second in both his last two Wythall contests.

It seems the Easter contest, though more sedate than our Christmas event, is the little more popular for its chocolate prizes! Maybe we will have to add something to the next Christmas contest to make it a little more “palatable’… :-) Selection boxes, anyone?

Catch all the egg winners begin presented with their fayre by Contest Supremo Lee G0MTN by clicking on the thumbnails below…

6 Eggs up for grabs!

Yes we know it’s a little on the late side, but Easter will be coming to WRC this Tuesday.

That’s because the chocolate egg prizes of our in-house Easter Contest will be awarded this week!

Members will gather this Tuesday at 8.30pm in the Club rooms to discover who the 6 lucky winners of the choccy prizes will be.

Contest adjudicator and supremo Lee G0MTN will be in the hot-seat, doling out the prizes and there will be a fair few folk in the running this year, judging by the entries, which are up on last year’s event.

The proceedings will be preceded by a necessary Committee Meeting but, needless to say, there will be some smiling faces, and we daresay a few disappointed ones too, come the end of the night…

Dogger, Fisher, German Bight? No, just Jim Lee!

Wythall Radio Club is proud to welcome a very special guest this week.

Jim Lee G4AEH is one of Radio 4’s “continuity announcers” – one of the folk whose voices we hear in between programmes or sometimes reading the Shipping Forecast!

Inevitably, Jim has a plethora of anecdotes about his time on air and this Tuesday evening, 29th March, he will be sharing some of those with us.

This is a return visit; Jim’s first time with us was so well-received that members immediately requested another evening – and at last, it has been made so!

If you would like to come along, please feel free to do so. This Tuesday in the Darts Room at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall. B47 6 LZ – the talk starts at 20:30.

Three Wythall Radio Club members are celebrating a very “Icom” Easter this weekend, thanks to our friends at Martin Lynch & Sons.

Mike G4VPD, Simon G4TVR & Mark M0RKX today took delivery of three of the very first batch of IC-7300 radios in the UK.

ML&S had their first batch of this remarkable new radio arrive in the UK on Thursday and customers like Mike, Simon & Mark are receiving theirs via courier today.

The IC-7300 is arguably the most awaited transceiver in our hobby for many years, effectively being a software defined radio in a traditional radio casing and with no external PC necessary for operation.

ML&S will doubtless be selling a lot of these radios and it is a pleasure to see one close up so early on, thanks to the Wythall Radio Club photographer, who was on hand to see one of the arrivals.

Photos below – click to enlarge and get close-ups!

The members of Wythall Radio Club would like to thank all who attended our Hamfest today.

Initial impressions are that this was one of the biggest Hamfests in recent years – probably helped by the pleasant weather and the extras we put on, including the lecture stream.

We are grateful to all of you who came along – we hope you enjoyed yourselves!

Thanks go to all our traders, especially to Martin Lynch & Sons – Rich, Big Dave & Gary, who were on the M40 before most of us were thinking about breakfast!

Thanks also to all who helped, in whatever capacity, whether on car parking, marshalling, organising, burger cooking, clearing away etc. We had a great time and we hope you did too.

Photos below and these will be updated over the next few days so please keep checking back for more – maybe you will spot yourself!

We hope to see you again next year!

Michael, Jonathan & Greg with pass certificates

In amongst all the excitement over the Wythall Radio Club Hamfest this coming Sunday, it is easy to forget that this is not the only activity going on at our club.

Last night was the culmination of the latest Foundation course and the great news is that all three candidates passed with flying colours.

Training Co-ordinator Chris G0EYO said “All three candidates passed with excellent marks tonight. Well done to Michael, young Jonathan & Greg. Those M6 callsigns will soon be available for you to pick up from Ofcom but don’t get too used to them – we have an Intermediate course starting in early May.”

So that’s let the cat out of the bag then! Click here for news on the next Intermediate Course at Wythall Radio Club.

Meantime, back to dreaming of Hamfests…

Yes, the Wythall Radio Club Hamfest is now officially full!

It will be busier than 2015 this year!

The final traders were confirmed this weekend and, despite overflowing into a fourth hall in order to accommodate more stalls, we have still managed to fill all the spaces.

And for the first time, we have a lecture stream too, with three visiting speakers. All the details will be on your souvenir programme, which you get on admission.

Now it’s over to you, the amateur radio public! We look forward to seeing you at one of the largest Wythall Hamfests in recent years.

Next Sunday 20th March starting at 10am at Wythall House & Park, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ.

Crossing our fingers, it looks like we are in for dry weather all week too… well, it’s important to get one’s burgers and bacon sarnies in the dry!

9 days and counting to the 31st Annual Wythall Radio Club Hamfest on Sunday 20th March at Wythall House B47 6LZ.

And it’s not just the big radios that will be on offer from our main trader on the day, Martin Lynch & Sons.

Why not make 2016 the year you finally enter the world of Software Defined Radio? There are many low cost routes into this fascinating aspect of the hobby.

One such is the UK designed and built Funcube Dongle Pro Plus.

This little powerhouse receiver has a typical frequency coverage of 150kHz to 260MHz and 410MHz to 2.05GHz. That covers pretty much ALL the main Amateur bands – and much more besides!

Boasting extremely simple hardware setup, just two connections, an “in” and an “out”, no additional drivers are required to use it under Windows, Linux or Mac OSX.

This fantastic USB dongle will be on sale at the Wythall Hamfest at a VERY special price – to reserve yours, it is highly recommended that you pre-order by calling ML&S on 0345 2300 599 and quote the code “WYTHALL HAMFEST” – this will not only guarantee you get one on the day but also you will get the best price possible!

Martin Lynch & Sons – the Worlds Favourite Ham Store – coming soon to the West Midlands Favourite HamFest

The latest Wythall Radio Club Newsletter has just hit the streets – well, it’s hit this website at least… 

Just click here (or on the thumbnail picture on the right) for the latest in-depth look at what some members have been up to in the last couple of months.

As well as the latest news, there are fascinating articles on a home-brew 200w Multiband Transceiver built by member Barry M0DGQ and a couple of articles from Ian M0IDR with some Hamfest nostalgia thrown in for good measure!

Newsletter Editor Chris G0EYO commented “I hope all our readers will enjoy this pre-hamfest edition” – we thank him for putting it together and we trust you will enjoy it too.