wythall radio club

One of Wythall Radio Club’s youngest members has been spilling the beans on his recent exciting adventures!

Jamie 2E0SDV on the far left, ever ready with handheld in tow!

On 23^rd July, Jamie 2E0SDV made his way to The Brecon Beacons in South Wales where he took part in the first ever RSGB Youth DXpedition not far from the village of Talgarth.

Organised by the society’s newly-formed Youth Committee, the event was part of a project to encourage youngsters deeper into the Amateur Radio hobby – it was sponsored by a number of different organisations with the main one being our friends from Kenwood Communications, who provided all the transceivers for the event.

Using the callsign MC0RYC and using mostly 80m, 40m and 20m, Jamie & the team made a grand total of 4617 contacts, of which Jamie made the majority! We are very proud at Wythall Radio Club of Jamie’s achievements.

Jamie has blogged about his time in Wales on his own website, so why not click through and have a look at a longer version of his report?

Adjudicator Lee G0MTN presents Alf G1MJO with the Lew Williams Shield for 2015

Well, the results are in… and it’s celebration time for one of Wythall Radio Club’s oldest members.

The winner of the Lew Williams Shield for progress in Morse Code has been announced as Alf G1MJO.

Alf is one of Wythall Radio Club’s oldest members – at nearly 89 he still turns up faithfully every week for Morse class and to support members in all their regular activities. He even comes by taxi in the rare event he cannot get a lift to club nights!

When the Morse classes recommenced a few years ago, Alf was one of the original starters and has kept improving his skills week by week. This year he has been rewarded for his efforts by winning our prestigious club shield, presented in honour of former Club President and Morse tutor, Lewis Williams.

While the judging was very close, most members here will agree that no-one deserves it more than Alf.

Every year, the members of Wythall Radio Club celebrate Morse Code as a mode of communication in a somewhat special way.

Former Club President, Lew Williams, was a grand fellow who taught many members of our club the joys of Morse Code (CW) and when he passed away just a few years ago, it was thought appropriate to honour his memory in a suitable manner – and so the “Lew Williams Shield” was born.

In order to win this trophy, Wythall Radio Club members are asked each year to take part in a “Morse Code Activity Month”. The trophy is awarded to the club member who has shown some kind of commendable contribution to the event. It usually involves some evidence of improvement, however small, in some aspect of his/her Morse Code skills.

Currently the shield is held by John M6KET, who uses Morse exclusively on the air. This coming Tuesday 28th July, we will be finding out who has won this year’s event.

All will be revealed in the Club Shack at 2030, so make a “dash” (not a “dot”!) for Wythall House B47 6LZ to find out the results!

One of Wythall Radio Club’s youngest and most enthusiastic members, Jamie 2E0SDV, is off on an exciting adventure very soon now.

The 15-year-old is part of the Radio Society of Great Britain’s Youth Committee DXpedition starting this coming week.

Have you worked Jamie 2E0SDV yet?

The Kenwood-sponsored event takes place in the Brecon Beacons from 23rd July for a week and Jamie will be active as one of the operators of MC0RYC on all HF & VHF bands including satellite operations.

During the week, Jamie and his colleagues will be activating two summits, Pen-y-fan and Waun-Fach. Provided the weather is good, these activations are planned take place on 25/26 July in the afternoon and again on the 28/29 July at 1200 UTC.

Jamie tells us that he will be doing many other activities too including Direction Finding and antenna-building as well as simply “having fun with RF” as our club strapline says!

We wish him all the best, especially on the weather front, and look forward to working him on the air and maybe even during the “Islands on the Air” contest which takes place on the weekend of 25/26 July, while the youngsters are active.

Yesterday saw the annual Wythall Fun Run. And the members of Wythall Radio Club were out in force – not running, you understand, but, as you might expect, providing communications for the event.

Around 16 members handled two-way radio comms for all the race control point marshals and for race control.

Proof that Morse-mad John M6KET knows how to talk on the radio too!

This is the second year we have done this and, as you might expect, we are getting a little better at it. All involved reported that they had had great fun while helping the early morning event to go off as smoothly as possible.

GB3WL, our UHF repeater station, was pressed into service and performed admirably. Roy G0HDF reported finding himself distracted by ladies stripping for action at one checkpoint(!) while John M6KET, who is known for being 100% exclusively a Morse Code man, was actually heard using voice on the air for the first time ever!

Sadly, the weather was a little variable and it was a pity about the torrential downpour part way through the event. But well done to everyone involved, both participants and organisers, and especially the brave lady (wearing 887) who, although she came last, got the biggest cheer of the day!

Here are a few pictures to give you a flavour of the morning’s events – thanks to Anita 2E0DUO, Stuart M0NYP & Chris G0EYO for those…

The Club’s Mobile Mast even put in an appearance!

This weekend, the members of Wythall Radio Club have been enjoying themselves in the grand outdoors.

National VHF Field Day is a 24 hour radio contest and though we don’t take the contesting part of it too seriously, we always make sure we celebrate the Saturday night with a barbecue. Regular readers will not be surprised at the emphasis on food!

A great time was had by all, as can be seen from the photos…(thanks to Steven 2E0SDD & Chris G0EYO)

There is even a short video of us getting up to mischief here, thanks to Lee G0MTN’s small camera-toting quadcopter. Looks like it was quite windy for a small drone!

The July 2015 edition of the Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is now online.

Just click here for the newsletter page and enjoy!

Temporary wireless direction-finding station on the cliffs of Hunstanton, Norfolk, c.1915

This week at Wythall Radio Club, we are taking a look back in history to the dawn of radio communications.

Although World War I was taking place this time a hundred years ago, such is the pace of technology that it is easy to forget that this was effectively the first conflict fought with radio being used as an element of warfare.

Stories are still coming to light about the role radio played in the “Great War” and this Tuesday, Wythall members will be taking time out to hear more about this fascinating subject.

Elaine Richards G4LFM, editor of the Radio Society of Great Britain’s magazine RadCom has put together a thought-provoking presentation which will be given by Chris G7DDN in the Club Shack this Tuesday. It follows on from the 4 previous historical presentations given last year.

Why not come along? Tuesday 16th June at 20:30 at Wythall House, Silver Street. B47 6LZ. You will be very welcome.

…as in Martin Lynch’s store in Staines!

Jamie 2E0SDV, David G7IBO, Chris G7DDN, Ian M0IDR, Martin Lynch G4HKS, Phil 2E0WTH, Roger M0GWM, Dave M6HPD & Dave G3YXM outside ML&S’s new store

Here are a few photos of Wythall Radio Club’s fun day out at the grand opening of Martin’s new Hamstore in Surrey.

Eight of us travelled down to the Greater London area today to celebrate with Mr. Lynch.

We were joined by special guests representing the whole of UK Hamdom, including our friends from Practical Wireless in the form of Don Field G3XTT. Also in attendance were representatives from Yaesu UK, Icom UK and Kenwood UK.

The RSGB were also a large presence and it was especially good to see its General Secretary and friend of the club, Graham Coomber G0NBI and his wife, Von.

As you can see from the photos, a great day out was had by all. Rumour has it that a few people bought some goodies too, but it would be rude to speculate on who got what!

Another day trip for Wythall Radio Club members beckons this weekend.

Recently, friend of the Club Martin Lynch G4HKS, moved his large Hamstore to new premises near to Heathrow Airport. 

We thought at first it was so he could go away to exotic holiday destinations more quickly(!) but apparently it is more to do with having extra space available for his successful Amateur Radio business.

This Saturday sees the official launch of the new shop with a typical Lynchie party – now when there are free Hot Dogs and Burgers around, you can bet Wythall folk want to be involved! Click on the poster (right) for more information.

So it is that a number of us will be spending some of our free time (and spare cash, no doubt) on a trip to London to visit Martin and his friendly staff this Saturday.

We can’t wait!