wythall radio club

The Britannia Room at Wythall House is one of this year’s halls

The members of Wythall Radio Club are pleased to announce that the rally next weekend is now full.

The last few bookings were made earlier today and all three halls are now brimming to capacity with traders. Check out the trader listing here!

We thank all our traders for their support and look forward to welcoming them next week, along with our usual 500/600 or so visitors.

We hope you will all enjoy a great day!

Remember the ***NEW*** venue, Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ starting at 10:00 next Sunday 8th March.

The latest edition of the Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is available today!

Just click on the newsletter graphic on the left hand side of this website or just click here, if you prefer.

Happy reading!

It’s only just over a week away and the 30th Wythall Radio Club Rally will be upon us! Members have been busy over the last few weeks, making final arrangements, dotting “i”s and crossing “t”s to make sure the event goes as well as it possibly can.

Wythall House, home of Wythall Radio Club

Now with 3 halls, coupled with the usual refreshment van and, this year, some alcoholic liquid refreshment(!) when the Club House opens at midday, we are expecting lots of fun.

Outside, on the field just behind the halls, Roger G4ROJ will be doing a kite antenna demonstration all morning from 1000-1145.  At 1200 he will retire to the Club Shack to do a short talk on Kite antennas. Attendance for this will be first come, first served, and the shack will probably squeeze in 30 people max., so you will need to be early for that!

We are looking forward to welcoming friends old and new to the event which starts at 10.00 on Sunday 8th March at Wythall House B47 6LZ. We can’t wait and we hope you can’t either!

Radioworld’s Dave will sell you that TS-990s that you’re dreaming of at this year’s Wythall Rally!

At this time of year, the thoughts of all Wythall members turn to our annual rally. And this year’s event is at a new venue – our home, Wythall House, Silver Street B47 6LZ.

We are now in the midst of a lot of planning to make the event a success. We have 3 halls lined up for visitors this year and we hope to have a small lecture programme too.

Roger G4ROJ will also be doing a live Kite antenna display on the fields and our friends at Radioworld will again be the top attraction amongst our many traders & friends.

Dave Hayward & his wife Annette from Radioworld are among Wythall Members’ favourite traders for our Radio Rally and have been coming along for more years now that some of us care to remember!

It’s a good idea to visit their site here now and start thinking about pre-orders for the big day. Dave always gives excellent deals for attendees of the rally and there’s no postage charges to help keep the prices low.

Meantime, we will see you on Sunday 8th March at Wythall House – remember the new venue! It’s less than 4 weeks away now…

Wythall members are proving to be very keen to learn more about D-STAR digital technology. And this weekend sees a third Practical Workshop taking place at the Club.

Some of the delegates at the November D-STAR Workshop

Starting at 1200 on Saturday, we are going to be looking at using software to program your radios successfully for D-STAR use. A side effect of this is that folk will also learn how to program their radios for normal use too!

With Wythall House also open for snacks and drinks, it’s sure to be a couple of hours well spent with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and try things out. And a little birdie tells me that, if there’s time, we might even have a quick look at how the D-STAR data stream can be used to send emails and text messages…

This Saturday, 7th February from 1200 noon in the Club Shack at Wythall House. B47 6LZ – should be a lot of fun!

This coming week, the members of Wythall Radio Club are looking forward to a very special visitor. The RSGB Regional Manager for our area, Martyn Vincent G3UKV is coming along to see us.

G3UKV in traditional pose!

Wythall Radio Club is very proud to be part of our national Radio Society and it will be good to catch up on what is happening both in our region and nationally.

This will be the first time that Martyn has visited us since his election to the position last year, so we looking forward to giving him a very warm Wythall welcome.

If you want to be there too, then why not pop along to Wythall House, Silver Street, B47 6LZ this Tuesday evening? The meeting starts at 20:00 (please note the earlier than usual start time!) and takes place in the Club Rooms in the basement.

If you are a first time visitor, you will be very welcome too.

Chairman Mike G4VPD receives the G7OJO Memorial Trophy from Contest Adjudicator Lee G0MTN

The cat is out of the bag! The winners of the 2014/15 Wythall Radio Club Christmas Contest have been announced.

And it’s a triumph for Chairman Mike G4VPD and Committee Member (and one the most senior members in years at least!) Jim 2E0BLP.

At the presentation evening last night at the Club HQ, Mike fought off tough opposition from David G7IBO to take top spot in the Open Section, while husband and wife team Pete M5DUO and Anita 2E0DUO vied for 3rd place.

Pete got that by the smallest whisker of margin – and he’s not going to be fed for a few weeks now, so we hear…

In the 2 metre section, it was equally a family affair with Jim 2E0BLP snatching the trophy from his own son, Kevin 2E0NCO, who pushed him all the way. Founder member of the club Colin G6ZDQ came third.

Lee G0MTN presents Jim 2E0BLP with the 2m FM Trophy

Special certificates were awarded to the top Foundation Licensees in each section, duly won by Sylwia M3SSP and Jamie M6GDI. Special “out-of-town” awards were also made to Darren MW5HOC and his family, all of whom came on air from South Wales during the event.

John M6KET picked up an award for top CW operator and Chris G7DDN was awarded a certificate for the largest number of D-STAR contacts during the contest.

However, the real winner was the club itself – “Having fun with RF” is our club motto and, boy, did we all have fun over Christmas?

So much so indeed that many of us are still too tired to come back on the air!

One of these might be up in the sky at the Wythall Rally!

It’s the time of year when Wythall Radio Club members start thinking about their forthcoming Rally.

Held on Sunday 8th March this year, the event is returning to its roots at Wythall House and leaving behind the rather impersonal halls of the school we used for a few years.

However there will be an added attraction this year! Roger G4ROJ, the Kite Antenna man famous from the TX Factor programme, is going to be in attendance flying kites on Wythall Park fields!

Roger contacted the club recently and suggested that, since he would be flying kites anyway that weekend, why not combine it with our rally and fly them on the huge fields we have at our new venue?

There may even be a short presentation in the clubhouse for those wanting to find out more about how to fly kite antennas. Watch this space!

Another reason to get that date in your diary – Sunday 8th March!

2015 may well see the members of Wythall Radio Club stepping up to the plate to help our country. For the first time, we are being invited to consider participation as a UK HQ Station in the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) HF World Championship Contest. 

The objective of this event is to contact as many amateurs as possible but especially IARU member society HQ stations around the world.

This 24-hour contest takes place on the second full weekend of July from 1300 Saturday to 1300 Sunday, so places a lot of responsibility on the HQ stations involved. The UK HQ station is known as GR2HQ and Wythall RC is being considered to operate on one of the bands for this event.

This Tuesday, well-known Scottish contester Chris GM3WOJ, is going to outline what participation in this event might mean for Wythall Radio Club so we can decide whether we are up for taking part in it. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, he can do so without venturing south of the Hadrian’s Wall!

Be there for 2030 in the Club Shack, Silver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ this Tuesday to find out more!

The latest edition of the Wythall Radio Club Newsletter has just been issued in time for 2015. That’s the hot-off-the-press news from Editor Chris G0EYO.

With articles on the recent Wythall Radio Club Christmas Party, our Christmas Foxhunt, a Portable D-STAR Repeater, Building a Successful Contest Station coupled with the latest from the Club’s Training Department, it is available just by clicking here or by clicking on the Newsletter icon and graphic on the left of this post.

We hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it!