wythall radio club

Now we are into the month of May, the thoughts of Wythall Radio Club members turn to a special event in honour of a special person. Former Club President, Lew Williams was not actually a licensed amateur but was a grand man who taught many members of our club the joys of Morse Code (CW).

When Lew passed away, 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 to view the 31 days of May as 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 will probably involve some evidence of improvement, however small, in some aspect of his/her Morse Code skills.

Current Club President Chris G0EYO was the first winner of the trophy and last year it went to a Founder member, John G4OJL.

To kick off this year’s event, we are “Having fun with Morse Code” as a hands-on taster evening for all members next Tuesday 6th May. This will be led by John M6KET and Chris G7DDN who have been leading the revived Morse Code class for the last 3 years or so.

There will be something for everyone so no need to be apprehensive, even if you have never tried Morse Code before! 2030 in the Club Shack at Wythall House B47 6LZ. We hope to see you there.

The history of the great hobby of Amateur Radio is a fascinating one. It is a story of early pioneering spirit peppered with a spicing of intrigue and even conflict! It is this subject that we are going to be visiting this week at Wythall Radio Club.

Our national society, the RSGB, has put together a set of presentations for local clubs like our own to give. These look at the early days of Amateur Radio in the UK and how the RSGB itself came into being. Over the next few months we will be seeing all 4 of these presentations which cover a variety of subject matter.

Some of the earliest QSL cards!

Later in the year we will be looking at the first Transatlantic radio tests, the role of Amateurs in the World Wars and at the variety of Antenna Experiments that took place in the early days.

This Tuesday however sees the first in the series, which takes us back to the earliest days of Radio and sets the scene for the talks to come.

Visitors are welcome of course, so if you would like to come along, head for Wythall House on Silver Street, B47 6LZ this Tuesday. The presentation starts at 2030 in the Club Shack in the basement. See you there!

As the May edition of the Radio Society of Great Britain‘s monthly journal RadCom starts to drop into mailboxes around the world, it is pleasing to note Wythall Radio Club making a little bit of a splash here and there in this edition.

Club stalwart Dave G3YXM has written a 4 page article on page 32 entitled “Getting Started in Test Equipment” – and an excellently authored piece it is too!

In the Sport Radio column on page 73, it is pleasing to see Wythall’s name mentioned in the breakout box for our achievements in the 160m Club Calls Contest as part of the Affiliated Societies Super League.

And then in the regional news on page 84, there is an article about some of our recent exam successes.

All in all a good read this month, especially for Wythall members!

If you are tune around the 2 metre band in the West Midlands area between Maundy Thursday morning & Easter Monday night and hear some stations exchanging numbers, you might just have stumbled upon the 2014 Wythall Radio Club Easter Contest!

Just as at Christmas, we hold an event to get our members on air and working each other. Points are given for each member contacted – each discrete member worked across the period also counts as a multiplying factor (or multiplier) to attain a final score.  It sounds complicated but we have a clever Excel spreadsheet which keeps score for us!

Just to ease the complication, tomorrow (Tuesday 14th April) we will have an evening where we can explain the idiosyncrasies of this annual event. Chris G7DDN will attempt to simplify the rules and the logging so that everyone can feel comfortable in taking part. 2030 in the Club Shack at Wythall House, Silver Street. B47 6LZ.

Incidentally, the prizes for the contest are Easter Eggs – is it no wonder so many Wythall RC members are getting ever larger?

We are very fortunate that,very near to Wythall Radio Club, lies possibly one of the best Indian restaurants in the area! The Monsoon is very popular with families all around South Birmingham and people travel for miles to visit it for a meal out.

Since Monsoon is just a short walk from the club HQ, it is no surprise that the members of Wythall Radio Club use it for a regular social evening! 

For those who don’t know, the social side of being in an Amateur Radio “family” like this is really important. For example, every Friday several of us meet for nibbles and drinks in the club shack; our Field Days and Training days are also excuses for more food and drink; and then every last Monday of the month, as this evening (pictured!), we descend on the Monsoon in force and present the staff with the difficulties of catering for 15 or so hungry radio hams! It all helps the bonding between members.

Just another part of life at Wythall Radio Club – albeit one that has too many of us going on diets so we don’t end up more “shack-bound”!

Wythall Radio Club’s Contest training day yesterday proved to be a real success!

We achieved our goal of providing an opportunity for club members relatively inexperienced in HF contesting to have a no-pressure guided play on-air. It was particularly encouraging that so many of our Foundation Licence holders and newer club members got their first taste of the huge event that is the CQ World Prefix Contest.

Getting on for 20 members worked many countries including Australia, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Ceuta and Mililla, China, the Netherlands Antilles, Palau, Puerto Rico, Sardinia, the United States, Venezuela, and West Malaysia.

Special mentions go to Dawn M6UDY, John M1JSS, Kevin M6NCO, and Terry G7NWA who all really got stuck in in a serious way! Dawn M6UDY worked Australia with 100w to our club doublet, and Terry G7NWA, who has recently returned to the hobby, was running a pileup of USA stations on 15m just before we pulled the big switch late into the evening.

What with a fantastic takeaway meal as well, all eating around one of the large club tables, a great time was had by all, participants and spectators alike! The question we are being asked now is, “When’s the next one?”

Many Wythall Radio Club members enjoy the radio sport of contesting. It is fun, after all, to test your station and your operating skills against other radio enthusiasts, whether locally, in the UK or worldwide. Yet taking part in a contest can seem pretty daunting for newcomers to the hobby, even downright frightening for many more experienced ones too!

Club husband & wife team, Dawn M6UDY & John M1JSS operating the Elecraft K3 in a recent pile-up

With one of the largest world contests taking place this weekend on most of the shortwave bands, it seems like a good time to help folk improve their Radiosport operating skills and give members a taste of the excitement that is radio contesting.

CQ WPX (World Prefix) is the training ground and the Wythall Club shack and equipment are the weapons of choice. This is not a “serious” entry, just a great opportunity for members to be helped in how contests work, learn how to operate logging software and try to to improve one’s technique so as to get maximum enjoyment (and maybe points too!) from the activity.

Starting at 1300 tomorrow, Saturday 29th March, come and join top UK contester Lee G0MTN and a few other club contesting maestros for some hands-on fun! Mistakes are very welcome as that is one of the ways to learn, so don’t be shy.

We will be on the air until at least 1800 when we intend to finish the day with a mass takeaway of all world cuisines to match the world-wide contacts we will have made! With all the fun going on and it being a 48 hour contest, I wonder what time we might finish though?

25 years ago, the permanent antennas, rotator and coax runs at Wythall Radio Club HQ in Silver Street, Wythall, were installed on a retractable 40 foot tall Versatower in the backyard of Wythall House.

Since then, other buildings have sprung up around the House and Park where we meet – all this means that tilting our tower over for maintenance purposes can be a little more difficult than in the past – but not impossible, as you can see in the pictures!

On tower duties today, Mike G4VPD, Dave G3YXM, Jon M1JSS, Stuart M0NYP and Andy M6CYY with Rob 2E0MEX acting as official photographer! It looked like a cold day!

This week, the members of Wythall Radio Club are looking forward to reaching new summits in the pursuit of our Amateur Radio hobby! That’s because our visiting guest speaker this week is representing the “Summits on the Air” programme.

Radio + stunning view = happiness, SOTA-style!

“Summits on the Air” is an Amateur Radio award scheme that promotes getting outside onto high spots around the country (and indeed the whole world!) and making contacts. There is a lot to “SOTA” as it is known and this Tuesday, Wythall Radio Club welcomes Brian G8ADD to tell us a whole lot more about it.

With (hopefully!) warmer weather coming this summer, some of us will be persuaded to give getting involved in SOTA a shot. In any case, it will be fascinating to learn first hand just how the scheme works. For those of us less active, there are still ways we can take part in SOTA and enjoy the activations of hills that others make.

Our guest, Brian G8ADD says,”Worldwide, SOTA currently has nearly 100 Associations in around 50 countries, with almost 3,500 activators and about the same number of chasers. Close on 20,000 summits have been activated so far totalling well over 2 million contacts!”

It should be a really fascinating evening, so why not pop along to the Darts Room at Wythall House this Tuesday? The talk starts at 2030 and you can find Wythall House on Silver Street, B47 6LZ. Can’t wait!

There is a very popular section of the Amateur Radio hobby known as “Radio Sport” or “Contesting”. The idea is to make as many (accurate!) contacts as possible within a specified time period. It is something which appeals to many Wythall Radio Club members!

Some stations will be using antenna arrays like this one at OH8X! Phew!

To get us in the mood to have a go at a big contest, our “top gun” Radio Sportsman, Lee G0MTN, is putting together one of his famous presentations to enthuse us to all to take a shot at entering the next large-scale event –  the CQ Magazine World Prefix Contest (known as CQ WPX). It takes place on the last weekend of this month.

This year we thought we would have a go at something a little different – Lee is going to use the Saturday of the contest as a kind of “Beginner’s Guide to Contesting” workshop using the WPX event as a practical training ground. We will be training all afternoon and hope to finish the day off with a traditional British curry! This will be a fantastic way of learning the “how to’s” from some of the club’s top guns!