wythall radio club

Lee G0MTN presents Kevin 2E0NCO with the FM Trophy

Last night at Wythall Radio Club, it was celebration time! It was results night for our annual Christmas Contest. 

As is normal, the competition for the top slots is always very intense, but this year we had a new winner of the G7OJO Trophy.

Dave M0IFT, one of our relatively newer members, snatched the top spot by one QSO and one Multiplier from long-time contest stalwart and many-times winner, Jim 2E0BLP.

In the 2m/70cms FM only section though, the trophy was won by Jim’s son Kevin 2E0NCO, thus keeping it in the family, at least! Runner-up in this section was our club Treasurer Ian, M0IDR with an excellent effort from his home location near to Evesham.

As always, our members had lots of fun and several of our more recent additions to the WRC “family” appear to have caught the “bug”, as threats of antenna improvements and power increases have already been made!

We have our next Club Contest over the Easter weekend, so that will be the time to see if the threats become reality…

More pictures below…

Although not supported directly by Wythall Radio Club, one of our members, Pete G8CQH is closely involved with the 432 MHz UHF repeater near Banbury on Edge Hill, GB3EH. 

Pete was one of the founding lights of GB3EH and he informs us of some important news regarding the repeater.

GB3EH has changed channel – for many years it was on 433.200MHz with +1.6MHz split. This has now changed to 430.9625MHz with a +7.6MHz split. CTCSS tone access is 67Hz.

Eagle-eyed repeater users in the Midlands will notice this is right next door to the Wythall repeater GB3WL, which is on 430.950MHz.

On the one hand that is very useful; on the other hand, we hope there are no difficulties operating the two repeaters so closely together in frequency!

We are sure you will let us know if there are any problems…

Find out more about GB3EH by clicking here.

Wythall Radio Club is pleased to announce that the conversion of our UHF repeater station is nearly complete.

The new GB3WL was installed just before Christmas and was initially put into Fusion/Analogue Dual Mode for the festive season.

Reports so far have been excellent with coverage slightly improved on the old relay station and proving to be much closer to the coverage map expectations. Click on the map for more detail.

Last night, D-STAR was also activated for the first time and while not all reflectors are quite available yet, all the DCS reflectors are working on the repeater and it is left linked to DCS005H, the Worcestershire Reflector as a default.  Feel free to connect it elsewhere if you wish, but good protocol is to reconnect it to DCS005H when you are finished.

We will update the website when other permissions come through and other systems are linkable.

Meantime, we hope amateurs across South Birmingham will enjoy having two new Digital Modes to use via GB3WL.

Further information on GB3WL is available on this page.

The members of Wythall Radio Club wish all radio amateurs worldwide the very best of New Year wishes. May all your New Year desires come true in 2018!

Remember to subscribe to our site via email (left) to make sure you keep up to date with all the news from our busy club!

For our part we will be having fun with RF throughout 2018 with lots of events planned and a full programme of events to keep members happy.  See our events page for details!

The annual Wythall Radio Club Radio Foxhunt is cancelled today, due to the snow that has fallen overnight in our area.

Our apologies for this. We hope to rearrange for it to take place early next year.

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!”

Wythall Radio Club’s Training Department are celebrating again this weekend. This time an amazing 8 passes from the latest online Foundation Course. 

WRC Training Co-ordinator, Chris G0EYO told us today, “I am pleased to report that after an intense morning session on Saturday when they did their practical assessments, all eight of our on line Foundation class went on to pass their exam on Sunday.”

So left to right in the picture, it’s congratulations to Gary, Mike, Harry (aged 8!!), James, Neil, Andy, Ian and Sue.

Our thanks go to the WRC training team and our congratulations go to all 8 of the new licensees. We look forward to hearing the new callsigns on the air very soon!