wythall radio club

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!

Following our very well attended AGM earlier this week, Wythall Radio Club has a new leadership team. 

Members awaiting the results of the ballot at the AGM this week

For 2017-2018, the club will be headed by 3 officers, Anita 2E0DUO (Chair), Chris G3YHF (Secretary) & Ian M0IDR (Treasurer).

The 6-person committee consists of Lee G0MTN, Stuart M0NYP, Peter M5DUO, Phil 2E0WTH, John M6KET & Kevin 2E0NCO.

Other decisions of note on Tuesday were the bestowing of an honorary membership on one of our long-standing and mature members, Jim 2E0BLP (The “Voice of the Midlands”).

Last but definitely not least, we have a new honorary position. Founder member Mike G4VPD has been with the club from day one back in 1981 and has never missed a year’s membership. It is very fitting that he was voted in as the Club’s President.

Chair Anita said today “We are looking forward to building a new chapter in the history of Wythall Radio Club as we move further into the 21st century”

The latest Wythall Radio Club Newsletter is out now!

Find your copy by clicking here or on the newsletter graphic to the left of this post.

Articles this edition include… Six Decades of Morse Keys, an update on Club Contests, some news about our 3-15 evenings and a report of John M6KET’s adventures at the Essex CW club event.

As always, there’s loads more besides too, so just click here and enjoy!

Further to the post about Mark M0LXQ below, it’s now the turn of another Wythall Radio Club member John M6KET, to be a winner! 

Retired teacher John told us, “…just returned from a CW (Morse Code) Boot Camp run by the excellent Essex CW Club with some 30 delegates put through their paces by hardened professionals (well, keen amateurs!)”

“Honest feedback received on both my sending and receiving was handed out, as well as lectures on all things CW from keys to building your own speed monitor.”

“As I was the delegate who had travelled  the furthest, I won a CG Antenna PK-4 CW Pocket Keyer (sponsored by our friends from ML&S)”

John runs our well-known Morse Training Classes on Tuesday evenings here at Wythall and we congratulate him on a great day out and a new piece of kit for the shack!

Well done John!

A member of Wythall Radio Club has won top prize at a prestigious UK Radio event. 

Mark M0LXQ looked as nonplussed as this when he won the raffle!

Mark M0LXQ was one of 12 members enjoying the Radio Society of Great Britain’s Premier UK event this weekend – the three-day Convention held at Milton Keynes.

Mark arrived on the Sunday to join those of us in residence for the whole weekend, ostensibly to sit his USA Licence exam (Mark’s wife is an American citizen, so it makes sense for Mark to have a US license in case he and his wife decide to reside in the USA in the future).

He passed his Extra Class (Advanced) licence with a staggering 94% mark but was left further gobsmacked at the end of the day, when it was revealed that he had won the top raffle prize, a brand spanking new Icom IC-7300 Software Defined Radio worth £1200 – not bad for a fiver’s worth of tickets!

Mark, who is a fully qualified paramedic, said later that his first thoughts “I’m going to have to convince my wife that I haven’t actually spent money on buying this!”

Don’t worry Mark – the next RSGB Radcom magazine will have the photographic proof! 

News of some developments on the repeater front at Wythall Radio Club.

The antenna stack at GB3EH

Firstly, GB3WL will hopefully be undergoing some upgrades later this year. Part of the recent money donated to the club from the Wythall Fun Run is being ploughed back into GB3WL in the form of an upgrade, initially to a dual-mode Analogue/System Fusion Digital box.  

This will of course be subject to clearance from Ofcom.  

Later we intend to look at upgrading it still further to a D-STAR and DMR unit too, so that it can be used in 4 modes in total. Watch this space!

And our friendly companion repeater GB3EH near Banbury, with which some of our club members are very closely involved, is having a frequency change soon.

It is moving from a 1.6MHz split to a 7.6 MHz split and coincidentally it is going to be right next door in frequency to GB3WL on channel RU77 – GB3WL is on RU76.

That should make it very easy to change frequency while driving up and down the M40!

Chair Anita 2E0DUO receives the cheque from the Fun-Run Committee

Wythall Radio Club are celebrating today. That’s because we are a little better off than we were a few days ago! 

On Tuesday at the Club, we were presented with a rather fulsome cheque – this was in recognition of our assistance at the recent Wythall Fun Run.

Several local charities also benefitted and the Fun Run Committee allocate money according to the help given to the community and the number of volunteers who help them out.

On that front, WRC managed well over 20 folk helping with marshalling and radio communications around the 10km course and it seems the Fun Run folk are very grateful for our help, though it has to be said we enjoy doing it too!

Thank you to all members who helped out in any way and thanks too to the Fun Run organisers for putting on what is a great local event.

We are ready looking forward to next year’s!

More excellent news from the Wythall Radio Club training team.  

Yesterday Barry Garrison passed his Intermediate Licence at an exam at the club.

Barry says he is now keen to start on the Advanced course which we are starting at the club soon.

All at WRC congratulate Barry on an excellent result and look forward to hearing more good news from him in December after the Advanced Exam.

Barry is pictured with his pass certificate with Head Trainer and Club President Chris G0EYO.

The 2016 Radio Club Stall – click for a close-up

It’s that time of year in Wythall – Carnival Time! And Wythall Radio Club will be out in force on display this Sunday. 

Wythall Carnival is a fantastic celebration of our village – most local organisations have a stall. And there’s classic cars, children’s entertainments, arts and crafts and a cornucopia of stalls selling all kinds of wares. There’s plenty of food too of course…

Like other societies, Wythall Radio Club will have a stall where you can come along and see what we do, chat with enthusiastic members and maybe see and listen in to some contacts being made live on the air!

It’s a great opportunity to say hello or take your first tentative steps in finding out what the hobby is about in a non-threatening environment, so please come and say hello and ask difficult questions!

Please support Wythall Carnival by coming along and we hope to see you on Sunday at Wythall Park from 1pm.