wythall radio club

Watched by probably 2 thousand sheep and dwarfed by the looming presence in the fog of the radio and radar installations  Clive M0KNP aided by his able assistant John M6KET activated Titterstone Clee Hill yesterday (G/WB-OO4) and were rewarded by some instant contacts on 2 metres with Clive’s Yaesu FT70d hand and a single 40m SSB contact with GM4ZMK nr Glasgow.

The operating station (no room for the morse key on there)

Clive in assembly mode

Conditions on 2m were good with stations worked and heard in Malvern, Telford, Shrewsbury, Redditch and portable in Wales

40m SSB was more challenging on the FT 817 and despite posting- and hearing stations in Belgium and Germany only GM4ZMK was worked.

M6KET provided adequate secretarial assistance recording all QSO’s , but declined the CW  opportunity citing cold hands and failure to remember his flask of coffee still standing on the kitchen table at home as a weak excuse.

Eventually the challenging conditions took their toll and the expedition retreated down the mountain by a safer route (tarmac road and gravel footpath) and dispersed happy to have achieved at least 4 SOTA contacts without frostbite and falling off the edge into Ludlow.

QSO’s 2m: MW0BG/P (Sota to Sota), M7SDO, M6NSV, M7WUK, M5JRC, G0EYO.

40m SSB (7090) GM4ZMK

Radios FT 817. FT70d

Antenna SPX 300 mounted on a camera tripod (G0EYO design)

Coming next…..

ASK THE PANEL EVENING: TUESDAY 7 TH. MAY 8.00 START VIA ZOOM OR IN PERSON. WYTHALL HOUSE.

PLEASE NOTE EARLIER STARTING TIME.

The Easter  Contest 2024 Awards Evening

The David Dawkes G0ICJ Shield

The Colin Baker G6ZDQ Shield

Welcome  to visitors Andrew and son  Harvey  who came along to see what made Wythall Radio Club tick.

Gremlins (or a cyber attack from an unfriendly hostile state!!) did their best to disrupt proceedings but the results shone through and two of our most experienced Contest operators triumphed yet again.

Chris G0EYO won the David Dawkes  G0ICJ shield  for all band operation.

Keeping it in the family Kevin 2E0NCO triumphed again in the G6ZDQ Shield in the 2m/70cm  contest .

Martin M7FXD got a certificate for being the leading Foundation Licence operator.

A huge thanks to Lee G0MTN for yet again organising and encouraging: undoubtedly the contest weekend succeeds in boosting activity on the bands and getting folks to have fun with RF.

(It is hoped to publish the full results on the website very soon)

COMING SOON….. SOTA day on Titterstone Clee Hill on Thursday May 2nd (details from Clive M0KNP….Ask the Experts (a question and answer hour) on Tuesday  8th May …..GB0BUS activation at Wythall Transport Museum on Saturday June 15th and on Tuesday 18th June Neil G1TCZ leads a 70cm Foxhunt Evening in Wythall Park.

Interested visitors very welcome at all these events

Foxhunts, SOTA activations and antenna building are amongst the new activities in Wythall Radio Club’s programme for the coming months.

Club members will be activating a local SOTA summit – probably Titterstone Clee hill – in May.  Listen out for John 2E0XET, Clive M0KNP – and any other members who decide to come along!  We may also activate the club call G4WAC.

Have your questions ready for our ‘Q and A Round Table‘ at 8.30 on Tuesday 7 May.  We hope to draw on the collective knowledge of Club members in answering questions – from the very basic to the more complex.

Following our busy International Museums on the Air special event station, Neil G1TZC is hosting a DIY 70cm antenna build workshop followed by a foxhunt in Wythall Park to test them out.  All the parts to build these tape measure antennas are being provided.  Tuesday 18th June is the date.

Finally, Kev 2E0NCO has restarted the Wythall Club net, meeting every Sunday evening on 145.225 FM (and GB3WL if necessary).

Full details of our programme as at 20th April here  – or in the right-hand column of our home page.

THE WYTHALL RADIO CLUB EASTER CONTEST IS ANNOUNCED

SPRING IS HERE!!

“ONLY CONNECT”

Calling all 52 members of Wythall Radio Club !!!

Get active .. get on the air.. talk to folk.. communicate..exchange greetings..meet up on the air with old friends… …only connect….. and have fun with RF!!

G0ICJ All Band Easter Contest Shield

G6ZDQ 2m/70cm Bands Easter Contest  Shield

 This contest is in recognition of two dedicated members of Wythall Radio Club:

COLIN  BAKER:  THE G6ZDQ The EASTER VHF CONTEST SHIELD (pictured left above)

DAVID DAWKES:  THE G0ICJ EASTER HF CONTEST SHIELD (pictured right above)

Where does the time go? It seems only yesterday that we were taking down the decorations , disposing of the tree, watching the rain and preparing to receive the Xmas Contest Results

Now the Wythall Radio Club 2024 Easter Contest is upon us..it’s still raining  but there are trophies and certificates to be won 

The aim of the Contest is quite simply to promote activity amongst members of the Club and of course is open to all members.. especially our new members!

The contest starts 1000 local Maundy Thursday (28^th March 2024)

The contest ends 2000 local Easter Monday (1^st April 2024)

Full details have been posted on the Club reflector as per usual but one new initiative  this time:

MEMBERS CAN MAKE CONTACT WITH TWO DIFFERENT NON-CLUB  MEMBERS EACH DAY FOR AN EXTRA POINT PER QSO.

THE ONLY STIPULATION IS THAT IT IS A ‘MEMORABLE’ QSO EXCHANGING AT LEAST A NAME AND SIGNAL REPORT AVOIDING THE QUICK FIRE 599/PILE UP QSO’s (SO FT4/FT8 QSO’S ARE NOT VALID!)

 Maundy Thursday ..1000 local time ..’Only Connect !!’

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN CHRIS G0EYO WAS CONFRONTED BY  THESE 5  MORSE KEYS BOUGHT FROM A  STOURBRIDGE AUCTION HOUSE AND EMBARKED UPON A LABOUR OF LOVE  AND RESTORATION………….

…..and chose this Vibroplex Semi-Automatic  Bug key for restoration? (pictured below)

The Vibroplex key in its original condition

In this wide ranging and fascinating article Chris takes us through not only the restoration project, but his own  experience of CW in the past  working once as a CW intercept operator in the Government agencies of Bletchley Park and GCHQ and, since then  his determination to improve his sending of CW.

Fresh from the Auction House.. 5 Morse keys in need of some TLC!

With a brief history of the development of Morse keys from simple circuit breakers .. straight keys to the foundation of the Vibroplex Company and the semi- automatic Bug in 1905 Chris leads us to  the present day and the not previously- viewed arrival of a collection of old keys from a Stourbridge Auction house.

His gaze is drawn magnetically to a  Vibroplex Champion Semi-automatic Bug key (serial number 164719)  much in need of some TLC.

THE AUTHOR IN HIS WORKSHOP

It is this process that Chris documents in some detail describing the painstaking process and subsequent realisation of an immaculate example of this iconic key.

Read the full article in the Website Library .

Visitors are welcome at Wythall Radio Club’s on-the-air evening, next Tuesday 5th March from 8.00pm.

We’ll be using the Club’s 260ft doublet and TS590 rig.

Let’s see what we can work – have a go if you hold a licence (Foundation licensees can use 100w with our Club call).

Find us in the Darts Room on the ground floor, or in our usual spot on the far side of the bar.

Refreshments are available.

(PS well spotted – that’s not a TS590 in the photo!)

The full amateur radio experience is within your grasp: read on and discover.

A recent pass of the Full Licence Examination by our Hon Sec. Clive (now M0KNP) got our Training Co-ordinator Chris G0EYO thinking about how wonderful it is that people who have an interest in radio communications, but no technical, engineering or academic training can pass an examination in which some of the questions require them to learn a high level of technical and electronic theory and scientific calculations.

Chris G0EYO has written an article “Achieving the Impossible by Getting That Full Amateur Licence”  where he describes how the structured approach of the Bath Distance Learning Team has got around 1000 amateurs through their Intermediate and Full Licence examinations with their courses which have an award winning success rate.  It is based around a Syllabus which is produced by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) and approved by Ofcom. Each course ties in the material in Course Books (again published by the RSGB) with the requirements of the Syllabus, so that everything that is examinable is covered by the course.

The team behind the course have put in an incredible amount of time and research to make sure there are no gaps in the training and that each week’s topics tested by a quiz which the students do under timed conditions. The weekly tutorials are optional but are at the same time every Wednesday evening on Zoom. If a student is unable to watch a tutorial in real time a YouTube video of it is available to watch the next day. The tutorial is also supported by a power point presentation and this also available as a PDF to download the next day. 

At the end of the course, the student is expected to have a go at several Mock exams similarly structured to the ones set by the RSGB. It is the tutor’s job to supply the students with worked answers for all the quizzes and mock exams after they have been submitted and to help them with any queries they may have on the questions or course material. The tutor also keeps in contact with the student over his progress and will chivvy them along if they fall behind.

The BBDL Intermediate course runs for 19 weeks and the Full course runs for 20 weeks. Both of these courses call for a serious commitment from the student. In addition to the 2 hour weekly tutorial, you will need to spend another 2 to 4 hours studying each week’s material, preparing for and doing the weekly quiz.

https://www.wythallradioclub.co.uk/?page_id=13341&preview=true

YOU WILL FIND THE ARTICLE IN THE LIBRARY/ARTICLEOF THE WEBSITE OR THROUGH THE URL LINK ABOVE

There were 100mW QSOs during Wythall Radio Club’s QRP month in January.

John M6KET wound down the wick and used 0.1 watt to work Germany, France and England on 30m cw. 

Upping the power to 500 milliwatts gave him QSOs with Germany and Hungary also on 30m.  

Overall, 48 countries were worked using 5 watts or less on CW, and 50 countries using 10 watts or less on FT8.

It was harder work on SSB, with only 9 countries worked.

John M6KET and Kev G4XLO topped the CW and FT8 leader boards with 46 and 48 countries respectively.

Not bad for one month’s operating!

Using 1 watt on 30m, the big surprise for John was working C6AAE (Bahamas) at 16.45 UTC.  He also had a QRZ from  TZ4AM, but unfortunately Jeff in Mali wasn’t able to copy all John’s callsign.

Kev G4XLO in Torbay had spectacular results on FT8, working 48 DXCC entities despite gradually reducing power during the week – starting with 10 watts for the first week, then 5 watts, and finally 2 watts from the FT817. 

Amongst his highlights were Antigua (an all time new one), Cyprus – the op. was Sergio Rebrov ex-Tottenham manager!, San Marino and Puerto Rico.  

Kev found that 5 watts was enough to get across to west coast USA.

Lee G0MTN was also active, although other commitments limited his operating time using his new battery-powered QRPLabs QMX rig.

Darren GW7HOC used QRP in the past:

“I’ve worked VK4 from a tent in Cornwall on 20M SSB with 5W… I was in a tent! The antenna was an 80M mobile whip via an ATU.

I’ve crossed the Atlantic hundreds of times on 2.5W or less, mainly on SSB. I’ve crossed the pond many times on 1/2W or less on CW.

QRP is the best way to enjoy the hobby. No computers. No weak signal modes, either phone or CW.”

Chris G3YHF was mainly been on 7030kHz CW with his Rooster at 1w working around Europe.

He added a Sotabeams audio filter which made a big improvement to selectivity and a Kanga kits keyer module, but this left the operating desk now a bit of a rats nest!

You can read more about Chris’s adventures with the Rooster here.