wythall radio club

Lee G0MTN operating G4WAC/P through the night

Cast your mind back a few weeks and you will recall that members of Wythall Radio Club were out have fun with RF on the field at Wythall Park.

As part of our annual BBQ and Field Day, we also put in an entry for the RSGB Islands on the Air contest.

Well the provisional results are out and it’s good news all round!

Our club station G4WAC finished 3rd in the mixed mode Low Power section, while Jamie 2E0SDV, our 16 year old member, looks like finishing 2nd in the SSB assisted High Power section, while operating as MS0YHC from the Orkneys.

Certificates all round then, we hope. We should tip the hat in the direction of Stan & Lee who pretty much ran the station for the full 24 hours. Well done, guys!

Click here for the latest Wythall Radio Club Newsletter. 

The September edition features news about an Online QSL request system run by club member Tim M0URX; G0MTN’s adventures in Meteor Scatter this summer; the trials of fitting a workable HF antenna in a small garden; news on 2E0SDV’s Expedition to the Orkney Isles for IOTA (while the rest of us had a BBQ in a field!) and the usual training updates and President’s letter.

It’s great read, so why not have a look at it now? Click here for more!

M0JMM Plug ‘n’ Playing…

Before the British Summer comes to an end, the members of Wythall Radio Club are planning a day outside!

This Sunday we will be on the field at Wythall Park from 09:30 onwards having what we call a “Plug ‘n’ Play Day”.

This is where we invite you to bring along your portable set-ups to try out, test a new aerial if you like, or get some advice from some of our most experienced operators…

With HF and 2m contests on over the weekend, there will be plenty of stations to work. So why not charge up that old FT-817 or dig out your vintage gear or maybe bring your home-built QRP rig and join us?

Look for us behind the Scout Hut near the Rugby pitch at Wythall House B47 6LZ. The weather is set fair so it should be fun!

Summertime – when the weather is good – it’s the perfect time for radio amateurs to pay attention to our metalwork in the sky – and so it has been this weekend at Wythall Radio Club.

A working party has been busy re-erecting and re-aligning our many antennas on our club mast at Wythall House.

Thanks to the help of friends of the club, professional riggers Vinny and Craig, we were able to take all the antennas down, replace the stub mast at the top of the tower and put some new hardware up to help keep the antennas safe in the coming winter storms.

Members of Wythall Radio Club had great fun today at Wythall Park’s 50th Anniversary Carnival. 

While we haven’t been around as long as Wythall House and Park itself, we join in by taking a stall to show off aspects of our radio hobby and at the same time, support our community as best we can.

It was great to meet lots of prospective new members and old friends as well as local people we know – it’s a great, if busy, day out, and of course there’s the chance to play radio in the great outdoors…

Thanks to all members who came and supported us in any capacity but a special thanks to project leader John G3VRF who always suffers sleepless nights in the run-up to the day.

Here’s to another half century of Wythall Park Carnivals!

Pictures from today below…

Latest news from our Training Department – there is to be an Advanced Licence course at Wythall Radio club this autumn. 

It will take place every Monday evening in the Shack at Wythall House from September 5^th onwards.

The exam is scheduled for Monday 12^th December.

There will also be one Saturday morning practical set for 26^th November.

The course runs over 15 weeks altogether and the total cost is £60 – this includes the course book, course materials and the exam fee and all other costs.

Anyone who wishes to do this course, please get in touch in the first instance with Chris via email on g0eyo(at)blueyonder.co.uk

And we wish you good luck!

Stu M0NYC & Treasurer Ian M0IDR on duty at the Fun Run a few weeks ago

This Tuesday, the members of Wythall Radio Club are looking forward to a rather special visit.

Richard and Dave from the Wythall Fun Run Committee are popping in to our monthly open meeting with something nice for us!

Every year we provide field communications for the Wythall Fun Run and very kindly, their Committee give us a donation to help towards the running of our club.

And this Tuesday is the day Richard and Dave will be visiting us with a cheque.

And funnily enough, it’s one of our Treasurer’s favourite days of the year…  Wonder why?  :-)

This weekend saw members of Wythall Radio Club taking to the field once again!

We are very fortunate at our meeting place, Wythall House, to have access to the private park, which makes a great place to do some outdoor radio.

Combine this with our legendary love of food(!) and a club BBQ and you have the ingredients for one fun weekend.

With the weather staying fair and dry, a good time was had by all, as can be seen from the photos below.

For those who were there, enjoy reliving the fun – for those that weren’t, there’s always next year…

Reader Anita 2E0DUO & Dave (soon to be a 2E0 himself)

More great news from the Wythall Radio Cub Training department.

This weekend, Club member David M6KND took his intermediate examination and passed. But what makes this particularly newsworthy is the fact that David is blind.

Just to put on the exam involves having extra people on hand – we thank our invigilators Ian M0IDR and Roger M0GWM, for example. But one of the hardest jobs was the one our Chair Anita 2E0DUO took on – the role of reader; David listens and then has to remember the question and the four possible answers before deciding on the correct one – just imagine doing that for yourself!

Apparently the whole process was quite exhausting for bother reader and candidate.

But what a fantastic result!

We fully expect David to enrol for Advanced class starting in September and we know this is going to challenge both candidate, tutors, invigilators and reader even more than it has up to now – but we are up for it!

The club tower in the field last year

This weekend, 30th & 31st July, Wythall Radio Club are taking to the field – to take part in the “Islands on the Air” radio contest.

IOTA, as it is known, is the Radio Society of Great Britain’s largest competitive event – and since the UK is an island, we get to be a multiplier for the contest!

Normally, we take part in VHF Field Day for our annual outdoor radio event and club barbecue, but this year, we thought we would try something different and join in with an HF contest instead.

We will be on Wythall Park fields all weekend (it’s a 24 hour event!) with our trailer tower and hopefully the bands will be humming with both voice and morse code transmissions.

We will set our sights high and see how we get on. Who knows? If it is successful, we might even repeat it next year!