wythall radio club

Wythall Radio Club’s annual radio and electronics fair (known to Radio Amateurs in the UK as a “Radio Rally”) takes place very soon now, on Sunday 9th March in fact!

Radioworld staff finalise their tempting offers before the doors open last year!

Club President and Rally organiser, Chris G0EYO says “Club members are pulling out all the stops to make sure that, whether you are a trader or a visitor, you enjoy your visit to us. This Tuesday evening, for example, our weekly club meeting will be taken up with our final preparations for the big day. Visitors are, of course, welcome to join us from 20:30 on Tuesday, though be warned, you may end up with a job to do on Rally day!”

The Wythall Radio Rally itself takes place at Woodrush School, Shawhurst Lane, Wythall, (B47 5JW for those who have SatNavs!) and doors open at 10.00am.

Parking, which usually takes place on the school’s playing fields is not possible again this year, due to the huge amounts of rainfall in recent months. The Primary School next door have the builders in which has not helped either! However with what parking space we do have and our positive experiences of street parking near the school from last year, we are sure that you will still have a fantastic day.

Leaving the last words with President Chris again, “We look forward to welcoming you to one of Ham Radio’s best days out in the Midlands!”

Some very exciting news! Wythall Radio Club are sponsoring a new UHF repeater for our local area.

GB3WL, if approved by the authorities, will serve Wythall and the surrounding areas as well as large parts of South Birmingham, Redditch & Solihull.  Other local areas out towards Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick, including parts of the M42 motorway currently not well served by other repeaters, will also get coverage. 

The repeater workings are all but complete and will be on show at the Wythall Radio Rally on Sunday 9th March, just 10 days or so away.

A team of members has been working hard behind the scenes on this project and we are very excited about the prospects for this unmanned relay station in providing communications across the area for all local Radio Amateurs, members and non-members alike.

Why not come along to the Wythall Rally and see it “in the flesh”? You can read more about it here.

One of the lesser talked about aspects of the great hobby that is Amateur Radio is that of Satellites. For many years, Amateur only satellites have travelled around the earth providing world-wide contacts for those of us more earth-bound.

And this Tuesday, the members of Wythall Radio Club are to get genned up on the very latest information – that’s because AMSAT-UK member Dave G4DPZ is visiting us to talk about the FUNcube project.

Putting the finishing touches to a CUBESat

This is one of the most innovative projects in recent years.  Launched by AMSAT-UK, the project has created educational “CubeSats”, just 10cm in size, which are intended to enthuse, excite and educate young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. The primary mission is to provide downlink telemetry that can be easily received by schools and colleges for educational outreach purposes.

The project includes the development of a simple and cheap ground station – the ubiquitous FUNcube Dongle, a USB dongle which will receive signals direct from the satellite and transfer the data to specially developed graphical software running on any Windows PC.

Wythall Club members have been buzzing about this visit for some time and we are expecting a large turnout this Tuesday. Visitors are as always very welcome but turn up early to get a seat! 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House, Silver Street B47 6LZ. We look forward to seeing you there.

We are very lucky in Wythall Radio Club, in that we have several members who seem to be well known in the amateur radio world in the UK. One of those is Dave G3YXM, who writes the regular LF column for the Radio Society of Great Britain’s monthly journal RadCom. 

However for the March edition, Dave has written a very informative article for the “Getting Started” series on how to get on the air on the LF bands. These bands are often used by experimenters in the hobby as there is precious little commercial equipment or antennas available. With 472kHz having been made available as a new band to UK hams only recently, there has been an upsurge of interest in LF operation, something in which Wythall member Dave is one of the UK’s experts.

All the members of Wythall Radio Club congratulate Dave on an excellent read – of course, we were lucky enough to have the talk in person that preceded the article, so to some degree, we’ve heard it all before!

This Tuesday evening will be a very special one for the members of Wythall Radio Club. It is with great pleasure that we welcome Graham Coomber G0NBI, the General Manager of the Radio Society of Great Britain.

Graham Coomber G0NBI with Wythall Radio Club Chairman Mike Pugh G4VPD at the G100RSGB activation last November

Graham has not been in his new post for very long but, since he is a relatively local lad (he lives in Bromsgrove), a visit from him was always going to be high on Wythall Radio Club’s “hitlist”.

It will not be the first time that Graham has visited Wythall Radio Club as he was one of our special guests last November at our highly acclaimed activation of the G100RSGB call sign, celebrating 100 years of the RSGB. It was there that he met up with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid Javid MP and was seen forging some useful links with government!

Wythall Radio Club is a passionate supporter of all that is good about the RSGB and we are looking forward to having Graham (and his wife Von) with us this week. Tuesday evening, 18th February at 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall. B47 6LZ. Feel free to join us there.

Traders, get your bookings in quickly – there is not much room left at Wythall Radio Rally for 2014!

Radioworld, probably the busiest stall at Wythall 2013!

That is the message from Wythall Radio Club’s organising team.

Club President & Rally Organiser, Chris Pettitt G0EYO spoke at our latest planning meeting, telling members that there were only a few tables left for hire and that traders will now have to be very quick to get one of the few remaining places.

The lads from Sandpiper Aerials enjoyed 2013’s rally!

Club members are now enthusiastically preparing to receive our regular welcome visitors & friends, such as Dave Hayward and his family from Radioworld, the boys from Sandpiper Aerials, and W H (Henry) Westlake, to name just a few!

Wythall Radio Club’s annual Radio and Computer Rally takes place on Sunday March 9th at Woodrush School, Shawhurst Lane, Wythall. B47 5JW. Now close to its 30th year of existence, it is fast becoming one of the longest remaining events of its kind in the Midlands or indeed the country!

Click on the photos to see larger versions and put the date in your diary – it is going to be a year to remember!

Wythall Radio Club is proud to welcome yet another member into the ranks of the Advanced Class of license.

A very pleased Darren M0WYH

This time is the turn of Darren (formerly 2E0LPD) who heard earlier today that he has passed the Advanced Exam.

Darren is now the proud owner of the callsign M0WYH. All the members of Wythall Radio Club congratulate Darren on his fantastic achievement!

Remember to click on our Training Pages if you are interested in taking a Radio course with us at Wythall Radio Club. We run courses all year round and you could be our next “Darren”!

While all Wythall Radio Club members are eagerly looking forward to our own Radio Rally on Sunday 9th March, we also like to support and visit other clubs’ events too. Today was one such, the Harwell Radio Club Rally at Didcot Leisure Centre near Oxford.

Phil 2E0WTH, Jon M0JMM, Simon G4TVR, Chris G7DDN, Ian M0IDR & Dave G3YXM with Alton Antenna Arrays in the background

Six of us made the trip – three, Dave G3YXM, Phil 2E0WTH & Chris G7DDN travelled together in one car in convoy with Simon G4TVR in his BMW(!). John M0JMM & Ian M0IDR travelled separately as they live nearer the venue!

A great time was had by all, chatting with traders, meeting old friends, making new ones too like the folks at Alton Antenna Arrays and Sinfully Sweet.  Of course we just HAD  to spend a little hard-earned on some nice radio goodies! This was all topped off with a sit down and a chin-wag over a pint at lunchtime. A great way to spend a Sunday!

And of course an excellent taster of what is to come on March 9th, a date you will just NOT want to miss!

Now we are into February, the thoughts of Wythall Radio Club members start turning to our annual radio rally.

Henry Westlake did a good trade at last year’s rally!

A rally, or “hamfest” as our cousins in North America might call it, is a festival of all that is good in the hobby. Traders come along and turn a local venue (in our case, two halls of a local high school) into a marketplace of goodies for local amateurs to buy to enhance our fun in the hobby. In the West Midlands, Wythall Rally is one of only two left running and is the nearest to the UK’s second city, Birmingham.

Needless to say, putting on this event takes up a lot of our thoughts & efforts in the run up to the event, which this year is on Sunday March 9th.

So this Tuesday’s meeting at the Club Shack is an evening of planning and preparation (and handing out of jobs!) and although the Rally does constitute a lot of work for members, there is nothing quite like the feeling at the end of the day itself when the last trader has gone home and we all reflect on the satisfaction of a job well done (and a hot bath to ease sore muscles!)

Why not get your hands a little dirty this year and come and join the fun? This Tuesday at 2030 in the Club Shack, Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall. B47 6LZ. You will be very welcome!

Stu M0NYP takes the top prize for 2013

Christmas Contest results night at Wythall Radio Club tonight was full of surprises as always! Participation in this event has gone through the roof again with over 50 members taking part and over 40 logs submitted, an all-time record.

The overall winner in the Open Section, and thus the winner of the Reg Brown G7OJO Trophy for 2014 is Stuart M0NYP. Chairman Mike G4VPD finished in second place and David G7IBO picked up the 3rd place certificate.

Jim 2E0BLP is presented with the 2m FM trophy by Lee G0MTN

In the 2 metre FM section, it was quite a family affair with the “Voice of the Midlands” Jim 2E0BLP coming out on top, just pipping his own son(!) Kevin M6NCO into second place. Third was a very creditable showing from club founder member, Colin G6ZDQ.

There were sterling efforts too from our lady members with Dawn M6UDY and Stacey M6STJ also winning certificates. Ian M0IDR completed the certificate winners with a special award for the highest score from a non-local member.

Our thanks go to Lee G0MTN for his untiring work on the organisation and software fronts – and for putting adjudicating our contest ahead of some little event he also helps adjudicate called “CQ Worldwide”!!!

Wythall Radio Club members are now looking forward to April and our Easter Contest where there is the little matter of chocolate eggs to be won!