wythall radio club

The members of Wythall Radio Club would like to wish all readers of (and visitors to) our website the best season’s greetings!

We wish all radio enthusiasts a fantastic Christmas holiday and our wishes that “Santa” has bought you all the radio equipment you could possibly want (and got it all down the chimney!!!) :-)

It’s been another great year at Wythall RC with our fantastic G100RSGB activation at the centre of it. We look forward to building on our successes in the future.

Remember to check our Club Calendar page regularly – why not make it a New Year’s Resolution to come along to one of our Club events and say hello sometime?

73 es 88 from all the members of Wythall Radio Club

Stuart M0NYP won the 2m FM Trophy in 2012

It is that time of year again, when the airwaves around Wythall (and further afield too!) will be full of strange stations exchanging numbers!

No, it’s not a spy extravaganza, it’s just the Wythall Radio Club Christmas Contest again!

Members have to work each other as often as possible between Christmas Eve at 20:00 and New Year’s Day at 20:00. We can work each other once every day for points and each unique member contacted acts as a “multiplier” to our scores.

Chris G0EYO won the G7OJO Trophy last year

At the end of the event, we take the best 5 days scores and submit them to the adjudicators who then come up with the results, which are celebrated with a presentation evening each January.

It is all about “having fun with RF” as our club motto states, and it invariably lives up to its name. So if you hear strange goings-on on the airwaves (especially on 145.225 MHz FM) over Christmas, don’t be alarmed – in fact, please join in and say “hello”.

You are not valuable to members as points, but you will make a few new friends!

Wythall Radio Club is today welcoming two more of our members to the ranks of the highest class of Amateur Licence!

Tom M0RMY in relaxed mode

Tom 2E0GSW and Roger Poole (who chose not to bother with callsigns until he reached this level), are Wythall Radio Club’s latest successes in the Amateur Radio Advanced Exam stakes! Months of study from September through to December culminated in the exam being taken earlier this month and both of them are now celebrating success.

Roger at our recent Xmas party

Tom has already chosen his new callsign M0RMY, while Roger is taking his time over selecting which callsign he would like.  Rest assured we will let you know as soon as we do! Meantime our sincere congratulations to them both and we hope to work them on the air soon.

Three more Wythall Radio Club members will be taking another Advanced exam later in January, so we will be keeping our fingers crossed for more success for them in the New Year!

Here are a few pictures to show you how much fun Wythall Radio Club members had without RF last Saturday! Just click on the photos for a larger version.

Not long to go now before one of the events of the year in the Wythall Radio Club Christmas Calendar.

Our in-house Christmas Contest started from small beginnings and is now a major part of the club’s calendar. Some amateurs have been known to join our club just to take part in it!

The idea is to work as many members as possible every day from 2000 on Christmas Eve till 2000 on New Year’s Day.  It is not quite as straightforward as it seems though and there are bonuses to be gained for using different bands and modes as well as going portable, mobile and operating from each other’s houses!

The G7OJO Trophy & the 2m Trophy

To win, you have to be active and available on the bands over the Christmas period – as if it wasn’t busy enough as it is!  The section winners are presented with the G7OJO Trophy (for all bands) and the 2 Meter Trophy (for members using 144 MHz only.)

This Tuesday 17th December, there is a presentation by Contest Supremo Lee G0MTN about the history and development of the Contest and on the innovations introduced in recent years, which will include more on the latest updates to our fantastic logging spreadsheet which scores you automatically!

It will be a fascinating evening for sure. So be there at 2030 this Tuesday 17th December in the Club Shack. It will be full, so arrive early!

Wythall Radio Club member Colin M0GJM, who passed away 29th November, is now the subject of an appreciation article on this website.

Please click here to visit his page.

Regular readers to this website will be aware that Wythall Radio Club’s motto is “Having Fun with RF”. Well, this weekend, we will doing the polar opposite and “having fun without RF”!

The reason for this is that this Saturday, 14th December, is a very special date in Wythall Radio Club’s Calendar. It is the date for our annual Christmas Party! Members come along and bring friends & family and we have a lot of fun together!

We hire one of the larger rooms (with bar of course!) at Wythall House and have a mixture of excellent food and drink (in the “American Supper” style), live entertainment, games, raffles, and even a skittle alley!

Great chat, a relaxed friendly atmosphere and a “no pressure” environment, it’s the perfect way to start the festive season off with friends.

The party starts from 1900 in the Britannia Room at Wythall House, Sliver Street, Wythall B47 6LZ.

Hot on the heels of Wythall Radio Club’s appearance in Practical Wireless magazine, the club is now featuring in the RSGB’s monthly magazine RadCom.

The January 2014 issue is being delivered to all RSGB members this week and features Wythall Radio Club on pages 68 & 69 under the title “Amateur Radio at its Very Best”. The article is about our activation of G100RSGB and the visit to the station of Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid Javid MP.

As well as featuring in the main G100RSGB article, our group of female operators also makes an appearance on page 84 in the West Midlands Regional News section of RadCom. They are pictured in somewhat frivolous mood, in keeping with our club motto of “having fun with RF”!

Our thanks to RadCom’s editor Elaine Richards G4LFM  for reminding us of some of the great bits of the fun time we had with the G100RSGB callsign.

Following Wythall Radio Club’s highly successful activation of the G100RSGB callsign on 31st October & 1st November, it is good to see the club getting some national publicity for its work.

Practical Wireless magazine is a long standing Amateur Radio publication in the UK and they have picked up on one of the many stories that made the news for the Club at that time.

Click on the article (above right) in this post to see a larger version of the news item that appears in PW’s January 2014 edition, available now. We think there may be a few extra copies sold in the Wythall area this month!

With so much going on at Wythall Radio Club just at the moment, it almost escaped notice that eight intrepid members travelled down the M40 last Saturday to represent the West Midlands at the famous Martin Lynch Hog Roast.

Arriving around 0900 (just in time for bacon sandwiches!) were Chairman Mike G4VPD, Secretary Anita M6DUO & Treasurer Ian M0IDR – also along for the ride were Committee Members Phil 2E0WTH, Jim 2E0BLP & Pete M5DUO. Ordinary members Dave G3YXM & Chris G7DDN completed the party.

A great time was had by all, but then since a picture tells a thousand words, just click on the pics below and you will see for yourself. No explanations necessary!

The question is, will Martin and his staff want to see the rabble again next year?