wythall radio club

This weekend, 8th and 9th July sees one of the Radio Society of Great Britain’s premier contest events, VHF National Field Day. The idea is that stations take to the great outdoors and set up stations literally “in the field” and then try to make as many contacts as possible for 24 hours. Five Amateur bands are used, 50Mhz, 70 MHz, 144 MHz, 432 MHz and 1296 MHz.

Wythall Radio Club’s idea of a good VHF Field Day however, is to have as many members as possible on the park at Wythall House and play a mix of radio, both VHF and HF, heavy duty contesting and combine that with eating food, drinking beer and telling tall stories well into the night. (Sometimes even radio comes second to beer!)

Well, that’s our usual plan!  This year’s awful rainy weather has literally put the dampeners on our activities.  The state of the field is so bad that getting equipment onto it would prove too difficult and in addition, the forecast for the weekend is pretty grim.

So instead, join us in the club shack from 1400 on Saturday for a day of fun with RF and a takeaway in the evening, washed down with some suitable ales from the bar. We will still be working all the portable stations but in the so-called “sweeper” section of the contest. And after a few bevys, doubtless those tall stories will keep on coming…

Tim Kirby G4VXE "drowning" in PowerPoint on Tuesday at Wythall RC!

A fantastic turnout on Tuesday evening just gone (30+ members, around half the membership!) enjoyed a compelling presentation, courtesy of Tim G4VXE.

Entitled “My World of VHF”, Tim took us on a journey through all manner of VHF operating practices, propagation, anecdotes & antennas and showed us just how much is happening on VHF and UHF.  As a seasoned operator, contester, DXpeditioner and column writer for “Practical Wireless” magazine, there was little left untouched in his overview of the bands from 50MHz to 432MHz.

Members were unanimous in their praise for an inspiring evening and there is already talk of further antennas being erected at a few members’ locations in the near future.  It was a great prelude to our own exploits on VHF Field Day coming up the weekend after next.

So… thank you Tim!

Click the image to enlarge!

Nice to see members of Wythall Radio Club in the Amateur Radio press again. This time it is Barry M0DGQ, one of our QRP (low power) fanatics, who has been in the news.

Once again Barry has had one of his homebrew articles published in the latest issue (out today!) of what many people consider THE best Amateur Radio magazine in the UK, SPRAT.

SPRAT (Small Powered Amateur Radio Transmitters, to give it it’s full title!) is the quarterly journal of the G-QRP Club.  Many of the best known amateurs in the UK are among the members of this club.

What is more, this is the second time that Wythall member Barry has had an article published in this august publication. This time it is for a homebrew 40 Meter band Transmitter project.  Opposite is the latest front page from SPRAT and Barry’s transmitter is pictured on the left.

We are very proud to have Barry in our club. If you want to find out more about his ham radio projects, visit his personal pages at www.m0dgq.co.uk

Tim Kirby G4VXE (pictured) is the VHF Columnist for Practical Wireless Magazine.  Not only does he have that distinction, but he is also Wythall Radio Club’s next guest speaker! This Tuesday evening, Tim is wending his way up the M40 to join us at Wythall House on Silver Street to deliver his latest presentation, entitled “My World of VHF”.

Tim is basing his talk around the VHF/UHF column that he writes for PW.  In his monthly musings, he covers as many aspects of VHF/UHF as he can and tries encourage people to look at their VHF/UHF radios in a different way.  Those of us who have been following his writings, both in print and in his online blog, will know he is more than eminiently qualified to talk on this subject.  Tim has just about done it all in VHF/UHF, contesting, DXpeditioning and so on. His interests range from chatting on FM Repeaters to serious DX on 50MHz and above.

Tim’s visit comes at a very appropriate time as VHF Field Day is just around the corner and a little inspiration never goes amiss!!

We are looking forward to welcoming Tim amongst us. Tuesday 26th June is the date and 8.30pm is the time!

Wythall Radio Club is running an “intense” Foundation Licence Course this summer.  If you are interested in the hobby of Amateur Radio, this is the way in!

This short course will run over two weekends, 28th-29th July & 4th-5th August. Each session will be four hours long starting at 1000 in the morning. The exam will take place at the end of the course at around 1330 on Sunday 5th August.

We already have three students signed up to do this course but the good news is that there are still some places available.  Although the course doesn’t start for over a month yet, we need you to have registered for it by July 15th, in order to book the correct number of students in for the exam.

The cost is £40 (£32.50 for under 18s or anyone out of work and on benefits).

E-mail our Lead Instructor Chris Pettitt G0EYO at g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk for more information.

Well, Intermediate Exam night came and went last night and Wythall Radio Club is proud to announce that all three intrepid candidates have passed!

Well done to club members Chris M6BNQ, Keith M6KAO together with Tony M6TSK, (all pictured left with their pass certificates) – they now enter the world of 2E0 land! All scored very well in the exam, despite a few “I think I’ve failed” comments on leaving the exam room.  (We are used to that!)

Thanks go to Wythall Radio Club’s team of Tutors; Lead Instructor Chris G0EYO, ably abetted and assisted by Dave G3YXM, Barry M0DGQ, Peter G4LWF and David G0ICJ.  Thanks too to to our invigilators last night, Mike G4VPD and David G0ICJ.

All three successful candidates have intimated that they are keen to progress to the Advanced level exam.  As luck would have it(!) we have an Advanced course starting on September 10^th. Here’s to a hat-trick of successes come December!

Wythall Radio Club’s training programme continues apace.

It doesn’t seem that long ago since we were congratulating our newest batch of Foundation Licence holders and it is already time to be wishing our Intermediate students good luck for their exam!

This Monday, 18th June, three students, who have been working hard over the past couple of months under the tutelage of Lead Instructor, Chris G0EYO, will be sitting the RCF Intermediate exam at 2000. All of us in Wythall Radio Club wish them all the best in their endeavours.

Watch this space for the results!

144 MHz or 2 metres is probably the most popular amateur band for local or semi-local contacts.

However, tomorrow it will be full of low power or QRP stations trying to make contacts far and wide in the annual Practical Wireless 2m QRP contest.

 All modes from FM to SSB and CW are allowed and it’s a great opportunity to snag some new squares or work some hilltoppers. All you have to remember is that no more than 3w is allowed as your output power.

This is a great chance to get out onto some high spots for an hour or so too and see how many stations can be worked.

So if you are at a loose end tomorrow, why not take part? Even a small antenna such as a tiny yagi or halo for horizontal polarisation will work.  The usual antenna types for vertical polarisation will also give good results.

See  http://www.pwcontest.org.uk/144MHzrules.html for more details and remember, have fun with RF!

No-one can surely have failed to notice that the UK is celebrating something special this weekend (and we don’t mean 2 extra days public holiday!)

“Her Maj” is rightly the centre of attention this coming weekend and we at Wythall Radio Club are also taking part in her celebrations.

We will be joining in with the village activities this Sunday and Monday with a Special Event Station to mark the Jubilee. Listen out for the callsign GQ4WAC  and feel free to contact us (most likely on the 80 metre, 40 metre, 20 metre, and 2 metre bands).

Catch you on the air!

In case you are not aware, Wythall Radio Club is now on the worldwide web!  The club shack and training room now has broadband internet access, both wired and wireless.

The many advantages of this we are yet to fully explore, but we are making a start this coming Tuesday, 29th May, when there will be an informal “Internet Evening”, which may well be the precursor of more such nights.

This week, Chris G7DDN will initiate our first “round table” by visiting “live” a few ham radio websites of which some of our members may not yet be fully aware.   It is easy in our modern connected world to think everyone already knows about the resources available at the click of a mouse or press of a button, but this is not always the case.

Future Internet evenings may well see members encouraged to bring along useful links to sites that they have discovered which might enhance the hobby for us all.

With our new link to the Information Superhighway, Wythall Radio Club is engaging 1st gear and getting off the “Super Hard Shoulder”!