wythall radio club

Field Day Vertical

With the longer nights (if not warmer weather yet here in the English Midlands) on the way, many of our thoughts turn towards getting out “in the field” and playing Ham Radio in the great outdoors.

There is always something magical about doing radio in the open air. Perhaps it is a sense of getting “back to nature”, or having to use one’s ingenuity to come up with inventive solutions to the problems of power generation and antennas.

Whatever flavour of playing radio outdoors you may have attempted, you will be aware that things do not always go to plan! :-)

This coming Tuesday at Wythall Radio Club, prepare for Callum M0MCX to dish the dirt on some of the disasters that have befallen him on Field Day events.  Bound to be an amusing and enlightening evening. Tuesday 24th April at 2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House. See you there!

A few years ago, I decided it was time I had a go at a Morse Code (CW) contest.  Having picked a short evening event in the UK, I was surprised (perhaps I shouldn’t have been!) at how simple and formulaic the exchanges were.  Plucking up some courage and dusting off the straight key, I managed to complete my first faltering contacts using little more than my callsign and a few numbers!

With Wythall Radio Club’s “Morse Month” coming up this May, it seemed a good time for Lee G0MTN, one of our resident CW experts, to pop along and give us a short presentation, about how feasible it really is to make some excellent contacts on CW without actually knowing much more than how to read a callsign and send a few numbers!

There can of course, be much more to it that this, but nonetheless, it makes a jolly intriguing title for a talk, so why not pop along next Tuesday 17th April and hear for yourself how easy it can be to make contacts with just an initial limited knowledge of the code?

Who knows? You might even be tempted to take it further!

Frank Breedon, G3MZU, SK

It was with great sadness that the club learnt of the passing of honorary member Frank G3MZU on Thursday, 23^rd February aged 83. Frank died in his sleep at his nursing home in Clent where was being cared for.

Franks obituary has been posted to the main club site here:

• https://www.wythallradioclub.co.uk/about-wythall/frank-bernard-breedon-g3mzu-silent-key/

He took a great interest in the club during its early years, helping out at field days, social events and of course the big project of installing the mast at the back of Wythall House.

“I well remember several Saturday’s spent digging out the foundations with Frank and others”, said Chris, G0EYO.

This time next week, Easter will be almost upon us, and while the young-at-heart among us will doubtless be tucking into our chocolate eggs, members of Wythall Radio Club will also be busy on the airwaves.

Thursday sees the start of our Easter Contest, a shorter version of our Christmas Contest. While members will be busy from 1000 local time trying to work each other across the holiday period, everyone is welcome to call in and say hello. The contest ends on Easter Monday at 2200 and members will be submitting their best 3 days to see if they can win an extra Easter Egg or two!

But there’s more! The club is also putting on a Special Event Station this weekend at the Hanbury Vintage Steam Fair. Look out for the club station on the field on both Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday with keen members making contacts on both VHF and HF. The fact there is a good flow of real ale on site plays only a little part in our interest! ;-)

Wythall Radio Club wishes you and your families a very happy Easter Holiday.

In years gone by, thermionic valves were the staple diet of the Ham Radio enthusiast. You still see lots of them for sale at Radio Rallies throughout the country! It was not until the 1950’s and moreso the 1960’s that transistorised solid-state equipment began to become commonplace. We all probably remember our first examples of broadcast transistor radios – the ones we nicknamed “trannies”!

And while valves are still the main drivers in high power linear amplifiers for example, there has been a resurgence of interest in homebrew valve technology in recent years. Even kits have become available for beginners to make QRP transmitters for example.

Valve technology however can be a bit of a mystery to many of us, so this Tuesday night at Wythall Radio Club, why not come along and learn a bit more about them?

Barry M0DGQ is a designer and builder of radio equipment using valves and will be presenting a talk called “A Beginner’s Guide to Valves”. It is bound to be an interesting evening and promises to enthuse many of us into having a go at building something using valve technology.

Can’t wait!

If you live in or around Birmingham or Midlands area and want to continue your Amateur Radio hobby with an Intermediate Licence then book now for April 2012 to avoid any disappointment

Wythall Radio Club will be running an Intermediate course at their club shack at Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall, B47 6LZ from Saturday morning on  21st April, and then every Monday 8-10pm until the examination on Monday 19th June.

Cost for this course is £50 which includes, the examination fee, course book, course notes and project work.

Contact Chris G0EYO on g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk if you are interested or go to the Training page for more information.

Years ago, when the UK population was somewhat less numerous than it is at the moment, there seemed to be a little more “real estate” around for UK citizens to have large-ish (or at least long-ish!) gardens.

Since the housing boom of the 1950s and 1960s however, gardens seem to have been ever-decreasing in size.  The upshot of all this is that most of us Radio Hobbyists no longer have large amounts of space into which we can put our HF antennas.

If this sounds like your situation, then this Tuesday, Wythall Radio Club is the place to be!

Callum M0MCX will be giving a talk on growing HF antennas suitable for your garden.   Based on a talk he himself heard many years ago, and added to in the light of experience, Callum will be exploring what it is possible to do in terms of efficient HF antennas in average size gardens.

2030 in the Darts Room at Wythall House – not to be missed!

All the members of Wythall Radio Club would like to say a huge “thank you” to the many traders and visitors who attended our annual Rally today. We hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did.

What a great Rally today! The turnout for both traders and  public was superb. The weather helped too with glorious sunshine for the whole event. We hope you had a great time.

Finally, a *big* thank you to the members that participated in the build and tear-down. Many traders commented that Wythall is the only rally that supplies members to assist with the traders at the huge level we do. Great work. Many hands make light work!

A picture is better than a 1,000 words though, so see the collection here:

https://www.wythallradioclub.co.uk/photos/2012-2/2012-rally/

See you next year.

After months of preparation and hard work, the 27th Wythall Radio Club Rally has arrived!

Members and traders will be busy from 0700 in the morning at Woodrush School getting tables and stands ready for all our visitors. Some of our traders have to come from very far afield and will be getting up at around 3 in the morning to get to our corner of the West Midlands – that’s dedication!

The rally opens to the public at 1000 tomorrow morning and all members of Wythall Radio Club hope you all enjoy the experience. Admission is just £2.50 and all monies received go directly to offset the cost of putting on the rally and the profits go towards keeping our club solvent financially.

So see you tomorrow morning at Woodrush School, Shawhurst Lane, Wythall. B47 5JW. There are signs to help you find us and radio talk-in is on 145.550 MHz if you don’t have a Sat Nav.

We hope you have a great, fun-filled day.