wythall radio club

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN CHRIS G0EYO WAS CONFRONTED BY  THESE 5  MORSE KEYS BOUGHT FROM A  STOURBRIDGE AUCTION HOUSE AND EMBARKED UPON A LABOUR OF LOVE  AND RESTORATION………….

…..and chose this Vibroplex Semi-Automatic  Bug key for restoration? (pictured below)

The Vibroplex key in its original condition

In this wide ranging and fascinating article Chris takes us through not only the restoration project, but his own  experience of CW in the past  working once as a CW intercept operator in the Government agencies of Bletchley Park and GCHQ and, since then  his determination to improve his sending of CW.

Fresh from the Auction House.. 5 Morse keys in need of some TLC!

With a brief history of the development of Morse keys from simple circuit breakers .. straight keys to the foundation of the Vibroplex Company and the semi- automatic Bug in 1905 Chris leads us to  the present day and the not previously- viewed arrival of a collection of old keys from a Stourbridge Auction house.

His gaze is drawn magnetically to a  Vibroplex Champion Semi-automatic Bug key (serial number 164719)  much in need of some TLC.

THE AUTHOR IN HIS WORKSHOP

It is this process that Chris documents in some detail describing the painstaking process and subsequent realisation of an immaculate example of this iconic key.

Read the full article in the Website Library .

Visitors are welcome at Wythall Radio Club’s on-the-air evening, next Tuesday 5th March from 8.00pm.

We’ll be using the Club’s 260ft doublet and TS590 rig.

Let’s see what we can work – have a go if you hold a licence (Foundation licensees can use 100w with our Club call).

Find us in the Darts Room on the ground floor, or in our usual spot on the far side of the bar.

Refreshments are available.

(PS well spotted – that’s not a TS590 in the photo!)

The full amateur radio experience is within your grasp: read on and discover.

A recent pass of the Full Licence Examination by our Hon Sec. Clive (now M0KNP) got our Training Co-ordinator Chris G0EYO thinking about how wonderful it is that people who have an interest in radio communications, but no technical, engineering or academic training can pass an examination in which some of the questions require them to learn a high level of technical and electronic theory and scientific calculations.

Chris G0EYO has written an article “Achieving the Impossible by Getting That Full Amateur Licence”  where he describes how the structured approach of the Bath Distance Learning Team has got around 1000 amateurs through their Intermediate and Full Licence examinations with their courses which have an award winning success rate.  It is based around a Syllabus which is produced by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) and approved by Ofcom. Each course ties in the material in Course Books (again published by the RSGB) with the requirements of the Syllabus, so that everything that is examinable is covered by the course.

The team behind the course have put in an incredible amount of time and research to make sure there are no gaps in the training and that each week’s topics tested by a quiz which the students do under timed conditions. The weekly tutorials are optional but are at the same time every Wednesday evening on Zoom. If a student is unable to watch a tutorial in real time a YouTube video of it is available to watch the next day. The tutorial is also supported by a power point presentation and this also available as a PDF to download the next day. 

At the end of the course, the student is expected to have a go at several Mock exams similarly structured to the ones set by the RSGB. It is the tutor’s job to supply the students with worked answers for all the quizzes and mock exams after they have been submitted and to help them with any queries they may have on the questions or course material. The tutor also keeps in contact with the student over his progress and will chivvy them along if they fall behind.

The BBDL Intermediate course runs for 19 weeks and the Full course runs for 20 weeks. Both of these courses call for a serious commitment from the student. In addition to the 2 hour weekly tutorial, you will need to spend another 2 to 4 hours studying each week’s material, preparing for and doing the weekly quiz.

https://www.wythallradioclub.co.uk/?page_id=13341&preview=true

YOU WILL FIND THE ARTICLE IN THE LIBRARY/ARTICLEOF THE WEBSITE OR THROUGH THE URL LINK ABOVE

There were 100mW QSOs during Wythall Radio Club’s QRP month in January.

John M6KET wound down the wick and used 0.1 watt to work Germany, France and England on 30m cw. 

Upping the power to 500 milliwatts gave him QSOs with Germany and Hungary also on 30m.  

Overall, 48 countries were worked using 5 watts or less on CW, and 50 countries using 10 watts or less on FT8.

It was harder work on SSB, with only 9 countries worked.

John M6KET and Kev G4XLO topped the CW and FT8 leader boards with 46 and 48 countries respectively.

Not bad for one month’s operating!

Using 1 watt on 30m, the big surprise for John was working C6AAE (Bahamas) at 16.45 UTC.  He also had a QRZ from  TZ4AM, but unfortunately Jeff in Mali wasn’t able to copy all John’s callsign.

Kev G4XLO in Torbay had spectacular results on FT8, working 48 DXCC entities despite gradually reducing power during the week – starting with 10 watts for the first week, then 5 watts, and finally 2 watts from the FT817. 

Amongst his highlights were Antigua (an all time new one), Cyprus – the op. was Sergio Rebrov ex-Tottenham manager!, San Marino and Puerto Rico.  

Kev found that 5 watts was enough to get across to west coast USA.

Lee G0MTN was also active, although other commitments limited his operating time using his new battery-powered QRPLabs QMX rig.

Darren GW7HOC used QRP in the past:

“I’ve worked VK4 from a tent in Cornwall on 20M SSB with 5W… I was in a tent! The antenna was an 80M mobile whip via an ATU.

I’ve crossed the Atlantic hundreds of times on 2.5W or less, mainly on SSB. I’ve crossed the pond many times on 1/2W or less on CW.

QRP is the best way to enjoy the hobby. No computers. No weak signal modes, either phone or CW.”

Chris G3YHF was mainly been on 7030kHz CW with his Rooster at 1w working around Europe.

He added a Sotabeams audio filter which made a big improvement to selectivity and a Kanga kits keyer module, but this left the operating desk now a bit of a rats nest!

You can read more about Chris’s adventures with the Rooster here.

HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN SATELLITE COMMUNICATION AND THE BENEFITS OF USING THE QO-100 SATELLITE AS AN EVERYDAY SET UP

I became interested in satellite quite soon after getting my licence, but it was very expensive to take up. The complexity of tracking the satellite across the sky was not within my budget. I did try the Armstrong method and really struggled. So, I decided to move on from that.

Many years later I started listening to the ISS from a simple handheld and received a few slows can pictures. I also heard stations working through both on voice and packet. Again, I parked the hobby but on this visit back to the hobby I have set my station up so that it is permanent and I can simply lock things away when I’m not working.

Some time in mid 2022, I happened to be reading an item, I forget where exactly, about a geostationary satellite that had been launched. This seemed more interesting. A satellite I could just point at and leave set up. Yes it’s lazy but it is also reliable. What was also interesting was the fact that the satellite was available on a webSDR. This became my first port of call, which quite soon made me realise that this was a thing I would be interested in.

I did some research and decided on purchasing a ready- made transverter. Unfortunately, due to my own mistake, I managed to wire up a couple of connections incorrectly and damaged the transverter. The manufacturers were very supportive and we eventually got me on the air.

It has become a bit of a passion of mine, even going portable from time to time, with a foldable 60cm dish.

Hopefully my talk on 6th February at 8.30 pm in the Darts’ Room at Wythall House will give an insight as to how we got to this point, with a quick history of satellite communication and the benefits of using the QO-100 satellite as an every day set up.

G7OJO All Band and 2E0BLP 2m/70cm FM Christmas Contest 

Wythall Radio  Club held their 2023 Xmas Contest Awards evening recently , hosted as ever by Lee G0MTN. The event was well supported with some 24 members attending through Zoom and in person.

The aim of the Contest is quite simply to have fun and boost band activity amongst members (and has absolutely nothing to do with getting away from family for a while during the stressful festive period.)

Anyway the above aims were achieved with most activity taking place on the Club frequency 145.225 and using GB3WL.

HF activity was evident with SSB, FT8 and even CW QSO’s recorded.

Lee also reported an increase in digital voice activity but the seasonal bad weather meant little portable and mobile activity!

Bravery Awarded -2E0NCO out in the Lickey Hill during the 2023 Xmas Contest!

Kevin 2E0NCO did however brave the elements (and was rewarded for his efforts).

Other highlights included the bonus multipliers provided by Allen M0PPX, Dave GM3YXM on 1942kHz (160m) and the very welcome involvement of our two newest members Martin M7FXD and John G7PIR.

Log checking was occasionally  a challenge (guilty as charged) as a few failed to cope with the electronic logging system kindly provided by organiser Lee , but neatly written copies are always welcome. (2E0XET should take note in the future!)

AND SO TO THE RESULTS: 

THE 2E0BLP 2M/70CM TROPHY

           CONGRATULATIONS TO KEVIN 2E0NCO    HONOURING    A LONGSTANDING FAMILY TRADITION

The leading Foundation member award went to Martin M7XFD

The All Modes Section:  THE G7OJO TROPHY:

 CONGRATULATIONS TO CHRIS G3YHF

       John G7PIR received the Newcomer’s Award

                    (The full result board will be published here in the coming week)

Lee was thanked for his fantastic work in organising and running  the event and we now look forward to Neil’s G1TZC  Satellite Presentation on Tuesday February 6^th in the Darts Room at Wythall House (8.30 p.m.)

Over the last month I’ve had a lot of fun with my Rooster rig.  The build was described in a previous post. 

The current set-up with added peripheral circuits and my Palm paddle is shown in the photo left.

The Rooster’s sidetone was quite loud relative to daytime signals so I changed capacitor C16, that sets the sidetone volume, for one that’s half the value and this quietened it down.

The other addition is a Sotabeams dual bandwidth audio filter (photo right).  This comes ready-built and just needs wiring up for power, bandwidth switching and audio in and out.  I power it from a pp3 battery.

A member of WRC limbers up for the           January   2024 QRPP Challenge

Yes – it’s that time of the year when members of Wythall Radio Club  , after the competitive activity of the last few days (Xmas Contest), take their foot off the pedal and relax into some genuine QRP/QRPP activity.

So for the month of  January all are encouraged just to experiment, reduce power  see what can be worked and report back and triumphs and disasters (?) alike.

It’s not a competition  but a month of recommended low power relaxation in any mode, any band and  at any time.

 More than enough?? How low can  YOU go?

Watch this space for reports  and stories of the ones that got away , and more likely, the ones that didn’t!!

                 A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MEMBERS AND READERS FROM  ALL AT WYTHALL RADIO CLUB