wythall radio club

No, not the Marvel Comic book heroes, but our very own successful Foundation Licencees!

Tonight at the club, Keith, Anita, young Daniel & Chris were successful in passing their Foundation Exams.  Well done to you all and welcome to our great hobby!

Our thoughts are also with two candidates who only just missed out on making it a six-some. However, youngsters Tara and Jake will, we are sure, be successful at a re-sit in a few weeks time.

Meantime, we now await callsigns for our Fantastic Four…

Exciting times…

After 6 or so weeks of fun and hard work, our intrepid group of Foundation License Course members get to take their exam tomorrow night.

Under the tutelage of Chris G0EYO and a few others, they have been preparing for this evening.  Last week was the mock exam and apparently quite a few of the candidates learned that it is not always a good idea to change answers from your first choice! :-)

All Wythall club members send their best wishes to everyone taking the exam tomorrow night.  Watch this space for the results and hopefully soon, some new callsigns.

It’s all hands to the pump now as we are just days away from this year’s Wythall Radio Club Rally!

For anyone who doesn’t know, this is a day long event on Sunday 11th March, where radio related traders from all over the UK descend on Woodrush School in Shawhurst Lane, Wythall, (B47 5JW for those who have SatNavs!) and ply their wares to radio, computer and electronics hobbyists of all kinds. It’s a fun day and you are sure to come away with a bargain or two!

Doors open at 10.00 am and it is worth getting there early to snap up the bargains which will doubtless be on offer! At £2.50 entrance fee, Wythall is still one of the least expensive events in the UK and has a reputation for being one of the friendliest.

Members are keying themselves up for a busy weekend on 10th/11th March as to put this on involves a huge effort from everyone connected with the club. The rally keeps the club solvent financially too for the rest of the year, so all members are very much encouraged to get their hands dirty!

Our last planning meeting for the rally is at the club this coming Tuesday evening, 6th March, and we encourage all members to attend if at all possible.

See you there! :-)

Due to personal circumstances, the date for Callum M0MCX’s talk on Garden Antennas has had to be changed.

Instead of taking place this coming Tuesday 28th February, it will now take place on Tuesday March 20th at 2030.  Venue within Wythall House to be confirmed.

Our apologies for this late change to the programme.  This Tuesday will be a social evening at the club – a chance to chat RF and put the Amateur Radio world to rights! :-)

Time to get ready for your new Wythall Radio Club polo shirts, t-shirts and fleece  jackets!   The “club tailor”(!) Peter Hall will be visiting us this coming Tuesday evening.

Many regular folks will have noticed the recent proliferation of club branded wear.  Peter will be doing a demonstration of how the logos are created and how his bespoke computerised machinery makes the garments.  He will also make a few shirts on the night for any last minute orderers, and bringing some pre-ordered garments with him too.

His first visit in November was excellent but this time, we will be meeting in the Darts Room, which will allow us to see more “up close” just exactly what goes on!

We are looking forward to welcoming him again, this time with his wife, Carol.

Don’t forget to bring your wallets, folks!

Wythall Radio Club’s calendar is now correct up to the end of 2012.

As new talks or events are arranged, details will be posted and the calendar updated.  Talks are firmly in the diary up to June of this year and the Autumn talks programme is currently being planned. Watch this space!

The next event which may be of interest to non-members is on Tuesday February 28th when Callum M0MCX will be giving a talk and presentation on HF Antennas for your Garden. Visitors are welcome – just make yourselves known and say hello! :-)

I happened to be talking to Chris, G3VNA on the internet in the MyDel Yahoo Group Reflector. Chris has recently bought an SG3000, Auto Antena Tuner. We were discussing the technique of joining antenna wire together and I recalled a long debate years ago on eHam. The general conclusion was that you can join antenna wire but try not to use solder. Apparently the solder breaks down over time and you can end up with a worse problem due to the solder joint starting to behave as a component.

Over the last couple of years, I have experimented with jointing aerial wire and have had great succes with what they call the AT&T Wireman’s Joint (or similar). Somewhere on the internet is a PDF document showing this join which happens to be about the most natural join you can make with wire anyway. As it happens, that’s the same join as I have been making since I can remember. Indeed, it seems as strong as the wire itself.

The photograph shown here is of enamelled hard drawn wire. For the benefit of the photo, I have not scraped the varnish off the copper. This would certainly NOT work as a join if you left the varnish all shiny like this, you’d have to get your pen-knife out and scrape it all off. But the then the photo would be ruined :)

If you are using stranded wire, you can still use a similar join but I would recommend taping up the joint so that it didn’t unravel over time.

Have fun with rf!

Callum.

Wythall Radio Club’s latest Foundation Course begins this evening.  With a full complement of students, we are hoping for yet more successes at Foundation level.

All at Wythall Radio Club send their best wishes to our new students for a successful course and we hope to hear new callsigns on the air come March.

Remember if you are interested in becoming a Radio Amateur or just have any queries with regards to what the Foundation Course is all about, just drop a line to Chris G0EYO at g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk anytime.  He will be more than pleased to give you any advice.

The Radio Society of Great Britain and Ofcom have reached agreement on the optional use of special callsigns for two significant events during 2012.

For the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, all UK amateur stations will have the option of applying for a variation to their licence if they wish, to use a special prefix for a five week period. This will add or substitute the letter “Q” in the place of the Regional identifier in the callsign. For the period of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, a similar facility will exist for a seven week period, using the letter “O”. Both the above facilities will also be available to Amateur Club licences, so expect to hear GQ4WAC and GO4WAC during this year!

More info at http://www.rsgb.org/news/articlelinks.php?id=0263

The Club’s programme of events on this website has been further updated and is now accurate to the end of September 2012.

October – December 2012 will be added shortly.