Wythall Hamfest (Rally)
After many years of successful Hamfests/Rallies, we are taking a break. As of Summer 2024, our Club doesn’t have any plans to restart the Rally in the near future.
Here’s the background…….
For many years Wythall Radio Club has been famous for its March Radio Rallies held on a Sunday on site at Wythall Park or a local school. Radio rallies were a very popular event for radio enthusiasts to come together to buy and sell radio gear. Our rally also attracted a large number of Traders who sold current state of the art equipment and we regularly attracted 500+ paying visitors. However as the internet took off with online auctions and sales sites, rallies across the country began to decline over the years.
Busy Hamfest 2016
In 2020 the Covid pandemic put paid to them completely, and in that year we had to cancel our rally, (now known as a Hamfest) a few weeks before it was due to take place. The pandemic lockdown extended into 2021 and the club decided to postpone putting on another rally until such time as we could guarantee access to a suitable site; attract enough traders to make it viable and summon enough volunteers to make do-able. The loss of the rally income has hit the club hard as the rally was a major source of funding for the club at a time when we were being faced with significant rent increases. As a consequence we have had to reduce the amount of space we hire from the Wythall Community Association at Wythall House.
After many years of successful Hamfests, we are taking a break. We will post details well in advance if we plan to run a Hamfest in the future. Wythall Radio Club would like to thank all our traders and visitors for their support over many years.
Chris G0EYO
Phil 2E0WTH with Martin Lynch & Co 2015