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G4TNU > NEWS 14.02.16 16:04l 202 Lines 9642 Bytes #999 (0) @ GBR
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 14 Feb 2016
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday 14th February 2016
The news headlines:
* First school ham TV ISS link
* Thinking Day next weekend
* New 472kHz distance record set
The UK ARISS team achieved a world first at the Royal Masonic School
for Girls, Rickmansworth on Thursday, by receiving live ATV video
from the ISS during the contact. Using the HamTV transmitter, which
has recently been commissioned on board the ISS, Tim Peake was the
first astronaut to use this equipment during a two way schools
contact. The next UK school contact will be with Oasis Academy in
north Bristol, on Friday 19 February. The 10-minute window opens at
1423UTC. Students there have already completed a Buildathon, thanks
to Shirehampton ARC, and are looking forward to the actual contact.
After that, The City of Norwich Schools have a contact scheduled
between the 22nd and 28th of February. The exact dates and times are
only notified by NASA about 10 days beforehand, but will be
publicised via GB2RS, the RSGB website and social media once
available. All school contact transmissions from the ISS can be heard
on the usual downlink frequency of 145.800MHz.
World Thinking Day will take place on the 20th and 21st of February.
This is when members of Girlguiding use amateur radio to try to
contact other members throughout the world as part of the
celebrations of their founders' birthdays. For further details and to
add your station to the list of participants go to
www.guides-on-the-air.co.uk or contact Liz, M0ACL via
m0acl<at>guides-on-the-air.co.uk If you hear Thinking Day stations on
the air, please give them a call.
Tuesday the 9th of February saw a new record set for the longest DX
on the new 600m band. WSPR was used by Phil Dwyer, VK3ELV and
Laurence Howell, KL7L, the latter operating as WE2XPQ. The contact,
from Victoria in Australia to Alaska in the USA, is the first-ever
between VK3 and KL7 on the 472kHz band. KL7L also reported a 136kHz
opening to Japan at the same time.
Stuart, M0SGS has been given granted an NoV to operate a Simplex
Fusion C4FM Digital Voice Gateway callsign MB6ILE on 431.075MHz. The
gateway is located in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, and serves the Leeds
and Bradford area. Transmission is via a 70cm folded dipole at about
630ft ASL with a 5 watt output. The system went live on the 6th of
February and can be accessed via any C4FM Fusion enabled radio.
Details of operating times, updates and how to connect can be found
at www.m0sgs.co.uk
The latest RSGB Band Plans have now been finalised. They cover all 29
UK amateur bands from 136kHz to 250GHz, including the special 146MHz
band that is only available by Notice of Variation to Full licence
holders. The Band Plans are available on the RSGB website at
www.rsgb.org/bandplans. They also appear in the March edition of
RadCom, which should start arriving with Members on Wednesday this
week.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
Today, the 14th, the UK Allstar Radioactive Fair will be held at the
Civic Hall, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 5DG. The venue is well served by
public transport, has free car parking and disabled facilities. Doors
open at 10.30am and admission is GBP 4. There will be trade stands, a
Bring & Buy, an RSGB bookstall and catering facilities. More
information from Roger Reeves, M0ROJ on 0774 761 8131.
Also on today, the Harwell Radio and Electronics Rally takes place in
Didcot Leisure Centre, Mereland Road, Didcot, OX11 8AY. The venue has
free car parking, disabled facilities a licensed bar and catering.
The talk-in station will be on 145.550MHz. Doors open at 9.45/10am
and admission is GBP 3, with under 12s free. There will be trade
stands, a flea market and special interest groups. Details from Ann,
G8NVI on 01235 816 379.
There are no rallies in the diary for next weekend. On the 28th, two
rallies will take place. These are the Rainham Radio Rally and
Pencoed Table Top Sale. More details on those next week.
If you have any rally or event information you'd like to appear in
future editions of GB2RS News, in RadCom and on the RSGB website,
please email details to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk.
And now the DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
Masato, JA0RQV will be active as 6Y5/JA0RQV mainly from his hotel in
Kingston, Jamaica, NA-097, starting on the 21st of February until the
17th of April. Activity will be mostly on the weekend and spare time.
He will work on the 10 to 160m bands using CW and SSB. QSL via M0OXO
using ORQS or Logbook of The World.
Wim, ON6DX is visiting Togo in West Africa. He will reactivate his
5V7TH callsign until the 22nd of February. He will be active on 40m
to 6m CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL to his home call.
Members of the Radio Club Argentino will be on the air from Carlini
Base in the South Shetland Islands during the last few weeks of
February. They will sign LU1ZI and the IOTA reference number is
AN-010.
Members of the Italian DXpedition Team will be active as 3XY1T from
the Los Islands, AF-051, between the 18th of February and the 4th of
March.
Mark, K0MDJ is on the air as 9H3DJ until June 1 while on a business
trip to Malta. Activity is in his spare time using mostly SSB on 17
meters. Malta is EU-023. QSL to home call.
Now the contest news
The first of this year's CQ Worldwide Worked All Prefix Contests is
RTTY, which is held for the entire 48 hours this weekend ending at
2359 on the 14th. There are too many categories to list, so please
check the contest website www.cqwpx.com/ for more information. Using
the 3.5 to 28MHz bands the exchange is signal report and serial
number.
Another contest this weekend with numerous categories is the PACC, a
Dutch contest. It's a CW and SSB event ends its 24 hour run at
1200UTC today, the 14th. Using the 1.8 to 28MHz bands, the exchange
is signal report, serial number and Dutch stations send their
Province code too.
On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest takes place from 2000 to
2230UTC. Using all modes the exchange is the usual signal report,
serial number and locator.
On Thursday it's the CW leg of the 80m Club Championships running
from 2000 to 2130UTC. The exchange is signal report and serial number.
The second 48-hour contest is the ARRL International DX, on the
weekend of the 20th and 21st. Work the USA, contiguous 48 States, and
Canada only, giving them a signal report and your transmit power.
US/Canadian stations give a signal report and their State/Province
code. This is the CW leg of the event; the SSB leg takes place next
month.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G4BAO and G3YLA
on Friday 12th February.
This past week saw an increase in the solar flux index, helped along
by a gaggle of sunspots. The SFI hovered around 117 mid-week which,
when coupled with relatively settled geomagnetic conditions, brought
some life to the upper HF bands. Andy, M0NKR reported working Japan
on twenty metres from his car at lunchtime using a monoband whip and
150 watts. Australia has also put in an appearance on 10m at times.
Next week, NOAA predicts the solar flux index will be around 110 to
115, with generally settled geomagnetic conditions. There is the
chance of unsettled conditions later in the week with the K index
predicted to hit four on Thursday and/or Friday. This is due to a
high-speed solar wind stream from a recurring coronal hole. So the
message is, get your DXing efforts in earlier in the week.
The critical frequency as measured by the Chilton Ionosonde was
8.6MHz at noon on Wednesday the 10th. This translates to an estimated
maximum useable frequency of 31MHz over a 3,000km path and explains
why DX was to be found on ten metres. It may be worthwhile keeping an
eye on 28MHz this week to see if the good conditions continue.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
It's been a poor winter overall for tropo and there are few glimmers
of hope in the coming week. After we have shunted the cold wintry
weather into the continent, indications are that it will be Monday
when a ridge of high pressure moves into Ireland and western Britain.
This will migrate eastwards across the country, being replaced by low
pressure again from Thursday onwards. This means that we may have a
mid-week opportunity to get some marginal tropospheric enhancement on
the VHF and UHF bands, before it fades away again.
This is not a particularly strong ridge and is unlikely to bring
widespread good conditions. The best tropo prospects are reserved for
the eastern Mediterranean, around Cyprus and Crete, and also from
Portugal to the Azores and Canaries.
There is still no respite from the annual dip in meteor rates so
early morning continues to be best time day for random meteor scatter
operation.
The Moon declination increases all next week, reaching maximum on
Thursday. So long moon windows, with associated low losses, means
it's a good week for Earth-Moon-Earth operation. If you aren't
equipped for EME, or Oscar Zero as the Moon is sometimes called,
artificial satellite DX is always available. Maybe take this slow
week as an excuse to try satellite operation.
And that's all for this week from the propagation team.
And that's the end of the main news for this week prepared by the
Radio Society of Great Britain. Items for inclusion in subsequent
bulletins can be emailed to gb2rs<at>rsgb.org.uk to arrive by
10:00 on the Thursday before transmission.
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