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G4APL > NEWS 29.04.18 03:37l 326 Lines 15253 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 29 Apr 2018
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From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@EU
GB2RS Main News for Sunday 29 April 2018
[Note to Newsreaders: we are aware that there is a discrepancy
between the GB2RS ‘tops and tails' and information published in
RadCom and elsewhere. This concerns the email address for listeners
to send information for publication. Please amend your ‘tops and
tails' to ask people to send information to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk –
we have started an auto-responder on other email addresses directing
contributors to that address and asking them to send material to that
one ONLY, not copying it to multiple RSGB addresses. A revised set of
‘tops and tails' is in the pipeline but will take some time to
complete. If you have any suggestions on the ‘tops and tails' or
indeed any other matter related to GB2RS broadcast scripts, please
let us know via email to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk]
The news headlines:
* RSGB AGM
* Sunday Times letter response
* BARS operating at Royal Mint
Illness of a key RSGB staff member means that it has not been
possible to prepare Local News again this week, for which we
apologise. We hope to be able to present Local News again next week.
Details of many club events can be found in the April and May
editions of RadCom, supplemented by the link to the May edition of
the RSGB Affiliated Clubs Newsletter at the end of this bulletin and
the Events List on the RSGB website:
http://rsgb.org/main/clubs/events/
At the RSGB AGM held in Birmingham last Saturday, the 21st of April,
Simone Wilson, M0BOX and Mark Jones, G0MGX were elected to the RSGB
Board of Directors whilst Philip Willis, M0PHI was endorsed as a
Nominated Director. Graham Murchie, G4FSG stood down as Chair after
serving in the role for four of his five years on the Board, and both
Steve Hartley, G0FUW and Alan Messenger, G0TLK finished their terms
on the Board. Ian Shepherd, G4EVK was appointed as the new RSGB Board
Chair.
Following a letter in the Sunday Times earlier this month which
suggested that amateur radio aerials affected nearby Wi-Fi, the RSGB
submitted a full response. The Society is delighted that not only did
the paper print one of the points it made, but it also included a
valid comment by another radio amateur who referenced the RSGB. The
RSGB understands from the newspaper that to publish responses like
this is unusual. You can read the short piece online:
tinyurl.com/the-times-response
[Note for newsreaders: the full url is
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/do-ham-radios-really-slow-wifi-r3nr
kv5vx]
Members of the Barry Amateur Radio Society will be active from 'Her
Majesty's Royal Mint' at Llantrisant, South Wales on the 1st and the
2nd of June. They will be using the call sign GB4RME (Radio
Monitoring & Espionage) to assist at the launch of a new 10p coin
featuring James Bond. They will be displaying a WWII spy radio set
used by the SEO in France as well as teaching the public Morse Code
and showcasing Data Modes. During the event they will have a QSO with
the National Radio Centre (NRC) based at Bletchley Park.
The RSGB has received one nomination for President and so is pleased
to announce that Dave Wilson, M0OBW has been duly elected as RSGB
President until the 2020 AGM. The Society would like to place on
record its thanks to Nick Henwood G3RWF for the excellent work he has
done during his term as President. Dave's term of office will start
on the 12th of May.
The WIA Annual Radio and Electronics Convention will be held on the
18th to the 20th of May. For information about the programme see the
event website: www.wia.org.au/convention
RSGB Club insurance and Beacon and Repeater insurance has now been
renewed for the year to April 2019. Club insurance certificates can
be downloaded from the RSGB website; please use your Membership
Services login to obtain a copy of your certificate. Beacon and
repeater insurance remains at GBP 10 and you may renew on the RSGB
shop. Please allow a couple of days after renewal for your
certificate to be dispatched.
Chertsey Radio Club are using a long-distance road trip to raise
money for the children's ward at Saint Peter's Hospital in Chertsey.
James Preece, M0JFP will leave the UK on the 12th of June and drive
1,500 miles from the UK through France to Benidorm in Spain, arriving
on the 18th. He will be working a lot of radio over the week
including Satellites, HF and some local repeaters. To find out more
email chertseyradioclub<at>hotmail.com
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
Today, the 29th, the Northern Amateur Radio Societies Association
Exhibition Blackpool Rally takes place at the Norbreck Castle
Exhibition Centre, Blackpool FY2 9AA. Car parking is available and a
talk-in station will be on the air. The doors will open at 10.15am
for disabled visitors and 10.30am for the general public. As well as
trade stands there will be a Bring and Buy, and special interest
groups. An RSGB book stall will be present. For more information
contact Dave, M0OBW on 01270 761608 or e-mail
dwilson<at>btinternet.com The event's web site is www.narsa.org.uk
The Exeter Radio and Electronics Rally takes place today at the
America Hall, De La Rue Way, Pinhoe, Exeter EX4 8PW. This event was
rescheduled from the 4th of March, due to snow. The rally opens at
10.30am, with disabled access and Bring and Buy booking-in from
10.15am, although the event may open earlier if the weather is bad
and all the exhibitors are ready. Admission is GBP 2 and there is
on-site catering. Details from Pete, G3ZVI, on 07714 198374, or
e-mail g3zvi<at>yahoo.co.uk
Next Sunday, the 6th of May, the Thorpe Camp Hamfest (formerly the
Dambusters Hamfest) takes place at Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre,
Tattershall, Thorpe, Lincoln LN4 4PL. For more information please go
to the events page on http://thorpecamp.org or e-mail
secretary<at>thorpecamp.org or call Anthony on 07956 654481.
To get your rally or event information into GB2RS News, RadCom and on
the RSGB website, e-mail details as early as possible to
radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk
And now the DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
Cezar, VE3LYC should be starting today from the Duff Islands in the
Temotu part of the Solomon Islands. He will be active until the 3rd
of May. This is OC-179 for IOTA. The operation has been partly
supported by the RSGB DXpedition fund.
Harry, JG7PSJ will be active as JD1BMH from Chichijima (AS-031), in
the Ogasawara Islands until the 4th of May. He will operate CW, SSB
and RTTY on 40 to 10m. Makoto, JI5RPT will be active as JD1BLY from
the same island on the 2nd to the 4th of May.
YL operators Kay, WA0WOF (A52YLE) and Mio, JR3MVF (A52YLM) will be
active as A52YL from Bhutan until the 6th of May. They will operate
SSB and CW on 80-10 metres. JH3AEF and JA3IVU will also be active as
A52AEF and A52IVU in their spare time. The team will be QRV on 80-6
metres CW, SSB and digital modes.
Chris, VO1IDX will be active as 6Y5IDX from Jamaica (NA-097) from the
29th of April to the 6th of May. He will operate SSB and FT8 on 80-10
metres.
A very large team of Indonesian operators will be active from Tinabo,
one of the Taka Bonerate Islands (OC-242) until the 1st of May, and
from Salayar Island (OC-236) on 1st to the 2nd of May. They will be
QRV on 15 to 40 metres.
The First Class CW Operators' Club (FOC) will be celebrating its 80th
anniversary with a month-long event throughout May. It features a
large number of special 'FOC' suffix call signs from all around the
world, many of them containing the number 80. Points are scored by
making CW QSOs with individual FOC members and the special call
signs, once per band, and certificates will be available depending on
participants' positions in the final table on ClubLog. Detailed
information can be found at www.g4foc.org/foc80
A Russian Robinson Club team will be active as C96RRC from Mozambique
Island (AF-088) from the 29th of April to the 3rd of May.
A large, mainly Belgian, group will be active as C8T from Mozambique
on the 2nd to the 15th of May. They will operate SSB, CW and RTTY on
160-10 metres with four stations. A fifth station will operate 2m
EME, 60m and extra digimodes on all bands.
Now the special event news
SOS Radio Week 2018 takes place between the 1st and the 31st May with
stations operating to celebrate the work of the RNLI. Details
including the list of participating stations can be found at
http://www.sosradioweek.org.uk
Welland Valley Amateur Radio Society will be active as GB4GW between
the 1st and the 28th May to commemorate the end of the Great War. See
QRZ.com for more information.
Grey Point Fort ARS in Northern Ireland will be active as GB9RAF
between the 4th and the 31st of May to mark the centenary of the
creation of the Royal Air Force. See QRZ.com for more information.
GB0GLS will be active on the 5th of May on the 80m, 40m and 20m
bands, with the possibility of additional activity on 17m and 2m, to
commemorate the work of the Gilnahirk Listening Station in Northern
Ireland. See QRZ.com for more information.
Now the contest news
The RTTY leg of the Polish DX Contest continues until 1200 UTC today,
Sunday the 29th of April. The bands for this are 3.5MHz to 28MHz. The
contest exchange is a signal report and serial number. Polish
stations also give their Province code.
The RSGB 144MHz FM Activity Contest takes place on Tuesday the 1st of
May from 1800 to 1900 UTC, on FM only. It is followed immediately by
the 144MHz UK Activity Contest, from 1900 to 2130 UTC, the latter
being on all modes. The contest exchange for both is the same; a
signal report, serial number and your Locator.
Starting Saturday the 5th of May, the UK Six Metre Group's Summer
Marathon runs continuously for three months on the 50MHz band. It is
basically an exercise in collecting as many Locator squares as
possible during the main months of the Sporadic-E season.
The ARI has its International DX Contest next weekend, starting at
1200 UTC on Saturday the 5th. CW, SSB and RTTY are the modes for this
event, the bands being 3.5MHz to 28MHz. Exchange a signal report and
a serial number. Italian stations also give a 2-letter Province code.
In this contest there are no points for working your own country and
a differing number of points for working your own Continent, other
Continents, and Italy. There are no single band entries and only one
power category – high. Multipliers are DXCC entities (except Italy
and Sardinia), plus Italian Provinces.
The RSGB 432MHz Trophy contest and 10GHz Trophy contest each run from
1400 to 2200 UTC on Saturday 5th. The RSGB 432MHz to 248GHz Trophy
Contest starts at the same time but continues for 24 hours. In all
three of these contests the exchange is a signal report, serial
number and your Locator.
On Sunday the 6th the UK Microwave Group has another in its series of
Low Band contests, on the 1.3GHz to 3.4GHz bands. The contest
exchange is a signal report, serial number and your Locator.
Also on Sunday the 6th, the IRTS is holding its 40m Counties Contest.
The running times for this are 1200 to 1400 UTC, and SSB and CW are
the modes. Exchange a signal report and serial number. Stations in
Ireland – both in the Republic and in Northern Ireland – also
give a 3-letter county code.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO
on Friday the 27th of April.
Last weekend's poor HF conditions, which made for a quieter than
normal International Marconi Day on the 21st, were largely caused by
incoming material from a large solar coronal hole. A lack of sunspots
didn't help either.
The incoming solar wind pushed the K index up to six at one point,
but conditions settled as the week went on. By Thursday the 26th the
K index was down to zero or one.
A small sunspot group pushed the solar flux index to a maximum of 77
and the sunspot number to 34. But even this had declined to 69 and 17
by Thursday.
As a result maximum usable frequencies struggled to exceed 14MHz at
times and skip on the lower bands, particularly 40 metres, tended to
be longer.
The Space Weather Prediction Centre says we might expect another
geomagnetic disturbance this weekend due to a high-speed solar wind
stream.
But after that, next week's geomagnetic conditions are predicted to
be fairly settled with a maximum K index of two. NOAA predicts the
solar flux index will remain in the low to mid seventies.
One positive is that the lower solar flux means D layer absorption is
also weakened. This means 40m is often open to paths around Europe
during the day – do take a look at the band as it is often open to
France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, for example, when 20m is
largely closed.
Putting this all together, we might expect slightly better daylight
HF conditions next week with band openings on 40, 30 and up to 20,
with occasional surprises on 17 metres.
We are still seeing a slight uplift in the critical frequency after
sunset, and the ionosonde data show that 20 metres may remain open to
DX over a 3,000km path until about 21:30 UTC.
As always, these are predictions and you need to get on the air to
find out if they come true!
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
The pressure will remain low close to the British Isles and therefore
Tropo is unlikely to feature much, other than transient openings
around dawn. With heavy showers and thunderstorms in the forecast, it
could be a good spell for rain scatter on the Gigahertz bands, so
radar sites such as Patrick TK5EP's SCP map will be your friend for
setting up QSOs. Just Google it.
Sporadic E is coming into its time now, and there have already been
some openings across Europe using FT8.
Be prepared for some more traditional openings for CW and SSB signals
soon. The earlier FT8 events have been linked to the positions of jet
streams, but it's very hard to be precise, since they happen most
days.
For the CW and SSB signal levels it is likely that the first place to
check out will be along the lines of jet streams, especially where
they intersect with mountain ranges like the Alps and Pyrenees. The
upper air forecast charts do show a good deal of jet stream activity
over the next week, so it's time to set up a listening watch on the
beacons and clusters.
Moon declination is negative and falling all week, reaching minimum
next Saturday. This coincides with apogee, so peak Moon elevations
are at a minimum and losses are highest at the same time.
This is a week to check out your antenna and receiver performance
using Sun-to-cold-sky noise measurements as the Sun is getting to a
good maximum elevation now.
And that's all from the propagation team this week.
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 radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk to arrive by
10:00 on the Thursday before transmission.
Our thanks to Andy G4TNU for providing this RSGB feed.
--
g4apl@gb7cip.ampr.org g4apl@gb7cip.#32.gbr.euro
http://www.theskywaves.net http://gb7cip.ampr.org
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