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G4APL > NEWS 02.12.18 05:05l 221 Lines 10108 Bytes #999 (0) @ GBR
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 2 Dec 2018
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Sent: 181202/0331Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:47512 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@GBR
GB2RS Main News for Sunday 2nd December 2018
[Note to Newsreaders: The plans for the Christmas period are as
follows. There will be a GB2RS script as normal for Sunday 23
December, but not for Sunday 30 December. Normal broadcasts will
resume on Sunday 6 January. Feel free to run a net for your regular
listeners on 30 December – that's entirely up to you, but please do
so under your own callsign, not GB2RS. We will include a brief news
item next week to communicate this information to listeners. Thank
you all for your unstinting efforts over 2018 and, in most cases, for
a goodly few years before that. GB2RS could not continue in its
present form without you and the RSGB is very grateful for your time
and efforts.]
The news headlines:
* Listen for YOTA stations
* Intro to Amateur Radio workshops at Bletchley
* High Altitude Balloon news
YOTA month has just started. The first club to activate the GB18YOTA
callsign was Aberkenfig Radio Club in Bridgend on the 1st of
December. Sandringham School Amateur Radio Club, with help from
Verulam ARC, will activate it on Monday the 3rd. On the 5th, it's the
turn of Swansea Radio Club, then Silcoates School on the 6th and
Hilderstone Radio Club on the 8th. If you hear these stations and
others around the world taking part in YOTA month, please take the
time to contact the young people.
The RSGB is still taking bookings for the Introduction to Amateur
Radio workshops running in association with Bletchley Park on the
15th and 16th of December. These workshops will give an introductory
insight into the world of amateur radio, as well as a chance to see
the RSGB's National Radio Centre. So spread the word to any friends,
family members, colleagues who might be interested in finding out
more about our amazing hobby. Full details, including booking
information and prices, can be found at tinyurl.com/ya7exjva
On the 6th of December, a team from Hi-impact on the Wirral will
launch another high altitude balloon, in conjunction with pupils from
St Bridget's Primary School in West Kirby. Once again they will
launch from Welshpool. They are hoping as many local amateurs and
SWLs as possible will assist in feeding the data into HABHUB, using
the DL-FLDIGI software. They will be launching at around 10.45am
using a licence-exempt transmitter with the callsign STBRIDGET on
434.650MHz USB and RTTY, 50Baud, 425Hz shift, 7 bits, no parity, 2
stop bits.
Two more 2018 RSGB Convention lecture videos are available on the
Members' section of the RSGB website. Don Greenbaum, N1DG talks about
the KH1/KH7Z Baker Island DXpedition and Bo Hansen, OZ2M lectures on
P14, the digital mode for beacons, and why it is a success. To view
the videos go to www.rsgb.org/videos
SpaceX has announced that the SSO-A, SmallSat Express mission
carrying AMSAT's Fox-1Cliff is now scheduled to launch today, the 2nd
of December, at 1831:47UTC. It was previously scheduled to launch on
the 28th of November but was been postponed due to extreme
high-altitude winds at Vandenberg Air Force Base. In addition to
Fox-1Cliff, the SSO-A mission will carry several other amateur radio
satellites, including FUNcube on ESEO, JY1-SAT, K2SAT, and ExseedSat.
The launch window extends for approximately 30 minutes. Fox-1Cliff
has uplinks at UHF and L-band, and downlinks on VHF.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
Members of the British Vintage Wireless Society are holding a
Swapmeet & Auction on the 9th of December at Royal Wootton Bassett
Memorial Hall, Royal Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Wiltshire SN4 8EN.
Doors open at 10am and the auction starts at around 1pm. More details
of BVWS membership at www.bvws.org.uk
To get your event into RadCom and GB2RS, please send details as early
as possible to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk – we need to know at least
three to four months in advance to get your information into RadCom.
And now the DX news from 425 DX News and other sources
Steff, HB9FXL will be in Cambodia until the 14th of December. Look
for him with the callsign XU7AKB on SSB on all bands from 40 to 10m.
QSL via Club Log OQRS.
Alain, F8FUA will be active as XT2BR from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
between the 2nd and 11th of December. He plans to operate CW, SSB and
digital modes. QSL via F8FUA either direct or via the bureau and
Logbook of The World.
Several Russian operators will sign H7/homecall from Big Corn Island
in Nicaragua until the 7th of December. Also look for YN4RRC from the
same location. The IOTA reference is NA-013. QSLs for the H7 Russian
operation go via RZ3FW.
Remo, HB9SHD is active as H44SHD from Uepi, in the Solomon Islands,
OC-149, until mid-December. He operates FT8 and SSB. QSL via his home
callsign.
Martin, PT2ZDX will be active PS6I from Itaparica Island, SA-023,
until the 7th of December. QSL direct to F4BHW.
Now the special event news
SX60RAAG will be active until the 31st of December to celebrate the
60th anniversary of the Radio Amateur Association of Greece. QSL via
Logbook of The World, eQSL or Club Log's OQRS. Logsearch and
downloadable awards can be found at http://sx60raag.hamlogs.net/
Please send event details to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk, as early as
possible, for free publicity on GB2RS, in RadCom and online. UK
special event stations must be open to the public, so our free
publicity can help make your efforts more widely known.
Now the contest news
The ARRL 160m contest ends its 40 hour run at 1600UTC today, the 2nd
of December. It uses CW only. The exchange is just the signal report,
although American and Canadian stations will also send their ARRL or
RAC section number.
Also today, the 144MHz Affiliated Societies contest runs from 1000 to
1600UTC. Using all modes on the 144MHz band, the exchange is signal
report, serial number and locator.
The UK Six Metre Group's Winter Marathon began on the 1st of December
and runs until the end of January. There are no specific operating
periods. Just work as many Locator squares as you can, when you can,
using any mode on the 50MHz band.
On Tuesday the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2000UTC,
using FM only. It is immediately followed by the all-mode 144MHz UK
Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for both contests
is signal report, serial number and locator.
Next weekend it's the ARRL 10m Contest that runs from 0000UTC on the
8th to 12359UTC on the 9th. Using CW and SSB, the exchange is signal
report and serial number, with American and Canadian sending their
State or Province code.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO
on Friday 30th November.
The CQ Worldwide CW contest last weekend showed that you can work DX
with zero sunspots. Reports show that stations as far west as Arizona
and California, plus the Caribbean, were workable from the UK on 20
metres, plus there were reports of some limited F2-layer openings on
10 metres. Chris, G0DWV even reported an afternoon greyline opening
to Japan on 80m using a four-square antenna array for the band.
The sun remained spotless last week and geomagnetic conditions were
very settled, which no doubt helped the HF DX. The Kp index never
rose above two and was often at zero for long periods. However, at
the time this report was being prepared there was still an alert out
for potentially-unsettled conditions on Friday 30th and across the
weekend due to ongoing coronal hole activity.
NOAA predicts that next week will see the solar flux index pegged at
68 again. Conditions should be a little more settled geomagnetically
with a maximum K index of three for most of the week. Conditions may
be a little worse on Friday the 7th and Saturday the 8th due to a
high-speed solar wind stream from a recurrent coronal hole that will
become Earth-facing again.
This is a good time to start to think about the lower bands. Eighty
and 160 metres are starting to come into their own with the longer
nights. If you have never worked the USA on 80m then it might be
worth looking around UK sunrise. There is often transatlantic SSB
activity around the top of the band, especially 3790-3800kHz, in the
early morning.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
There is a distinctly unsettled look to the charts again for the next
week. This means that Tropo will not be a big player and the only
weather-related DX option is probably limited to some occasional rain
scatter on the microwave bands. During the winter months, rain
scatter is most likely around the coasts than inland. Last Tuesday's
SHF UK Activity Contest saw the west of the UK missing out as the
rain moved east just before the contest started, leaving a disturbed
troposphere in its wake. This highlights the fact that good
propagation rarely waits for you if you only operate during contests.
Rain scatter paths from East Anglia to the North remained good
throughout.
Other options might include some aurora on VHF if we are lucky.
‘Space Weather Woman' Doctor Tamitha Skov tweeted last week that we
might reach solar storm levels at the beginning of December due to
the coming fast solar wind. So be on the lookout for that.
There are three small meteor showers this week – use Google to find
the Make More Miles on VHF website for details. And remember that the
big Geminids shower is only two weeks away now.
Moon declination goes negative today, so Moon windows will be shorter
and of lower elevation as the week progresses. Note that the Sun will
be very close to the Moon on Friday.
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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