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G4APL > NEWS 13.01.19 05:10l 240 Lines 11241 Bytes #999 (0) @ GBR
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 13 Jan 2019
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<XE1FH<VE2PKT<PI8CDR<PI8LAP<GB7YEW<GB7CIP
Sent: 190113/0331Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:54309 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@GBR
GB2RS Main News for Sunday 13th January 2019
The news headlines:
* Volunteers invited for National Radio Centre
* IARU Region 1 consolidates project groups
* RSGB Board and Regional Representative nominations open
With over 55,000 visitors to the RSGB's National Radio Centre at
Bletchley Park in 2018, we are looking to recruit new volunteers to
engage with the public and give radio demonstrations. If you're
interested in becoming an NRC volunteer you should be passionate
about meeting people, feel confident explaining the hobby, as well as
operating the NRC's radio station, GB3RS. You should be a licensed
amateur, an RSGB Member and be prepared to work a minimum of one
(preferably two) days per month. You will be joining a team of
enthusiastic, friendly and dedicated volunteers and full training
will be given. Travel expenses are paid to volunteers living within
reasonable travelling distance and NRC volunteers enjoy numerous
benefits associated with volunteering at Bletchley Park. Please email
nrc.support<at>rsgb.org.uk for further information.
At the IARU Region 1 General Conference in Landshut in 2017, it was
agreed to create three project groups to address issues of the future
direction and growth in amateur radio across the Region. These groups
have undertaken some of the planned work, but because of other
commitments of the project leaders, progress has not been as rapid as
the IARU Region 1 had hoped. It was decided to bring the three
project groups together under a single project manager. Mark Jones,
G0MGX, has agreed to take this role. Mark is already deeply involved
in ‘future and growth' issues in RSGB, where he is a Board Member.
Mark can be contacted via email to mark.g0mgx.r1<at>gmail.com. We
wish Mark every success in this key role.
RSGB Members are reminded that nominations are open for RSGB Board
and Regional Representatives. Details are in the January RadCom and
on the RSGB website via tinyurl.com/GB2RS-0113A. These roles offer a
good opportunity to help the RSGB develop and to promote amateur
radio. Nominations close on the 31st of January.
[Note to Newsreaders: the full URL is
https://rsgb.org/main/about-us/agm/board-nominations-system/]
In America, the FCC is not processing any US amateur radio
applications as the partial government shutdown approaches its fourth
week. For radio amateurs, the shutdown means that while the Universal
Licensing System continues to accept applications for all valid
purposes, the FCC will not review or act upon them until the funding
stalemate is resolved. Newcomers who have passed the required
examinations will have to wait until the shutdown concludes to
receive a callsign and authorisation to operate. License upgrades are
also on hold.
Please note that the RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park
will be closed for a private event on Tuesday the 15th of January.
Outside of this, volunteers look forward to welcoming visitors seven
days a week, especially RSGB Members, who can download a free entry
voucher for Bletchley Park from the RSGB website.
On the 27th of December a Soyuz launch deployed two German
satellites, D-Star ONE – Sparrow and D-Star ONE – iSat. The
beacons have been successfully received from both satellites, which
each carry a D-Star repeater. They uplink on 437.325MHz and downlink
on 435.525MHz. The December Soyuz flight also deployed the UWE-4 1U
CubeSat carrying a 70cm AX.25 digipeater, with an uplink/downlink
frequency of 437.375MHz. AMSAT Germany has reported that in-orbit
testing of the P4-A amateur radio transponders on Es'hail-2 has begun
but amateurs should not attempt to transmit on the Es'hail-2 uplink.
When all in-orbit testing has been successfully completed, the
satellite will be moved to its final orbital position at 26° East
and availability announcements will be made.
Club Log's latest Most Wanted List, generated on the 28th of
December, can be found at https://secure.clublog.org/mostwanted.php.
The information is derived from the half-billion or so QSOs uploaded
to Club Log and available for analysis. To improve quality, only QSOs
that have QSLs confirmed are considered to be worked. The most wanted
charts are rebuilt once per month, on average.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
The next rally in the diary is on the Horncastle Amateur Radio and
Electronics rally on the 27th of January. It takes place at the
Horncastle Youth Centre, Cagthorpe Buildings, Willow Row, Harncastle
LN9 6DZ. Doors open at 10am.
Advance notice now of the CW Boot Camp, which will be run by the GMDX
Group. It takes place on Sunday the 10th of March at Stirling &
District ARS, Unit 68, Bandeath Industrial Estate, Throsk FK7 7NP.
This event is open to all however places are limited, so it is
important that you pre-register your interest by email to
gmdxgroup<at>gmail.com.
To get your event into RadCom, onto GB2RS and on the RSGB website,
please send details as early as possible to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk –
we need to know about four months in advance for RadCom.
And now the DX news from 425 DX News and other sources
A group of operators will be active as H33J from Volcan in the
Chiriqui Province of Panama, between the 13th and the 31st of
January. They will operate CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8 on the 160 to 10m
bands, with a focus on the low bands FT8. QSL via Logbook of The
World, Club Log's OQRS or via JA1HGY.
Jean-Pierre, F6ITD will be active as FG/F6ITD from La Desirade
Island, IOTA NA-102, in Guadeloupe from the 14th of January to the
13th of March. Activity will be on the 80 to 6m bands using CW, SSB
and various digital modes. He will also be active as TO7D in various
contests. QSL direct to his home call.
Willy, KB8YRX will be on the air as 8P9CA from Barbados between the
15th of January and the 4th of February. Activity will be focused on
20m and FT8. QSL to his home call.
Gerhard, OE3GEA will be on the air as HC8GET from Santa Cruz,
Isabela, and San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Islands from the
13th to the 25th of January. Activity will be on the HF bands. QSL to
his home callsign.
Now the special event news
Worthing & District ARC will be running a special event station to
commemorate its 70th anniversary. This will be on the weekend of the
19th and 20th of January, using callsign GB5WOR. The station will be
on the air on all HF bands, possibly 2m and 70cm. Further details
from the club website, www.wadarc.org.uk
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Sweden's National Society for the
Active Visually Impaired will be active as SF50CG throughout 2019.
QSL via SM0BYD.
Please send special event details to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk, as early
as possible, for free publicity on GB2RS, in RadCom and online.
Remember that 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
Today, the 13th, the Datamodes AFS contest runs from 1300 to 1700UTC.
Using data only on the 3.5 and 7MHz bands, the exchange is signal
report and serial number.
On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC.
Thursday sees the 70MHz UK Activity Contest, also from 2000 to
2230UTC. Both use all modes on the respective band and the exchange
is signal report, serial number and locator.
On Saturday the 19th the SSB AFS contest runs from 1300 to 1700UTC.
Using the 3.5 and 7MHz bands only, the exchange is signal report and
serial number.
Also on Saturday the 19th, the Worked All Britain 1.8MHz Phone
contest runs from 1900 to 2300UTC. The exchange is signal report,
serial number and the WAB square.
The UK Six Metre Group Marathon continues until the 31st of January.
Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is signal report and
locator.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO
on Friday the 9th of January.
This week saw relatively-settled HF conditions after the effects of a
geomagnetic storm that impacted Earth at the weekend had passed. The
Kp index was mostly around one or two thanks to a reduced solar wind.
A small solar coronal hole did become Earth-facing on Wednesday the
9th, but its effects, if any, won't be felt until around Friday the
11th. The sun's disk remained spotless, with the solar flux index
around 71-72.
The Propquest.co.uk site shows that daytime critical frequencies
remain around 3.5-5MHz, although there have been some high spots
where it has hit more than 6MHz. These can spark short-term
long-range HF propagation at maximum usable frequencies of more than
18MHz, so it is worth keeping an eye on the higher bands. Otherwise,
the upper bands have been fairly lacklustre with mostly contacts
around Europe, as can be expected at this point in the sunspot cycle.
Next week NOAA has the solar flux remaining around 70 with settled
geomagnetic conditions, other than around the 16th when the K index
may rise to four due to recurrent coronal hole activity.
A check with the new animation facility at predtest.uk shows that the
upper HF bands currently favour one-hop contacts into Southern Europe
with occasional openings to North Africa. Forty metres should be open
to Europe both day and night with the possibility of some weaker
longer paths opening up around sunset and after dark.
Eighty metres remains a good evening and night-time band, but make
the most of it now as the nights are starting to get shorter.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
The weekend started with a residual high pressure area, by now
displaced to the southwest of Britain. This means that the bulk of
the country is under a weaker ridge. This will obviously favour the
western side of the country, which is closest to the high, for any
Tropo activity.
As the week progresses, the high weakens further and the pattern
becomes more like a showery north-westerly with little chance of
Tropo and rather more breeze, especially over the north and down the
eastern side of the country. This type of weather can produce an
opportunity for rain scatter on the Gigahertz bands as big reflective
shower clouds drift past the coasts.
We are in the quiet period of the year for meteor activity with few
major showers until April. There are, though, always opportunities
for random meteor scatter contacts peaking around dawn when the earth
is rotating towards the main orbital flux of meteoric particles.
Lunar declination is positive again, so moon windows will lengthen as
the week progresses, and path losses will fall. Early in the week,
moonrise will be around lunchtime, and getting later over the coming
week.
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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