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G4APL > NEWS 20.01.19 05:29l 240 Lines 11477 Bytes #999 (0) @ GBR
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 20 Jan 2019
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday 20th January 2019
The news headlines:
* Showcase our hobby during British Science Week
* Prepare for Thinking Day on the Air
* AMSAT celebrates 50th birthday
British Science Week runs from the 8th to the 15th of March and is a
fantastic opportunity to showcase radio communications in the 21st
century to young people. The RSGB is encouraging clubs to develop
relationships with their local school or community group. The theme
for this year is ‘journeys'. Ideas for activities could include the
journey from Marconi to Wi-Fi, or to ARISS contacts, or the journey
of a radio wave from transmitter to receiver without wires. RSGB
clubs are ideally placed to put on a local event. If your club
already has a link with a local school, why not work with them to run
an amateur radio-related event during BSW? The Radio Communications
Foundation is keen to sponsor such events and can provide radio kits
to build. These have already been used in primary and secondary
schools with great success. More information is at
https://tinyurl.com/GB2RS-0120A
[Note to Newsreaders: the full URL is
https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/2019/01/16/get-involved-with-british-s
cience-week-2019/]
Thinking Day on the Air 2019 will take place over the weekend of the
16th and 17th of February. A list of known stations is displayed on
the Station List page of the website www.guides-on-the-air.co.uk
There is a form on the page for stations to submit their details to
be added to the list, and an IO group for exchanging details or
arranging skeds. Currently, as well as UK stations, Guides and Scouts
are taking part from Canada, USA, and the Netherlands. Please send in
station details via the website or to lizowl<at>gmail.com
AMSAT's 50th anniversary will be celebrated with AMSAT-DL special
event callsign DL50AMSAT. The station will be on the air from Saxony
on the Czech Republic border via satellites only, and will debut this
weekend. Track the event on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag
#satelliteweekend
The latest versions of the UK Band Plans have been published. RSGB
Members will receive a copy within the February edition of RadCom,
and the information is freely downloadable from www.rsgb.org/bandplans
Two more 2018 RSGB Convention videos are now available for Members to
view on the RSGB website. Convention favourite Ian White, GM3SEK can
be seen speaking about VHF baluns, where he takes a critical look at
some long-established methods for feeding Yagi antennas and
identifying a new list of Do's and Don'ts for modern conditions. Ray
Burlingame-Goff, G4FON discusses the pitfalls of learning Morse and
the work of the German psychologist Ludwig Koch that Ray used in his
freeware training software. Drawing on his own experience and over
ten years of feedback by users of his software, Ray offers practical
advice on how you can move from simply working stations with a 5NN TU
reply to effortless casual rag chewing with them. Go to
www.rsgb.org/videos for these and many others.
Looking ahead a little, The St Patrick Award is asking amateurs to
come and celebrate on the air for St Patrick's Day on the 17th of
March. The award will be running over 48 hours from the 16th at 12
noon until the 18th at 12 noon to follow the worldwide celebrations.
This year a new Digital Award has been added covering such modes as
FT8, DMR, D-Star, JT65, Echolink etc. To claim it you must have made
20 contacts with a registered St Patrick's Day Station. For more
information go to https://stpatrickaward.webs.com.
More than 80,000 contacts went into logs at Youngsters on the Air
suffix stations and others participating in December YOTA month, with
most operations in IARU Region 1. The final tally included 46,989 on
SSB, another 28,064 on CW, some 3,814 on FT8, and the rest on various
other modes. This year, as many as 44 participating stations made
82,938 QSOs in December. You will be able to read about events in the
UK in the March RadCom. A full report can be read at www.iaru-r1.org/
There are a number of vintage radio and amateur radio related eBooks
available for free download on the Project Gutenberg site. Among them
is Letters of a Radio Engineer to his Son by John Mills. Written in
1922, in his letters the author teaches all about radio-telephony
with simple explanations and "contain only what is important in the
radio of to-day and those ideas which seem necessary if you are to
follow the rapid advances which radio is making." For details see
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=radio
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
The Horncastle Amateur Radio and Electronics rally is on the 27th of
January. It takes place at the Horncastle Youth Centre, Cagthorpe
Buildings, Willow Row, Harncastle LN9 6DZ. Doors open at 10am and
entry is GBP 2. Traders tables are GBP 5 per 6ft table. There is free
parking at the venue. The usual traders will be there and catering is
available onsite. Details from Tony, G3PZU, 01507 527 835, or by
email to tony.nightingale<at>yahoo.co.uk.
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
KB8YRX will be active as 8P9CA from Barbados, IOTA reference NA-021,
until the 4th of February. He will operate mainly FT8 on the 20m
band. QSL via Logbook of The World or via his home callsign.
Saty, JE1JKL will be on the air as 9M6NA from Labuan Island, OC-133,
East Malaysia between the 24th and 28th of January. Main activity
will be on the 160m band, including participation in the CQ WW CW
160m Contest. QSL via Logbook of The World and Club Log's OQRS.
Tino, HI3CC and a group from the Loma del Toro DX Club will be active
as HI1LT from Isla Beata, NA-122, between the 20th and 28th of
January. They will operate CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL via W2CCW.
Mat, DL4MM will be on the air as P4/DL4MM from Aruba, SA-036, between
the 22nd and 30th of January. He will operate CW, SSB and FT8 with a
focus on the low bands and pay special attention to Europe and Asia.
He will participate in the CQ WW 160m CW Contest as P40AA. QSLs via
Club Log's OQRS is preferred or via DL4MM.
Nobu, JA0JHQ will be active as T88PB from Koror, OC-009, Palau
between the 25th and 28th of January. He will focus on 160m CW,
including participation in the CQ WW 160m Contest. QSL via Logbook of
the World, preferred, or direct to JA0JHQ.
Now the special event news
Worthing & District ARC will be running a special event station to
commemorate its 70th anniversary this weekend using callsign GB5WOR.
The station will be on the air on all HF bands, plus possibly 2m and
70cm. Further details from the club website, www.wadarc.org.uk
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
On Tuesday the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1930 to 2230UTC.
Using all modes on the 2.3 to 10GHz bands the exchange is signal
report, serial number and locator.
Next weekend from 2200UTC on the 25th to 2200UTC on the 27th, the CQ
WorldWide 160m DX contest takes place. Using CW only the exchange is
signal report and CQ Zone, which for the UK is Zone 14. In addition
US and Canadian stations send their State or Province.
Also next weekend, from 1200UTC on the 26th to 1200UTC on the 27th,
the BARTG RTTY Sprint Contest will be held. Using RTTY on the 3.5 to
28MHz bands the exchange is simply the serial number.
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 18th of January.
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, the Sun remained
spotless this past week with a solar flux index stuck firmly around
the 70 mark. Geomagnetic conditions were mostly settled with a
maximum planetary K index of four, although on average it was usually
much lower than this, around one or two.
Many are bemoaning the poor HF conditions and it is not surprising.
Although there are openings up to 21MHz at times, the 20 metre band
is more likely to bring you reliable DX contacts than the higher
bands. We can't expect to see much action on 12 and 10 metres until
the Sporadic-E season starts in early May.
The lower bands are still throwing up some surprises though and
transatlantic contacts on 160m are still worth chasing if you are
equipped for Top Band. Eighty, 40 and perhaps even 30 metres may also
bring you some DX during darkness. As always, we encourage you to use
the online tools at predtest.uk and propquest.co.uk to plan your
activity.
Next week, NOAA predicts more of the same with a spotless sun and a
solar flux index of around 71. Geomagnetic conditions should remain
quiet, until the 24th and 25th when material from a recurrent solar
hole may push the Kp index to five, bringing the potential for
aurora-like conditions and depressed maximum usable frequencies.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
There is unlikely to be much Tropo this week. A key feature of the
weather is an area of low pressure which drifts southeast across the
country from Greenland on Sunday to Iceland, then Scotland, and
arriving over England by Wednesday. Looking at its origin, it will
herald a spell of cold weather with a taste of winter for some areas.
This may provide wintry showers in some places to give a chance of
rain scatter on the GHz bands, but it's not a great opportunity.
That leaves the last part of the week to consider, after the cold
winter low has moved away into the continent. Models suggest a return
of a ridge of high pressure, some models stronger than others. But it
will be building in dry cold air, which is not good for creating a
strong moisture contrast across the temperature inversion and thus
not a great signal for Tropo.
So overall, probably a flat feel to the week regarding VHF/UHF
weather propagation, but with the Eshailsat-2 geostationary
transponder undergoing engineering tests as we write I'm sure many
will be focussed on this.
The Moon reached maximum declination this morning and perigee is
tomorrow, so it's a good week for EME.
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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