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G4APL > NEWS 25.04.21 07:53l 240 Lines 10895 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 25 Apr 2021
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Sent: 210425/0651Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:32023 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@EU
GB2RS Main News for Sunday the 25th of April 2021
The news headlines:
* 400 lockdown nets for Hambleton
* Martin, G3YJO on Radio Four
* Free Contest University online
On the 22nd of April, Hambleton ARS passed the 400th consecutive day
of a net on 2m FM. It was started during the Covid-19 lockdown to
keep members and amateurs in the area in touch and able to summon
help or assistance if required. The net starts at 11am on the calling
frequency and usually moves to S18 if clear. All amateurs are invited
to join in and, so far, over 70 different stations have been logged.
The net controller is usually Tony, G3MAE, who has ‘missed' less
than five days of operating during that time. A Cabin Fever award is
available for any station taking part, issued by Tim, G0TYM via
email, see QRZ.com.
This week, Radio 4's programme, The Life Scientific, featured
Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, G3YJO. He is the pioneer of
microsatellites. He talked about his progress from UOSAT 1 via
Cubesats to the Surrey Satellite Technology sale to Airbus. You can
hear the interview online via BBC Sounds.
The Dayton Hamvention may have been cancelled for 2021, but the
Contest University will still take place on the 20th of May. It will
be held online, free of charge, via Zoom, starting at 1300UTC.
Registration is open at contestuniversity.com.
There is an IET webinar about amateur radio on the 12th of May
starting at 7.30pm. You might be interested to see how the presenter,
Phil Gould, presents the hobby to the audience. It is a free lecture,
entitled To the other side of the world and beyond: An appreciation
of amateur radio. Go to events.theiet.org and scroll through until
you reach the 12th of May. You can register via the button there.
The Radio Club of Haiti's 10m FM repeater project is now live. It
operates with its transmitter on 29.620MHz and its receiver on
29.520MHz. The tone is 103.5Hz. At the moment the callsign is HH70X/R
but that will be changing to HH2BM/R in honour of Bernard, HH2BM who
sadly didn't see the project go live before becoming silent key.
The Youngsters On The Air Summer Camp due to be held in Croatia has
been postponed until 2022 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. News
on the rearranged camp will be available nearer the new date.
SOS Radio Week is an annual event that sees many amateur radio
stations get on the air. The aim is to raise awareness of the
voluntary work of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and
National Coastwatch Institution. The event starts at 0000UTC on the
1st of May and coincides with the RNLI's own Mayday fundraising
month. For further details of the event please visit
sosradioweek.org.uk.
The Hungarian Amateur Radio Society will commemorate the 230th
anniversary of the birth of Samuel Morse with nine special callsigns.
Look for activity on CW and SSB until the 27th of April. See
MRASZ.org and click on S Morse Award 2021 for all the details.
Now the DX news
Joe, 9H5JO will be on the air at weekends during April from Malta.
Between 1200 and 1300UTC each Saturday and Sunday, he will listen
specifically for Foundation licensees on, or very near to, 14.268MHz.
This could be a really good opportunity to get Malta in your logbook.
Matthew, M0ZMS will be seconded to the RAF station at Mount Pleasant,
Falkland Islands, SA-002, from late April to late August. He will be
active as VP8ZMS, hopefully using the Royal Air Force ARS club
station shack. He operates digital modes, CW and some SSB. QSL via
home call and Logbook of The World; logsearch on Club Log.
Ali, EP3CQ will be back to Mogadishu, Somalia from the 25th of April
for two months. In his spare time he will operate mainly FT8 on
various bands as 6O1OO (Six, letter O, one, letter O, letter O). QSL
direct to details on qrz.com.
Take, JI3DST will be active as JI3DST/5 from Shodo Island, AS-200,
from the 29th of April to the 5th of May. He will operate SSB, CW and
FT8 on the 40 to 6m bands, and will also be on the air as JR8YLY/5.
QSL via Club Log's OQRS.
Now the Special Event news
8N1MORSE is a special callsign celebrating the 230th anniversary of
the birth of Samuel Morse and other significant landmarks in the
history of CW. It will be on the air until the 28th of February 2022.
A website is under construction at 8n1morse.org.
Now the contest news
With different parts of the UK having different lockdown
restrictions, please make sure you follow the appropriate rules.
Several contests now accept portable entries, so please check the
contest rules. Above all, please follow relevant national and local
restrictions.
This weekend the SP DX RTTY contest ends its 24-hour run at 1200UTC
today, the 25th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange
is signal report and serial number. SP stations also exchange their
Province code.
Today, the 25th, the BARTG Sprint 75 contest runs from 1700 to
2100UTC. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is just
the serial number.
On Tuesday the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1830 to 2130UTC.
Using all modes on the 2.3GHz and up bands, the exchange is signal
report, serial number and locator.
Wednesday sees the UK EI Contest Club 80m contest run from 1900 to
2000UTC. It's CW only and the exchange is you locator reference.
On Thursday the 80m Club Championships runs from 1900 to 2030UTC.
Using RTTY and PSK only, the exchange is signal report and serial
number.
Next weekend, the 432MHz to 245GHz Trophy runs for 24 hours from
1400UTC on the 1st of May. Using all modes on those bands, the
exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.
Saturday the 1st of May sees the 432MHz trophy contest run from 1400
to 2000UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial
number and locator.
Next Sunday, the 2nd, the 10GHz Trophy runs from 0800 to 1400UTC.
Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
Next weekend, the ARI International DX contest runs for 24 hours
starting at 1200 on the 1st. Using CW, Phone and RTTY on the 3.5 to
28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number.
Italian stations also give their Province code.
Next Sunday, the 2nd, the UK Microwave group Low Band Contest runs
from 1000 to 1600UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report,
serial number and locator.
The UK Six Metre Group Summer Marathon runs from the 1st of May to
the 1st of August. Just exchange your 4-character locator.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on
Friday the 23rd of April.
Last week was marked by solar flares, perhaps giving us a taste of
things to come as the solar cycle progresses. The Kp index hit four
on Monday after the weekend's high of five. But luckily things then
calmed down and we have been seeing the Kp index down to two overall.
There was even one three-hour period where it was zero.
We have had more sunspots this week, which are always welcome. Region
2817 has now rotated off the Sun's visible disk, but regions 2816 and
2818 have been very active. They pushed the solar flux index to 86 on
Monday, but it was back down to 78 by Thursday.
The first M-class solar flare since the 29th of November 2020 was
observed around region 2816 in the Sun's southeast quadrant at
2342UTC on the 19th of April. Luckily, this occurred at night so had
zero effect on the ionosphere over the UK. A coronal mass ejection,
or CME, associated with this flare has been assessed as passing just
behind Earth, but the Met Office's space weather team said there was
a slight chance of a glancing blow in the coming days.
A long-duration C-class flare around the same region occurred at
approximately 0415UTC on the 22nd and looks to have produced a
possible Earth-directed CME. If this is the case, we may expect the
Kp index to rise, perhaps early in the weekend, resulting in reduced
maximum usable frequencies.
HF conditions have been relatively lacklustre this week, although
there has been some activity on 10m FT8. EA has been copied, perhaps
via early-season Sporadic-E, and Bob, VP8LP on the Falkland Islands
has put in an appearance during the late afternoon, as have numerous
South American stations.
Daytime MUFs over a 3,000km path have generally struggled to exceed
18MHz at times, although there have been the odd DX openings on 21,
24 and even 28MHz.
Next week NOAA predicts the SFI will remain low, perhaps even
dropping into the high 60s. Geomagnetic conditions are predicted to
be generally quiet with a maximum Kp index of three. But do look out
for further solar flares, which could cause short-lived disturbances
on HF and the strong possibility of coronal mass ejections that could
impact the Earth one or two days later, depending on the solar wind
speed.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
Conditions are starting out with a Tropo frame of mind into this
weekend, but there are hints of a small low tracking south across
Scotland at the end of this weekend, and probably across the North
Sea to establish low pressure to the east of the UK after midweek.
This will probably mean that the Tropo period is weakened gradually
and with further lows near southern Britain at the end of the week,
there is likely to be a subtle shift to rain scatter propagation for
the GHz bands.
We keep flagging up the forthcoming Sporadic-E season and clusters
show it's just getting under way in an FT8 sense. It will no doubt
start to show up with 10m or 6m beacons soon, so worth checking your
favourite beacon list regularly.
If you haven't got one yet, this would be a very good time to save a
list of half a dozen frequencies for each band in the rig memories to
make sure you can check for openings easily. From a jet stream
perspective, initially, paths to Scandinavia look promising and by
midweek probably more towards southeastern Europe and Ukraine.
Moon declination went negative today, so Moon windows are short and
the Moon is at low elevation. The upside is that we have low path
losses with perigee tomorrow (Monday).
The April Lyrids meteor shower produced some good meteor scatter QSOs
last week and with the Eta-Aquarids set to peak on the 5th of May,
the new meteor scatter season is well under way. Look at the usual
frequencies for the mainly digimode activity.
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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