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G4APL > NEWS 09.01.22 05:38l 196 Lines 8468 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 9 Jan 2022
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Sent: 220109/0331Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:57824 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@EU
GB2RS Main News for Sunday the 9th of January 2022
The news headlines:
* Happy New Year
* Board and Regional volunteers wanted
* GB100BBC marks BBC Centenary
The news team and all the staff at RSGB HQ would like to wish our
newsreaders, listeners and online readers a very Happy New Year. We
would like to remind everyone that we always welcome your news, by
email, to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk, and the deadline is 10am sharp on
Thursday mornings. The GB2RS script is uploaded to the RSGB website
by 4.30pm each Friday afternoon.
The RSGB is calling for volunteers to fill roles in its Board and
Regional Team. There are Elected Director vacancies, as well as eight
Regional Representative roles to be filled. The online nomination
process is open and completed papers, with supporting nominations,
must be received by 2359UTC on the 31st of January 2022. You can find
out about applying for the roles or nominating someone via the
Society's website at rsgb.org/election
Celebrations to mark the BBC's Centenary began at noon on the 1st of
January. The London BBC Radio Group was granted an extended Special
Special Event radio licence by Ofcom, to operate GB100BBC throughout
2022. The amateur radio activity is one of many events organised to
celebrate 100 years of the BBC, which began broadcasting from Savoy
Hill in 1922.
The RSGB HF Contest Calendar for 2022, with all the rules for our
contests, has been published. Go to rsgbcc.org/hf and click on the HF
pages tab. For VHF and up contests, click on the VHF pages. Please
put all your favourite contests into your diary for this year.
The WSJT development group has released an updated version of WSJT-X,
version 2.5.4, that it's calling a "bug fix". The primary fix repairs
a defect that caused occasional crashes when contacting stations with
non-standard callsigns. It also allows MAP65's "best-fit Delta Phi"
[Greek letter f, pronounced ‘fy' or ‘fee'] solution to be
displayed to the user.
The RSGB's 2022 Tonight<at>8 webinar series starts on Monday the 10th
of January with a look at amateur radio software construction by
Heather Lomond, M0HMO. There is still time to be inspired and create
something for the RSGB Construction Competition! You can join the
free webinar and ask questions on the RSGB YouTube channel. For more
information see the Society's website rsgb.org/webinars
The Belgian IARU society, UBA, is celebrating its 75th anniversary in
2022. There will be 64 different special event stations active until
the 28th of February. Each special event station will be using the
prefix ON75 followed by a three letter suffix. Full details on
QRZ.com under the callsign ON75DIG.
Members of the DXpedition planned for Comoros Islands, AF-007, in
January 2022 have now postponed their operation due to the current
Covid situation. They are planning to travel later in 2022 when, they
say, hopefully things get quieter again.
The EZNEC antenna modelling software by Roy Lewallen, W7EL is now
available for free download. The software is available from
https://eznec.com/
And now for details of rallies and events
Now is the perfect time to let us know your group's rally or event
plans for 2022. Email radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk with details and we'll
publicise your event for free in RadCom, on GB2RS, and online. There
are already over twenty rallies in the calendar for 2022.
Now the DX news
W2APF will be active as VP2MDX from Montserrat, IOTA reference
NA-103, from the 9th of January to the 18th of February. He will
operate CW and SSB on the 80 to 10m bands. QSL via W2APF.
Now the Special Event news
To mark 100 years of British broadcasting, the BBC will be putting on
special events throughout 2022. As part of the celebrations, GB100BBC
will be on the air. View the GB100BBC page on QRZ.com for more
information.
Now the contest news
When operating in any contests, please keep yourself and fellow
amateurs safe by following all relevant pandemic-related government
rules.
The ARRL RTTY Roundup runs until 2359UTC today, the 9th. Using the
3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial
number, with US stations also sending their State and Canadians their
Province.
On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC.
It is followed by the all-mode 432MHz UK Activity Contest from 2000
to 2230UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and
your 6-character locator.
On Wednesday the 432MHz FT8 Activity Contest runs from 1900 to
2100UTC. The exchange is signal report and your 4-character locator.
The 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC on Thursday.
The exchange is signal report, serial number and your 6-character
locator.
It is the Worked All Britain 160m contest on Saturday the 15th of
January, from 1900 to 2300UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial
number and WAB square. The full rules are available on the WAB
website.
The RSGB AFS Datamodes contest takes place on Sunday the 16th of
January from 1300 to 1700UTC. It uses the uses the 3.5 and 7MHz
bands, and the exchange is signal report and serial number.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO
on Friday the 7th of January
Welcome back to the GB2RS HF Propagation News. And we start the year
on a bit of a downer, with the solar flux index back in the 80s. On
Thursday the 6th, the SFI was at 84 with two active sunspot regions.
This is probably going to be a short-lived lull in solar activity as
we know that more active regions are coming back around the Sun in
due course.
The Kp index has mainly been low over the past week, reaching a
maximum of four on the third, but generally being in the range of
zero to three. We may get an elevated Kp index this weekend due to an
Earth-facing coronal hole and its associated high-speed solar wind
stream.
The big question is what happens next? Will we see a return to those
glorious days just before Christmas where the SFI was 140? The likely
answer is yes we will, but knowing quite when we will get there is
difficult. NOAA predicts that the SFI will climb past 100 on the 12th
of January, reaching a maximum of 120 a few days later. Returning
active regions 2907 and 2908 should appear at the beginning of the
week, but we don't know just how active they still are.
Meanwhile MUFs over a 3,000km path are reaching 21MHz most days and
there are occasional 28MHz openings, especially around lunchtime. So
keep an eye on the higher bands, which may spring some surprises,
especially with low-signal modes like FT8. And the low bands, such as
160, 80 and 40m are still worth looking at and will continue to be
for the next month or so.
Let's hope we have more positive news next week.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
There have been hints of Sporadic-E recently in digital modes on 10m
and 6m, which is quite often seen around this time of the year. There
is probably one more week in this window of opportunity before the
lean months begin and little activity until well into April. In this
case we still have some powerful winter jet streams nearby so that's
one box ticked for Sporadic-E.
Tropo is not likely to feature until after the weekend when we see
high pressure building behind a cold front on Sunday. By Tuesday
there should be some first signs, initially in the south, but models
suggest a more widespread distribution to include northern areas as
the high develops during the week.
Keep alert for auroras, and random, non-shower, meteor scatter is
always a good banker for some DX. The Quadrantid meteor shower has
peaked so we are entering the quiet period for meteor activity until
the Lyrids on the 22nd of April.
The Moon has positive declination again, peaking next Sunday, but
path losses reach their highest at apogee on Friday. 144MHz sky noise
is low but increasing, reaching 500K next Saturday.
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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