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G4APL > NEWS 04.12.16 09:47l 232 Lines 10835 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 4 Dec 2016
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<GB7CIP
Sent: 161204/0837Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:26871 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@EU
GB2RS Main News for Sunday 4th December 2016
The news headlines:
* Sandringham kicks off GB16YOTA
* RAIBC seeks readers
* Shake-up for RSGB contests
Sandringham School in St Albans activated the special callsign
GB16YOTA for the first time on the first of December. Over 100
students visited the station and a number of young licensees operated
during the event. Although conditions were poor and copy was
difficult in many cases, they made 97 contacts in 24 countries across
the school day. Support was provided by members of Verulam ARC. The
purpose of GB16YOTA is to introduce and promote amateur radio to
young people. It will be operated from a variety of clubs and
organisations throughout December. Today, Sunday the 4th, Worcester
ARC has the callsign. On Monday to Thursday it's operated by
Aberystwyth and District ARS, moving to Hilderstone Radio and
Electronics Club on Friday. Next Saturday it's at Silcoates, and CDXC
will take up the callsign on Sunday the 11th. If you hear GB16YOTA on
the air please give them a call, as you might well be giving a young
person their first-ever taste of amateur radio.
RAIBC, the charity working for radio amateurs with disabilities,
produces spoken word recordings of many publications. These include
equipment manuals, radio magazines such as RadCom, licence documents,
and much more. All recordings are made by volunteers. Only ordinary
computer equipment is used, and all that is required is enthusiasm
and a clear speaking voice. If you think you could find the time to
record material for RAIBC, either on a regular basis or occasionally
as needed, please contact the RAIBC Audio Manager, Ian Spencer, via
email to audioman<at>raibc.org.uk or phone 004 922 451 657.
Starting in the New Year, some significant changes are being made to
RSGB contests. This is as a result of the Presidential Review of
Contesting and detailed consultation with the contest community. A
summary of the changes is in the January edition of RadCom, which
should start arriving with RSGB Members from Wednesday onwards. The
RSGB Contest Committee website, www.rsgbcc.org is in the process of
being updated to reflect the changes.
In the December RadCom Club Calendar, some club calendar information
had events for January accidentally mixed in. Unfortunately this was
not noticed until after the magazine had been printed, and we
apologise for the error. The GB2RS Local News in December should not
be affected, as it is extracted from our database in a different way.
Goran, SM7DLK and Torleif, SM6YOR, report that the Swedish Post &
Telecom regulator has been issuing temporary, 6 month experimental
licenses for 5351.5 – 5366.5kHz with 15W EIRP. This replaces the
previous four 3kHz segments used in past years, which have now all
expired. There is still no decision on whether Post & Telecom will
implement the WRC-15 recommendation in their national band plan. It
is considered unlikely to happen before January 2018, or until a new
national band plan is released.
David Honess, M6DNT, has been given the prestigious Sir Arthur Clarke
award for Space Achievement, Industry/Project Individual. David was
the driving force behind the Astro Pi project, which saw two
Raspberry P computers installed on the International Space Station
whilst Tim Peake – also a Clarke award-winner – was aboard. The
award was presented at the British Interplanetary Society's
Reinventing Space Dinner at the Royal Society.
The origins of Silicon Valley spring from the early efforts of
amateur radio enthusiasts, according to a newly released video. Paul
Wesling, KM6LH tells of the interesting events in San Francisco early
in the 20th century, as early radio was being developed, and how hams
designed new devices and equipment to address steamship traffic
plying the Pacific Ocean. Their efforts before World War II,
including extending the state of the art into the microwave region,
formed the basis of what became Silicon Valley. The video is on
YouTube and can be found via tinyurl.com/gb2rs-1204
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
The Bishop Auckland RAC Rally is on Sunday the 4th at Spennymoor
Leisure Centre, 32 High St, Spennymoor, Durham DL16 6DB. The venue
has good car parking and disabled facilities. There will be the usual
radio, computer and electronics as well as a Bring & Buy. Catering
and bar facilities will be available on site. Doors open at 10.30am
with disabled visitors gaining access from 10.15am. Admission is
GBP 2 with under 14s free of charge with an adult. Talk in will be on
S22. More details from John, G4LRG on 01388 606 396.
We know of no more rallies for 2016. If you have any rally or event
information for 2017 that you'd like to appear in future editions of
GB2RS News, in RadCom and on the RSGB website, please email full
details to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk as early as possible.
And now the DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
Christian, IS0BWM can be heard from the club station 9H0HQ/3 in Kenge
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He plans to stay in the
Congo until Christmas Day, December 25th. Send QSL cards directly to
his address in Sardinia.
Jurgen, DJ2VO and Martin, DL3KMS will be active from Bonaire Island,
IOTA reference SA-006, from the 3rd to the 15th of December as
PJ4/DJ2VO and PJ4/DL3KMS. They will operate on HF bands. QSL
PJ4/DJ2VO via DJ2VO and PJ4/DL3KMS via DL3KMS.
Chris, VK3FY will be on the air as 3D3FY from Denarau Island, OC-016,
from the 4th to the 14th of December. Activity will be on 80-6m, CW
and SSB. QSL via M0OXO.
W9ILY is on the air from Sint Maarten, IOTA reference NA-105, as
FS/W9ILY until the 10th of December.
Now the special event news
Dutch radio amateur Sascha, PD9Z will be operating PC16XMAS from the
6th to the 31st of December. The station is intended to maintain the
spirit of friendship between amateur radio operators in the Christmas
period – and to provide a nice QSL card! Operation will be on 160
to 10m, SSB and CW.
The USS KIDD Amateur Radio Club will be operating W5KID on 7 December
from Baton Rouge, USA, in observance of Pearl Harbor Day. Activity
will be on 14.240, 14.060, 7.240 and 7.060MHz from 1530 to 2130UTC.
Remembering the same event, the USS Midway Museum Chip will be on the
air from San Diego on 14.230, 7.250 and PSK31 on 14.070MHz from 1700
to 2359UTC on Saturday the 10th.
GB2MOP will be on the air from the Museum of Power from Friday the
9th. Details of the operation remain sketchy at the time this
bulletin was written, but www.GB2MOP.org may have up to date
information.
Now the contest news
The 144MHz AFS contest runs from 1000 to 1600UTC today, the 4th.
Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
The ARRL 160m CW contest ends today at 1600UTC. Work the USA, US
Territories and Canada. The only time there is a path is when it's
dark at both ends of the QSO so it's unlikely that much activity will
be in evidence from the UK as this edition is broadcast.
On Tuesday it's the 144MHz UKAC, which runs from 2200 to 223UTC. All
modes are used on the 2m band and the exchange is RST, serial number
and locator.
Next weekend sees the ARRL 10m contest, running from 0000 on the 10th
to 2359 on the 11th. Using CW or phone, the report is RST plus serial
number, with Ws, VEs and XEs also sending their state or province
code. There are a number of categories in this contest so it will pay
to check the ARRL website for details.
Finally, a reminder that the UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon
continues on 6m until the end of January. Details are on the
UKSMG.org website.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO
on Friday 2nd December.
Last week was a mixed bag in terms of HF propagation. The solar flux
index hovered around the 80 mark and the K index was poor at the
weekend, although a little more settled later in the week.
Last weekend saw the CW leg of CQ Worldwide and the consensus was
that conditions weren't brilliant. We said that 20 and 15m would be
the optimum HF bands with occasional 10m openings. This turned out to
be true as Roger, G3LDI proved by only working 67 stations on 10
metres in 48 hours. Roger said that they were mostly weak and watery
European contacts, despite using a three-element SteppIR. The days of
extensive DX openings on 10m may, alas, be behind us for a few years.
Back to the Sun, there have been three visible sunspot groups, with
region 2615 generating M-class solar flares. So watch out for
potential coronal mass ejections and flare-induced blackouts or
sudden ionospheric disturbances.
As we head into December, now is the best time for the low bands,
especially Top Band and 80m. You may find that the evening critical
frequency drops so much that 40m struggles to open to DX at times.
With a typical critical frequency of around 3MHz at 2000hrs even 80m
may struggle at distances less than 300-400km. Unfortunately,
geomagnetic conditions are also predicted to be unsettled from
December 7th to the 11th due to recurrent coronal hole effects.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
High pressure will continue to provide slightly improved tropo
conditions on the VHF/UHF bands at the beginning of the week, but
there is likely to be a slow decline later as pressure falls to the
north of Britain. Although lift conditions could affect much of the
country at first, these will become confined to the south by midweek
and all gone soon after.
Don't forget to try the multimode part of the bands with CW or SSB,
and do call CQ and announce your activity in advance on email
reflectors, DX chat such as ON4KST.info and social media if the bands
seem quiet.
The Moon is at lowest declination today and path losses are still
high, but declination goes positive late on Thursday 8th and losses
are lower. Look out for GHz bands EME operation from Jericho from
that day until the 13th of December by E44QX and E44HP.
The big Geminids meteor shower is now only a week away. The zenithal
hourly rate for this shower is up to 120 meteors per hour, so it's a
really good one. We'll have more information next week as to the best
times to operate. Look at dl1dbc.net for Virgo, a Java real-time
meteor tracking web page that may help you. Unfortunately it doesn't
run on all browsers: you may have to try more than one before you get
it to work.
And that's all for this week from the propagation team.
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 gb2rs<at>rsgb.org.uk to arrive by
10:00 on the Thursday before transmission.
--
g4apl@gb7cip.ampr.org g4apl@gb7cip.#32.gbr.euro
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