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G4APL > NEWS 03.02.19 05:33l 266 Lines 12550 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 3 Feb 2019
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<F1OYP<ON0AR<GB7CIP
Sent: 190203/0331Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:57680 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@EU
GB2RS Main News for Sunday 3rd February 2019
The news headlines:
* Enter Club of the Year
* 50 years of Newsreading
* Nominate for CWops Award
This year's RSGB Club of the Year competition has just one category
for entrants. As well as being open to clubs of all sizes, entries
are welcome from all RSGB affiliated groups. The theme is ‘Meeting
RSGB Strategy 2022'. Entries must be received by the 28th of
February, so there's still time to put in an entry. Clubs should read
the rules at www.rsgb.org/main/clubs/national-club-of-the-year/ and
send entries to their Regional Representative. The RSGB would like to
thank Waters & Stanton for their continue sponsorship of this
competition.
Victor Gracey, GI3WEM is stepping down as one of the GB2RS
newsreaders for Northern Ireland after around 50 years of news
reading. The RSGB would like to thank Victor for his service to his
fellow amateurs and wish him well in his retirement. The RSGB is
therefore looking to finds a replacement news reader in the area as
soon as possible. Grant Smith, MI0AWL will continue as a back-up
reader when necessary. If you are interested in this volunteer role,
please contact the GB2RS Manager Ken Hatton, G3VBA, by email to
gb2rs.manager<at>rsgb.org.uk
CWops is now accepting nominations for the CWops Award for Advancing
the Art of CW. The purpose of the award is to recognise individuals,
groups, or organisations that have made the greatest contribution or
contributions toward advancing the art or practice of radio
communications by Morse code. Anyone can make a nomination and it
should be emailed to awards<at>cwops.org with a copy to
secretary<at>cwops.org. In order to be considered, a nomination must
be received by the 1st of March. Details of what to include in your
nominations can be found at https://cwops.org/
The RSGB's EMC committee has updated its advice leaflet number 15 on
VDSL Interference. This leaflet explains how to recognise VDSL
interference and summarises the measures that people have found that
helped to reduce the interference. It must be emphasised that these
are things you can try and they are not guaranteed to eliminate the
problem at all locations. Indeed in some locations none of these
suggestions reduce the problem significantly. It can be found via the
EMC publications page on the RSGB website or directly at
http://rsgb.org/emcleaflet15 and inks to other EMCC publications on
VDSL are also included.
There is still time to organise a Thinking Day on the Air station,
which takes place over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of February.
Currently, as well as UK stations, Guides and Scouts are taking part
from Canada, USA, and the Netherlands. A list of known stations is
displayed on the Station List page of the website,
www.guides-on-the-air.co.uk
Six News 138 is now available for UK Six Metre Group members to
download from their website. It contains forty seven pages of news
and comment dedicated to 6m. Get it from www.uksmg.org
One area where the IARU and RSGB volunteers have been active is
regarding concerns from Wireless Power Transmission, or WPT. The
latest development is the recent approval and publication of CEPT ECC
Report-289 on high power WPT for electric vehicles, EV. Following a
major effort and numerous contributions to CEPT meetings, this has
significant content regarding amateur radio and concerns on spurious
emissions. Comments by IARU Region 1, RSGB and Ofcom were included
during the final consultation stage. The report is a key element in
ongoing work for WRC-19 Agenda Item 9.1.6 on WPT-EV. It can be
downloaded, along with many other CEPT documents, from
www.ecodocdb.dk/document/category/ECC_Reports
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
Today, the 3rd of February, the 35th SEARS Canvey Radio & Electronics
Rally will be held at its new venue, Cornelius Vermuyden School,
Dinant Avenue, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 9QS. Admission is GBP 3 and
doors open at 10am, or fifteen minutes earlier for disabled visitors.
There is free car parking and easy, level ground floor access to two
large halls. Tea, coffee, soft drinks and bacon butties will be
available. There will be radio, computing and electronics traders and
special interest groups. More details via email to
tony<at>tonystreet.net.
If you are fortunate enough to be heading to Florida on holiday in
the next week, you may be interest to know that the 73rd Orlando
HamCation runs from the 8th to the 10th of February. Head for the
Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park, 4603 West Colonial Drive,
Orlando, Florida 32808, USA. There will be over 150 commercial
sellers, over 200 swap table vendors and the largest tailgate area in
the southeastern US. For details see www.hamcation.com
Next Sunday, the 10th, the Harwell Radio & Electronics Rally will
take place at Didcot Leisure Centre, Mereland Road, Didcot, Oxon,
OX11 8AY, just 3 miles from Milton Interchange on A34. Doors open at
10am and admittance is GBP 3, with under 12s free. There will be
traders, Special Interest Groups and an RSGB Bookstand. Refreshments
will be available all day. Talk in is on 145.550MHz, using G3PIA.
Details from Ann, G8NVI by email to rally<at>g3pia.net
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
PJ4/WW4LL and PJ4/NN9DD will be active from Bonaire, IOTA reference
SA-006, between the 4th and 10th of February. They will operate FT8,
RTTY and SSB on all bands, and will participate in the CQ WPX RTTY
Contest on the 9th and 10th as PJ4Z. QSLs via Logbook of The World or
K4BAI.
Mike, W1USN and Bob, AA1M will be active as /TI5 from Atenas in Costa
Rica until the 13th of February. They will operate CW, SSB, some
digital modes and possibly a few of the FM satellites. QSLs via
Logbook of The World or via their home callsigns, either direct or
via the bureau.
Bogdan, SP2FUD as and Zen, SP2GCJ will be active as XV9FUD and XV9ZT
respectively from Vietnam between the 4th and the 18th of February.
They will operate CW, SSB and digital modes on the 40 to 12m bands.
QSLs via Logbook of The World, Club Log's OQRS, or via SP2GCJ.
A three-man team will operate from Manus Island, OC-025, in Papua New
Guinea as P29VCX until the 5th of February. This will be followed by
P29NI from Daru Island, IOTA OC-153, from the 6th to the 11th of
February. QSL requests in each case should be sent directly to SM6CVX.
Now the special event news
Look for TM16AAW to be on air from the 10th to the 24th of February
to celebrate the 16th Antarctic Activity Week. François, F8DVD will
be operational from Mâcon in the east part of France using the 10 to
40m bands, mostly SSB. All info on this event on can be found on
QRZ.com.
ARI Fidenza and the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation are running an award
scheme based major Italian pioneers and their discoveries in wireless
and radio technology. Running throughout the year, each month is
dedicated to a specific scientist. February is celebrating Augusto
Righi. Further details can be found at www.arifidenza.it
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 3rd of February, the 432MHz AFS contest runs from 0900 to
1300UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial
number and locator.
On Monday the 80m Club Championships run from 2000 to 2130UTC. It's
the SSB leg and the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
On Tuesday the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC.
Using FM only, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator. Running concurrently is the 144MHz Machine Generated Mode
Activity Contest, which has an exchange of signal report and
4-character locator. These contests are immediately followed by the
all-mode 144MHz UK Activity Contest, which runs from 2000 to 2230UTC.
The exchange for this contest is also signal report, serial number
and locator.
On Wednesday the UK EI Contest Club 80m contest runs from 2000 to
2100UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is your 4-character locator.
On Saturday the 9th, the first 1.8MHz contest takes place from 1900
to 2300UTC. Using CW only, the exchange is signal report, serial
number and your District.
Next weekend sees two contests. The CW WorldWide WPX RTTY contest
runs for 48 hours from 0000UTC on the 9th to 2359UTC on the 10th.
Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report
and serial number.
The PACC Contest runs for 24 hours from 1200UTC on the 9th to 1200UTC
on the 10th. Using CW and SSB on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, the
exchange is signal report and serial number, with PA stations sending
their Province too.
Now the propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on
Friday the 1st of February.
Last week was a mixed bag in terms of HF propagation. The solar flux
index was a little higher at 74, helped by a sunspot group that has
now rotated out of view. Geomagnetic conditions were very settled in
the first half of the week with the Kp index often sitting at zero.
It seems quite a while since the index was this low.
But that couldn't last as a very large elongated coronal hole on the
Sun's equator threatened the Earth with an enhanced solar wind. This
eventually came to fruition on Thursday afternoon, pushing the Kp
index to three at first and then five overnight, bringing minor G1
geomagnetic storming at higher latitudes. At the time of writing this
looks like it is likely to bring continued unsettled HF conditions
across the weekend, complete with depressed maximum useable
frequencies.
NOAA predicts a solar flux index around 72 next week as the solar
minimum continues. The good news is that once the effects of this
coronal hole disappear we can expect more settled geomagnetic
conditions and a return to seasonal averages when it comes to maximum
usable frequencies.
The low bands are still at their optimum, with 160, 80 and 40m
providing good propagation opportunities. Sixty metres, or the 5MHz
band, is also providing inter-G and European contacts during the day,
as the critical frequency is often sufficient to support propagation
on the band.
Higher up, 20 metres is still the best band for reliable DX, although
it tends to open late and close early at the moment, with occasional
openings on 17m and perhaps even 15m.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
It's looking like a week to be getting on with those hardware and
software projects in the warmth of the workshop while keeping an eye
on the VHF DX clusters. Cold and unsettled would describe the first
part of the week, with limited options for Tropo due to some wintry
areas of low pressure. There are signs of a weak ridge of high
pressure to the south of Britain at the start of the week, but this
offers only marginal chances for paths to the south from southern
England into the continent and Spain.
With the solar conditions, the weekend is looking likely to offer
some chances of aurora due to the large coronal hole, so even if
Tropo is not a strong contender, there are still some possible
interests for VHF ops. For GHz bands enthusiasts, the snow showers
early on may provide some rain scatter.
The Moon is at apogee on Tuesday and declination is negative, but
rising all week. Moon windows will lengthen as the week progresses,
but path losses will be at their highest.
One minor meteor shower occurs on the 8th, the Alpha Centaurids, but
with a Zenithal Houry Rate of just six it's not really a significant
one for meteor scatter operation.
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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