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G4APL > NEWS 05.01.20 11:45l 203 Lines 9054 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 5 Jan 2020
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Sent: 200105/0938Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:38909 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@EURO
GB2RS Main News for Sunday 5th January 2020
The news headlines:
* Happy New Year
* GB3EG now on-air in Wigan
* New Tropo records on 2m and 70cm
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 GB3EG repeater, located in Wigan, is now on the air. It is an
analogue repeater with no internet connection activity. The location
is at the QTH of 2E0SAF, approximately 200ft above sea level, with a
mast 11.5m above ground level. Its RF output is a 7dBW, that's about
five watts, but has had some good reports from further afield. It is
accessed by 82.5Hz CTCSS tone only, and the operating frequencies are
430.9125MHz and 438.5125MHz with narrow deviation.
Congratulations to Ian, GM3SEK who set a new 70cm world record
distance on tropo on the 28th of December by working D41CV at a
distance of 4,565km. That put him in the unique position of holding
both EME and tropo records on that band as, back on the 12th of March
1989, he worked ZL3AAD at 18,970km. On the 1st of January, Callum,
GM0EWX on the Isle of Skye managed to work D41CV on 2m FT8. This now
extends the 144MHz IARU Region 1 tropo record to 4,776km.
The new EI1KNH 5 metre beacon is now operational from its site near
Enniskerry in County Wicklow. The transmit frequency is 60.013MHz. It
shares the site with 70MHz beacon EI4RF and the 50MHz EI0SIX. For
additional information please visit the QRZ.com entries.
All amateurs are required to revalidate their licence with Ofcom at
least every five years. If it has been a while since you did that, go
to www.ofcom.org.uk/manage-your-licence or email
spectrum.licensing<at>ofcom.org.uk. The process doesn't take very
long.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
We have no details of rallies in January. The first couple of the
year will be the Barry ARS Table Top Sale on the 1st of February and
the South Essex ARS Canvey Rally on the 2nd of February.
Please send details of your rally and event plans as soon as possible
to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk - we give you valuable publicity online,
in RadCom and on GB2RS, all for free.
And now the DX news from 425 DX News and other sources
Sergey, RX3AMY will be active holiday style as 8Q7BS from the
Maldives, IOTA reference AS-013, until the 23rd of January. He will
operate SSB and some CW on the 40 and 20m bands. QSL via his home
call.
SP3PS will be active as C5SP from The Gambia until the 17th of
January. He will operate SSB and FT8/FT4. QSL via his home call and
Logbook of The World.
Jon, EA1VE will be active as HC2JKT from Puna Island, SA-034, in
Ecuador from the 10th to the 30th of January. He will operate SSB on
the 40 to 6m bands. QSL via his home call.
Now the special event news
From Monday until next Sunday, Hilderstone Radio Society will be
operating GB1RNLI from the RNLI lifeboat station in Margate.
TM70TAAF will be activated by François, F8DVD from the 12th to the
26th of January. The special callsign commemorates the 70th
anniversary of the first amateur radio contacts with French Southern
and Austral Territories that took place in January 1950. TM70TAAF
will be operated from Mâcon, 60km north of Lyon in France. QSL via
the bureau, direct with SASE and Logbook of The World. More
information is on QRZ.com.
ARI Fidenza will use a series of special callsigns throughout 2020 to
commemorate twelve major events and achievements in Marconi's life.
In January, the callsign will be II4BRN to commemorate his birth in
1874.
Please send special event details to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk as early
as possible. We have not received special event station info from
Ofcom in recent months so you MUST let us know to get your event
publicised here on GB2RS, in RadCom, and online.
Now the contest news
The ARRL RTTY Roundup ends its 30 hour run at 2359UTC today, the 5th
of January. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands the exchange is
signal report and serial number, with US stations sending their State
and Canadian stations their Province.
The second session of the EUCW 160m CW Party runs from 0400 to
0700UTC today, the 5th. The exchange depends on whether you are a
member of various CW clubs. Details are at www.eucw.org.
On Tuesday the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC,
using FM only, with the exchange of signal report, serial number and
locator. It runs simultaneously with the 144MHz Machine Generated
Modes contest, where the exchange is signal report and 4-character
locator. This is immediately followed by the all-mode 144MHz UK
Activity Contest, which runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for
this one is signal report, serial number and locator.
On Thursday the 50MHz Machine Generated Mode contest runs from 1900
to 1955UTC. The exchange is signal report and 4-character locator. It
is immediately followed by the all-mode 50MHz UK Activity Contest
from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for this contest is signal report,
serial number and locator.
Next Sunday, the 12th, the Datamodes AFS takes place from 1300 to
1700UTC. Using the 3.5 and 7MHz bands, the exchange is signal report
and serial number.
Don't forget that the UK Six Metre Group's Winter Marathon and runs
until the end of January. There are no specific operating modes or
periods. Just work as many locator squares as you can on the 50MHz
band.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO
on Friday January 3rd.
After the two new Solar Cycle 24 sunspots that appeared last week, we
now have another spot developing in the Sun's south-west quadrant.
Don't get too excited though, as the last two spots soon disappeared
and this one might not amount to much either. It is, however, a
positive sign that the next cycle is coming, albeit slowly.
Conditions have been settled geomagnetically, which has been good for
the ionosphere. Maximum usable frequencies have reached 18MHz at
times, although 7 and 14MHz have been more reliable during the day.
There have been more interesting signals on the lower bands - 160,
80 and 40m - after dark. January is a good month for propagation on
these bands, with the long periods of darkness meaning no D-layer
absorption. DX can start to appear on 40m during late afternoon and
may continue throughout the night if the MUF stays high enough.
Propquest.co.uk, which shows the results from the Chilton ionosonde,
suggests this may be possible at times. Otherwise, NOAA predicts that
the solar flux index will remain in the range 70-72 this week, with
the Kp index hitting a maximum of two, thanks to a lack of coronal
hole activity. This means conditions should remain roughly similar to
last week.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
Tropo records tumbled last week with the D41CV team on Cape Verde
working British Isles stations on 144 and 432MHz via FT8. On the 31st
of December they had a world record 432MHz QSO with GM3SEK at 4621km,
then on New Year's Day worked GM0EWX at 4776km on 144MHz FT8 to break
the 144MHz record. Irish Sea tropo coupled in to the Azores high
tropo region to make the contacts possible. Love it or loathe it,
FT8, combined with social media posting of activity has really made
these super-tropo paths visible by making people more aware that
something is happening.
This exceptional tropo weather has just taken a pause for now, but
with high pressure remaining over the continent for much of the
coming week, tropo should still be a feature although probably not of
the scale of last weekend. The preferred directions will be from
southern Britain into northern Europe and again across Biscay to
northern Spain. The northern parts of the UK will be rather windy at
times as low pressure drives a series of fronts across northern areas
and occasionally down into southern Britain. This could provide some
rain scatter on the microwave bands.
Moon declination is positive and reaches a peak on Friday so good
Moon availability all week. Path losses are falling so EME conditions
will improve throughout the week.
The peak of the Quadrantids shower is over but meteor activity will
still be above normal, so keep looking for meteor scatter contacts on
the VHF bands.
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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