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G4TNU > NEWS 05.07.20 01:38l 211 Lines 10340 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 05 Jul 2020
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday the 5th of July 2020
The news headlines:
* Celebrate the NHS with Get on the air to care
* Contest Committee to relax Covid-19 rules
* IARU appoints new EMC Coordinator
The RSGB's ‘Get on the air to care' campaign with the NHS is
celebrating the NHS' 72nd birthday today, Sunday the 5th of July. The
Society is encouraging all radio amateurs to 'Get on the air to care'
to mark the celebration and to use /NHS after their callsign. Share
photos on the RSGB Facebook or Twitter accounts and make sure you add
#GOTA2C to your message. You can also email photos to
comms<at>rsgb.org.uk. For more info about the NHS birthday see the
NHS website, www.england.nhs.uk/nhsbirthday/about-the-nhs-birthday.
As we're all aware, the changes to Covid-19 restrictions have been
coming thick and fast recently, but they have also remained
inconsistent across the different parts of the UK. The Contest
Committee is preparing to allow Single Operator Portable entries to
RSGB contests again from Tuesday the 7th of July. This is in time for
the 2m UK Activity Contest and FM Activity Contest as well as the HF
Low Power contest on the 19th of July. All activities must be
properly socially distanced. All station activity, including station
assembly, must be carried out by the operator, or only with support
from people who are living at the same household. The RSGB is not
opening up normal multi-operator contesting as in section ‘O'
entries at this time. Any local Covid-19 restrictions, such as any
limitation on access to particular public locations, must be strictly
observed. Please keep a close eye on the Contest Committee website
www.rsgbcc.org for the latest updates.
The IARU Administrative Council has appointed Martin Sach, G8KDF, as
global Electromagnetic Compatibility Coordinator, succeeding Tore
Worren, LA9QL. The EMC Coordinator's mission is to ensure that the
concerns and needs of radio amateurs are effectively addressed in
international standards bodies, particularly CISPR and the ITU, as
well as in regional telecommunication organisations and at national
levels through IARU member societies. Assisting in the effort is a
network of volunteers with expertise in the field of EMC. Martin is
also the RSGB IARU EMC Liaison.
RSGB General Manager Steve Thomas, M1ACB joined the Denby Dale ARC
online meeting to hear Dan, KB6NU speak on Having Fun with Morse
Code. After Dan's talk and the question and answer session, the club
asked Steve to do a Q&A session. There were a wide range of questions
on current topics. Dan's talk and both Q&A sessions are on YouTube at
https://youtu.be/noC1pxTswg4.
In the light of the Covid-19 restrictions, the IARU Region 1
Executive Committee has split the 2020 General Conference into two
parts. The first part in October will be a virtual conference and the
second, in-person part will be in 2021. The IARU and its Member
Societies face some very significant challenges for the future to
ensure that growth into amateur radio is further stimulated and that
Member Societies and the IARU continue to be seen as relevant and
supportive by new entrants. The 2021 part of the Conference will be
run in ‘workshop' format with active participation from all Member
Societies present.
Dave Wilson, M0OBW, RSGB President and Exams Quality Assurance
Manager, has announced that the 1000th online invigilated exam took
place on the 1st of July. He anticipated that the 1000th successful
candidate will pass the exam sometime this coming week. The RSGB
would like to thank all involved in this remote invigilation exam
process, including Ofcom, the RSGB exams department and all those
invigilating. It's a great example of amateur radio coming together.
Please note that all news items for both RadCom and GB2RS should be
sent to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk and to that email address only. Sending
to multiple addresses just slows the process down and some old
addresses, such as gb2rs<at>rsgb.org.uk will be closed in the near
future. The deadline for GB2RS is 10am on the Thursday before
transmission and the deadlines for RadCom are shown in the Around
Your Region section or on the RSGB website under the Publications tab.
Now the special event news
Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in
the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would
like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen.
To commemorate their 3rd anniversary, special event stations will be
on air during the FT8DMC Activity Days until the 31st of July. All
stations will bear the FTDMC or FTDM suffix, referring to the third
anniversary of the FT8 Digital Mode Club. An FTDMC Anniversary Award
can be earned by working the FTDMC and FTDM stations and collecting
points applicable for various award classes. See www.ft8dmc.eu for
more details.
Durham and District Amateur Radio Society is participating as one of
the bonus stations in the 13 Colonies Special Event. GB13COL will run
until 0400UTC on 8 July. The primary focus of the event will be the
HF bands using SSB, CW, FM and various digital modes, but VHF and UHF
will also be in use. This year's QSL cards for GB13COL has been
kindly sponsored by Martin Lynch at ML&S.
Now the contest news
Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to
lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world.
The RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government's advice first
and foremost.
On Monday the 80m Club Championships will runs from 1900 to 2030UTC.
Using CW only, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
On Tuesday the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC.
It is followed by the all mode 144MHz UK Activity Contest from 1900
to 2130UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and
locator.
On Thursday the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC.
Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
Next weekend the IARU HF Championship runs from 1200UTC on the 11th
to 1200UTC on the 12th. Using SSB only on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest
bands, the exchange is signal report and ITU Zone, which is 27 for
the UK.
The UK Six Metre Group's Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of
August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is your
4-character locator.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO
on Friday the 3rd of July.
This week saw the beginning of a new month and continued Sporadic-E
openings. Traditionally we see a slow down in the number of
Sporadic-E openings in July, but while we are seeing a few periods on
10m when there are no openings, they inevitably reappear.
An HF F2-layer opening to Angola occurred on Wednesday, allowing
amateurs to bag Gabriel, D2EB on both 17 and 12 metres CW. Paul,
G0KPH also spotted Gabriel on 40 metres CW in the evening.
As we said a couple of weeks ago, the HF bands are staying open
later, which is a summer phenomenon. Darren, G0TSM has found 17m FT8
to be open to Japan, the West Coast of the USA, Alaska and Hawaii
until around 0200UTC. Mike, G4FHQ said 80m has been good overnight
too, after he heard a string of W2s and VE3s working the Canada Day
contest at 0330UTC at 57/8 on SSB.
The Sun, however, remained very quiet with zero sunspots, which means
our predictions are beginning to sound like a stuck record! The Kp
index ranged from zero to three thanks to a high-speed solar wind
stream. Next week NOAA predicts a solar flux index of 68 and a Kp
index of two to three. There are no sunspots predicted, just a few
bright spots on the STEREO Ahead spacecraft's extreme ultraviolet
view, which may or may not develop into spots. Mid-latitude coronal
hole activity has declined recently and it does look like we are now
truly at sunspot minimum.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
There is a change in the weather coming along and Sunday should see a
ridge of high pressure building across the south of the country,
bringing Tropo back into the options. This could be particularly good
for paths to the south across the Channel and Biscay as well as
across the southern North Sea. This ridge gets a bit of knock-back
after mid-week as a small low tracks across the north of the country.
In some models this is also followed by a further weak ridge for the
next weekend, so Tropo will continue to feature.
The Sporadic-E season is less prolific in July, but it's still a key
month for the mode. The weather is always busy generating atmospheric
gravity waves that can propagate upwards to affect the E region and
trigger Sporadic-E, so hopefully some parts of the country may find
the geometry is right for some VHF DX paths via Sporadic-E. These
high summer weeks are often good for Sporadic-E ultra DX paths to the
Far East, mostly in the early morning and on FT8, so it's well worth
checking the clusters from 0600-0800UTC.
With low Moon declination and no major meteor showers this week, it's
a good week to increase your square count via the satellites. QO100
and the low-Earth orbiters are always there to work the DX if the
bands are flat.
Finally, a thought. While we're definitely not advocating "don't call
CQ", you'll increase your chances of making non-contest QSOs hugely,
especially on the GHz Bands, if you announce your planned activity in
advance. Use email reflectors, social media and the ON4KST microwave
chat to let people know when you're QRV.
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.
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