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G4TNU > NEWS 06.12.20 02:32l 216 Lines 10344 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 06 Dec 2020
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday the 6th of December 2020
The news headlines:
* Get on the Air to Care wins award
* New IARU VHF handbook
* RSGB mounts Christmas charity auction
We're delighted that this year's Amateur Radio Newsline's
‘International Newsmaker of the Year Award' has been presented to
the ‘Get on the Air to Care' project, operated jointly by the Radio
Society of Great Britain and the UK's National Health Service.
Conceived by Paul Devlin, G1SMP in response to the Covid-19 pandemic,
the campaign has decreased social isolation in the UK and around the
world by encouraging amateurs to ‘Get on the air to care'. As well
as enabling people to get involved in amateur radio for the first
time and encouraging inactive amateurs to return, the campaign has
accomplished something amateurs work so hard to achieve: placing
amateur radio front and centre in mainstream media channels such as
the BBC, ITV Wales and major newspapers. It has raised amateur
radio's profile and attracted new licence-holders. Congratulations to
Paul, the RSGB and the NHS. You can read more about the award on the
Newsline website and can hear Paul Devlin chat to Newsline next week
at www.arnewsline.org.
The new VHF Handbook, version 9.00, is available on the IARU Region 1
website. You can download it directly from
https://tinyurl.com/gb2rs-vhfhandbook. It contains all decisions made
during the last virtual General Conference.
The RSGB is running a charity auction as part of its 'Get on the air
for Christmas' campaign with the NHS. Roy Bailey, G0VFS won the
Lockdown Category in the RSGB's annual Construction Competition and
has donated his beautifully-engineered VirusPerpleXed Bug CW Key to
raise money for NHS Charities Together. The auction will run from
9-19 December, ending on the day that ‘Get on the air for
Christmas' begins. You will find further information, including how
to take part, on the Society's website at www.rsgb.org/gota4c.
Listen out for Youngsters On The Air stations around the world.
GB20YOTA will be operating throughout December. G8IXK will operate
the station today, the 6th; then M0WJE on Monday. Tuesday sees the
callsign under G4DJX's guidance with M0NCG taking over on Wednesday.
M0MUX will be operating on Friday and then M0SDV takes over for the
whole weekend. The calendar is shown on the GB20YOTA page on QRZ.com.
To reserve an operating slot, contact Jamie, M0SDV via email to
yota.month@rsgb.org.uk.
HamSCI is looking for amateur radio operators around the world to
help collect propagation data during the December 14 eclipse across
South America. Data collection requires an HF radio connected to a
computer. The main data recording will run from December 9-16, to
ensure an abundance of control data. Details of the experiment may be
found at www.hamsci.org.
As a result of the prevailing Covid-19 restrictions, the traditional
Christmas Eve transmission from SAQ on 17.2kHz is cancelled.
Information on this historic transmitter can be found at
https://alexander.n.se/?lang=en.
The next RSGB Tonight @ 8 webinar is on Monday the 7th of December
and is called "What next?". Jonathan Mitchener, G0DVJ will give a
jargon-free, wide-ranging talk about where amateur radio can take
you, whether you are new to the hobby or returning after a gap. For
further information about this and previous webinars, see
www.rsgb.org/webinars.
Having reported on the decommissioning of the Arecibo Observatory
dish, the entire 900-ton instrument platform of the 305-metre radio
telescope fell some 120 metres last Tuesday morning, crashing into
the huge, already-damaged dish below. The platform collapsed due to
the extra stress on the existing cables because of the main cable
failure in November. The concrete cable support towers were also
badly damaged. No injuries were reported.
Now the special event news
During the month of December, Welland Valley Amateur Radio Society
will be running special callsigns GB1XMS, GB2XMS, GB5XMS and GB9XMS
from the shacks of various members to celebrate Christmas and say
farewell to 2020. QSL via eQSL and Logbook of The World.
Celebrating the Christmas holiday season, the Market Reef DX
Association will be active on all bands and modes as OG1XMAS until
the 26th of December. QSL via Logbook of The World and Club Log.
TM63SC, Santa Claus, will be operated by F8DZU until the 30th of
December to celebrate this year's Christmas Holiday Season. QSL via
home call, direct or bureau.
Celebrating Christmas and the New Year, TM20XMAS and TM21HNY will be
active. QSL via eQSL.
Special callsigns PA20XMAS, PB20CLAUS and PD20SANTA will be active
until the 31st of December. QSL cards will not be issued, but a
certificate will be available for download, see QRZ.com for details.
Now the DX news
Lee, DS4NMJ was expected to reach the Jang Bogo Station in Terra Nova
Bay, Antarctica around the 4th of December, and then King George
Island, South Shetland, by mid-January 2021. Lee will be operating as
DT8A through to the end of the year. QSL via DS5TOS. The log will be
uploaded to Logbook of The World and Club Log.
Now the contest news
Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to
lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world.
The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local
government's advice.
As per tradition, December is a quiet month for contests, with no
RSGB HF events at all.
This weekend, the ARRL 160m contest ends its 42-hour run at 1600UTC
today, the 6th of December. It's CW only and the exchange is signal
report, with American and Canadian stations also sending their ARRL
or RAC section abbreviation.
Today, the 6th of December, the 144MHz AFS contest runs from 1000 to
1600UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.
On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2000UTC.
It is followed by the all-mode 432MHz Activity Contest from 2000 to
2230UTC. The exchange is the same for both contests, signal report,
serial number and locator.
On Thursday the 50MHz UK Activity contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC.
Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
Next weekend the Second Machine Generated Mode contest runs from
1400UTC on the 12th to 1400UTC on the 13th. Using any machine
generated mode on the 50 and 144MHz bands, the exchange is signal
report and your 4-character locator.
Also next weekend is the ARRL 10m Contest. Running for 48 hours from
0000UTC on the 12th to 2359UTC on the 13th, the contest is CW and
phone only. The exchange is signal report and serial number with US
stations sending their State code and Canadians their Province code.
The UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon runs until the end of January
2021. Just exchange a signal report and locator.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on
Friday the 4th of December.
What a great week it was for HF propagation. We started it off with
the CQ Worldwide CW HF contest, which saw some DX openings up to
28MHz and solid DX being worked on 21MHz. The only downside was an
M-class solar flare, which was launched off the Sun on Sunday. It was
a big one, but luckily it didn't affect the UK. The eruption in the
sunspot occurred when the sunspot was not pointed toward Earth. This
does, however, serve as a warning that we can expect more solar
flares over the coming years as Solar Cycle 25 progresses.
The rest of last week saw the Solar Flux Index decline slightly to
105 by Thursday. Nevertheless, daytime maximum useable frequencies
were generally above 21MHz for a lot of the time, with occasional
openings on 28MHz.
Next week NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will decline to the
90s and then the low 80s as the week progress. However, active region
2790 has rotated to be Earth-facing and this may keep the SFI higher
than predicted – only time will tell. On Thursday another potential
active region was also coming into view. If it develops, we could see
the SFI in the high 90s or even topping 100 once again.
The good news is the Kp index is predicted to remain low, reflecting
the more settled geomagnetic conditions. A large coronal hole will
become Earth-centric by the 5th, which could result in an elevated Kp
index at the end of the weekend – although this will be dependent
on how the Bz field of any solar wind is oriented. A south-facing Bz
field more easily couples with the Earth's magnetic field, letting
solar particles enter the ionosphere. Only time will tell.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
Not much terrestrial VHF propagation to look forward to this week,
with things looking cold and unsettled. A slack low-pressure system
will occupy the British Isles for much of the next 10 days, so I
wouldn't build up any Tropo hopes. The general unsettled nature of
the weather pattern means that rain scatter could be the mode of
interest for the GHz bands. You might also find some snow static
raises noise levels a bit in some parts of the country.
December is a hot month for meteor scatter. The Puppid-Velids, with a
Zenighal Hourly Rate of 10, peaks tomorrow, and the Monocerotids with
a Zenithal Hourly Rate of three peaks on Wednesday. These are just an
hors d'oeuvre for the Geminids shower, just over a week from now, on
the 14th. With ZHR of a whopping 150, the Geminids is usually the
best one of the year. Even now the meteor rates will be climbing so
if you have reasonable power and a beam for 2, 4 or 6m, get looking
for JT mode DX.
It's a good week for EME too with Moon declination high but
declining. We still have long visibility windows all week, with
falling path losses until perigee next Sunday. 144MHz sky noise is
low at the moment, not reaching 500 kelvin until next Sunday.
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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