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M1CUK > NEWS 11.03.10 13:41l 231 Lines 10533 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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RSGB News prepared for packet by Mike G4FVG
Thanks Mike..
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GB2RS NEWS for Sunday 14th March 2010
The news headlines
* New Zealand amateurs gain access to 600m band
* Sheffield ARC put Tapton School on the air
* New DRM for Northern Ireland
The New Zealand government has granted New Zealand amateurs temporary
access to a slice of the 600m spectrum. The new allocation, 505 to
515kHz, was previously used for Morse code communications with ships.
There are a few restrictions to the use of these frequencies. If these
frequencies are allocated to other services, amateurs must not cause
interference to these services but must accept any interference from
them, Radiated power must not exceed 25 watts EIRP and the bandwidth of
transmissions must not exceed 200Hz.
It is hoped that this allocation will, eventually, be made permanent.
Sheffield Amateur Radio Club will be at Tapton School on Wednesday 17
March using the callsigns G2AS and G3RCM. At the school, there will be a
team of club members giving presentations and demonstrating amateur
radio at HF, VHF and UHF. Where possible students will be actively
involved as much as possible. For further information please contact the
SARC Chairman, Peter Day, G3PHO by e-mail to scienceweek<at>g3pho.org.uk.
A new Deputy Regional Manager for County Antrim and North Belfast has
been appointed. Gerry Lynch, GI0RTN has taken up the position and
replaces Charlie, GI4FUE.
Two new volunteer GB2CW Morse tutors have been welcomed to the Morse
Proficiency scheme. They are John Dalgliesh, M0JCD in Cheshire and
Anthony Freeman, M0HAZ in Skegness. Both these stations will be using
145.250MHz FM.
John, M0JCD, will be transmitting on Tuesdays and Fridays from 1930
local time and Ant, M0HAZ, will be transmitting on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 1900 local time.
Volunteers for the GB2CW scheme to encourage newcomers to CW are always
welcome. If you feel you can donate some time to this worthwhile cause,
please contact the GB2CW Co-ordinator Roger, G3LDI by e-mail to
roger<at>g3ldi.co.uk for full details.
BATC members from the Bournemouth Radio Society will be providing
streaming from the Flight refuelling ARS Science and Engineering Week
open day on Saturday 20 March. Activities will start from 11am and a
programme of event times will be displayed on the streamer feed from
earlier. The event will be viewable worldwide to anyone with access to a
computer with a broadband connection. Viewers should enter www.batc.tv
on their browser, then select Live Events where the feed can be found.
For more details look at FRARS.org.uk website or contact
jfell<at>tesco.net.
The 61st Annual International DX Convention sponsored by the Southern
California DX Club will be held at The Holiday Inn Hotel & Conference
Center in Visalia from 16 to 18 April. Details at www.dxconvention.org.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
On 20 March the Lagan Valley ARS Rally will take place at the Village
Centre, 7 Ballynahinch Road, Hillsborough. Doors open at 11.30am and
there will be plenty of interesting trade stands. Contact Jim, GI0DVU on
02892 662270.
On 21 March the 25th Wythall Radio Club Radio and Computer Rally takes
place at Woodrush Sports Centre, Shawhurst lane, Hollywood near
Birmingham B47 5JW. The location is 2 miles from junction 3 of the M42.
Doors open from 10am to 3pm and entry is £1.50. There will be trade
stands and a Bring & Buy. Talk in is on S22. Details from Chris, G0EYO
on 07710 412 819.
The Callington Amateur Radio Society Rally takes place on 21 March at
the
Callington Community College, Launceston Road, Callington, Cornwall PL17
7DR. Doors open at 10am and entry is £2. There will be trade stands and
a Bring & Buy. Contact Chris on 07973 418 371.
Now for the news of special events
There are several special event stations on the air this week for St
Patrick's Day on 17 March. GB2SPD will be one the air from Moneymore.
GB5SPD will be activated by Foyle and District ARC between 15 and 17
March. Also listen out for GB4SPD which will also be using the D-Star
network.
Brickfields ARS will be on air throughout this weekend and until the end
of the month operating from their club headquarters under the callsign
GB4BAR. This special event callsign has been issued to mark the 25th
anniversary of the Society's callsign G0BAR. A special edition QSL card
has been designed and will be sent to all stations worked. Operations
will mainly be confined to 80 and 40m SSB with occasional use of CW. A
2m FM station will also be on air.
Newbury & District Amateur Radio Society will be activating GB0VUL
throughout March to promote awareness and publicity of the Vulcan
Bomber. The main operation will be 20 and 21 March when a station will
be run by Norman, M0JEC from the ATC Hut in St Michael's Road Newbury.
Visitors most welcome. Full details at QRZ.com.
The Mesilla Valley Radio Club is going to be operating a special event
station, K5B, on 21 March for the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon.
And now the HF DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources.
Andrew, G7COD, will be operational every day from Playa Del Cura on the
Island of Gran Canaria, IOTA AF-004, using the call EA8/G7COD from 20 to
28 March, using SSB and CW on the 20 to 10 metre bands including WARC
frequencies. For comprehensive details of operating times, suggested
frequencies and QSL information, please check his website
www.8q7ak.freewebspace.com.
DL7AFS and DL7ZG will sign V21ZG from Antigua for 18 days starting 16
March. They will concentrate on RTTY, PSK31/63 and SSB.
John, G3LZQ will be active as 3B9WR from Rodrigues Island, IOTA
Reference
AF-017, between 3 March and 2 April. Activity will be on the 160 to 10
metre bands, with a focus on the low bands. John plans to be on the air
daily during his sunrise and sunsets, which is 0145UTC and 1345UTC and
occasionally during his daytime. QSL via home call.
Now the contest news
On 16 March the UHF UK Activity Contest takes place between 2000 and
2230. Using all modes on the 1.3 and 2.3GHz bands, the exchange is
signal report, serial number and locator.
The SSB session of 80m Club Championships will take place on 18 March
between 2000 and 2130UTC. The exchange is the usual signal report and
serial number.
The British Amateur Radio Teledata Group's HF RTTY Contest takes place
on 20 to 22 March. It has an unusual start and finish time of 0200 to
0200UTC. Exchange a signal report, a serial number and the time in GMT.
The multipliers are countries plus call areas for W, VE and JA and VK
and continents. For single-operator stations there are time-limited
6-hour all-band and 30-hour all-band / single-band categories. The only
stations that can operate for the full 48 hours are multi-operator
stations, which may be either single- or multi-transmitter entries.
The Russian DX Contest is on 20 and 21 March on the 1.8 to 28MHz bands
from 1200 to 1200UTC. There are numerous entry categories, for single-
and multi-band, single- and multi-mode, multi-op, various power levels,
clubs, etc. An interesting aspect of this event is the possibility of
submitting two single-band entries, for example 10m and 80m. Work
everyone and send a signal report and serial number, but expect Russian
stations to send you a signal report and a 2-letter Oblast code.
Now the solar factual data for the period from the 1st to the 8th of
March, compiled by Neil Clarke, G0CAS on the 8th of March.
The latest smoothed monthly sunspot numbers are available for June, July
and August 2009 and are 2.7, 3.6 and 4.8 respectively.
Sunspots were visible every day except for the 6th and the 7th. These
are the first spotless days since the 19th of January and only the
fourth day so far this year. Only one C class solar flare occurred, this
was on the 4th. The remaining day's solar activity was very low. Solar
flux levels varied little and averaged 79 units. The 90 day solar flux
average on the 7th was 81 units, that's the same level as last week.
X-ray flux levels increased slightly from A2.2 units on the 1st and the
2nd to A6.6 by the 4th. The average was A3.7 units. Geomagnetic activity
was quiet with the Ap index in single figures everyday. The average was
Ap 4 units. Solar wind data from the ACE spacecraft saw solar wind
speeds vary between 320 and 470 kilometres per second. Particle
densities were low throughout and were never more than 10 particles per
cubic centimetre. Bz never varied more than minus 9 and plus 10
nanoTeslas during the period.
All this added up to stable radio weather, in which the HF bands were in
good shape. North-south paths to Africa and South America were improved
as their seasonal peak approached, while there were also openings on
24MHz to Hawaii and the US West Coast in the early evening.
Incidentally, even during this geomagnetically quiet period, both visual
and radio aurora were reported on several days - but apparently much too
far north to be accessible to UK operators.
And finally the solar forecast. This week the quiet side of the Sun is
expected to be looking our way. Saying that, while the Sun is in its
present state sunspot groups can appear at any time. Solar activity is
expected to be very low to low. Solar flux levels should be in the 80's
for most of the week but could decline into the 70's towards next
weekend. Geomagnetic activity could be unsettled today and tomorrow due
to a recurring coronal hole after which activity should be quiet for the
rest of the period. MUFs during daylight hours at equal latitudes should
be about 23MHz for the south and 20MHz for the north. Darkness hour lows
should be around 8MHz. Paths this week to India should have a maximum
usable frequency with a 50 per cent success rate of around 24MHz. The
optimum working frequency with a 90 per cent success rate will be about
19MHz. The best time to try this path will be between 1000 and 1400 UTC.
And that's all for this week from the propagation team.
and for this week's MAIN news
------------------
73
Trev,
SysOp gb7fcr.#16.gbr.eu
E-Mail trev@gb7fcr.co.uk
Packet Radio <-> InterNet Gateway
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