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G4TNU > NEWS 25.11.10 19:24l 226 Lines 11796 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 28 Nov
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday 28th November 2010
The news headlines:
* Hull man convicted of radio offences
* RSGB Region 4 Election closes soon
* RSGB Museum sale drawing to a close
A Hull resident was sentenced at Hull Crown Court on 22 November for
causing deliberate interference to amateur radio users in the Hull
region of Humberside between June and November 2009. The defendant
was also convicted of unlawfully using radio equipment without a
licence from Ofcom, which was installed in his van and driven around
the region to interfere with legitimate users of the local amateur
frequencies. He was sentenced to four months imprisonment suspended
for 18 months, a curfew between 7pm and 7am for 3 months via a means
of electronic tagging and forfeiture of his van and radio
transmitters to Ofcom.
Commenting on the sentence, Paul Mercer, Head of enforcement at
Ofcom, said: "There are around 900 amateur radio users in and around
the Hull area, who have been deliberately disrupted for more than
four years. Ofcom is very pleased with this result, which will
hopefully give these users some welcome relief, as well as sending a
very strong signal to those that abuse the airwaves. This followed a
dedicated investigation by Ofcom involving six enforcement officers
working day and night to bring the culprit to court."
Mr Sheldon, the Court Recorder commended Ofcom for the quality of the
evidence that had been collated and the quality of file presented in
court. RSGB General Manager Peter Kirby, G0TWW, said "RSGB volunteers
co-operated closely with Ofcom in gathering evidence for this case.
This conviction shows that deliberate interference will not be
tolerated and can have serious consequences for the perpetrator."
RSGB members in Region 4 are reminded that their Regional Election
closes at midday on Thursday 2 December when votes will be counted.
Details of the candidates were published in the November RadCom and
the results will appear online and in the January RadCom. You can
vote online at www.votebyinternet.com/rsgb10, that's rsgb one zero.
You will need your callsign and membership number to vote. Members
may instead vote by post using the envelope that came with November's
magazine.
The RSGB Museum Surplus Equipment Sale is set to continue for one
more week. Auctions closing today include a Kenwood TS-950S and an
Icom IC-2KL linear amplifier. The final sale, which will include some
surprise items not previously disclosed, commences later this evening
and finishes next Sunday. All the proceeds of the sale go to the
National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park.
IARU Region 1 reports that the Spanish administration has authorised
six stations to use the band 501-504kHz until 31 May 2011 with a
bandwidth of 100Hz and a power of 5 watts.
Five research satellites were carried into orbit recently aboard a
Minotaur V rocket from Alaska. All the satellites use amateur radio
frequencies and amateurs have been invited to participate in their
missions by monitoring and collecting data. The FASTRACs are two
relatively small nanosatellites built by students at the University
of Texas-Austin. They enter orbit as a single spacecraft, but then
separate into FASTRAC 1, known as Sara Lily and FASTRAC 2, referred
to as Emma. Both satellites use 1200 or 9600 baud AX.25 digital
communication and transmit at 1W output, so they should be receivable
with omnidirectional VHF or UHF antennas and decodable by ordinary
packet radio hardware and software. Full details can be found on the
news pages of the ARRL website.
GB3PF, the 70cm voice repeater near Blackburn in Lancashire on
channel RB0 will shortly be closing down. It is with sadness that the
North Western Repeater Group has had to make this decision. However,
as the site owners, after many years of charging a nominal site fee
for radio amateurs, suddenly decided to increase the site fee to more
than GBP 6000 per annum. Funding continued operation from the same
site is beyond the means of the small group of amateurs. If a
suitable alternative site can be found within a few kilometres of the
existing site at NGR SD707313, a site move may be possible. So, if
you live on top of hill within a few kilometres of the Sunny Bower
area of Blackburn and would not mind hosting a 70cm repeater, please
contact Mark Walmsley, G0VOF via e-mail to
mark<at>brownhill.demon.co.uk or on 01254 245 468.
The RSGB online survey of amateur radio will be collecting data for
one more month. The online questionnaire will be available until
midnight on 31 December. All those interested in radio communications
within the UK are invited to participate. You don't have to fill it
out in one session; you can store the questionnaire and return at a
later time. You'll find the survey at www.rsgb.org/survey.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
The final rally of the year is the Bishop Auckland Radio Amateurs
Club Rally that takes place today, 28 November, at the Spennymoor
Leisure Centre, Co Durham DL16 6DB. There is plenty of car parking
and talk-in is on S22. Doors open at 10.30am and admission is
GBP 1.50, although accompanied under 14s are free. There will be
trade stands and a Bring & Buy. Details from Mark, G0GFG, on
01388 745 353.
The first rally of 2011 will be on 16 January. The Red Rose Winter
Rally will be held at the George H Carnall Leisure Centre, Kingsway
Park, M41 7FJ. There is free car parking available and doors open at
11am. There will be trade stands, a Bring and Buy as well as an RSGB
bookstall. Details from Steve on 07502 295 141.
Now for the news of special events
The second day of a weekend of operating GB4CHC by Crewe Heritage
Centre ARC will take place today, 28 November. It's on the air to
commemorate 50 Years of the Class 37 locomotive. For more info
contact John, M0JCD on 01270 619034.
And now the HF DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
A SOTA activation will take place from 3 to 5 December from the
Akramitis mountain on the island of Rhodes. Using the callsign J45V,
the Dodecanese DX Group will be using CW and SSB on as many bands as
possible. The SOTA reference for the mountain is SV/AG-055.
Frank, EA8/DH5JG, will be active from Lanzarote until 3 December.
Using mostly CW on the bands between 10 and 80m, with a preference
for the WARC bands, he will also take part in the CQWW DX CW Contest
that finishes at midnight tonight, Sunday 28 November. QSL via the
bureau to his homecall.
Dieter, DJ2EH, is working as ZD9T from Tristan da Cunha until 8
December. QSL via his homecall.
A group of German amateurs will be active as ZL8X from Raoul Island,
also known as Sunday Island until 5 December. More information is
available at www.kermadec.de.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Independence of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, a team of mostly Belgians and one Dutch
will be active as 9Q50ON from the DRC from 3 to 12 December, all
bands CW and SSB. QSL via ON4BR.
Tony, IK1QBT and Emilio, IZ1GAR will be active as IH9/IK1QBT and
IH9/IZIGAR from Pantelleria, which is IOTA reference AF-019, until 30
November. They will participate in the CQ WW DX CW Contest as IH9X on
80 metres and IH9R on 40 metres. QSL via their home calls.
Now the contest news
The CW leg of the CQWW contest finishes at midnight tonight, Sunday
28 November. Expect the CW segments of the HF contesting bands from
80m to 10m to be busy for the whole weekend, even the upper HF bands.
Taking place from 0000 to 2350UTC, the exchange is signal report and
Zone, with the UK being Zone 14.
30 November sees the 70MHz UK Activity Contest taking place between
2000 and 2230UTC. Using all modes the exchange is signal report,
serial number and locator.
The first event of December is the ARRL 160m contest, taking place on
Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th. It is a slightly unusual event in that the
duration is 42 hours. The good thing is that those 42 hours include
two full nights, which is when there is likely to be propagation
between Britain and North America. There are categories for
single-op, QRP, low-power, high-power and multi-op. At one time you
needed a pretty good 160m station to stand a chance of making a
transatlantic QSO, but these days people with modest setups often
find themselves able to work the big boys over there, who have
excellent receiving systems. Even so, trying to work across the pond
on 160m QRP is quite a challenge.
The 144MHz Affiliated Societies Contest takes place on Sunday 5
December. It's the first of the new Super League series. If you
operate as a member of a club in an AFS event there's no need to be a
member of RSGB, although the club must be affiliated. However, if you
partake as an individual, you do need to be a member, although check
logs from non members are always welcome. There's a limit of five
members per team, but active and ambitious clubs are welcome to field
multiple teams. The contest takes place between 0900 and 1700UTC and
the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.
And now the solar factual data for the period from the 15th to the
21st of November, compiled by Neil Clarke, G0CAS on the 22nd of
November
First this week, the latest smoothed sunspot numbers for February,
March and April 2010, which are 10.6, 12.3 and 14.0 respectively.
The solar disc had several sunspot groups visible every day. One of
these groups produced a C class solar flare on the 15th. Otherwise,
solar activity was at very low levels. Solar flux levels declined
from 92 units on the 16th to 78 by the 21st. The average was 86. The
90 day solar flux average remains at the same level as last week at
81 units. As the small active region rotated out of view, X-ray flux
levels declined from B1.6 units on the 15th and the 16th to A7.1 by
the 21st. The average was B1.1 units. Despite a small coronal hole
disturbance at the start of the period, geomagnetic activity was
quiet every day 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 decline 700 kilometres per second on the 15th to
330 by the 19th. Particle densities were low every day. On the 19th
and the 20th densities were below 1 particle per cubic centimetre. Bz
never varied more than minus and plus 6 nanoTeslas throughout the
period.
And now the solar forecast. Looking back over the last six solar
rotations when this side of the Sun is looking towards Earth it has
produced at least C class solar flares and, on occasions, M class
flares. Even though this does not guarantee more of the same for this
week, the signs are there. Solar activity is expected to be at low
levels on some days. Solar flux levels should be in the 80s for most
of the week. Geomagnetic activity is expected to be quiet everyday.
MUFs during daylight hours at equal latitudes should be around 25MHz
for the south and 22MHz for the north. Darkness hour lows should be
about 8MHz. Paths this week to India should have a maximum usable
frequency with a 50 per cent success rate of around 25MHz. The
optimum working frequency with a 90 per cent success rate will be
about 20MHz. The best time to try this path will be between 0900 and
1300 hours.
And that's all for this week from the propagation team.
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 newsdesk<at>rsgb.org.uk to arrive by
09:00 on the Tuesday before transmission.
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