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G4APL > NEWS 21.10.17 23:08l 251 Lines 11284 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 22 Oct 2017
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<GB7CIP
Sent: 171021/2203Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:61605 [Caterham Surrey GBR]
From: G4APL@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : NEWS@EU
GB2RS Main News for Sunday the 22nd of October 2017
The news headlines:
* New NoVs for 146-146MHz
* Anniversary GB2CW transmission for G3UKV
* Jamboree on the Air still active today
All current 146 to 147MHz band Notices of Variation expire on Tuesday
the 31st of October. Ofcom has agreed that the band will be made
available for another year. However, to continue to use the
frequencies you must obtain a new NoV. These are available, free of
charge, from the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org/nov
Martyn, G3UKV will be making his 500th GB2CW transmission this coming
Thursday, the 26th of October. He made his first transmission under
GB2CW in February 2007, and comes on 80m on a frequency of 3605kHz
every Thursday at 9am local time. He would welcome as many call-ins
following the half hour Morse transmission as possible to celebrate
the occasion.
This weekend will see many international callsigns on the air for the
60th Jamboree on the Air, where amateur radio and the Scouting
movement get on the air. This year they are expecting around 1
million participants from around 150 countries. If you hear these
young people on the air, please give them a call.
Train the Trainers is free to any RSGB member who is currently (or
will be starting) teaching at Foundation, Intermediate or Advanced
level and is especially designed for anyone who does not already have
a professional background in teaching. There are two workshops in the
near future, one at Worksop ARC on the 18th of November and the other
in Southend on Sea on the 9th of December, Please send an email to
g0eaksteve<at>gmail.com or nigel.m0ich<at>gmail.com respectively if
you wish to take part.
There is a possibility that due to a combination of readers holidays,
work commitments and the need for urgent antenna work at the QTH of
MI1AIB, there may be no DMR readings of GB2RS for Region 8 on some
Sundays during October and possibly early November. Other readings of
GB2RS will take place as normal.
Amateur radio's two newest bands came to life in the United States on
Friday the 13th of October. Both the 472 to 479 kHz band and the
135.7 to 137.8kHz band are now available to US radio amateurs who
have completed the application process.
The PJ7T DXpedition to St Maarten has been suspended. Hurricane Irma
destroyed 95% of the infrastructure on the island and it will
impossible to complete the DXpedition successfully. The team of
Argentinian operators are looking at a different island and details
will be announced later.
The RSGB has release 12 lectures from the 2016 Convention on to its
YouTube channel. See www.youtube.com/theRSGB
Videos of the talks given at the AMSAT-UK International Space
Colloquium, held as part of the RSGB Convention in Milton Keynes last
weekend, are being made available on YouTube. The first is An
introduction to Amateur satellites by David Johnson, G4DPZ and Carlos
Eavis, G3VHF. The other presentations are expected to be uploaded in
the coming days. Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tj2rUsNpPs
The Bath-based Distance Learning course for the Advanced exam has
achieved an 85% pass rate with over 500 passes to date. The
Bath-based distance learning team will be running another Advanced
amateur radio course from January until June. Weekly work packages
are sent out to students who complete the studying at home and submit
answers to revision questions and exercises via the internet. Some
video tutorials and demonstrations are included in the course
material and links to other useful resources are also provided. To
enrol contact Steve, G0FUW, via e-mail to g0fuw<at>tiscali.co.uk
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
Today, the 22nd, the Galashiels Rally takes place at The Volunteer
Hall, Galashiels TD1 3JX. Doors open 11.15am, fifteen minutes earlier
for disabled visitors. There will be trade stands, a bring and buy
and refreshments. Admission is GBP 2.50 – and please note that
round pounds are no longer acceptable.
There are no rallies in the diary for next weekend, the 28th and
29th. On the 5th of November, the Kempton Rally will take place at
Kempton Park racecourse and the Bush Valley rally at the United
Services Club in Limavady.
If you have any rally or event information you'd like to appear in
future editions of GB2RS News, in RadCom and on the RSGB website,
please email full details to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk.
And now the DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
Keith, GM4YXI and Chris, GM3WOJ will be active as VK9CZ from
Cocos-Keeling, OC-003, from the 24th of October to the 7th of
November, including the CQ WW DX SSB Contest. They will operate SSB,
CW and some RTTY on the 10 to 160m bands with two stations. QSL via
N3SL and Logbook of The World, logsearch on Club Log.
Alex, UT5UY and Roman, UR0MC will be active as 4S7AYG from Sri Lanka,
AS-003 until the 31st of October. QSL via M0URX's OQRS at
www.m0urx.com/oqrs/ and Logbook of The World.
Ilya, R3XA will also be active as 4S7KLG from Sri Lanka, AS-003,
until the 30th of October including an entry in the CQ WW DX SSB
Contest. He will operate mainly CW. QSL via Logbook of The World,
eQSL or via EA5GL; logsearch and OQRS on Club Log.
John, W2GD will be active as P40W from Aruba, SA-036, until the 31st
of October. Main activity will be during the CQ WW DX SSB Contest;
before and after the contest he will operate some CW and be active
on the 160, 30, 17 and 12m bands. QSL via Logbook of The World or
direct only to N2MM.
Now the special event news
Today, the 22nd, Watcombe Radio Club is running JOTA station GB3TBS
for Torbay Borough Scouts at the Torbay District Scout Camp in
Torquay from 10am to 1pm.
Grey Point Fort Amateur Radio Society will be operating JOTA and
Jamboree on the Internet, JOTI, with Bangor West Explorer Scouts
today, the at Grey Point Fort, Fort Road, Helen's Bay, Crawfordsburn,
Co Down BT19 1PU.
Perth Repeater Group is running a JOTA event with 1st Perthshire
Pitlochry Scout Group today, the 22nd, 9am to 6pm. Operations will be
at Atholl Road, Pitlochry, Perthshire PH16 5BX.
Coventry Amateur Radio Society is taking part in JOTA today, the
22nd, supporting the Coventry Minotaur Unit. GB0CMU will be on the
air from The Scout Headquarters, Partidge Croft, Coventry.
Mid Ulster ARC will operate GB4PS today, the 22nd, for JOTA from 10am
to 3pm from Portadown Scout Hall, 118 Mahon Road, Portadown BT62 3SF
Now the contest news
The Worked All Germany contest ends its 24 hour run at 1500UTC today.
Using CW and SSB on 80 to 10m, the exchange is RST and serial number,
with DLs sending DOK.
The 50MHz AFS contest takes place on 6m from 0900 to 1300UTC today,
the 22nd. All modes can be used, and the exchange is RST, serial
number and locator.
Also starting at 0900UTC today, the UK Microwave Group 24-76GHz
contest runs until 1700UTC. All modes can be used on the bands
between 24 and 76GHz. RST, serial number and locator forms the
exchange.
The RoLo 2 contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC today, the 22nd, using
CW only on the 3.5MHz band. The exchange is RST plus the rolling
locator.
On Tuesday the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC.
Using all modes on the 2.3 to 10GHz bands the exchange is signal
report, serial number and locator.
On Wednesday the UK EI Counties Contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC.
Using CW only on the 80m band, the exchange is your 4 character
locator.
On Thursday the 80m Autumn Series contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC.
Using SSB only the exchange is signal report and serial number.
Next weekend from 0000UTC on the 28th to 2359UTC on the 29th, the CW
WorldWide DX SSB contest takes place. Using all bands between 1,8 and
28MHz the exchange is signal report and Zone, which for the UK is 14.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO
on Friday the 20th of October.
The latter half of last week saw more settled geomagnetic conditions
with the Kp index declining to one and even zero. This helped the HF
bands enormously and there were openings up to and including 12
metres. The upper bands were full of signals, reflecting the better
HF conditions associated with Autumn. Higher critical frequencies
also meant that 40m, or 7MHz, was often open around the UK during
daytime.
The solar flux index was in the low 70s as the sun's disk was devoid
of sunspots. A coronal mass ejection occurred on the far side of the
sun, but it wasn't directed towards Earth and so didn't cause
problems. This does suggest though that we could have sunspot, solar
flare and coronal mass ejection activity in about week's time. Next
week it looks like we could suffer the effects of more coronal hole
activity. The extreme ultra-violet image from the solar dynamics
observatory or SDO spacecraft showed another equatorial coronal hole
rotating into an earth-facing position for the weekend.
The enhanced solar wind from this could hit the Earth sometime around
Monday the 23rd or Tuesday the 24th, with its effects lasting until a
couple of days thereafter.
As always, this could bring short-lived ionospheric enhancements, so
keep an eye on the higher bands, but ultimately the Kp index may rise
and maximum useable frequencies could decline.
At the moment, the effects of coronal holes rather than sunspots are
driving ionospheric conditions on the HF bands.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
The week will start with a deep low moving across the UK, with strong
winds and possibly some rain scatter options for the GigaHertz bands.
Although the pattern remains unsettled in the north until later next
week, there are signs that high pressure will begin to exert some
influence in the second half of the week over southern areas. This
means that from midweek, there is a possibility that southern UK,
across to the continent and south past Biscay and Portugal towards
the Azores, could experience some Tropo conditions to round the week
off.
Remember that there's always aircraft scatter to make DX QSOs on the
UHF and microwave bands. A group often congregates on 1296.165MHz and
the ON4KST microwave chat on a Wednesday evening to experiment with
digital mode QSOs. This so-called "digifest" is usually announced on
social media and the UKmicrowaves reflector.
The Moon reaches apogee on Tuesday and maximum negative or southerly
declination on Wednesday, so losses are at maximum and moon windows
at their shortest. This makes it a good week to try your hand at
using the man-made satellites that are available for VHF stations to
use.
There is just one minor meteor shower of little note this week, so
focus on the early mornings around dawn for the best chance of QSOs
via random meteor scatter.
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 gb2rs<at>rsgb.org.uk to arrive by
10:00 on the Thursday before transmission.
--
g4apl@gb7cip.ampr.org g4apl@gb7cip.#32.gbr.euro
http://www.theskywaves.net http://gb7cip.ampr.org
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