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G4TNU > NEWS 09.11.11 22:05l 219 Lines 10951 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 13 Nov
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday 13 November 2011
The news headlines:
* Voting deadline approaches for RSGB EGM
* Intruder Watch reports taxis on 28MHz
* New QSL Managers for G6 and G8 2-letter calls
The RSGB EGM takes place at the Hilton Metropole, NEC, B40 1PP on
Saturday 19 November. Electronic and postal voting closes at 12 noon
on 16 November. If you plan to attend the EGM, it would help if you
let us know via the website at www.rsgb.org/attend. Registration
opens at 11am and tea and coffee will be available on arrival. The
EGM starts promptly at 12 noon. Tickets for a light sandwich lunch
will be available for purchase on the day. Unfortunately, car parking
at the NEC is regulated by the NEC at a standard price. The RSGB has
negotiated a small discount and parking will be GBP 7 per vehicle.
There is a free courtesy bus from Birmingham International train
station. You will need to call the bus using a courtesy telephone.
The phone, which has a Hilton logo on it, is inside the station
arrivals hall, next to the Subway restaurant.
Following the flood of low power FM transmissions across the 28MHz
amateur band, the RSGB Intruder Watch has provided the Ofcom
Monitoring Station at Baldock with a number of recordings. It has
been confirmed that these transmissions are from taxi operators and
this will form the basis of a complaint by Baldock to the Russian
authorities. The timing of this complaint is fortunate as Uli
Bihlmayer, DJ9KR, the Joint Coordinator of the IARU Monitoring
System, has recently had a reply to a written complaint that he made
directly to the Russian authorities. They have agreed to monitor the
28-29.7MHz band with the intention of stopping transmissions from CB
and taxi operators. It remains to be seen how this works in practice
but there is now a real possibility that this problem is going to be
tackled at source.
Frank Harris, G4IEY, the long-time QSL sub manager for both the G6
and G8 2 letter calls is retiring. The Society thanks him for his
help and support. Whilst both of these call groups are small, they
remain quite active as they are used by clubs and as re-issued calls
to relatives. The bureau is most grateful to Miles Hall, G4GSB and
Dave Helliwell, G6FSP, who currently manage the G6 and G8 three
letter groups, for agreeing to include all two letter calls with
their existing workload. Cards and envelopes are being transferred
and sub groups will now simply be known as G6 and G8 Series,
respectively. More details are available on the RSGB website.
There is some good and some bad news coming out of the Czech
Republic. The use of the band 70.1-70.3MHz will be extended
throughout 2012 but, unfortunately, the 5MHz experiments will come to
an end by the end of 2011.
The OJ0X DXpedition to the Aland Islands finished with more than
66,000 QSOs in the log. All in all, OJ0X contacted 26,873 individual
stations and 141 stations made it on all 9 bands offered. The updated
log search page is now online at www.qrz.com/db/OJ0X.
The log processing delay for Logbook of The World remains at
approximately 60 hours, with approximately 8000 logs queued for
processing. The ARRL IT Manager asks that users do not upload the
same log more than once. The ARRL has implemented an interim fast
lane for processing logs and, since these changes have been put into
place, the number of logs waiting to be processed has been reduced by
approximately 20 percent.
Two more countries have closed their QSL bureaux. The first is TU,
Cote d'Ivoire, and the other is V7, Marshall Island. If you work one
of these countries, make sure you get QSL route information or QSL
direct.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
A D-Star Digital Workshop will be held today, 13 November, at County
Hall, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff CF10 4UW. Doors open from 10am to 5pm.
Bring a copy of your licence to operate the D-Star station on the
day. There will be help with operating D-Star, programming radios,
repeater and reflector use and navigating your radio. Newcomers are
most welcome. Contact Dave, 2W0RUH by e-mail to
dave.2w0ruh<at>ntlworld.com for further details.
The Mayo Radio Experimenters are holding their annual Radio Rally on
Sunday 20 November at the Welcome Inn Hotel, Castlebar, Co Mayo,
where the doors will open at 11am. There will be the usual range of
traders, club stands, demonstrations and extensive catering
facilities. On Saturday evening, at 7pm, Pat Fitzpatrick, EI2HX will
give a talk and demonstration on amateur television and at 9pm Dave
Deane, EI9FBB will give a talk on the ARRL DXCC Program and also on
the Logbook of the World system. He also took part in the recent T32C
DXpedition. Full details of the hotel packages, the lecture programme
and rally information is online at www.ei7mre.org.
Also on 20 November, the 34th CATS Radio & Electronics Bazaar will
take place at 1st Coulsdon Scout HQ, at the rear of the Council Car
Park, Lion Green Road, Coulsdon, Surrey. Doors will be open from 10am
to 1pm and admission is GBP 1. There will be a Bring & Buy.
Plymouth Radio Club Rally will be held on 20 November at Elm
Community Centre, Leypark Walk, Estover, Plymouth PL6 8UE. Doors open
at 10am and admission is GBP 2. There will be trade stands and a
Bring & Buy. More information from Bob Griffiths, G7HNB on
017523 431 277.
Now for the news of special events
Caddington Scout and Cub group is holding a communication week
starting on 14 November at Caddington Scout HQ, Dunstable Road,
Caddington, Bedfordshire using the callsign GB1CSC. Using the 40m,
20, and 2m bands they are hoping for lots of contacts.
Today, Sunday 13 November, GB4WLR will be on the air from the West
Lancs Railway as part of the Children in Need fund raising event.
Paul Godley, 2ZE was sent to Ardrossan in December 1921 by the ARRL
as part of the transatlantic tests. This resulted in the first short
wave transatlantic amateur radio signals being received in Scotland.
The Scots, Crocodile Rock Amateur Group will put GB2PG on the air to
commemorate the 90th anniversary from 18 November until 15 December.
More details at www.gb2pg.blogspot.com.
And now the HF DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
DK9PY will be in Guadeloupe until 25 November using the callsign
FG/DK9PY. He plans to be active on CW on all bands from 10 to 80m.
Ascension Island will see activity by K7ZZ as ZD8ZZ and W6HGF using
ZD8F. They will be there until 22 November using CW, RTTY and some
SSB. Logs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World.
T2T will be on the air from the Pacific Island of Tuvalu until 8
December. They will be active on all bands from 6 to 160m and will
try to have three stations on the air as often as possible. The QSL
manager is VK4FW.
Karel, ON5TN will be staying at the Belgian Antarctic base Princess
Elisabeth between 16 November and late February 2012. He plans to
operate again as OR4TN in his spare time. Updates will be posted on
qrz.com under OR4TN. QSL via ON5TN.
Now the contest news
The RTTY leg of the WAE DX Contest finishes at midnight tonight, 13
November. Everybody works everybody, although single operator
stations are limited to 36 hours out of 48. The exchange is signal
report and serial number.
Tuesday 15 November sees the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest take place
from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the band, the exchange is
signal report, serial number and locator.
Next weekend, 19 and 20 November, the 2nd 1.8MHz Contest will take
place from 2100 to 0100UTC, this is one of the HF Championship
events. Using CW, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
District code.
Thursday 22 November sees both the 50MHz UK Activity Contest and the
SHF Activity Contest take place, both between 2000 and 2230UTC. On
50MHz, it's all modes with the exchange of signal report, serial
number and locator. For SHF it's the 2.3 to 10GHz amateur bands using
all modes and the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
And now the solar factual data for the period from the 31st of
October to the 6th of November, compiled by Neil Clarke, G0CAS on the
7th of November
On the 1st, a large sunspot group rotated over the north-east limb
into view. Even before this, the STEREO Behind spacecraft saw this
region producing solar flares. Once in view this continued, a total
of 9 M class solar flares took place. On the 3rd this group produced
an X class flare, which was the fourth largest flare so far this
sunspot cycle. Numerous C class flares also took place, including
some from other regions. No coronal mass ejections took place that
were directed towards Earth. Solar flux levels increased from 138
units on the 31st to 177 by the 6th. The average was 158. The 90 day
solar flux average on the 6th was 128, that's four units up on last
week. X-ray flux levels varied little day to day and averaged B9
units. Geomagnetic activity was initially quiet on the 31st but
during the 1st a coronal mass ejection arrived and lasted into the
next day. The Ap index was 21 units on the 1st. Quiet conditions
returned on the 3rd and lasted to the end of the period. The average
was Ap 8 units. Solar wind data from the ACE spacecraft saw solar
wind speeds decline from 460 kilometres per second on the 1st to a
slow 260 by the 5th. Particle densities were low every day. Bz
fluctuated between minus 13 and plus 10 nanoTeslas during the CME
disturbance and between minus and plus 2 nanoTeslas when the field
was quiet.
And finally the solar forecast. The recent increase in solar activity
is expected to continue this week. Solar activity is expected to be
low but could increase on almost any day. Solar flux levels will be
determined in part by the size of the visible sunspot groups but
should be around the 150's. Geomagnetic activity is expected to be
quiet every day with no coronal hole disturbances expected, but
beware, with the present level of solar activity a coronal mass
ejection could head our way and increase activity substantially. MUFs
during daylight hours at equal latitudes should be around 35MHz.
Darkness hour lows should be about 11MHz. Paths this week to Japan
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 19MHz. The best time to try this path
will be between 0800 and 1000 hours UTC.
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 gb2rs<at>rsgb.org.uk to arrive by
10:00 on the Tuesday before transmission.
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