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G4TNU > NEWS 08.01.12 14:21l 213 Lines 10696 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 08Jan
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday 8th January 2012
The news headlines:
* Happy New Year
* ARISSat-1 falls to Earth
* Prestigious award for IOTA heads
The news team and all the staff at RSGB HQ would like to wish our
newsreaders, listeners and online readers a very Happy New Year. We
would like to remind listeners that some of the arrangements for
GB2RS have changed. Now that postal copies are no longer being sent,
the deadline has been changed to 10am on Thursday morning. The GB2RS
Script will now be uploaded to the Members Only area of the RSGB
website on Friday afternoons, and placed in the public area on
Mondays. These changes mean that GB2RS will be able to being you much
fresher news than ever before.
According to the AMSAT website, ARISSat-1 stopped transmitting
shortly after 0600UTC on Wednesday 4 January. It is believed that the
satellite re-entered the atmosphere and burned up at around 0700 over
the South Atlantic. Full details are at www.arissat1.org.
Roger Ballister, G3KMA and Martin Atherton, G3ZAY are recipients of
the Yasme Excellence Award for 2011. This award is for their
dedicated work for the Islands on the Air programme. The Yasme
Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation organized to conduct
scientific and educational projects related to amateur radio,
including DXing and the introduction and promotion of amateur radio
in underdeveloped countries. Everyone at the RSGB would like to
congratulate both Roger and Martin on this well deserved award.
Two UK amateurs have reported hearing strong echoes on their 80m CW
signals in the evening last week. Tony, G3ZRJ in Herefordshire and
Andrew, GW3OQK in Swansea were in QSO on 1 January when they could
hear another signal underneath theirs. It turned out to be an echo of
their own signals. Tony said the echoes were initially so strong that
he had trouble monitoring his CW keying. The delay in the echoes was
of the order of 0.25 to 0.5 seconds and the echo strength hit S9.
Tests by Andrew on the evening of 3 January revealed the same
phenomena at around 2100Z, albeit weaker. Steve, G0KYA, chairman of
the RSGB's Propagation Studies Committee, said that these were
unlikely to be round-the-world echoes, but could be due to a form of
magnetospheric ducting where signals follow the earth's magnetic
field lines down to the southern hemisphere before being bounced back
along the same duct. Steve said that this was quite rare and not
really understood. UK amateurs are being urged to look out for any
echoes on their 80m signals and report any findings to
G0KYA<at>QSL.NET.
An agreement has now been reached with ISIS Launch Services BV, who
are based in Delft in the Netherlands, for them to provide a launch
of the FUNcube-1 CubeSat. It is anticipated that FUNcube-1 will be
launched with a number of other spacecraft from a DNEPR rocket,
sometime in the third quarter of 2012. The orbit is still to be
defined precisely but it is expected to be nearly circular and
approximately sun synchronous. The FUNcube-1 spacecraft will transmit
signals that can be easily received directly by schools and colleges
for educational outreach purposes. In addition to providing
educational outreach for schools and colleges around the world, the
spacecraft will also provide a U/V linear transponder for radio
amateurs during local night, at weekends and during holiday periods.
The production and testing of the spacecraft itself has already been
funded via a legacy and other sources. For more information, check
out www.funcube.org.uk.
Dutch amateurs have been granted access to two new bands. They now
have 501kHz to 505kHz on a secondary basis with power and mode
restrictions, plus 70 to 70.5MHz, also on a secondary basis with
power restrictions.
Denmark has the Presidency of European Union from 1 January to 30
June 2012 and the callsign 5P12EU will be activated during this
period. QSL cards will be available and there is an award scheme for
working or hearing this callsign. For all details on QSLing, the
award scheme and logs, check out www.5p12eu.dk.
Using the new OPERA datamode, Gary, G4WGT successfully transmitted a
signal to Joe, VO1NA on 137.5kHz, a distance of 3,500km. Gary
transmitted six full callsigns in a two hour period, which is a big
time saving over modes like QRSS. The OPERA mode was envisaged by
Graham, G0NBD and coded by Jose Ros, EA5HVK, as a way of providing
data operations for stations who only had the CW capability. The most
up to date information on this mode can be found at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/O_P_E_R_A_/.
The Winter edition of the 5MHz Newsletter has just been published and
includes news and features about 5MHz, including a chart of the
current 5MHz allocations worldwide. You can freely access this latest
edition of the 5MHz Newsletter from Google Documents at
http://tinyurl.com/72mozfx. Although originating in the UK, the 5MHz
Newsletter invites worldwide interest, both in readers and
contributors. For those without internet access who want a paper
copy, send a self-addressed envelope big enough to take folded A4
sheets, together with adequate postage, or IRCs in the case of
outside of the UK. Requests should be addressed to the Editor, G4MWO,
who is QTHR in the UK Callbook and on QRZ.com
The International Museums Weekend special event will this year take
place on the double weekends of 16 & 17 and 23 & 24 June. Radio
amateurs are encouraged to participate in this event by setting up
stations in their local museums. Organiser Harry, M1BYT asks that all
those intending to take part in the event should register their
museum via the from on the International Museums Weekend website,
www.ukradioamateur.co.uk/imw. He can be contacted via e-mail to
harry.m1byt<at>tiscali.co.uk, or on 075111 28933.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
The Red Rose Winter Rally will take place on 15 January at George H
Carnall Leisure Centre, Kingsway Park, M41 7FJ. The venue is easily
accessible from Junction 9 of the M60, opposite the Trafford Centre.
Doors open at 11am. There is free car parking, traders, a Bring &
Buy, special interest groups and an RSGB bookstall. Details from
Steve, on 07502 295 141.
Also on 15 January the Dover Amateur Radio Club Rally will take place
at Whitfield Village Hall, Dover CT16 3LY. There will be trade stands
and a Bring & Buy.
Now for the news of special events
Orkney Amateur Radio Club is supporting the SOS fundraising week from
21 to 29 January. There will be a special event station at or near
each of the Islands' three lifeboat stations. GB1OL will be in
Stromness; GB2OL will in Longhope, based at the old lifeboat station;
and GB4OL will be at Kirkwall Bay. QSLs should be sent direct with
the information on the website. http://eu009.webplus.net/gb1ol.html.
The stations will be active on most bands, mainly at the weekends,
and will concentrate on 80, 40 and 20m.
And now the HF DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
PA8A will be active as PJ4B from the island of Bonaire. Listen out
for him between 8 and 22 January. His operation will be holiday style
on the high frequency bands only. QSL direct only via PA8A.
VE2XB will be active as J79XB from Dominica for several weeks. His
operation will be holiday style on all bands from 10 to 160m and
possibly 6 meters if there are openings. QSL via VE2XB as listed on
QRZ.com.
On 12 January the VP6T team will start the journey to French
Polynesia, with the first stop in Tahiti, which is IOTA OC-046, for 3
days. They will then take a small airplane to Mangareva Island,
OC-063. They plan to be active from Tahiti and, if time permits, also
from Mangareva as TX6T. QSL via G3TXF.
Now the contest news
This weekend the ARRL RTTY Roundup will be making the datamode
portions of the HF bands busy. Activity is on all datamodes. Check
out the ARRL website for full rules.
10 January sees the 430MHz UK Activity Contest take place from 2000
to 2230UTC. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial
number and locator.
On Sunday 15th the Super League series continues with 80m CW
Affiliated Societies Contests takes place from 1400 to 1800UTC. Using
CW only the exchange is signal report and serial number.
And now for the solar factual data for the period from Friday 30
December to Thursday 5 January, compiled by Neil Clarke, G0CAS, on
the 6th January.
The solar disc had numerous sunspot groups visible every day. Most
were stable and quiet but a couple of groups produced small C class
solar flares every day except for the two days when none took place.
These flares had very little effect on propagation. Solar flux levels
declined from 141 units on the 30th to 130 by the 1st but then
recovered to 136 by the 4th. The average was 135. The 90 day solar
flux average on the 5th was 144, that's two units down since the last
report. X-ray flux levels declined slightly from B5.6 units on the
30th to B3.9 by the 4th. The average was B4.3 units.
Geomagnetic activity was quiet with the Ap index in single figures
every day. The average was Ap 5 units. Solar wind data from the ACE
spacecraft saw solar wind speeds vary between 310 and 430 kilometres
per second. Particle densities on some days were moderate, with
levels of 20 particles per cubic centimetre on the 30th and 3rd. Bz
varied between minus and plus 9 nanoTeslas on the 30th and the 2nd
and less than that on the quieter days.
And finally, the solar forecast. This week the quiet side of the sun
is expected to be looking our way. Solar activity should be mostly at
low levels, with C class solar flares taking place on most days.
Solar flux levels should be around the 120s every day. Geomagnetic
activity is expected to be at quiet levels every day. MUFs during
daylight hours at equal latitudes are expected to be around 27MHz.
Darkness hour lows should be around 8MHz. Paths this week to India
should have a maximum useable frequency with a 50 percent success
rate of around 29MHz. The optimum working frequency with a 90 percent
success rate will be about 23MHz. The best time to try this path will
be between 0900 and 1200 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 gb2rs<at>rsgb.org.uk to arrive by
10:00 on the Thursday before transmission.
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