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G4TNU > NEWS 28.12.14 10:06l 224 Lines 10486 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: RSGB Main News - 28 Dec 2014
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GB2RS Main News for Sunday 28th December 2014
The news headlines:
* Last GB2RS of 2014
* Youngsters on the Air news
* Bath's 250 passes and going strong
This is the last GB2RS broadcast of 2014 and the RSGB would like to
wish all newsreaders and listeners a Happy New Year. There will be no
news readings on 4th January. The RSGB HQ will re-open on 5th January
and the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park will re-open on 2nd
January. We would like to thank those volunteers who continue to give
their time to keep the NRC open and on the air.
December Youngsters on the Air month is coming to a close and today,
the 28th, GB14YOTA will be operated by Wolverhampton ARS. If you hear
young people on the air at the station, please take the time to speak
to them.
The Bath Based Advanced Distance Learning classes celebrated their
250th pass after the December exam. In just four years the team have
helped over 265 candidates gain the coveted UK Full licence. The next
course starts on the 25th January, heading for the June exam, and
there is still time to register. There is no charge for the training
but the team take a GBP 30 deposit that is refunded to students who
remain active throughout the course. Any unclaimed deposits are
donated to a radio charity at the end of the course. Anyone
interested in joining the next course should contact Steve Hartley,
G0FUW, via g0fuw<at>tiscail.co.uk before Friday 16th of January, when
enrolment will close.
Following the success of KW Days earlier in the year, it's back
again. The first weekend of January, the 3rd and 4th, marks the
anniversary of Britain's most successful amateur radio manufacturing
company in 1956. Collectors, ex-employees, clubs and friends of KW
will be active on AM on the VMARS channels and SSB throughout the
weekend around 1.977, 3.77, 7.177 and 14.277MHz. More information on
this and all things KW can be found by searching the internet for the
KW Yahoo Group.
World Thinking Day on the Air on 21-22 February encourages Guides to
make friendships with members of other units, using amateur radio as
the means of communication. An increasing number of Guides, Guiders
and Rangers go on to gain amateur radio licenses as a result. If you
are planning to take part please let us know. If you'd like to get
involved and want to find out more, visit the RSGB website or
www.guides-on-the-air.co.uk
Building the International Space Station took over 40 missions
between 1998 and 2011, with one more piece planned for delivery in
2015. Now you can watch the whole thing come together in just a few
minutes thanks to a recently released time lapse video. Go to
tinyurl.com/building-the-iss, turn the music up and enjoy this short
video on how the International Space Station was put together on
orbit through the cooperation of nations worldwide.
And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week
The first rallies of the New Year are on 18th January when the
Hatherleigh Rally will open in Devon at 10am and the Red Rose Winter
Rally will open at 11am in Manchester. More details will be in 2015.
The latest list of forthcoming rallies and events is on the RSGB
website at tinlyurl.com/ukrallies and if your rally isn't there,
please e-mail details to radcom<at>rsgb.org.uk.
Now for the news of special events
The Santa Claus stations, OH9SCL for Santa Claus Land and OF9X for
Old Father Nine Xmas are on the air. Principal radio activity will be
over the weekends after Christmas around 25kHz from the band edges
and the SSB pole position is at 14.225MHz. The My DX Summit website
will feature OH9SCL and OF9X on its Santa menu selection.
Occasionally Santa will be available on video, mostly when on 20m
SSB. Tap the Video and Audio button on the OF9X page and you may not
only see Santa but hear how your own signal sounds in the Land of
Christmas.
WW1USA will be on the air on the 28th December to commemorate the
Christmas Truce of 1914. Details are on QRZ.com.
Bredhurst Receiving and Transmitting Society is running a special
event station, GB8HMC, commemorating 800 years of the Magna Carta
from 1st January to 5th January inclusive. They will be using data
and SSB on 80m through to 10m plus 2m. QSL details are on QRZ.com.
TC5OCK will be on the air between the 1st and 10th of January to
commemorate liberation day of Adana city on 5th January 1922. See
QRZ.com for details.
And now the DX news compiled from 425 DX News and other sources
KK6BT will be activating Raivavae Island, OC-114, in the Austral
Islands group. He plans to be on the air from the 5th to the 11th
January operating exclusively SSB, using the 10 to 40m bands,
including WARC bands.
K4KGG will be active stroke VP9 from Hamilton Parish, Bermuda,
NA-005, between 31st December and 5th January. Operations will be on
the HF bands only. All contacts will be uploaded to Logbook of the
World and ClubLog. QSL via W3HNK, direct or by the Bureau.
Several stations will be on the air from Ogasawara, AS-031 during the
coming weeks. JG7PSJ will be signing JD1BMH until the 10th of
January. He will be on the 10 to 40m bands using CW, SSB and RTTY.
Then until 2nd January JI1LET and JA1UII will operate as JD1BOI and
JD1BON respectively on the 6 to 80m bands CW, SSB and RTTY.
Kei, KG2A will activate V25A from Antigua, NA-100, until 30th
December. QSL via his home call.
Michael, G7VJR, well-known as the creator of ClubLog, will be in
Norfolk Island, OC-005 until 1st January. While there he will sign
VK9N/G7VJR. As usual, his QSLs will be looked after by M0OXO.
Now the contest news
For anyone wanting a good excuse to disappear into the shack, the
Christmas Cumulatives are still taking place for 2 hours a day until
the 29th. 6m, 4m, 2m & 70cm are in use each day, so band hopping is
essential if you want to do well. Operations take place from 1400 to
1600UTC each day and the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.
The IRTS 80m Counties Contest takes place on New Year's Day, 1st
January, from 1400 to 1700UTC. Modes are SSB only or SSB and CW,
there are fixed and portable sections and a section for listeners.
See the website at www.irts.ie/contests for the contest rules, and
note in particular the rule about permitted frequencies for this
contest.
The ARRL RTTY Roundup takes place for the full 48 hours of 3rd and
4th January. The exchange is a signal report and serial number, but
US stations also give their State code and Canadians their Province
code.
Next come the two sessions of the European 160m CW Party. The first
is on the evening of Saturday 3rd between 2000 and 2300UTC and the
second is in the early hours of Sunday 4th between 0400 and 0700UTC.
What you send your QSO partners depends on whether you are a member
of a club that's affiliated to the Association and in the UK that
means FOC, FISTS, G-QRP and the Essex CW Club. If you are, send RST +
name + club + membership number; otherwise send RST + name + ‘NM'
for non member. You can work the same station in each session.
Tuesday 6th January is the 144MHz UK Activity Contest, running
between 2000 and 2230UTC. Using all modes the exchange is signal
report, serial number and locator.
On the 11th, it is the CW AFS contest. This runs from 1400 to 1800UTC
and the exchange is signal report and serial number.
Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA and G4BAO on
Tuesday the 23rd of December.
Due to the festive break this week's HF forecast is being prepared
earlier than normal, which makes it harder to predict solar
conditions. What we can say is that the sun is likely to remain very
active, with a high probability of solar flares and attendant coronal
mass ejections. This week NOAA predicts the solar flux index will
decline, being around 175 at the beginning of the week and tailing
off to 150 by Friday.
Mid winter remains the time when the low bands, 160m, 80m and 40m,
come into their own. While solar maximum is not the best time for low
band propagation there will still be plenty of DX to be worked, with
40m opening up to DX well before sunset, and 80m and 160m providing
choice contacts for night owls.
Daytime should see plenty of DX on 20m and above. If the solar flux
index remains higher than 120 or so as predicted, good DX should be
possible during daylight hours on 10 metres too. A brief spell of
Sporadic-E can sometimes occur in the New Year, resulting in very
strong, but short-lived propagation as well.
Staying with 10m, openings to India and Japan have been observed in
the mornings, with California and other western US states being
workable in the afternoon.
And now the VHF and up propagation news.
Meteorologist, G3YLA tells us that it's not unusual for the evolution
of weather systems to be handled differently by different atmospheric
models. At longer timescales, and this was written six days ago,
these differences can be significant, but it is interesting to see
the alternative outcomes nonetheless.
They predict different beginnings for this week; one model showing a
ridge of high pressure, good for VHF, the other a small low, bad for
VHF. The interest lies in the fact that both models come together and
produce a tendency for ridging, ie high pressure, especially in the
south, as the week progresses. So let's look forward to a Happy New
Year lift!
The sun has been active recently, producing Northern auroras and
there are still plenty of active sunspot regions on the sun's far
side, so we might expect more auroral activity over the next week or
so as they rotate in to view.
The Quadrantids meteor shower starts this week and will peak this
coming Saturday night and Sunday morning the 3rd and 4th of January.
The peak is much shorter than the Geminids and ends abruptly so don't
be late!
And that's all this week from the propagation team and we wish you a
happy new year.
And that's the end of the main news for this week prepared by the
Radio Society of Great Britain.
Please note that there will be no RSGB News next week; the next
scheduled bulletin will be for Sunday 11 January 2014. Items for
inclusion in that bulletin can be emailed to gb2rs<at>rsgb.org.uk
to arrive no later than 10:00 on the Thursday before transmission.
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