GB2RS NEWS

Sunday 24th March 2019

 

The news headlines:

Australians set new microwave records

Bouvet Island DXpedition now en route

Smithsonian Institution callsign revived

 

The Wireless Institute of Australia, WIA, reports that new records have been set on the 47GHz and 122GHz bands. Operating 47GHz mobile, David, VK5KK and Wayne, VK5APN set a new record of 20.8km on the 11th of March 2019. At 122GHz, Matt, VK2DAG and David, VK2JDS set a new VK2 state record of 100m. Although this is some way short of the world record, the 122GHz band is fiendishly difficult and has serious attenuation challenges due to an atmospheric oxygen resonance.

The much-anticipated 3Y0I Bouvet Island DXpedition is presently at sea en route to its destination. They set sail from Cape Town on the 19th on board the MV Atlantic Tuna. All being well the team expects to land at the remote Antarctic island around Tuesday 26 March and hopes to be on the air before the end of the month. Whilst en route they plan to operate as E51DOM/mm.

Historic American callsign NN3SI is being reactivated under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institution Amateur Radio Group. Although presently lacking a permanent station location and unable yet to support guest operation, the group’s president, John Weise, N4NPG, told ARRL “This this is the start to Amateur Radio slowly coming back at the Smithsonian. We expect to begin operating holiday-style starting in April.”

The deadline for applications to become a team member or the team leader for YOTA Bulgaria 2019 has been extended until Sunday the 14th of April. Full details are at tinyurl.com/GB2RS-2403A

News now of new videos from the RSGB. Two new videos from the 2018 RSGB Convention are now available to Members on the RSGB website. These are the LF Forum run by Dave Pick, G3YXM and David Bowman, G0MRF, and the Dwingeloo story by Dick Harms, PA2DW. RSGB Members can find these new releases and many other recordings via www.rsgb.org/videos. As part of the same move, two more videos from the 2018 RSGB Convention are available on the RSGB’s YouTube channel. First, Jim Bacon, G3YLA revisits his specialist subject, Sporadic-E. Second is the untold IOTA story and announcement of the new IOTA groups by Roger Balister, G3KMA. These and many more can be found via tinyurl.com/GB2RS-2403B

RSGB Members are reminded that every vote counts in the online polls ahead of the 2019 AGM. Members will find the Resolutions and other details in the April issue of RadCom and on the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org/agm2019 The AGM takes place on the 27th of April in Birmingham.

Regrettably, the Train the Trainers course planned for the 30th March in Cambridgeshire has had to be cancelled. The organisers apologise for any inconvenience.

Finally, a reminder of the start of British Summertime next weekend. The clocks go forward one hour at 1am on Sunday the 31st, jumping to 2am. Consequently, clocks set to BST will read one hour ahead of UTC times.

And now for the details of rallies and events for the coming week

Today, the 24th, the Hamzilla Radio Fest and Electronics Fair, hosted by Dover Amateur Radio Club, takes place. Located at the Discovery Science Park, Gateway House, Ramsgate Road, Sandwich, Kent CT13 9FF, doors are open from 10am to 4pm. There will be a bring & buy, lectures, an RSGB Bookstall, special interest groups and trade stands. Catering is available on site. Contact Aaron, M0IER on 0771 465 4267.

The Callington Radio Rally also takes place today at Callington Town Hall, Callington, Cornwall PL17 7BD. Doors open 10am to 1pm and admittance is £2. There will be a bring & buy and trade stands. Catering is available on site. There is ample free parking in the adjacent car park. The rally is organised jointly by the Devon & Cornwall Repeater Group and Callington ARS. More information Roger, 2E0RPH on 0785 408 8882.

Finally for today, the 24th, Causeway Coast Glens ARC Radio Rally takes place at Bushmills Community Centre, 14 Dunluce Road, Bushmills, Co. Antrim BT57 8QG. Doors open from 11am and admittance is £3. More details by email from [email protected]

Next Sunday, the 31st, the first British Amateur Television Club Regional Convention takes place in Bristol. It will be hosted by North Bristol ARC at SHE7 building, Braemar Crescent, Filton, Bristol BS7 0TD. Doors open from 10am to 4pm. There will be a full day of talks & demonstrations, with a test bench available for visitors’ projects. Further information is at https://forum.batc.org.uk or from Shaun, G8VPG, on 01225 873 098 

Also next Sunday, the Pencoed Radio Club Table Top Sale takes place from 9.30am at Pencoed Rugby Club, The Verlands, Felindre Road, Pencoed CF35 5PB. Refreshments are available on site. Details from Madeline Roberts on 0773 837 5775.

To get your event into RadCom, onto GB2RS and on the RSGB website, please send details as early as possible to [email protected] – we need to know about four months in advance for RadCom.

And now the DX news from 425 DX News and other sources

The Robinson Crusoe Island DXpedition, XR0ZRC, on the Juan Fernandez Islands, IOTA reference SA-005, reports that their log uploads are being hampered by a very poor internet connection. The Russian Robinson Club also says they are suffering with S9 noise on the lower frequencies and may have to relocate the entire low bands operation.

Kasimir, DL2SBY will be active as 6Y5KB from Jamaica, IOTA reference NA-097, from 28 March to 10 April. He plans to operate CW, SSB, FT8 and possibly RTTY on 80-6 metres. QSL via LoTW, or direct only to home call. He no longer uses the bureau.

A team from ARI Modena will be active as IG9MO from Lampedusa Island, AF-019, from 28 March to 2 April. They will operate on SSB, CW and digital modes on the HF bands, and will participate in the CQ WW WPX SSB Contest. QSL via IK4ALM.

Jacek, SP5APW will be active as XV9JK from Thu Island, AS-157, Vietnam from 10-16 March. He will operate SSB mainly on 17 and 20 metres; in case of bad propagation, he will operate FT8 on 40 and 30 metres. He might be QRV as XV9JK/p from mainland Vietnam on 6-8 March. QSL via Club Log’s OQRS, or via home call.

Dagmar, DM7PQ / E51NPQ and Rainer, DL1AUZ / E51AUZ will be active from Rarotonga, OC-013, in the South Cooks. The will work holiday style from 9-11 March and again on 2-11 April. They will be on the air from Manihiki, OC-014, from 13-25 March, and from Aitutaki, OC-083, on 27-31 March. They will operate CW only.

Now the special event news

From the 25th March to the 1st of April David, G4YVM will be running GB5EEE, Europe Europe Europe. Operating from Salisbury, he will be mostly CW. This is one of several special event stations planned to be on the air around the 29th of March to mark the intended date of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, from an historical rather than political viewpoint. Other callsigns planned include GB3XEU on 6m and 4m SSB and JT data, GB4QEU on HF SSB, GB2BRX on HF, and GB1UK on VHF FM and SSB.

Please send special event details to [email protected], as early as possible, for free publicity on GB2RS, in RadCom and online. Remember that UK stations with special event callsigns must be open to the public, so our free publicity can help make your efforts more widely known.

Now the contest news

The UK EI Contest Club DX CW contest ends its 24-hour run at 1200UTC today, the 24th. Using CW only on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and District code.

On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2000UTC, using FM only. It is immediately followed by the all-mode 432MHz UK Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for both contests is signal report, serial number and locator.

Tuesday also sees the SHF UKAC. Running from 1930 to 2330UTC and using all modes on the 2.3 to 10GHz bands, the report is signal report, serial number and locator.

On Wed it’s the UKEICC 80m contest from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using CW only on the 3.5MHz, the exchange is your 4-character locator.

The 80m Club Championships take place on Thursday. Running from 2000 to 2130UTC, it’s SSB-only on the 3.5MHz band. Signal report and serial number form the exchange.

Next weekend sees the CQWW WPX SSB contest. Starting at 0000UTC on Saturday and ending at 2359UTC on Sunday, this SSB-only event uses all the contest bands from 1.8 to 28MHz. The exchange is signal report and serial number.

Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday 22nd March.

The Sun burst into life this week, with two new sunspots and solar flares aplenty. But before you get too excited the spots are from the outgoing solar cycle 24.

Sunspot 2736 erupted on Wednesday with a C4-class solar flare. The Earth-directed explosion sent ionisation rippling through Earth’s upper atmosphere and caused a Dellinger fade-out over parts of Europe and Africa.

A Dellinger fade-out or sudden ionospheric disturbance, SID, is an abnormally high ionisation or plasma density in the D region of the ionosphere. The SID results in a sudden increase in radio-wave absorption that is most severe in the upper medium frequency and lower high frequency ranges.

The explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection, CME, into space, which might deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field. Although the bulk of the CME was not Earth-bound, be prepared for increased Kp indices and/or aurora on or around Saturday 23rd. Meanwhile tiny sunspot 2735 also appeared, helping to push the solar flux index to 77. Conditions were mixed this week, with Tuesday being lousy and Wednesday being fair.

Dean Pesnell, Project Scientist of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, said this week that solar minimum is now likely to be some time in 2020 – he didn’t want to be drawn on exactly when. He added that the indications are that Solar Cycle 25 will be similar to 24, so we are not heading for a Maunder Minimum.

Next week NOAA has the solar flux index at 69, but the K index is predicted to hit five between March 26 and 29. Conditions should then be more settled for the weekend.

And now the VHF and up propagation news.

It’s a good Tropo theme again, with at least one model keeping the large area of high pressure over the country for most of the coming week. However, being centred over the country, the inversion will probably be at a low height, say around 1km or less, and there will be drier air near the surface, so look for overnight lifts, especially if there is any fog.

Another model is less enthusiastic at the end of next week, allowing low pressure to the north of Britain to bring a cold front south. This would produce rather windy weather and bring Tropo to an end. This cold front could be quite active with heavy rain along it, so perhaps an opportunity for some microwave rain scatter.

The Moon is heading for apogee a week today, and its declination is negative and falling all week. The coming week will therefore see shortening Moon windows, low moon elevations and increasing losses for EMEers. The Moon up is in the early hours in Europe.

With still a month to go until the Lyrids meteor shower we’ll have to rely on random meteors around dawn for the best chance of meteor scatter DX.

Remember that if the weather fails to produce propagation there’s always aircraft reflection to fall back on for VHF DX, especially on the lower GHz bands. Just Google aircraft scatter to learn about this fascinating mode.

And that’s all from the propagation team this week.