GB2RS NEWS

Sunday 5th May 2019

 

The news headlines:

New RSGB talks online

ARDF Champs in Thames Valley

NRC visitor figures rise

After the formal proceedings and the trophy presentations at the recent RSGB AGM, attendees were treated to an introductory talk on Qatar Oscar 100, the new geostationary satellite. Noel Matthews, G8GTZ, Dave Crump, G8GKQ and Phil Crump, M0DMY gave an introduction to the QO-100 amateur transponders on the Es’hail-2 commercial satellite, which was launched in February. It has already seen many stations making contacts across a third of the globe on the narrow band voice/data and wide band DATV transponders. The presentation included a brief history of how the project came about, an overview of equipment required to operate QO-100 and a demonstration of the webSDR and spectrum monitor. You can listen to the talk and view the presentation slides at tinyurl.com/GB2RS-0505A.

This Bank Holiday weekend sees the annual three day RSGB ARDF Championships taking place in the Thames Valley. The areas chosen are Christmas Common near Wendover, Whiteleaf near Princes Risborough and Hodgmoor Woods near Amersham. The competitions will comprise ‘classic’ ARDF events on 144MHz and 3.5MHz on two of the days, with the final day devoted to the two ‘short format’ variants. More information is available on the ARDF pages of the RSGB website.

9,092 visitors went to the RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park in April, bringing the total in the first four months to 27,077. That’s nearly three times more than the 9,355 in the same period last year. The radio room in the NRC will have reduced access on the morning of Tuesday the 7th of May. The NRC will remain open to visitors but access to the radio room will be restricted as filming will be taking place. We apologise for any inconvenience but this means that any visiting radio amateurs won’t be able to operate the station GB3RS until after midday.

RSGB Club Insurance and Beacon and Repeater Insurance has now been renewed for the year to April 2020. Club Insurance Certificates can be downloaded from the RSGB website; please use your Membership Services login to obtain a copy of your Certificate. To ensure that your beacon and repeater is covered under the RSGB Insurance a £10 admin fee is required and you may renew this via the RSGB shop. Please allow a couple of days after renewal for your certificate to be dispatched.

At the IARU Region 1 Interim meeting last week, a special Sunday morning session that focussed on enhanced VHF/Microwave activities was kicked off by John Regnault, G4SWX, the RSGB VHF Manager. Joining the meeting by Skype, John explained how the UK had gained access to the experimental 71 and 146MHz bands for digital innovation. Amongst other things this had fostered ground-breaking developments in reduced bandwidth digital ATV by BATC, which has transformed activity on VHF/UHF. More recently this innovative work has supported the IARU WRC-19 case for 50MHz; and has also proved to be a popular mode on the new QO-100 geostationary satellite. Details are at tinyurl.com/GB2RS-0505B.

SOS Radio Week has started and will continue until the end of May. This annual event raises awareness of the amazing work that the brave volunteers of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution perform and to honour the volunteer watchkeepers of the National Coastwatch Institution, who provide eyes around the coast of the UK to observe and report potential disasters unfolding that technology cannot detect. For further information, visit www.sosradioweek.org.uk.

The UK DX Foundation will be holding its convention, dinner and 2019 AGM at the Link Hotel, Loughborough, on Saturday the 11th of May. The programme includes the AGM in the morning, afternoon DX and technical talks, and an evening dinner – with plenty of time for socialising in between. Members, XYLs and non members are welcome. Booking details can be found on the CDXC website www.cdxc.org.uk.

New videos have been added to both the RSGB Members section of the website and the RSGB YouTube channel for anyone to view. Members can view Troposcatter on the VHF Bands by Palle Hansen, OZ1RH; and Cezar Trifu, VE3LYC talking about the IOTA DXpedition to H44R & H40D. Available on the RSGB YouTube channel is why the digital mode PI4 is a success for beacons by Bo Hansen, OZ2M; and Ian White, GM3SEK’s talk on VHF baluns – fact and fancy. Go to www.rsgb.org/videos to find these and many more interesting talks.

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

Today, the 6th of May, sees the 35th Dartmoor Radio Club Rally at The Butchers Hall, Pannier Market, Tavistock. Entrance to the rally will be from the square and doors open at 10am. Admission is £2. There will be traders, a Bring & Buy and an RSGB bookstall. Refreshments will be available. Contact Roger, 2E0RPH on 07854 088 882, or email [email protected]

There are no rallies in the diary for next weekend, the 11th and 12th of May.

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

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

Brian, GW4DVB will be operating a small holiday DXpedition from the 6th to the 15th of May to Palm Island, also know as Prune Island, IOTA reference NA-025, in St Vincent and the Grenadines. He will use the callsign J88PI from the locator FK92HO. QSL, direct only, to PO Box 20:20, Llanharan, Pontyclun, Wales CF72 9ZA.

Andrey, R9YU will be active as JT9/R9YU from Mongolia until the 12th of May. He will operate SSB on the 40, 20 and 15m bands. QSL direct to his home call; note he does not use Logbook of The World or Club Log.

Mike, AC0PR will be on the air as OA3/AC0PR from Peru between the 5th and 11th of May. Activity will be limited to his spare time, most likely in one-hour sessions on the 40 to 10m bands using QRP CW. QSL via home call, and Logbook of The World.

Bernd, DL9LBR will be active as OZ/DL9LBR from Fano Island, EU-125, until the 11th of May. All QSOs will be confirmed automatically via the bureau.

Roland, DL1EAL will be active as PA/DL1EAL from Texel Island, EU-038, until the 9th of May. He prefers CW and all digital modes, and will be operating holiday style on the 40, 20, 15 and 10m bands. QSL via his home call either direct or via the bureau, eQSL and Logbook of The World.

Now the special event news

From the 4th to the 31st of May, GB9SOS will be operating as part of SOS Radio Week. The station will be operating on as many different HF and VHF bands as possible during the 28 days the station will be active. The station will be operating from 1900 to 2100UTC on weekdays and 0900 to 1600UTC at weekends. Further details can be found at www.docsvruk.com/g8xqb

Pubs and Clubs on the Air is taking place between the 10th and the 12th of May. More details can be found at www.g6tw.org.uk.

Cwmbran ARC will be operating from Llanyravon Mill, Llanyravon Way, Cwmbran on the 11th and 12th of May for Mills on the Air. Visitors are welcome.

Windmill Amateur Radio DX Group will take part in Mills on the Air on the 11th and 12th of May from Wilton Windmill, Wilton near Marlborough Wiltshire, using the callsign GB1WW.

Many other club stations will be taking part in Mills on the Air; the details we’ve been given are in the relevant parts of Local News.

Please send special event details to [email protected], as early as possible, for free publicity on GB2RS, in RadCom and online. Remember that stations using UK 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 Six Metre Group Summer Marathon runs until the 4th of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is just your four-character locator.

The 432MHz to 248GHz Trophy contest ends its 24 hour run at 1400UTC today, the 5th. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.

The ARI International DX contest ends its 24 hour run today, the 5th, at 1200UTC. Using CW, phone and RTTY on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number with Italian stations also sending the Province code.

Today, the 5th of May, sees the UK Microwave Groups contest runs from 0800 to 1400UTC. Using all modes on the 1.3 to 3.4GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.

Also on today, the 5th of May, the IRTS 40m Counties contest runs from 1200 to 1400UTC. Using SSB and CW the exchange is signal report and serial number. Irish stations also send their County.

On Tuesday the 144MHz Machine Generated Modes Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC with the exchange of signal report, serial number and four-character locator. It takes place at the same time as the 144MHz FM Activity Contest. Both are immediately followed by the all-mode 144MHz UK Activity Contest, running from 1900 to 2130UTC. The exchange for the FMAC and UKAC is signal report, serial number and locator.

On Thursday the 50MHz Machine Generated Mode Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and four-character locator. It is immediately followed by the all-mode 50MHz UK Activity Contest, running from 1900 to 2130UTC. The exchange for this contest is signal report, serial number and locator.

On Sunday the 12th of May, the 70MHz CW Contest runs from 0900 to 1200UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and postcode.

Also on Sunday the 12th, the Worked All Britain 40m phone contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB area.

Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 3rd of May.

Well, it is now May and that means the Sporadic-E season has started. There have already been some Sporadic-E openings on 10m, but the best is yet to come. Meanwhile, a lack of sunspots and continuing coronal hole activity means F2-layer DX is a little harder to come by.

Last week’s International Marconi Day saw some reports of poor conditions, but with a few propagation nuggets to keep the spirits up. GB0CMS at Caister Lifeboat in Norfolk worked 36 countries, including eight US States and a contact with Indonesia on 20m, so there is propagation about if you look for it.

NOAA predicts the solar flux index will remain around 68-72 next week and we can expect unsettled geomagnetic conditions this weekend with a maximum K index of four. Once that has passed, the rest of the week should be more settled. This is due to a large elongated coronal hole on the solar surface, the same one that was responsible for poor geomagnetic conditions on Thursday the 2nd of May. By next weekend we may see the return of sunspot groups 2738 and 2739 as they rotate into view again. The STEREO Ahead spacecraft shows they have been active, emitting solar flares and coronal mass ejections, so we might be in for a bumpy ride.

Otherwise, the HF bands are starting to stay open longer in the evening as we move towards summer, but a change in the ionospheric chemistry may mean we may have to wait until the autumn to see the return of optimum DX conditions.

And now the VHF and up propagation news.

The weather charts for next week appear to be fully tilted towards the unsettled side, with low pressure either over the country, or close-by. At first this weekend there is a weak ridge of high pressure near western parts of Britain, but it will soon decline and does not look good for Tropo.

The Sporadic-E season has started for traditional modes now with paths opening into Spain on 24th and Eastern Europe on the 26th on CW and SSB.

To keep up to date, use www.propquest.co.uk to see the daily weather jet stream charts with a Sporadic-E blog detailing possible areas of interest. The main advice is to follow the jet streams and check the clusters. There is a reasonable link between meteor debris and potential Sporadic-E, so the Eta Aquarids peaking tomorrow should keep the enthusiasm going.

Look out for rain scatter on the GHz bands due to the heavy showers that are likely to be a feature of the coming week. The bigger storms with hail and thunder are the most promising, and you’ll be able to track them down using one of the many online weather displays.

The Moon reaches maximum declination this coming Thursday, and path losses are falling as it moves in to perigee a week on Monday, so it’s a good week for EME.

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