Podcasts about dxing

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #HamradioWelcome to episode 68 of The DX Mentor –All About DX. Thank you for joining us..I'm Bill, AJ8B.If this is the first time you are joining us, Welcome! We have a back catalog covering many aspects of DX in both podcast and YouTube format. Please check us out. If you like what you find, please subscribe, like, and share to always be notified about upcoming events!    Another way to keep in touch and to see what we are up to is via the DX Mentor Facebook page. I will be posting aboutupcoming podcasts as well as other DX events so please follow us.   Our guests today are Sarath, VU2RS, and Joe, W8GEX. Sarath & Joe are experienced, passionate DXers and the conversation should be lively and informative.  This text is what grabbed my attention and made me realize that VU2RS would be a great guest. “In celebration of World DX Day, DX India Foundation is proud to announce its commitment to promoting DXing activities from India. Following the resounding success of previous IOTA activations, such as Sacrifice Rock, Kanika Island, Sagar Island, and Nachugunta IOTA, the foundation is gearing up for more exciting adventures. DX India Foundation's primary objective is to activate rare IOTAs, organize DXpeditions, and foster a vibrant DXing culture in the region. To achieve this goal, thefoundation is seeking support from manufacturers, individuals, and organizations to acquire essential equipment, including: – HF radios and amplifiers. – Band-pass filters and power supplies. – Tents and generators. – Coax cables and all necessary accessories. The foundation plans to establish a self-sufficient setup, comprising three stations, which can be easily transported in a container to various locations. This will enable DX India Foundation to activate rare IOTAs and provide DXers and IOTA chasers with exciting opportunities to log new entities. By promoting DXing activities and providing support to IOTA enthusiasts, DX India Foundation hopes to elevate the region's profile in the global amateur radio community. Join us in celebrating World DX Day and stay tuned for updates on DX India Foundation's initiatives and activities! for more details: sara@vu2rs.com 73, Sarath,VU2RS - DX India Foundation” Here is some information about our guest:Sarath was born and raised in Hyderabad, India. He developed an interest in amateur radio at the age of 15, inspired by Bharathi, VU2RBI, and his family of hams. This early exposure sparked a lifelong passion for amateur radio. In recognition of his family's remarkable achievement, they were featured in the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest number of amateur radio operators in a single family - an impressive 60 hams!  Sarath has received several awards and recognition for his contributions to amateur radio and public service, including:  - Rajiv Gandhi Award for Amateur Radio(1996-97 and 1997-98) - International Humanitarian Award - Honorary citizenship of Florida State, USA  All of this and contest work, DXpeditions, Fox Hunting and EMCOMM will be discussed. Let's get started!Resources mentioned include:VU2RS https://vu2rs.com/Amateur Radio Society of Indiahttps://arsi.info/Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.orgDaily DX https://www.dailydx.com/DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/ IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/ IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/ IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/ IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/      

Experience the groundbreaking FlexRadio Aurora Series in this YouTube video from Dayton Hamvention 2025! Unveiling the world's first fully integrated 500W HF/6m SDR transceiver, the Aurora delivers 500W on HF and 200W on 6m with up to 90% efficiency using Polar Modulation. Discover its compact 18-pound design, built-in tuner, and SmartSDR integration for seamless DXing, contesting, and portable operations. Perfect for ham radio enthusiasts seeking power and simplicity! #FlexRadio #Aurora #HamRadio #DaytonHamvention2025Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.

In this episode of The Ham Radio Guy, Marvin sits down with Steve Berry, N1EZ—the creator and founder of the DX QSO Cloud Logbook. Steve shares the inspiration behind developing this innovative cloud-based logging solution and walks us through how it works, what sets it apart from traditional logbooks, and how it's helping amateur radio operators streamline their DXing and QSO tracking. Whether you're a seasoned contester or a casual operator, this conversation is packed with insights on modernizing your ham radio workflow. Tune in to hear the story behind the logbook, learn about its key features, and find out how you can integrate it into your own shack!   Here is the link to the Video Version with Demo.  https://youtu.be/kry0q7PSie8

GB2RS News Sunday, the 8th of June 2025   The news headlines: The RSGB releases a video to celebrate Volunteers' Week Get involved with the GR2HQ contest challenge Join the RSGB Regional Team   As Volunteers' Week comes to a close, the RSGB would like to thank its volunteers once again for all they do. As part of the week-long event, the Society released a video about the volunteer team at the RSGB National Radio Centre. These volunteers welcome over 80,000 visitors to the Centre every year and share amateur radio with them. Watch the video to discover the variety of things that they do as well as what they enjoy most about their role. You'll find the video at rsgb.org/volunteers-week, and on that web page, you'll also be able to read about several volunteers in other RSGB roles. If their stories have inspired you and you would like to give some time to support the RSGB and amateur radio, look at the vacancies on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/volunteers The RSGB Contest Committee is looking forward to the IARU HF Championship contest on the 12th and 13th of July. This is a great opportunity for both individuals and clubs to get involved. During the contest, Headquarters Stations represent their countries, and the RSGB's station GR2HQ will be run by a network of about a dozen stations around the UK and its islands. Building on the success of last year's GR2HQ Challenge, the RSGB Contest Committee has made some changes to encourage individual stations to work the GR2HQ station on each band-mode slot. Sharing your QSOs for scoring has also been made easier. The contest is open to both individuals and clubs, so why not encourage your club members to take part, whether they are regular contesters or not? Last year, thanks in part to those entering the GR2HQ Challenge, the RSGB Contest Committee improved its position from third to second and would like to improve that result even further. Could you take part and make a difference? For the full rules, go to the GR2HQ Challenge page on the Contest Committee website via rsgbcc.org The RSGB has several volunteer vacancies within the Regional Team. If you are passionate about the future of amateur radio and support the work of the Society, then apply now. These rewarding roles are an opportunity to support fellow radio amateurs in your area. Vacancies include District Representative positions in Staffordshire, Oxfordshire and Dorset. To view the full list of regional team volunteering vacancies, go to rsgb.org/volunteers. If you have questions about the District Representative roles, contact the Regional Representative in that region, or you can contact Board Liaison Nathan Nuttall, 2M0OCC, for a chat via 2m0occ@rsgb.org.uk A special interactive spy event is taking place on Father's Day, Sunday the 15th of June, at the RSGB National Radio Centre. You'll have the opportunity to become a spy hunter and, using your special gadget, will be tasked with finding hidden transmitters located around Bletchley Park. You'll need to decode Morse signals and uncover the location of the secret spy base. Two time slots are available, however, spaces are limited to 12 groups for each. Secure your place and treat your Dad, Grandad, or a father figure to a fascinating day out by going to bletchleypark.org.uk  and selecting the ‘What's on' option in the main menu. The activity is free to take part in, however, entry to Bletchley Park is required. Don't forget that RSGB members get free access to the historic site as a membership benefit. Download your voucher via rsgb.org/bpvoucher  BunkerFest 2025 is taking place on the 14th and 15th of June. This exciting international festival will bring together amateur radio operators from over 13 national Bunkers on the Air schemes. For rules and activation details, visit wwbota.org/bunkerfest25 The British Inland Waterways on the Air event will take place between Saturday, the 23rd and Monday, the 25th of August. The event is open to amateurs who use canals, towpaths, rivers, lakes or reservoirs for work or recreation. Registration for the event is now open. To sign up, visit Nunsfield House Amateur Radio Group's website at nharg.org.uk  and follow the ‘BIWOTA 2025' link. Are you called Nigel? If so, you can join other amateur Nigels who are making plans to operate a special event station at what is hoped to be the largest ever gathering of Nigels in the world. The event will run from the 20th to the 21st of September in Worcestershire. Details on how to get involved are on the GB1NN page at QRZ.com And now for details of rallies and events Mendips Radio Rally is taking place today, the 8th of June, at Farrington Gurney Memorial Hall, Church Lane, Farrington Gurney, BS39 6UA. The doors open at 9.30 am and refreshments and free parking are available on site. For more details, contact Luke on 07870 168 197 or email luke@mymixradio.co.uk On Saturday, the 14th of June, Rochdale and District Amateur Radio Summer Rally will take place at St. Vincent de Paul's Hall, Norden, Rochdale, OL12 7QR. The doors open at 10 am and entry costs £3. The usual traders and caterers will be on site, and plenty of free parking will be available. For more information, contact Martin Shore on 07587 709 006 or email rally.radars@hotmail.com The East Suffolk Wireless Revival, also known as ‘The Ipswich Radio Rally', is due to take place on Sunday, the 15th of June at Kirton Recreation Ground, Back Road, Kirton, IP10 0PW. The doors open at 9.30 am and the entry fee for visitors is £3. The venue has free car parking. Visitors will be able to enjoy trade stands, a car-boot sale, a bring-and-buy area and special interest groups. An HF station will be operating with the callsign GB4SWR. Catering and an RSGB bookstall will be available on site. For more details, contact Kevin, G8MXV, on 07710 046 846 and visit eswr.org.uk Now the Special Event news The A.R.I. Fidenza Radio Club is operating today, the 8th, as IY4RXO. The station is active to raise awareness of the historical value of Guglielmo Marconi's steam yacht ‘Elettra'. A number of important radio communication experiments were conducted on board the vessel. For more information, visit IY4RXO at QRZ.com Members of The James Clerk Maxwell Radio Society will be active with special callsign GB2JCM, from Parton Kirk near Castle Douglas in Dumfriesshire, on the 14th and 15th of June. The station will be active to commemorate the birth of the Society's namesake. Operators will be waiting for your call on the 40 and 20m bands. For more information, visit the GB2JCM page at QRZ.com Now the DX news Martin, MW0BRO, is active again as ZC4GW from Dhekelia on Cyprus until tomorrow, the 9th.  He is operating using CW and some SSB on the 40 to 6m bands. QSL via M0URX's OQRS. Remo, HB9SHD is active as V51/HB9SHD while touring Namibia until the 15th of June. He is using SSB and digital modes on the 40 to 6m bands. QSL via Logbook of the World. Now the contest news RSGB National Field Day started at 1500 UTC on Saturday, the 7th and ends at 1500 UTC today, Sunday, the 8th of June. Using CW on the 160 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Today, the 8th, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 0900 to 1500 UTC. Using all modes on the 23, 13 and 9cm bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.  On Tuesday the 10th, the RSGB 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855 UTC. Using FM on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also, on Tuesday the 10th, the RSGB 432MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130 UTC. Using all modes on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 11th, the RSGB 432MHz FT8 Activity four-hour Contest runs from 1700 to 2100 UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also, on Wednesday the 11th, the RSGB 432MHz FT8 Activity two-hour Contest runs from 1900 to 2100 UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. On Wednesday the 11th, the RSGB 80m CW Club Championship runs from 1900 to 2030 UTC. Using CW on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Thursday the 12th, the RSGB 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130 UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The IARU ATV Contest starts at 1200 UTC on Saturday, the 14th and ends at 1800 UTC on Sunday, the 15th of June. Using TV on the 70cm band and up, the exchange is picture quality, serial number, four-digit code and locator. On Sunday the 15th, the 2nd 144MHz Backpackers Contest runs from 0900 to 1300 UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also, on Sunday the 15th, the Practical Wireless 2m QRP Contest runs from 0900 to 1600 UTC. Using AM, FM, SSB and CW on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Note that 5W is the maximum power allowed in this contest. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Thursday the 5th of June Last week's HF propagation was heavily influenced by unsettled geomagnetic conditions. This was caused by a combination of coronal mass ejections and a strong solar wind from a coronal hole. The coronal mass ejection, or CME for short, followed a solar flare from sunspot 4100 on the 31st of May at 0005 UTC. The explosion lasted more than three hours. Type 2 radio emissions from shock waves within the CME cloud suggested it was travelling at 1,938 kilometres per second, or 4.3 million miles per hour! Eventually, the Bz swung south. This meant that the interplanetary magnetic field more easily coupled with the Earth's magnetic field. The result was that the Kp index got up to 7.67 on the 1st of June. The auroral effects were reported as being due to a co-rotating interaction region, or CIR – a region in space where fast and slow solar wind streams collide, creating a compressed area with enhanced plasma and magnetic fields. The Kp index was 7 or more for four three-hour periods. This pushed the maximum usable frequency over a 3,000km path below 14 MHz at times, which wasn't conducive to good DXing. On Thursday, the 5th of June, it looked like we were past the worst, and the Kp index was back to a more reasonable 2.33. Meanwhile, the solar flux index declined from a recent high of 164 on the 31st of May to a low of 134 on the 5th of June. HF propagation was being driven by the geomagnetic conditions, with a general lowering of the maximum usable frequency. Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will start the week at around 155 and remain around 150. More worryingly, geomagnetic conditions are again predicted to be unsettled after this weekend, with a maximum Kp index of 6 on the 13th of June. So, unsettled geomagnetic conditions, plus the HF summer doldrums, mean HF DX via F2-layer propagation may be hard to find. So, make the most of the 10m Sporadic-E short-skip openings instead! And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO Last week offered an example of what a good Sporadic-E season should look like. On Tuesday, the 3rd of June in particular, the 6m band sounded like the 20m band and, at its peak, activity extended all the way up to the 2m band. This coming week has an unsettled flavour with several areas of low pressure and weather fronts involved, together with heavy showers in between. This means rain scatter will be a supported mode on the GHz bands. There is a slight hint of a slow improvement during the week, but not really any high pressure showing up until right at the end of the coming week. So, there is a chance of Tropo propagation for the 2nd 144MHz Backpackers Contest on Sunday, the 15th. Meteor scatter is always interesting in June, with four showers to play with during the month. The early ones are the Arietids, which peaked on Saturday, the 7th of June – good news for the 50MHz UK Activity Contest on Thursday the 12th. The Zeta Perseids peak tomorrow, the 9th of June, and there will be a couple of other showers later in the month. This is probably also why the Sporadic-E prospects improve about now. Aurora has also been much in evidence recently. Despite the light summer evenings and short nights, the chances of radio aurora continue to be important, so monitor for high Kp values above about 5. The advice for some who have not yet worked Sporadic-E is to check the 6m band around teatime. There are, of course, usually two primary periods when Sporadic-E is more likely: one in the morning, and the second in late afternoon and evening. A morning opening may repeat in the afternoon in similar locations, although usually the weather trigger may have moved a little in the meantime. Check the jet stream charts at propquest.co.uk  by following the Sporadic-E blog tab. The daily commentary will highlight the important directions each day. You can hopefully test out the system on Thursday, the 12th of June, in the 50MHz UK Activity Contest. EME path losses were at their maximum with apogee, when the Moon is at its furthest from the Earth, on Saturday, the 7th of June. Declination reaches a minimum on Wednesday, the 11th, so Moon windows are short and peak elevation is low. 144MHz sky noise peaks around the 11th and 12th of June. EME conditions were classed as poor this weekend and are classed as poor-to-moderate on the 14th and 15th of June. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1369 - Full Version (With repeater ID breaks every 10 minutes) Release Date: May 24, 2025 Here is a summary of the news trending...This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Denny Haight, NZ8D, Steven Sawyer, K1FRC, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Josh Marler, AA4WX, Ed Johnson, W2PH, Eric Zitel, KD2RJX, Will Rogers, K5WLR, Rich Lawrence, KB2MOB, Tammy Walker, KI5ODE, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS Approximate Running Time: 1:57:02 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1369 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service 1. AMSAT: BuzzSat Satellite Meteorology Course Now Available 2. AMSAT: AMSAT Volunteers Power Hamvention Exhibit 3. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over 4. WIA: The Centennial Gleissberg Cycle Will Impact The Next Solar Cycle 5. WIA: A Pulsar Packs A Punch Into Our Galaxy 6. NASA: In Memory Of Ed Smylie, Whose Famous Hack Saved The Apollo 13 Crew 7. FCC: Starks To Depart FCC By June, Calls Role Honor Of A Lifetime 8. ARRL: Amateur Spectrum Addressed in US House Reconciliation Bill 9. ARRL: Spring Season Section Manager Election Results 10. ARRL: Highlights From 2025 Dayton Hamvention 11. ARRL: Hurricane Watch Net Remembers And Celebrates 60 Years 12. ARRL: Use The 2025 ARRL Field Day Site Locator 13. ARRL: New Book Release: Using The Baofeng Radio 14. ARRL: The Deep Space Exploration Society KØPRT, Holds Community Event 15. RSGB: Digital Mobile Radio Kits Start Young Hams In The UK 16. Funds For Scholarships Raised By Auctioning Empire State Building Broadcast Antenna Elements 17. Major Solar Storm Drill Is Held And The Government Agencies Failed 18. Country Of Luxembourg Issues Postage Stamp For IARU Centenary 19. Another Electronics Supplier In The US Shuts Its Doors 20. Johnstown Flood Of 1889 Is Recalled In New Special Event Station 21. RAC: Update on Phishing Attempts and Cybersecurity Tips 22. CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame Inducts Three New Members at The Dayton HamVention 23. ARRL: Upcoming radio sport contests and regional conventions 24. FCC: FCC bans "Bad Labs" from US Equipment Type Acceptance authorization process 25. WIA: Chinese researchers design compact high performance antenna 26. WIA: FCC approves amateur information collection requirement 27. ARD: International Amateur Radio Union considers consolidation - eliminating regional entities 28. RW: Florida radio pirate agrees to pay $11,000 fine - in installments 29. SC:: South Carolina, among a few other states, announce it will be a hands free driving state in September 30. VAT: Rome University ham radio logs thousands of QSO's to welcome the new Pope 31. AMSAT: AMSAT set the date in October, and location for the upcoming 2025 AMSAT Symposium 32. ARRL: ARRL renews its defense of the 902 to 928 MegaHertz amateur radio band 33. ARRL: ARRL seeks entry level technician HF privileges in its latest proposal 34. ARRL: ARRL releases next generation DXing track videos Plus these Special Features This Week: * Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News * Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will answer the question, "How Does Your IARU Member Society Represent Itself?" * The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B in the DX Corner, with all the latest news on DXpeditions, DX, upcoming radio sport contests, and more * Weekly Propagation and Solar Weather Forecast from the ARRL * Will Rogers, K5WLR - Will returns returns with another edition of A Century Of Amateur Radio. This week, Will takes us all aboard The Wayback Machine to the year 1920, where we find that the uneven, partly unpredictable nature of radio wave propagation continued to fascinate hams after the war. This week's episode is simply called "Freaks" ----- Website: https://www.twiar.net X: https://x.com/TWIAR Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/twiar.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari YouTube: https://bit.ly/TWIARYouTube RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2 Automated (Full Static file, updated weekly): https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 Automated (1-hour Static file, updated weekly): https://www.twiar.net/TWIAR1HR.mp3 ----- This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com. Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space! Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.

Today's show is going to be about “My Experience with DXing" – listening to radio stations from around the world. There'll be little stories about things I've heard, mainly on shortwave radio.And we'll be hearing from some old-time favourite short wave radio stations I recorded way back in 1978.This will be a bit of radio nostalgia for me, and hopefully you'll be informed, educated and entertained with a brief introduction into the radio hobby of DXing.Please feel free to email me with comments and suggestions to wrf@mail.com

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #HamradioK1ZN has many accomplishments, knows a lot about all aspects of DXing and is an experienced IOTA chaser. He will share all of that with us as well as some discussion about his book on DXing.Resources mentioned include:SouthEastern DX Association https://www.sedxc.org/sedxc/ IOTA https://www.iota-world.org/ Nifty E-Z Guide to Adventures in DXing http://www.niftyaccessories.com/index.php DX Summit Website http://www.dxsummit.fi/#/ Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.orgDaily DX https://www.dailydx.com/DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/ IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/ IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/ IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/ IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/

DXing To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GB2RS News Sunday the 12th of January The news headlines: There are opportunities in the RSGB's Regional Team World Thinking Day on the Air is coming up in February Are you interested in an exciting opportunity to volunteer with the amateur radio maker community? If you're looking to get involved in a different side of amateur radio this year, have you thought about becoming a volunteer RSGB Regional Representative for your area? There are eight Regional Representative posts available for nomination in this year's RSGB elections. This rewarding role will give you the opportunity to represent the views of members in your region to the Board, as well as supporting and advising the District Representatives located within the Region. Regional Representatives are also members of the volunteer Leadership Team and have the opportunity to contribute to the Society's strategy and policy development, as well as to its implementation. If you think this sounds exciting, and you are a confident communicator who has experience in managing people, then go to rsgb.org/election and read the candidate pack now. You'll also find details about how to apply, alongside information on other roles, including the RSGB President and two Elected Board Director vacancies. The closing date for all vacancies is 2359UTC on the 31st of January. So, act now and use your expertise to make an impact on amateur radio in your region. On the 15th of February, Girlguiding members will celebrate World Thinking Day on the Air. The aim of this event is to encourage Girlguiding members to make friendships with those in other units, using amateur radio as the means of communication. On this day, Crawley Amateur Radio Club and RSGB volunteers will be hosting a special event call sign GB1SCG, which relates to Sussex Central Guides. Girlguiding members of all ages will have the opportunity to celebrate by communicating via the amateur bands. If you or your amateur radio club are planning to work with a local Girlguiding group for World Thinking Day on the Air, please get in touch via comms@rsgb.org.uk  so the RSGB can promote your event.  As part of the RSGB's ongoing strategy to take amateur radio to new and diverse audiences, it is delighted to advertise a new volunteer role. This is an opportunity for someone to be an advocate for amateur radio within the maker community. The spirit of experimentation, curiosity and learning is common to both groups and the RSGB would like to foster greater crossover between the amateur radio and modern maker communities. This crossover would be centred around hackspace and maker spaces, as well as larger events, but would also encourage individuals from each community to inspire and learn from each other. This role is intended to help take amateur radio to a new audience with an emphasis on how the licence would support other hobbies, rather than the promotion of traditional amateur radio activities. To carry out this role you'll need to be open to working with different communities, be proactive and organised, and be able to build a team and help it to work to achieve goals. To find full details of the role go to rsgb.org/volunteers and if you're interested in applying or being part of a wider team, contact RSGB Board Director Mark Jones, G0MGX via g0mgx@rsgb.org.uk  The RSGB is recruiting volunteers for two roles that are fundamental to the delivery of the Society's Convention. The Convention Chair will be someone who understands the advantages of both online and in-person events. The successful applicant will have an awareness of all aspects of amateur radio and will contribute to shaping the RSGB Conventions of the future to suit the changing amateur radio audience. A second opportunity to be part of the Convention team is as the Society's Lecture Coordinator. This role is part of both the Convention and Tonight@8 teams and requires someone who is proactive and collaborative. The applicant will need to bring ideas for presentations that educate and inspire radio amateurs to try something new, learn more about interesting topics and expand their knowledge of amateur radio. To find out more about either of these roles and how to apply, go to rsgb.org/volunteers  Don't forget that the next event in the popular 145 Alive series will take place on Sunday the 26th of January 2025. It will run from 12 pm to 3 pm and there will be nets operating in most Maidenhead Squares across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. To take part in the event, which is designed to promote FM activity on the 2m band, all you need to do is call in and make contact with others. For more information visit the 145 Alive Facebook page. Please send details of all your news and events to radcom@rsgb.org.uk The deadline for submissions is 10 am on Thursdays before the Sunday broadcast each week. And now for details of rallies and events The Lincoln Shortwave Club Winter Radio Rally is taking place on the 26th of January at The Festival Hall, Caistor Road in Market Rasen. The doors open at 10 am and admission is £3. Hot refreshments and ample free car parking will be available. The cost of a table is £10. To book, please contact Steve Burke, M5ZZZ on 07777 699 069 or email m5zzz@outlook.com On the 9th of February, the Mid Cheshire Amateur Radio Society Radioactive Rally will take place at Nantwich Civic Hall, Market Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 5DG. The doors will be open from 10 am to 3 pm and admission will cost £5. Hot food, refreshments and free car parking will be available. For more information contact Patrick, 2E0VGF via info@radioactivefair.co.uk The Red Rose Winter Rally is due to take place on the 23rd of February from 10 am at Mather Hall, Mather Lane, Leigh, Lancashire, WN7 2PJ. Please note that the maximum number of five-foot tables per trader has had to be reduced from six to five. On a brighter note, the price remains as it has been for several years at £10 per table. For more information visit wmrc.co.uk On the 1st of March, The Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Society Annual Rally will be held at Hillsborough Village Centre, 7 Ballynahinch Road, BT26 6AR. The doors open at 10.30 am. For more details visit lvars.uk Now the Special Event news The South African Radio League, or SARL, is enjoying its 100th anniversary in 2025. To celebrate the occasion, the SARL Centenary Marathon QSO Party began at 0000UTC on the 1st of January and will run until 2359UTC on the 31st of December 2025. Throughout the year, the League, with the aid of its members and associated clubs, will be on the air using special event callsign ZS100SARL, as well as the permanent callsigns ZS6SRL and ZS9HQ. For details of several awards that will be available, and for more information, go to tinyurl.com/SARL25 The Deutsches Museum in Munich, one of the largest science and technology museums in the world, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025. Special callsign DL100DM will be active throughout the year from the amateur radio station which is part of the Museum's permanent electronics exhibition. QSL via DL8FA. More information is available at QRZ.com Now the DX news Thierry, TK1CX is active in Cameroon until February 2025. In his spare time, he is QRV as TJ/TK1CX on the 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10m bands. He operates mainly using FT8 with a solar power supply. QSL via Logbook of the World, eQSL or via EA5ZD. Don, KW7R is active as V73KW from the Marshall Islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. He is there on a work assignment until September 2025 and, in his spare time, he operates CW and FT8 on various bands. QSL via Logbook of the World.   Now the contest news Today, the 12th, the RSGB Affiliated Societies 80 and 40m Data modes Contest runs from 1300 to 1700UTC. Using PSK63 and RTTY on the 80 and 40m bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Tuesday the 14th, the RSGB 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. Using FM on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also, on Tuesday the 14th, the RSGB 432MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday the 16th, the RSGB 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Saturday the 18th, the RSGB Affiliated Societies 80 and 40m SSB Contest runs from 1300 to 1700UTC. Using SSB on the 80 and 40m bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Thursday the 9th of January 2025. First, let's take a look at last week's solar activity. As predicted, the solar flux index declined to the 160s. We had one X-class solar flare on the 4th and there have been 11 M-class flares since then. The net result was that the ionosphere was unsettled from the 4th to the 6th of January with the Kp index hitting 5 on the 4th. Following this, the Kp index was at 4 on the 5th and 6th of January. There were reports of visible aurora over the UK on Saturday the 4th, but it was nothing like the record-breaking aurora in April 2024. There were coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, over this period but they were mainly facing away from Earth. Maximum usable frequencies, or MUFs for short, held up over this period, although the shorter days meant that the MUF over a 3,000km path didn't stay above 28MHz for long after sunset. MUFs plummeted to below 10MHz by 1800UTC on Sunday the 5th. The message is clear – get your high-band DXing done by sunset! Next week it looks like the Sun is going into hibernation. The main sunspots will be disappearing over the western limb, leaving it looking a little bare. As a result, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will remain low until the 16th when it is predicted to climb into the 200s once again. Unsettled geomagnetic conditions are forecast from the 16th to the 20th of January with a predicted maximum Kp index of 4. There are currently no coronal holes to worry about. So, in conclusion, this weekend ending the 12th looks set to be reasonable for HF operating, barring any X-class solar flares and accompanying CMEs. We predict that MUFs over 3,000km will be above 28MHz from around 0900UTC to 1500 UTC.   And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO. We are in the middle of a proper winter cold spell at the moment, and we are about to see a large high coming over the country. This high is building in cold air and it means sharp frosts and perhaps some fog, so there's a chance of patchy tropo at times. Conditions may further improve as the high slips south after this weekend ending today the 12th. This may allow milder, moister Atlantic air in from the west to improve the refractive index contrast across the inversion, which could lead to tropo. The solar conditions have remained interesting and produced a few aurora alerts, so we can probably benefit from watching the Kp index during the coming week.  Meteor activity has passed its early January peaks, and we are now sliding back into random meteor activity as our best option. These tend to be better just before dawn. There is just one minor shower this week. The Gamma Ursae-Minorids are active from the 10th to the 22nd of January and peak on the 18th. We have mentioned Sporadic-E quite a lot recently but, with the passing of the meteor activity, the chances of it occurring have reduced considerably. Although limited activity may enhance the lower bands, it probably won't feature in the usual high HF and VHF bands. The Moon reaches maximum declination this weekend, ending today the 12th. Moon windows are long and peak Moon elevations are high. Path losses are also high and increasing all week. 144MHz sky noise is low all week. And that's all from the propagation team.

GB2RS News Sunday the 5th of January The news headlines: The GB2RS News service is the subject of tomorrow's Tonight@8 webinar The RSGB 2025 election process has begun Don't forget to report YOTA activity!  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 everyone that we always welcome your news, by email, to radcom@rsgb.org.uk and the deadline is 10 am sharp on Thursday mornings. And now, on with the news. The first RSGB Tonight@8 webinar of 2025 will be live tomorrow, Monday the 6th of January. During the presentation, you will get a behind-the-scenes insight into the RSGB's GB2RS News service which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. The team of presenters include GB2RS News Manager, Steve Richards, G4HPE and also RadCom Managing Editor Ed O'Neill, M0TZX who will explain how a team of people produces and shares the weekly GB2RS news script. You'll also hear from the Society's Operating Awards Manager Lindsay Pennell, GI3KME who has details about a series of special GB2RS awards for you to chase. Pete Sobye, G0PNM will give you a newsreader's perspective of the weekly broadcast. Find out more about this fascinating discussion and the presenters by going to rsgb.org/webinars Watch the presentation live on the RSGB YouTube channel or special BATC channel and ask questions via the live chat.  What are your goals for 2025? Could you spare some time and share your expertise to make a difference within the amateur radio community? The RSGB 2025 elections process has begun, and nominations are open for a range of volunteer roles. The RSGB's President John McCullagh, GI4BWM will reach the end of his second year as President at the AGM and so will stand down. There are also two Elected Board Director vacancies. The Board is looking for people with specific skills to fill these roles. The current President is one of the few at the Board level with extensive experience in spectrum matters and negotiating with the authorities – so that skills gap needs to be filled. Outreach has been an important focus over the last year for the Society and it would like to support the current activities and expand on them. These developments will include encouraging practical skills amongst the amateur radio community and also building links with other organisations. Building those relationships will require someone with drive and determination but also tact and diplomacy. There are eight further posts available for RSGB Regional Representatives, ranging from Region 1 in Scotland to Region 11 in the southwest. For more details about the roles as well as application forms and candidate packs, go to the RSGB website at rsgb.org/election  December 2024 saw a wide range of individuals, clubs, schools and universities encouraging youngsters to get on the air and try amateur radio as part of YOTA Month 2024. The RSGB National Radio Centre also hosted the callsign over several evenings and weekends. If you were involved with Youngsters on the Air Month and would like your activity to be included in the RSGB's special RadCom feature, remember that you need to email your photos and a short report to comms@rsgb.org.uk by this Tuesday, the 7th of January.  Do you like making things? Or are you interested in creating software for use in amateur radio? Have you thought about entering the RSGB's Construction Competition? This annual competition is judged online to allow RSGB members from the UK and across the world to participate and demonstrate their creativity. In line with the Society's strategic priority of growth, there will be a new Outreach category this year in which members are encouraged to submit a project that can be reproduced in a school or public environment. The other five categories are beginners, construction excellence, innovation, software and antennas. The winner of each section will receive a cash prize, with a bonus for the overall winner. The deadline for entries is the 1st of March 2025. Find out more by going to rsgb.org/construction-competition    And now for details of rallies and events The Lincoln Shortwave Club Winter Radio Rally is taking place on the 26th of January at The Festival Hall, Caistor Road in Market Rasen. The doors open at 10 am and admission is £3. Hot refreshments and ample free car parking will be available. The cost of a table is £10. To book, please contact Steve Burke, M5ZZZ on 07777 699 069 or email m5zzz@outlook.com The Red Rose Winter Rally is due to take place on the 23rd of February from 10 am at Mather Hall, Mather Lane, Leigh, Lancashire, WN7 2PJ. Please note that the maximum number of five-foot tables per trader has had to be reduced from six to five. On a brighter note, the price remains as it has been for several years at £10 per table. For more information visit wmrc.co.uk On the 1st of March, The Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Society Annual Rally will be held at Hillsborough Village Centre, 7 Ballynahinch Road, BT26 6AR. The doors open at 10.30 am. For more details visit lvars.uk The Exeter Radio Rally will take place on the 2nd of March at The Kenn Centre, EX6 7UE from 10 am. Traders and catering will be available on-site. For more information contact Pete, G3ZVI by phone at 07714 198 374, or by email to g3zvi@yahoo.co.uk  Now the Special Event news Today, the 5th, is the last chance to work special callsign OZ400POST. The station is active to celebrate the anniversary of Denmark's postal service which was originally established on Christmas Eve in 1624. Visit QRZ.com to read about awards that are available for working the station. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Portishead Radio, callsign GKA, receiving site at Highbridge, Somerset, special callsign GB1GKA will be operated until the 31st of January. The operation will be mainly focussed on CW, but some SSB activity is planned. The station will be active on all bands from 40 to 10m.  British Railways Amateur Radio Society is running a special event station GB0LMR during 2025 to celebrate 200 years of train travel. The operation will be mainly focussed on the 40 and 10m bands. QSL via the Bureau. More information about the station is available at QRZ.com In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the GB2RS News service, a special callsign GB70RS has been on the air since the 1st of January. Listen out for operators on all modes and all bands. QSL via the Bureau, eQSL or Logbook of the World. For more information, please visit the GB70RS page at QRZ.com Now the DX news Brian, GW4DVB is operating from St Kitts as V4/G4DVB until tomorrow, the 6th of January. The station is active using multiple modes on the 160 to 6m bands. QSL directly to Brian. More information is available at QRZ.com Ralf, DB4REB is active as CN2REB from Morocco until the 30th of January. He is operating using CW, FT8 and SSB on various bands. QSL via eQSL, or directly to Ralf's home call. More information is available at QRZ.com Now the contest news The ARRL RTTY Roundup started at 1800UTC on Saturday the 4th and ends at 2359UTC today, Sunday the 5th of January. Using RTTY on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. USA stations also send their state and Canadian stations send their province. Tomorrow, the 6th, the IRTS 80m Daytime Counties Contest runs from 1700 to 1800UTC. Using SSB and CW on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. EI and GI stations also send their county. On Tuesday the 7th, the RSGB 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. Using FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday the 7th, the RSGB 144MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 8th, the RSGB 432MHz FT8 Activity four-hour Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also on Wednesday the 8th, the RSGB 432MHz FT8 Activity two-hour Contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. On Thursday the 9th, the RSGB 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Saturday the 11th, the Worked All Britain 1.8MHz Phone Contest runs from 1900 to 2300UTC. Using SSB on the 160m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and Worked All Britain square. On Sunday the 12th, the RSGB Affiliated Societies 80 and 40m Data modes Contest runs from 1300 to 1700UTC. Using PSK63 and RTTY on the 80 and 40m bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Thursday the 2nd of January 2025. We started the new year with a bang, or more precisely a Kp index of 8 and widespread visible aurora. This was caused by a partial halo coronal mass ejection, associated with an eruption in the Sun's southeast quadrant on the 29th of December. The strong G3 to severe G4 geomagnetic storm peaked at about 1800UTC on the 1st of January as the solar wind speed moved past Earth at just above 500 kilometres per second. It then subsided as the Bz component settled into a north-pointing position. HF propagation suffered as a result with the maximum usable frequency down for the rest of the evening. By the morning of the 2nd of January, things had improved and maximum usable frequencies over a 3,000km path were back above 28MHz. The solar flux index remained above 200, which no doubt helped, but we are in rocky times from a space weather point of view. A large coronal hole became Earth-facing on Friday the 3rd of January which will no doubt cause some geomagnetic disruption today, the 5th, as the Kp index rises. NOAA predicts the solar flux index may decline this week, possibly ending in the 160s to 170s. Geomagnetic conditions may also be in for a rough ride around the 10th and 11th when the Kp index is forecast to reach 4. From a radio point of view, January is a peak time for low-band DXing. The nights are long and dark so make the most of the 160 and 80m bands. You may also get DX during the late afternoon on the 40m band. During the daytime keep an eye on the 10m band, which may throw up the odd, interesting DX station while the solar flux index remains high.  And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO. To start the year the main feature is low pressure over the country but, in the depths of winter, it's good to remember that snow and rain both provide scattering opportunities for the GHz bands. There is a glimmer of tropo hope for the end of the coming week, around the 11th and 12th, as high pressure builds over northern Britain. This will be a cold-air high which tends not to be the best for tropo, but it's worth a look nonetheless. The solar conditions provided an aurora on New Year's Day with a brief index of 8 during the afternoon. With other disturbances possible, it is worth keeping up to date with solar conditions and prospects for geomagnetic storms on spaceweather.com  This is one propagation mode where CW is so much easier to copy under the difficult conditions of aurora. Meteor scatter propagation is driven by the Quadrantids in the first week of January. It peaks on the 4th but spans the period up to the 12th. This is a productive shower with an hourly rate of 120. Since it's the last major excitement until the late April Lyrids, make the most of it before we're reduced to chasing random meteor activity during the rest of winter. We have previously mentioned the chance of out-of-season Sporadic-E propagation in mid-winter and we still have the next week to keep alert, especially in view of the Quadrantids adding fuel into the E region. The ionised trails of the meteors provide long-lived metallic ions, which is the material that gets focussed into Sporadic-E if we are lucky. The Moon starts the weekend with a negative but rising declination, going positive today, the 5th, so Moon windows continue to lengthen. Path losses are low with perigee on Wednesday. 144MHz sky noise is low all week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS News Sunday the 1st of December The news headlines: Join the final 2024 RSGB Tonight@8 live webinar Update on the RSGB strategic priority of spectrum and licensing RSGB HF Contest Committee announces changes to contests in 2025 The final RSGB Tonight@8 webinar of 2024 is being broadcast tomorrow, Monday the 2nd of December. Join Tim Hier, G5TM for a talk on the various HF antennas available for portable operating. He'll also discuss how to use very basic modelling software to ascertain the choices you have at your disposal. Tim will look at topics ranging from balancing the convenience of multi-band systems with some trade-off in performance to looking at using 40 metres portable. He'll also look at how to power your station and the advantages of operating HF portable. Tim is the RSGB RadCom Basics Editor so he will also highlight content in that publication that viewers will find helpful. Watch the webinar live on the RSGB YouTube channel or special BATC channel and ask questions via the live chat. To find out more go to the RSGB website at rsgb.org/webinars The RSGB has taken the next steps to support its strategic focus on spectrum and licensing. The Society is now formally engaged in work for the 2027 and 2031 ITU World Radiocommunication Conferences. The RSGB has introduced a new special focus page on WRC-27 and WRC-31 which you can find via rsgb.org/wrc-27 This page includes topics such as 6G telecoms and satellites, wireless power, space weather, and lunar communications. Supporting a new WRC-31 opportunity, the RSGB is also grateful to Chris Whitmarsh, G0FDZ and Roger Ray, G8CUB for a great overview of amateur innovation above 275GHz. You can read this on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/terahertz The RSGB HF Contest Committee has announced some changes to its HF contests for 2025. These cover the FT4 Series, the 1.8MHz Contests, the Commonwealth Contest, Field Day registration and also self-spotting. For full details go to rsgbcc.org/hf Youngsters on the Air Month begins today and Marlborough Scout Group will be the first team of youngsters to operate. They are on the air up until midday today, and then again after 6 pm. Also operating today is the Cambridge University Wireless Society, which is hosting the callsign GB24YOTA between 12 pm and 6 pm. Listen out for the group again on Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th of December. Other operators this week include Wick High School Radio Club on Monday, the RSGB National Radio Centre's GB3RS station on Tuesday, Sandringham School on Wednesday and Thurso Scouts on Friday. Go to QRZ.com and search for GB24YOTA to view the full schedule and operating times. If you'd like to host the callsign, you've still got time. Visit rsgb.org/yota-month to find out more and then email Jamie, M0SDV at yota.month@rsgb.org.uk to register your interest.  Don't forget that if you want to take an exam online at home, the last date you can do that this year is Friday the 20th of December. Exams will resume on Monday the 6th of January 2025 and the booking system will be available over the festive season so you can book exams for January onwards. Book online on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/exampay The next in the series of 145 Alive events is taking place on Sunday the 26th of January 2025. The organisers are looking for volunteer Net Controllers to help cover as many Maidenhead squares in the UK as possible. Whether you've been a Net Controller before or not, the team would love to hear from you. Find out more about the events by visiting the 145 Alive Facebook Group. To volunteer, send your intended individual, group or club callsign and your intended location and Maidenhead Square to masenville@gmail.com The weekly shortwave broadcast from the Deutsche Amateur Radio Club, or D.A.R.C as it is also known, will be aired from Woofferton in England for the first time in January 2025. The broadcast will be made from an existing BBC broadcasting complex that is operated by the subsidiary company Encompass Media, where there are a total of ten transmitters and just as many antennas. The station in Austria that is currently used by the Club is ceasing its shortwave operations at the end of December this year. Thanks to successful negotiations, the first programme will be broadcast from Woofferton on Sunday the 5th of January 2025 on the previously used frequency of 9670kHz. Full details of how to access Radio D.A.R.C are on the Club's website via darc.de Please send details of all your news and events to radcom@rsgb.org.uk  The deadline for submissions is 10 am on Thursdays before the Sunday broadcast each week. And now for details of rallies and events The Wiltshire Radio Winter Rally is taking place today, Sunday the 1st of December, at Kington Langley Village Hall in Kington Langley, located just off Junction 17 of the M4. Doors open at 9 am and close at 1 pm. Admission is £3. Indoor tables are £10. Car boot pitches are £10 for a car-size pitch and £15 for a van-size pitch. Hot and cold refreshments will be available on-site. For more information email Chairman@Chippenhamradio.club The Mid-Devon Amateur Radio and Electronics Fair is on Sunday the 8th of December at Winkleigh Sports and Recreation Centre. Doors are open from 9 am to 1 pm. Entry is £3 per person and there is no charge for partners and under 16s. Free parking and Wi-Fi are available, as well as hot food and refreshments. The cost for traders is £5 per 6ft frontage with tables supplied. Booking in advance is recommended. Mains electricity is also available on request. Traders are asked to pre-book as soon as possible. Please contact Phil, G6DLJ via 07990 563147 or email wrg2024@hotmail.com The Sparkford Radio Rally is on Sunday the 29th of December at Davis Hall, Howell Hill, West Camel, near Yeovil. Doors are open to traders from 7.30 am and from 9.30 am to the general public. Admission is £2. Refreshments and free parking will be available. For more information, please contact Luke via 07870 168197 or email m3vhv@hotmail.co.uk Now the Special Event news Ian Astley, M0IAA will be operating as GB1WH on Wednesday the 11th of December. The special event station is being run to support and promote the excellent work done by Wakefield Hospice. To donate to the hospice or to hear more from Ian, visit QRZ.com The Humber Fortress DX Amateur Radio Club will once again be running the special callsign GB0MC between the 1st and 26th of December. The ‘MC' in the callsign stands for Merry Christmas. The Club would like to invite everyone to call in and give them a hearty “HoHoHo” and tell them what radio equipment you would like from Santa this year. The Club will also be live streaming on its YouTube Channel. OR100LGE is the special callsign in use by members of the Liege Radio Club, ON5VL to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The station is active until the end of the year on the 160 to 6m bands using CW, SSB, FT8 and FT4. QSL via Logbook of the World, eQSL or via ON6YH. QSOs will also be uploaded to Club Log. Now the DX news The 9L5A team, part of the F6KOP Club, is active from Sierra Leone until the 8th of December. The members will operate on the 160 to 6m bands and QO-100. QSL via F5GSJ, Logbook of the World or ClubLog OQRS. The A35GC Team is currently active from Tonga until Friday the 6th of December. The IOTA reference is OC-049. The members will operate on the 160 to 6m bands, using CW, SSB, FT4, FT8 and RTTY. QSL via LZ1GC, Logbook of the World or ClubLog OQRS. The TO9W Team is active again from Saint Martin Island until the 13th of December. The IOTA reference is NA-105. The members will operate on the 160 to 10m bands, with a focus on the 40, 80 and 160m bands. QSL via W9ILY, Logbook of the World or ClubLog OQRS. Now the contest news The UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon started at 0000UTC today and ends at 2359UTC on Friday the 31st of January 2025. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report and locator. On Tuesday, the 3rd of December, the RSGB 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. Using FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday, the 3rd of December, the RSGB 144MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday, the 4th of December, the RSGB 144MHz FT8 Activity four-hour contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 2m band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also on Wednesday, the 4th of December, the RSGB 144MHz FT8 Activity two-hour contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 2m band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. The ARRL 160m Contest starts at 2200UTC on Friday the 6th of December and ends at 1600UTC on Sunday the 7th of December. Using CW on the 160m band, the exchange is a signal report for UK stations. US and Canadian stations will also send their ARRL or RAC section numbers. On Sunday the 8th of December, the RSGB 144MHz AFS Contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 28th of November 2024. Last weekend's CQWW CW contest was a reminder of just how good HF propagation can be near sunspot maximum. The whole world was workable on the contest bands up to 10 metres, including the Far East, Australasia, the Caribbean and South America. It was a great opportunity to increase your DXCC total and have fun at the same time. This week's solar flux index crept back above 200 again, peaking at 225 as this report was being prepared. Geomagnetic conditions have been surprisingly good over the past seven days with a peak Kp index of 3.67 on the 24th of November. There have been no X-class solar flares, but there has been a total of 13 M-class and 54 minor C-class flares over the past seven days. There have been coronal mass ejections, notably on the 25th of November, but they have not been Earth-directed as of the 28th. So, to summarise, HF conditions have been pretty good. We are now entering the Winter period for HF propagation, which tends to favour the low bands. So 160m, 80m and 40m come into their own and night-time DXing becomes the norm. Look for greyline openings to the west at sunrise on 80m and 160m, and also short, but good, openings on 40m in the late afternoon. Nighttime may bring good DX on 80m and 40m, including the Caribbean and South America. NOAA predicts that the SFI will remain in the low 200s next week, and while geomagnetic conditions are forecast to be good at first, the Kp index may rise to four on the 4th to 6th of December. This could result in reduced MUFs until the Kp index recovers. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The unsettled theme continues through most of the next week or two. The only signs of slightly enhanced prospects for Tropo are as we close this week, and even that is restricted to some eastern areas for paths across the North Sea. A second option may temporarily appear around the middle of the coming week as a weak high crosses southern areas, but this one looks to be a cold high and probably not so good as a vehicle for Tropo. The meteor scatter prospects are aided by the last throes of the Leonids which fade away by this weekend, and the Orionids which peaked on Thursday the 28th of November, but last through the coming week. The unsettled weather should offer some useful GHz bands rain or snow scatter, since there will be several active weather systems around. This early in the winter is a great time for strong shower activity around the still relatively warmer seas. The auroral prospects are worth checking after recent activity. Look for watery-sounding signals on the LF bands as a good clue along with Kp index values greater than four. Last week saw some fleeting signs of Sporadic E on the Dourbes ionosonde graphs on propquest.co.uk, especially on Monday the 25th of November. This occurred typically around the middle of the day and was probably driven by the very strong jet stream and the current meteor activity. The Moon's declination is negative, reaching minus 28 degrees on Monday and we are close to eclipse on Sunday. That's followed by two days of high 144MHz sky noise, so with path losses still high, EME operators should probably take the opportunity to check their antennas after last week's gale. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #Hamradio Hello and welcome to episode 55 of The DX Mentor and our discussion of Geography and DX. Thank you for joining us. I'm Bill, AJ8B.     If this is the first time you are with us, Welcome! We have a back catalog of over 50 episodes covering many aspects of DX in both podcast and YouTube format. Please check us out. If you are new to DXing, I would really recommend episode 1 as it was recorded with several world class DXers. You will get a feel of the excitement that goes with chasing DX!     Remember, if you like what you find, please subscribe, like, and share!  Our guest today is Ralph Bellas, K9ZO. Here is a bit of bio on Ralph “My interests include technology, entrepreneurship, contesting, DXing, CW, VHF, propagation, and being very active on the HF bands. DXpeditions really excite me!  I'm an Assistant Director, 50 Year Member, and Life Member with the ARRL. I'm a past President, State Coordinator, and former Board member of the Society of Midwest Contesters (SMC) - W9SMC.  I am the former "Contesting on a Budget" column editor for the National Contest Journal, NCJ.  I'm a former member of the Metro DX club. I have earned 10BDXCC, 10 Band WAS, and the Triple Play Award.  I am active with DXCC Challenge with 2911 slots.  For DXCC Honor Roll I have 358 Mixed, 353 CW, 358 Phone, and 319 Digital countries.  I earned 5BWAZ.  I've been fortunate to have been part of DX teams which were awarded "DXpedition of the Year." Joe, W8GEX, an accomplished DXer in his own right will also be with us.  Resources mentioned include: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morokulien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikonur_Cosmodrome Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.org Daily DX https://www.dailydx.com/ DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/ Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/ IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/ IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/ IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/ IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/

Hello and welcome to episode 54 of The DX Mentor Discussion with 9M8HAZ. Thank you for joining us. I'm Bill, AJ8B. If this is the first time you are joining us, Welcome! We have a back catalog of over 50 episodes covering many aspects of DX in both podcast and YouTube format. Please check us out. If you are new to DXing, I would really recommend episode 1 as it was recorded with several world class DXers. You will get a feel of the excitement that goes with chasing DX!       If you like what you find, please subscribe, like, and share!   If you have questions or comments, please email me directly using thedxmentor@gmail.com. Our guest today is 9M8HAZ, Marz, W3UR, Bernie, and W8GEX, Joe.   From the 9M1Z website, I found this: This DXpedition serves as a critical training exercise, laying the groundwork for a successful “Pre-DXPEDITION OF 9M0-SPRATLY ISLAND” in 2025 or 2026. As you know, Spratly Island is currently closed for maintenance, but we're hopeful it will reopen to the public by then. Our primary goal for this Borneo DXpedition is to gather valuable experience and knowledge to ensure a smooth operation when we set up our future DXpedition from 9M0 using the 9M0 callsign (assuming all goes well and the island is operational).   A huge congratulations to all the stations who managed to contact us during the DXpedition. We are incredibly impressed to announce a total of 36,169 QSOs logged! This is a fantastic testament to the dedication and skill of both our team and all the participating stations.”   Without any further delay, let's get started.                

GB2RS News Sunday the 22nd of September The news headlines: The RSGB Convention is just three weeks away The RSGB has announced that routine bookings for paper exams will cease Take advantage of group activity opportunities at the RSGB National Radio Centre The RSGB Convention is just three weeks away and there is a fantastic programme planned. Whatever your amateur radio interests or experience there will be something for you. In addition to the presentations, you could take part in a workshop to learn more about microcontroller programming – spaces are limited so make sure you book soon if you want to be part of that event. There will also be an EMF and EMC Clinic, contest forums and a chance to find out more about a wide range of amateur radio special interest groups. The social side of the Convention is important too, whether you're catching up with friends over coffee or enjoying the Gala Dinner on Saturday evening. Day or weekend tickets for the Convention are still cheaper if you buy in advance rather than on the door, and the deadline for advance tickets is Monday the 7th of October. To find out more about the programme, the speakers and to book your tickets, go to the RSGB Convention web pages at rsgb.org/convention The RSGB has announced that from the 29th of November it will stop taking routine bookings for paper exams. Currently 97% of amateur radio licence examinations are taken online using the TestReach platform, either at home under remote supervision or in a club setting. Following the implementation of Syllabus v1.6 on the 1st of September 2024, the new examination question bank will only be maintained online. Generating paper exams will involve significant additional work for the RSGB Examinations Department, with the associated costs. You will be able to apply for a paper exam on the grounds of special educational needs in the same way that you can currently request special requirements such as extra time or a reader. To do that you need to email the Exams Department via exams@rsgb.org.uk  To read the full details of the changes, including the three important dates you need to know, please go to the RSGB website at rsgb.org  and search for ‘Exam Announcements'. Do you work with young people at a school, or perhaps with a youth group such as the Scouts, Guides or Cadets? Are you looking for an activity that provides hands-on learning opportunities for them? The RSGB National Radio Centre currently has availability for two private evening visits in December as part of the Society's activities for Youngsters on the Air month, or YOTA month as it is often called. Sessions typically last two hours and include an introduction to amateur radio, before the youngsters are split into smaller groups to complete a variety of activities. These can include Morse code, VHF communication using handhelds, shortwave radio communication and satellite communication. The group size is limited to a maximum of 12, and there must be one adult accompanying every four students. If you'd like to find out more about this unique learning opportunity, email the RSGB National Radio Centre Coordinator Martyn Baker, G0GMB via nrc.support@rsgb.org.uk The next Bletchley Park 1940s weekend is taking place at the moment. If you are visiting for the event, make sure you drop into the RSGB National Radio Centre where you'll be able to see a number of World War Two receivers on display. Don't forget that RSGB members can get free entry to Bletchley Park, which also includes admission to the RSGB National Radio Centre. You can access this fantastic offer by logging into the RSGB membership portal via rsgb.org/members  and selecting ‘Visit Bletchley Park'. Don't forget that National Hamfest 2024 is coming up on the 27th and 28th of September and promises to be an unforgettable celebration of all things amateur radio. As always, the traders and manufacturers are lining up to bring you the best in amateur radio equipment and accessories. Many exhibitors will be offering exclusive deals, making it the perfect time to upgrade your gear or add new items to your shack. For more information and to purchase your tickets, visit nationalhamfest.org.uk  Railways on the Air weekend usually takes place on the weekend closest to the 27th of September. This date celebrates the anniversary of the first steam-powered passenger railway journey which took place on the 27th of September 1825. The first passenger train ran on a line in the North East of England from Darlington to Stockton. Bishop Auckland Amateur Radio Club coordinates the event and this year it will take place over the weekend of the 28th and 29th of September. For more information visit rota.barac.org.uk The next event in the popular 145 Alive series takes place on Sunday the 29th of September. The event will run from 1 pm to 4 pm and there will be nets operating in most Maidenhead Squares across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. To take part in the event, which is designed to promote FM activity on the 2m band, all you need to do is call in and make contact with others. The organisers are looking for more net controllers. For more information contact Mark Savage, M0XIC via the 145 Alive Facebook page. On Monday the 7th of October the RSGB's Tonight@8 live webinar will be with Ian White, GM3SEK who will give a presentation entitled ‘Aircraft Scatter, the Hitch-Hikers Guide'. Aircraft scatter is about bouncing VHF and UHF radio signals off high-flying aircraft – effectively ‘hitching a ride' with someone else's plane to extend your everyday working range up to 800km. For example, if you are one of the hundreds who get involved in the monthly UK Activity Contests on the 2m, 70cm and 23cm bands, you will already be using aircraft scatter routinely and it will be responsible for some of your best QSOs. So how does aircraft scatter work? And if it's so useful, why haven't we heard more about it? Join the webinar live at 8pm on the RSGB YouTube channel or special BATC channel. Find out more about this and other webinars on the RSGB website via rsgb.org/webinars Please send details of all your news and events to radcom@rsgb.org.uk  The deadline for submissions is 10 am on Thursdays before the Sunday broadcast each week And now for details of rallies and events Weston super Mare Radio Society Radio and Electronics Rally is taking place today, the 22nd. The venue is The Campus Community Centre, Worle, Weston super Mare, BS24 7DX. For further information and to book a table email westonradiosociety@gmail.com On Saturday the 5th of October Carmarthen Amateur Radio Society is holding a surplus equipment sale in aid of club funds. The venue will be Cwmduad Community Centre, Cwmduad, Carmarthenshire, SA33 6XN. The doors are open for traders from 8am, and for visitors from 10 am. Disabled access will be available from 9.30 am. The entrance fee for visitors will be £2. For more information, or to book a table, email G0JLX@mail.com The 49th Welsh Radio Rally will take place on Sunday the 6th of October at Llanwern High School, Hartridge Farm Road, Newport, NP18 2YE. Traders can gain access from 7am and the doors will be open for visitors from 9.30am. The entrance fee is £3 per person and free parking will be available. For more information email Mike Rackham, GW4JKV via welshradiorally@gmail.com or phone 07976 368 250. Now the Special Event news Today, the 22nd, Mid Ulster Amateur Radio Club is active with the callsign GI5LOW from Blacks Farm in Tandragee to celebrate the G-QRP Club's 50th anniversary. The callsign will be active from around 9am and the station is operating using all modes on the HF bands and FM on the 2m and 70cm bands. Also, from 2pm, Philip, MI0MSO will be giving a talk on, and practical demonstration of, programming a LoRa board as a tracking unit on 433MHz. During the annual Railways on the Air weekend on the 28th and 29th of September the British Railways Amateur Radio Society will be operating using the callsign GB1FRT on behalf of the Furness Railway Trust in Preston. Activity will be on the 40m band using SSB. QSL via the Bureau. To read more about the station visit brars.info  and QRZ.com Now the DX news Today, the 22nd, is the last chance to work Harald, DF2WO who is active as XT2AW from Burkina Faso. He is QRV on the 80 to 10m bands using SSB and FT4. You might also be able to catch him via the QO-100 satellite. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS and Logbook of the World. Listen out for members of Guisborough and District Amateur Radio Club who are active from the Isle of Lewis using their Club callsign MS0NYM. The station will be active from today, the 22nd, to Saturday the 28th of September. Operators will be available on a variety of bands using CW, FT8 and phone. Now the contest news Today, the 22nd, the Practical Wireless 70MHz Contest runs from 1200 to 1600UTC. Using all modes on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the 24th, the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1830 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on 2.3 to 10GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 25th, the UK and Ireland Contest Club 80m Contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using CW on the 80m band, the exchange is your six-character locator. On Thursday the 26th, the Autumn Series Data Contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using RTTY and PSK63 on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. The CQ World Wide DX RTTY Contest starts at 0000UTC on Saturday the 28th and ends at 2359UTC on Sunday the 29th of September. Using RTTY on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and CQ Zone. The UK is in Zone 14. On Sunday the 29th, the UK Microwave Group 5.7 and 10GHz Contest runs from 0600 to 1800UTC. Using all modes on 5.7 and 10GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.  Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 19th of September 2024 It was a topsy-turvy time for HF propagation last week with a declining solar flux index and geomagnetic disturbances thanks to coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, from the Sun. The solar flux index declined to the mid-160s, and the Kp index had a couple of excursions to more than 7. These were due to CMEs and the second, which occurred on Tuesday the 17th, was associated with the X4.5 solar flare on Saturday the 14th. Luckily, it was 0300UTC when the CME hit the Earth, so only die-hard UK DXers were affected. With a G4 geomagnetic storm raging, the maximum useable frequency over a 3,000km path fell to less than 6MHz, but did manage to recover to 8.45MHz by dawn. The rest of Tuesday was subdued with the maximum useable frequency never really getting above 21MHz. This is why the advice is often to avoid DXing when the Kp index climbs high, as the upper HF bands will likely be closed. By comparison, on Thursday the 19th the Kp index was 2.67 and the maximum useable frequency over 3,000km was above 28MHz again. NOAA puts the risk of another X-class flare at 10%, and an M-class event at 55%. So, we are not out of the woods yet. Next week, the Space Weather Prediction Centre says the solar flux index may decline slightly but could then rise to be in the 232 to 240 range. Geomagnetic storming is predicted for the 26th to the 29th, when the Kp index could rise to 5. Meanwhile, autumnal HF conditions should soon be kicking in with better propagation to North America. If the solar flux stays high, we can expect excellent 28MHz propagation, perhaps to the mid-west and Pacific states. North-South HF paths, such as the UK to South Africa and South America, should also be good around the equinox period. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The last week of Tropo gave us good conditions across the North Sea and up and down the country on the VHF and UHF bands.  It is very likely that there will be a big change of weather type over this weekend, ending today the 22nd, to a much more unsettled pattern with low pressure dominating during the coming week. In fact, there will be a sequence of lows, fronts and showery interludes to set the template for next week. This means that rain scatter is a good candidate for propagation on the GHz bands, which could be useful on the evening of Tuesday the 24th during the SHF UK Activity Contest. Meanwhile, tropo takes a back seat for a while. The solar activity continues to be of interest and, again, the message is to monitor the Kp index to keep one step ahead of events in case any aurora spring up. Meteor scatter is mainly down to random activity, although the daytime Sextantids peaks on Friday the 27th of September, but with a low zenith hourly rate of 5. For EME operators, Moon declination is positive and rising, reaching +29 degrees next Tuesday, so Moon visibility windows will continue to lengthen. Path losses are increasing as we passed perigee last week. 144MHz sky noise is moderate, dropping back to low next Thursday. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #Hamradio In this episode of The DX Mentor, our Ralph, K9ZO, will share many ways that he has improved his DXing. Ralph is very accomplished as his bio states "My interests include technology, entrepreneurship, contesting, DXing, CW, VHF, propagation, and being very active on the HF bands. DXpeditions really excite me! I'm an Assistant Director, 50 Year Member, and Life Member with the ARRL. I'm a past President, State Coordinator, and former Board member of the Society of Midwest Contesters (SMC) - W9SMC. I am the former "Contesting on a Budget" column editor for the National Contest Journal, NCJ. I'm a former member of the Metro DX club. I have earned 10BDXCC, 10 Band WAS, and the Triple Play Award. I am active with DXCC Challenge with 2911 slots. For DXCC Honor Roll I have 358 Mixed, 353 CW, 358 Phone, and 319 Digital countries. I earned 5BWAZ. I've been fortunate to have been part of DX teams which were awarded "DXpedition of the Year." Here are some of the links that we mention during the discussion: QRZ https://www.qrz.com/ DX Summit http://www.dxsummit.fi/#/ DXCC Country List https://www.arrl.org/files/file/DXCC/2020%20DXCC%20Current%20.pdf Clublog Most Wanted https://clublog.org/mostwanted.php N1MM https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/ DXLabs https://dxlabsuite.com/ Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.org DX Code of Conduct : https://www.dx-code.com/ Daily DX https://www.dailydx.com/ DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/ Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/ IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/ IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/ IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/ IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #Hamradio In this episode of The DX Mentor, our Ralph, K9ZO, will share many ways that he has improved his DXing. Ralph is very accomplished as his bio states "My interests include technology, entrepreneurship, contesting, DXing, CW, VHF, propagation, and being very active on the HF bands. DXpeditions really excite me! I'm an Assistant Director, 50 Year Member, and Life Member with the ARRL. I'm a past President, State Coordinator, and former Board member of the Society of Midwest Contesters (SMC) - W9SMC. I am the former "Contesting on a Budget" column editor for the National Contest Journal, NCJ. I'm a former member of the Metro DX club. I have earned 10BDXCC, 10 Band WAS, and the Triple Play Award. I am active with DXCC Challenge with 2911 slots. For DXCC Honor Roll I have 358 Mixed, 353 CW, 358 Phone, and 319 Digital countries. I earned 5BWAZ. I've been fortunate to have been part of DX teams which were awarded "DXpedition of the Year." Here are some of the links that we mention during the discussion: QRZ https://www.qrz.com/ DX Summit http://www.dxsummit.fi/#/ DXCC Country List https://www.arrl.org/files/file/DXCC/2020%20DXCC%20Current%20.pdf Clublog Most Wanted https://clublog.org/mostwanted.php N1MM https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/ DXLabs https://dxlabsuite.com/ Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.org DX Code of Conduct : https://www.dx-code.com/ Daily DX https://www.dailydx.com/ DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/ Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/ IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/ IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/ IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/ IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:Foreign BCB DX 1970'sReception location: Ancaster, Ontario, CanadaReceiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 or Realistic DX-150A and a longwire antennaNotes: Although I did not focus much on foreign broadcast band (medium wave) DXing in the 1970's, I did manage to save a few brief recordings of a handful of stations logged from my location in southern Ontario, Canada.1. Radio Margarita, La Asuncion (Isla Margarita) Venezuela 1020 kHz2. Radio Clarin, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 860 kHz3. XEMO, Tiajuana, Mexico 860 kHz4. Radio Sutatenza, Bogota, Colombia 810 kHz5. XERF, Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico 1570 kHz (ID given by well known personality Paul Kallinger)

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #Hamradio In this episode of The DX Mentor, our #DX gurus, will discuss: NE8Z, Rick, and his passion for Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, and DX! Here are the topics: Intro to all – W8GEX and NE8Z Rick – How did you get in to Ham Radio? (first licensed etc.) How did you get in to DXing? You have been on at least 60 DXpeditions, tell us about the highlights of a couple What was your favorite? What modes and equipment do you use? I think I have worked you the most when you were in HC and HC8. How were those Experiences? Who is HD8MM? Do I recall that you have achieved DXCC from the Galapagos? What advice to you have for those of us trying to break pileups? Where are you going next? References: Lonesome George: This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #Hamradio In this episode of The DX Mentor, our #DX gurus, will discuss: The 2023 DX Year in Review document that was published by W3UR and W1JR. This is an excellent source of reference material and has been around for quite some time. I hope you enjoy this discussion of how the material is collected, edited, and then made available to hams. Intro to all – W8GEX and NE8Z Rick – How did you get in to Ham Radio? (first licensed etc.) How did you get in to DXing? You have been on at least 60 DXpeditions, tell us about the highlights of a couple What was your favorite? What modes and equipment do you use? I think I have worked you the most when you were in HC and HC8. How were those Experiences? Who is HD8MM? Do I recall that you have achieved DXCC from the Galapagos? What advice to you have for those of us trying to break pileups? Where are you going next? Reference to Lonesome George https://www.amnh.org/explore/preserving-lonesome-george NE8Z: https://www.qrz.com/db/NE8Z HD8MD: https://www.qrz.com/db/HD8MD HD8MM: https://www.qrz.com/db/HD8MM Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.org DX Code of Conduct : https://www.dx-code.com/ Daily DX https://www.dailydx.com/ DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/ Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/ IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/ IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/ IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/ IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/

HF & DXing with Virgil (K4CUP).

DXing the entire AM Broadcast Band during the 2024 solar eclipse. Rattlegram, a new digital text messaging mode for HF/VHF/UHF recreational and emergency communications. Smith charts with the NanoVNA. 1:29:19

DXing the entire AM Broadcast Band during the 2024 solar eclipse. Rattlegram, a new digital text messaging mode for HF/VHF/UHF recreational and emergency communications. Smith charts with the NanoVNA. 1:29:19

GB2RS News Sunday the 21st of January 2024 The news headlines: British Science Week is approaching Updates on the RSGB's Strategic Priorities RSGB election deadline reminder   This year's British Science Week runs from the 8th to the 17th of March with the theme of Time. This event is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of amateur radio in your local area. The RSGB has some great activity ideas you could try at your local school, Scout or Guiding group or local youth club. Go to the web page at rsgb.org/bsw and click on the activity titles to find everything you need to know to be able to run that activity. Several radio clubs from across the UK have already planned outreach activities for British Science Week and the RSGB hopes its resources will inspire you to get involved too! RSGB volunteer John Hislop, G7OHO has provided these ideas but the Society would love to add other activities to enthuse young people about wireless communication. If you have an amateur radio activity on the theme of Time that you'd like to share, or if you'd like to get involved but aren't sure how to start, please direct enquiries to the RSGB British Science Week contact, Ian Neal, M0KEO. Ian's contact details will soon be available at rsgb.org/bsw At the Discussion with the Board session at the RSGB 2023 Convention, the RSGB President, John McCullagh, GI4BWM confirmed that the Board would keep members updated regularly on progress with the new strategic priorities. Two updates have now appeared in the January and February issues of RadCom and they are also available to read on the RSGB website. These updates highlight some important activities and achievements as well as new plans, so the Society encourages every member to take the time to read them. Go to rsgb.org/strategy and choose the ‘Strategy priorities updates' option from the righthand list. Further updates are being prepared so do check back regularly or look out for them in each RadCom. You can also watch the Discussion with the Board Convention session on the RSGB's YouTube channel at youtube.com/theRSGB The deadline for applications for the one elected RSGB Board Director position and eight Regional Representative roles is Wednesday the 31st of January. Amateur radio needs a strong and active national society so don't leave it to everyone else, step forward for one of these roles and play your part in the future of the RSGB. You'll find guidance and candidate forms on the RSGB elections web page at rsgb.org/election as well as contact details if you want an informal chat before standing for election. A reminder that the RSGB is looking for four licensed radio amateurs to help raise the profile of wireless communication amongst young people across the UK. We have had a good response, but we'd still like to hear from prospective volunteers in Northern Ireland and Wales. These volunteer Youth Country Representatives will represent the RSGB at externally organised events and will plan and deliver outreach activities. If you have plenty of ideas, a passion for getting young people involved in amateur radio and experience of running small-scale events, we would be very keen to hear from you. The deadline is Friday the 16th of February. For full details, see rsgb.org/volunteers and for an informal discussion, please email RSGB Board Director, Ben Lloyd, GW4BML at gw4bml@rsgb.org.uk GB2RS began broadcasting via the Es'hail-2 amateur satellite in May 2021. Every Sunday at 0800UTC you can hear the latest RSGB news on the dedicated narrow-band QO-100 transponder frequency of 10489.855MHz. This has proved so popular that, by the kind permission of AMSAT-DL, from the 4th of February 2024 we're introducing a second reading at 2100UTC. This will suit our international audience in the western lobe of the footprint. The existing team of three Newsreaders is looking for another volunteer to join them. If you are an RSGB member with a good QO-100 facility and would be interested in broadcasting the news, please contact the GB2RS Manager, Steve, G4HPE at gb2rs.manager@rsgb.org.uk for further details. During February, the RSGB's Photo Friday focus on social media is all about clubs. If you'd like your club to be included, let the RSGB comms team know what you've been up to and who's been involved and share all the brilliant things you've been doing. Email comms@rsgb.org.uk by the 31st of January with a brief summary of the activity and some photos, and please make sure that everyone in the photo is happy to have their face on social media! Chris Deacon, G4IFX has been awarded a PhD from the University of Bath after completing research on propagation. His thesis was entitled: “Radio propagation through ionospheric Sporadic-E”. This part-time work over many years involved looking at Sporadic-E on the 6m band, including making novel measurements of signal amplitude, phase, derived Doppler, polarisation and potential time delay to discover the nature of sporadic-E propagation at VHF frequencies. The RSGB Propagation Studies Committee congratulates Chris on this fantastic achievement. You can find out more by searching for Chris' name on the University of Bath research portal at researchportal.bath.ac.uk  Chris has done a number of presentations about propagation at RSGB Conventions over the years, which you can see on the RSGB YouTube channel at youtube.com/theRSGB And now for details of rallies and events The Lincoln Short Wave Club Winter Radio Rally will take place on Sunday the 28th of January at The Festival Hall, Caistor Road, Market Rasen, LN8 3HT. The doors will be open from 9 am and admission is £2. Ample free car parking and hot refreshments will be available. The tables cost £10 each. At 2 pm, after the Rally, there will be a used equipment auction. Items for the auction will be booked from 1 pm. Contact Steve, M5ZZZ for tables and details via m5zzz@outlook.com or 07777 699 069. The Canvey Rally will be held on Sunday the 4th of February at Cornelius Vermuyden School, Dinant Avenue, Canvey, Essex, SS8 9QS. The Rally is expected to be the usual hive of activity with plenty of traders on site. For more information contact Richard Stanley at 07725 551 263 or email g7oed@icloud.com  The MIDCARS Radioactive Rally will be held on Sunday the 11th of February at Nantwich Civic Hall, Market Street, Nantwich, CW5 5DG. The doors open at 10 am and admission is £5. There will be a wide variety of trader stalls covering every aspect of amateur radio. Raffles will be held throughout the Rally. Refreshments and snacks will be available in the hall and parking is immediately adjacent to the venue. Now the Special Event News A team of German amateurs is operating a special event call sign DM24EHF until the 28th of January. The EHF suffix stands for European Handball Federation. The 16th edition of the European Men's Handball Championship is being hosted in Germany from the 10th to the 28th of January. QSL via the bureau, or directly to DL2VFR. The Straight Key Century Club's Straight Key Month is currently underway. The annual on-air event commemorates the Club's founding in 2006 and celebrates the original instruments of early radiotelegraphy including straight keys, bugs and ‘cootie' keys. Listen out for the K3Y callsign which is being aired from the ten US call areas. Information on the event and QSL instructions can be found at skccgroup.com/k3y “Discovering Marconi” is an international amateur radio diploma organised by the ARI Radio Club of Fidenza in Italy. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian scientist in 1874, this award aims to delve deeper into the thought, vision, capacity and character of Guglielmo Marconi. More details of special callsigns and award rules can be found at arifidenza.it Now the DX news Chris, WA7RAR will be active as 8P9CB from Barbados, NA-021, until the 25th of January. Most of his operations will be portable at various locations, especially Parks on the Air sites. He will be QRV on the 20 to 10m bands using CW and SSB. QSL via Logbook of the World, or directly to WA7RAR. Listen out for Bob, V4/N4RF who is active from Saint Kitts, NA-104, until the 25th of January. He will operate mainly CW, with some FT8 and SSB. QSL via Logbook of the World is preferred but is also available directly via his home call. Now the contest news On Tuesday the 23rd, the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1930 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 13cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The CQ 160m DX Contest starts at 2200UTC on Friday the 26th and ends at 2200UTC on Sunday the 28th. Using CW on the 160m band, the exchange is signal report and CQ zone. American stations send their state and Canadian stations send their province. The British Amateur Radio Teledata Group RTTY Sprint starts at 1200UTC on Saturday the 27th and ends at 1200UTC on Sunday the 28th. Using RTTY on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is a serial number. The UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon began on Friday the 1st of December 2023. The contest will run until the 31st of January 2024. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 18th of January 2024 We had yet another week with good solar conditions which, at this point in the cycle, is good news. The solar flux index remained in the 170s to 180s range and the Sun is currently peppered with spots. The Kp index never got above 3.33 and that was only for one three-hour period on January the 16th. We were also lucky with solar flares in that we only had minor C-class flares to contend with. An eruption was observed beyond the west limb on January 14th. The event generated a fast-moving coronal mass ejection or CME, but it was directed away from our planet. Daytime MUFs over 3,000km remain high at more than 28MHz. At night this reduces to around 6.9 to 9.5MHz, meaning only the 40m band is mainly open to DX, if at all. HF-wise, this is the best time for low-band DXing, such as 40m band contacts with New Zealand around sunrise, and overnight QSOs on the 80m band with the USA. Other DX being worked by members of CDXC includes XU7AKU in Cambodia on 40m CW in the early evening; V31XX in Belize, VP9KF in Bermuda, on 30m CW around 1000UTC; and E20AX in Thailand on 40m CW around 0930UTC. Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index may remain in the 160 to 170 range with a maximum Kp index of 2. As always, take that Kp prediction with a pinch of salt as a single Earth-facing coronal mass ejection could send it sky-high with an accompanying lowering of the MUF and generally poor conditions. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The main theme of the VHF and up propagation options is that we have three distinct phases coming up. The first phase is set to end today, the 21st. This will be the final blast of the cold northerly wind, which may produce some rain scatter near coasts from snow showers. It is probably not especially useful for Tropo, even inland, except perhaps for local overnight temporary short-distance enhancements due to surface cooling and night frosts. Phase two is the transition to very unsettled, wet and windy weather, which starts to arrive during this weekend, ending the 21st, and generally sets the pattern for much of the coming week. Maybe it will be a rain scatter option for the GHz bands, but the main radio consideration will be wind potentially damaging antennas, particularly in the south. Phase three will be the introduction of a weak ridge of high pressure over southern Britain in the second half of the coming week and the following weekend. This could bring some more productive Tropo to southern parts of the UK, especially into the last weekend of the month. Other propagation modes are available but don't seem to be elevated beyond chance occurrences for meteor scatter or aurora. There is a vanishingly small chance of Sporadic-E, as we are in the minimum period for this sort of propagation until after Easter. For EME operators, Moon declination is positive and rising, reaching a maximum on the 23rd. Path losses increase all week until apogee on Monday the 29th. 144MHz sky noise is low to moderate this coming week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS News Sunday the 10th of December 2023 The news headlines: 23cm recommendation approved at WRC-23 RSGB Examinations Standards Committee report published RSGB Elections process begins   The third week of the WRC-23 World Radiocommunication Conference has seen the approval of a new footnote to the 23cm amateur band at 1240 to 1300MHz under Agenda Item 9.1-b. This draws attention to the recently released ITU-R Recommendation 2164 that provides guidance to avoid interference to radio navigation satellite services, or RNSS, such as Galileo. This is a major landmark after four years of hard work which started after WRC-19 and now lays out the basis for guidance and next steps. IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH said that the addition of a footnote that provides guidance to administrations in the event of interference to the RNSS is a good regulatory outcome for amateurs and the primary users of this band. You can read more on this story at tinyurl.com/RecRNSS  The IARU team continues its work on other WRC issues including the development of agendas for future conferences. The RSGB special focus page provides regular updates and additional detail. You can find the page at rsgb.org/wrc-23  The RSGB Examinations Standards Committee has published its annual report, covering the operation of the amateur radio exams during the calendar year of 2022. You can read the report on the RSGB website. Go to rsgb.org/esc and click on Minutes, Papers and Reports in the righthand list. If you are keen to see amateur radio, and the RSGB, continue to thrive over the coming years, this is the time to volunteer for an RSGB Board or Regional Team role. This year the Society is looking for one elected Board Director, two Nominated Board Directors and eight Regional Representatives. You can find candidate packs, forms and further details on the Society's website at rsgb.org/election If you're interested but unsure, please read the information set out on the elections web page first and then have an informal chat with the RSGB Company Secretary. Email Stephen Purser, GW4SHF at company.secretary@rsgb.org.uk The RSGB Board is delighted to announce that Bob Beebe, GU4YOX has been appointed as the new Nominations Committee Chair. The Board would like to thank Stephen Purser, GW4SHF for his work in this role over a number of years, and it is pleased that he will continue in his other role as Company Secretary. You can find out more about the Nominations Committee on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/nomcom and you can email Bob via nominations.chair@rsgb.org.uk Don't forget that the last of the RSGB's Tonight@8 webinars for 2023 is at 8 pm tomorrow, Monday the 11th of December. It focuses on amateur radio construction and the RSGB Construction Competition. Jenny Curtis M7JNY, Colin Murray GM4EAU, and David Law G0LBK will talk about the projects they worked on and why they decided to submit them to the RSGB Construction Competition in recent years. Watch live on the RSGB YouTube channel or special BATC channel and ask questions via the live chat. To find out more go to the RSGB website at rsgb.org/webinars EIRSAT-1 launched on a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA at 1819UTC on Friday the 1st of December 2023. 'EIRSAT-1' stands for 'Educational Irish Research Satellite'. A team of students at University College Dublin, with support from academic and professional staff, has designed, built, tested, and will operate, Ireland's first satellite, a 2U CubeSat. It has a downlink on the IARU coordinated frequency of 437.100MHz. For more information about the project visit eirsat1.ie The UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon is underway. The objective is to work as many four-digit grid squares as possible, between 0000UTC on the 1st of December 2023 and 2359UTC on the 31st of January 2024, on the 6m band. Logs can be submitted until 12 February 2024. For more information visit uksmg.org It is now the second week of Youngsters on the Air month. Special callsign GB23YOTA has already been operated by a range of schools, universities and radio societies. The RSGB National Radio Centre is active today Sunday the 10th of December using GB23YOTA between 9 am and 5 pm. On Monday the 11th of December Hilderstone Radio Society will be on the air with St Peter-in-Thanet School in Kent between 12 pm and 6 pm. Mallaig High School will be hosting the special callsign for the second time this month between 12pm and 3pm on Thursday the 14th of December. Tommy M7OMY, who was involved with Youngsters on the Air month in 2022, is back again this year and will be operating GB23YOTA supervised by M0BOY for the whole of Saturday the 16th of December. Remember to listen out for all these young operators on the air and help make them feel welcome in the world of amateur radio. If you'd like to get involved and operate GB23YOTA, there is still time. Email Jamie, M0SDV at yota.month@rsgb.org.uk to register your interest or ask for further information.  And now for details of rallies and events The Sparkford Wireless Group Tabletop Rally, in aid of the RAIBC, will take place on Thursday the 28th of December from 9.30 am to 1 pm. The event will be held at Davis Hall, Howell Hill, West Camel near Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 7QX. Entry is £3 and free parking and refreshments will be available. For more information, email Bob via wjh069@gmail.com The Lincoln Short Wave Club Winter Radio Rally will take place on Thursday the 28th of January at The Festival Hall, Caistor Road, Market Rasen, LN8 3HT. The doors will be open from 9 am and admission is £2. Ample free car parking and hot refreshments will be available. The tables cost £10 each. At 2 pm, after the Rally, there will be a used equipment auction. Items for the auction will be booked from 1 pm. Contact Steve, M5ZZZ for bookings and information via m5zzz@outlook.com or 07777 699 069. Now the Special Event News On Thursday the 14th of December, from 1700UTC, lots of special event stations from The Netherlands will be on the air. The callsigns in use will follow the format PA01MIL with each station having a unique combination of numbers in the callsign. The operators will be arranged into teams – each team containing two military personnel and one amateur. The stations will work on the HF bands using SSB. The objective of the event is to promote amateur radio so please do give them a call. Special callsign SX25GTC is in use until the 15th of December to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Greek Telegraphy Club. Listen for CW activity on the 160 to 6m bands. QSL via Logbook of the World. See QRZ.com for information about certificates that are available. Now the DX news Burkhard, DL3KZA is active as YB9/DL3KZA from Lombok Island, OC-150, until the 18th of December. QSL via home call, direct or bureau. The V6EU team is active from Chuuk Island, OC-011, in Micronesia until the 16th of December. The team will operate on the 160 to 10m bands using SSB, CW, RTTY and FT8. QSL via DL2AWG. Now the contest news On Tuesday the 12th, the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. Using FM on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday the 12th, the 432MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The ARRL 10m Contest started at 0000UTC yesterday, Saturday the 9th and ends at 2359UTC today, the 10th. Using CW and Phone on the 10m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. American, Canadian and Mexican stations also send their state or province code. On Wednesday the 13th, the 432MHz FT8 Activity four-hour Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Also on Wednesday the 13th, the 432MHz FT8 Activity two-hour Contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. Using FT8 on the 70cm band, the exchange is a report and four-character locator. Stations entering the four-hour contest may also enter the two-hour contest. On Thursday the 14th, the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The Stew Perry Top Band Challenge runs from 1500 UTC on Saturday the 16th to 1500 UTC on Sunday the 17th of December. Using CW on the 160m band, the exchange is your four-character locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 7th of December 2023 We dodged a bullet last week as a high-speed solar wind stream from a coronal hole sped past the Earth. Although the wind speed was often in excess of 600 kilometres per second, its Bz, or magnetic field, was pointing north. The net result was that most of this passed harmlessly away from Earth and the Kp index remained around three. Meanwhile, the solar flux index declined to 130 by Thursday, which is quite a difference from the 194 we had on the 23rd of November. Solar activity last week reached moderate levels thanks to multiple low-level M-class solar flares detected around active region 3513 in the northeast quadrant. This region also produced frequent C-class flares. Daytime MUFs over a 3,000km path mostly remained over 28MHz, while nighttime MUFs over a similar path length remained around 10MHz. As we head towards mid-winter, we may expect these nighttime MUFs to drop, with the result that the 80m band closes down for short-skip early on in the evening – the curse of the inter-UK 80m Club Championship contests! However, the 80m band may still be open over long distances and we are now entering the best time of year for low-band DXing. Keep an eye on the top end of the 80m band, around sunrise, for transatlantic signals. Next week NOAA predicts that the solar flux index may recover a little and be in the range of 130 to 150. Geomagnetic conditions will depend upon coronal mass ejections but are predicted to be good, with a peak of Kp4 on the 12th of November. There is a slender coronal hole on the Sun that could cause the Kp index to rise this weekend, ending the 10th, due to its associated solar wind stream. However, it shouldn't be too bad and any poor HF conditions are likely to be short-lived. Finally, NOAA has updated its progression forecast for Solar Cycle 25. It now predicts that this cycle will peak somewhere between January and September 2024 with a solar flux index of around 167 to 201. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The present spell of unsettled weather at the end of the first week of December will run into the first half of next week. This brings a limited chance of rain scatter on the GHz bands, but there is a strong signal in the models for a major change of weather patterns for the middle of next week.  This will be the arrival of high pressure around Wednesday the 13th that will probably last into the following weekend, although there is some model variation in how quickly it will move away. The main result is that, although it begins as a cold air with high pressure with frosts, it will probably develop surface temperature inversions, which will be useful for Tropo. Towards the end of next week, as the centre of the high drifts east, it will allow more moist air at the surface and produce stronger ducting potential as well as develop an upper-level inversion for longer DX paths into the continent. The evening of the 14th of December sees the peak of the biggest and most reliable meteor shower of the year. The Geminids have the potential for a zenithal hourly rate of 150. The higher 50MHz and 144MHz activity usually provide the best chances, and a reasonably quiet QTH with 100W and a beam will bring you plenty of digimode QSOs. QSOs are even made by EME-class stations on the 70cm band and strong, long reflections on the lower bands can allow SSB QSOs if you're persistent enough. That said, MSK144 and FSK441 digimodes will be the most reliable. Aurora remains a possibility, but the isolated out-of-season sporadic-E blips on the Propquest NVIS plots last month have quietened down for now. For EME operators, Moon declination is negative, falling further and reaching its minimum on Thursday the 14th. Path losses are falling towards a minimum at perigee on Saturday the 16th. 144MHz sky noise is moderate until the 12th and 13th when the Moon and Sun are close in the sky. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

Radio broadcasting in Vietnam, part 1. HFCC B23 opening plenary in Australia. KBS Korea and Radio Taiwan International anniversaries. 50 years of DXing for Jose Jacob.

Radio broadcasting in Vietnam, part 1. HFCC B23 opening plenary in Australia. KBS Korea and Radio Taiwan International anniversaries. 50 years of DXing for Jose Jacob.

GB2RS News Sunday the 15th of October 2023 The news headlines: • RSGB Construction Competition • New chair of the RSGB's Exams and Syllabus Group • RSGB 2023 Convention The RSGB recognises the importance of construction as a key element of amateur radio, whether that is using traditional construction skills or is a software or systems engineering project. The Society has launched its 2024 Construction Competition and the deadline for entries is the 1st of March 2024. To enable members across the country, and even the world, to enter, entries will be judged over the internet rather than in person. This year a new category called ‘Antennas' has been introduced so there are five categories you can enter: Beginners; Construction Excellence; Innovation; Software and Systems; and Antennas. Special recognition will be given to entries submitted by radio amateurs under the age of 24, and to those who have just gained their Foundation licence. A cash prize will be awarded for the winner of each section, with a bonus for the overall winner, who will also be declared the winner of the Pat Hawker G3VA Award. You can find out more, including how to enter, on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/construction-competition The RSGB is delighted to welcome Andrew Lenton, G8UUG as the new Chair of the Exams and Syllabus Review Group. The Society would also like to thank Donard de Cogan, M0KRK for his hard work and dedication, including chairing the Group for the past three years. You can contact Andrew via esrg.chair@rsgb.org.uk The RSGB 2023 Convention takes place over both days this weekend. There is a fantastic range of presentations on a variety of amateur radio topics. If you haven't already booked, you can buy day tickets on the door or join the Livestream at any time over the weekend. The Livestream contains 12 of the Convention presentations as well as exclusive interviews and additional content. We are asking radio amateurs to register for the Convention Livestream this year. Whether you are there in person, or joining radio amateurs from across the world online, make sure you are part of this major annual event. For more information about the full programme of presentations go to rsgb.org/convention and to register for the Livestream head over to rsgb.org/livestream As we get closer to the ITU World Radio Conference, WRC-23, which starts next month, the future of amateur radio, particularly the 23cm band, is of key importance. The ITU News Magazine has a feature article by IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH regarding amateur activity in the 23cm band. This is the topic of a challenging agenda item at the Conference which calls for measures that protect primary radio-navigation services such as Glonass and Galileo from amateur terrestrial and satellite usage. You can read the article by visiting tinyurl.com/TimVE6SH In related news, the IARU also reports that the last formal preparatory meeting ahead of the WRC on this topic was difficult and could not achieve a consensus on measures such as power and bandwidth limits, or frequency restrictions. The IARU supports further efforts and will continue to try to find a solution regarding suitable recommendations, whilst opposing the unwarranted statutory imposition of such. You can read the IARU's post on this subject via tinyurl.com/ITUR23cm  Also, you can hear the latest updates at the RSGB Convention on Sunday, in a talk by IARU expert and RSGB Microwave Manager Barry Lewis, G4SJH.  Jamboree On The Air, or JOTA, is an annual event in which Scouts and Guides all over the world communicate with each other via amateur radio. JOTA 2023 will run from Friday the 20th to Sunday the 22nd of October. You can find out more at jotajoti.info And now for details of rallies and events Dartmoor Autumn Radio Rally is taking place today, Sunday the 15th of October. The venue is Yelverton War Memorial Hall, Meavy Lane, Yelverton, Devon, PL20 6AL. The event features bring and buy, trader stands, refreshments and free parking. The doors open at 10am and admission is £2.50. For more information, contact Roger on 07854 088 882 or email 2e0rph@gmail.com Hornsea Amateur Radio Club Rally is also taking place today, Sunday the 15th of October. The venue is Driffield Showground, YO25 9DW. For more information, visit hornseaarc.com Part 2 of the British Amateur Television Club Convention for Amateur TV 2023 will take place on Saturday the 21st of October from 10am until 3pm. The event will feature online talks about ATV-related topics. For more information visit batc.org.uk/events The Galashiels Radio Rally will take place on Sunday the 22nd of October. The venue will be the Volunteer Hall, St Johns Street, Galashiels, TD1 3JX. The doors open at 11am. Entrance is £2.50, although under-16s will be admitted free of charge.  Now the Special Event News Today, the 15th, is the last chance to work EI4FOTA from the Blasket Islands, EU-007. A team of ‘Friends on the Air' will be busy activating special locations in and around Ireland until the 31st of August 2024. See QRZ.com for more information. Members of Radio Club F5KDC will be active as TM400BPA until Monday the 16th of October. Listen for activity on the 80, 40 and 20m bands using SSB and CW. The special callsign marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Blaise Pascal, the French polymath. Listen out for AT30IIH which is active until the 31st of December to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Indian Institute of Hams, or IIH. The IIH's focus is training and bringing young people into the amateur radio community. QSL via the bureau, direct or via eQSL. Now the DX news Today, the 15th, is the last chance to work a team of German amateurs that is active as TX6D from Tahiti, OC-046, in French Polynesia. The team is operating using CW, SSB and digital modes on the 160 to 10m bands. QSL to DL7DF directly or via the bureau, Logbook of the World or OQRS. Uli, DL2AH is active as V73AH until the 16th of October from Majuro, OC-029, in the Marshall Islands. He will operate SSB and FT8 on the 80 to 6m bands. QSL via Logbook of the World, eQSL or direct to DL2AH. Now the contest news The Oceania DX CW Contest started at 0600UTC on Saturday the 14th of October and ends at 0600UTC today, Sunday the 15th of October. On Monday the 16th of October, the RSGB FT4 Contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using FT4 on the 80, 40 and 20m bands, the exchange is your report. On Tuesday the 17th of October, the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on 1.3GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday the 19th of October, the 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Sunday the 22nd of October, the 50MHz Affiliated Societies Contest runs from 0900 to 1300UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The Worked All Germany Contest starts at 1500UTC on Saturday the 21st of October and ends at 1500UTC on Sunday the 22nd of October. Using CW and SSB on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. German stations also send their DOK reference. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 12th of October 2023 We had a period of low geomagnetic disturbance last week, which allowed the upper HF bands to shine. There were lots of reports of DX being worked on the 10m band as the Kp Index sat mainly in the ones and twos, with a maximum of Kp 3.33 for one three-hour period on the 9th. The Solar Flux Index, or SFI, also remained in the 150s and 160s, hitting a maximum of 166 on the 9th. All in all, these were very good conditions for high-band DXing, especially at this optimum time in the calendar. As promised last week, let's take a look at HF paths from the UK to the W8S Swains Island DXpedition in the South Pacific. The good news is that operations are in full swing and are being spotted daily on the DX Cluster. At a distance of approximately 9,500 miles from the UK on the short-path, and 15,300 miles on the long-path, it's quite a distance for signals to traverse. The short-path beam heading you need to select is a polar path at 350 degrees, and for long-path 169 degrees. The best openings to Swains from the UK start on the 20m band from about 0630UTC. As the morning progresses, move up in frequency until you get to the 10m band around 1000 to 1100UTC. This path should remain open until 1500 or 1600UTC, at which point you can drop down to the 12, 15 or 17m bands. Long-path openings may be a lot weaker, with a short opening on the 15m band from 0600 to 0800UTC. Then move to the 12 or 10m bands from 0700 to 0900UTC. There may also be a long-path evening opening from 1800 to 2000UTC on the 17 and 10m bands. The above predictions are for SSB and CW. You may find FT8 openings extend these times a little. For more details, and to compute your own predictions, see VOACAP.com or Proppy at soundbytes.asia/proppy This weekend, ending today the 15th, may see some geomagnetic disturbances due in part to a coronal hole. But, as long as we don't get any coronal mass ejections, this should settle after the weekend.  The Solar Flux Index is predicted to remain in the 150s with a maximum Kp index of two. If this turns out to be true, we should have a good week of DX hunting to come. And now the VHF and up propagation news The coming period of weather offers many changes, and it looks as though we have said goodbye to the warm air, with low pressure controlling events.   Just a gentle reminder to keep an eye on your antennas as this time of year can produce surprisingly rapid developments of deep low-pressure systems with associated strong winds.  Early next week, a temporary high returns to give you a chance to give those antenna supports and guys a once-over while winds are light, and leave the potential Tropo until the evenings and overnight. Incidentally, this new high is essentially a cold air high, so may not be as productive as the recent Tropo of the week just ending. The new high will probably hang around until midweek when it should migrate north to allow an easterly wind across the south. This will probably bring some showery rain along the east coast. It's possible that we may have some rain scatter from these showers. Meteor scatter is always good in October, with high random meteor rates and a number of small showers. Most notable of these is the Orionids Meteor Shower which peaks on the 22nd of October and is active until the 7th of November with an average zenithal hourly rate of around 20. Of course, aurora is also worth keeping in mind if you get any spare time! For EME operators, Moon declination is negative and falling all week, reaching minimum on Friday the 20th with corresponding shortening Moon windows. As we are now past apogee, path losses will continue to fall.  144MHz sky noise starts very high with the annular eclipse on Saturday the 14th. The following week sees it moderate, increasing to a high of over 2000 Kelvin on Thursday. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #Hamradio In this episode of The DX Mentor, our #DX gurus, will discuss: The Upcoming Clipperton Island DXpedition This is being conducted by the Perseverance DX Group Tell us about the Perseverance DX Group K3EL - David - Team Leader, Veteran of Mellish Reef, Austral Islands, Campbell Islands Heard Island, Marquesas Islands, Ducie Island, N6WN - Chris - EMT, Networking, RTTY, DXing -vs- Contesting January 17th for 16 days as TX5S The most recent major DXpeditions to Clipperton were: 2013 as TX5K, in 2008 as TX5C and in 2000 as FO0AAA. Additionally, during 2015 there was a scientific expedition to Clipperton. Operating as TX5P, Alain F6BFH made several thousand contacts. There has never been FT8 or 60m operation from Clipperton. Prep Why Clipperton? When did you start preparation? What kind of things must you take in to account when planning a DXpedition? Is this DXpedition any different than previous DXPeditions you have been on? Will there be a doctor on the DXpedition? DXpedition Support - Pilot Stations? - Fund Raising How can listeners contribute - Vendor Support Clipperton Island Any landing issues? First time for FT8 - prepared for that? First Time for 60M - Prepared for that? What does Science and Research mean? What can we do to help? Resources mentioned include: Clipperton Island https://clip.pdxg.net/ Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.org Daily DX https://www.dailydx.com/ DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/ Clipperton Island https://clip.pdxg.net/ Perserverance DX Group https://wp.pdxg.net/ Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/ IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/ IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/ IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/ IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/

GB2RS News Sunday the 21st of May 2023 The news headlines: Youngsters on the Air camp RSGB Board appointment RadCom Basics Editor   The RSGB has announced the team of young members who will be representing the Society and the UK at this summer's Youngsters on the Air camp. The event, hosted by the Hungarian Radio Amateur Society MRASZ, will take place in Gyor, Hungary between the 5th  and the 12th of August. The team is made up of team leader Alexander, 2E0FMZ and members Henry-James, M7HJR; Hannah, M7YYQ and Jake, M7JNS. You can read more about the camp and the team on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/yota-hungary The RSGB Board has decided to co-opt Ian Shepherd, G4EVK as a Board Director until the 2024 AGM. Please see the Board's explanation of this appointment on the Society's website at thersgb.org/go/boardcoopt The RSGB is sad to report that RadCom Basics Editor Lee Aldridge, G4EJB wishes to retire later this year. The RSGB thanks Lee for all his hard work and effort in the making of RadCom Basics. If you are interested in taking on the role of RadCom Basics Editor, please email radcom@rsgb.org.uk Last year, the RSGB was approached by the BBC to find experts to contribute to its planned series ‘The Secret Genius of Modern Life'. For episode one, which takes a look at the bank card, Neil Smith, G4DBN re-created the Great Seal Bug – a wooden seal, gifted to the US embassy in Moscow in 1945, and which contained a covert listening device. The technology developed for the bug was an early example of RFID, which is what allows contactless card payments to work. Neil has now released a series of fascinating videos on his YouTube channel which explain the history of the Bug as well as the mechanical design and machining needed to re-create it. You can find the videos in Neil's playlist on ‘Machining and Microwaves' and you can watch the original BBC Two programme on BBC Sounds – this episode is available for a further seven months. The RSGB National Radio Centre welcomes thousands of people through its doors each month and needs to expand its team of volunteers. If you are interested in becoming an NRC volunteer, you should enjoy meeting people and be prepared to work a minimum of one – preferably two – days per month. The team is particularly interested in recruiting new volunteers who are able to work at the weekend. The National Radio Centre has a fabulous set-up and full training on using the GB3RS radio station will be given. You will be joining a friendly and dedicated team. NRC volunteers also enjoy numerous benefits associated with volunteering at Bletchley Park. For more information about volunteering, please email NRC Coordinator Martyn Baker, G0GMB via nrc.support@rsgb.org.uk Interest in QRP activity is as strong as ever in the worldwide amateur radio community. QRP activity showcases the ability of radio amateurs to communicate using low power and helps to reduce QRM on amateur bands. This year, QRP Day will be held on the 17th of June. More information is available via the IARU website: iaru.org   And now for details of rallies and events RetrotechUK, hosted by the British Vintage Wireless Society, is taking place today, the 21st of May. The venue is Sports Connexion, Leamington Road, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry, CV8 3FL. This large annual vintage technology fair features around 200 indoor stalls. Private sellers, clubs and dealers are offering vintage items, including radio, television, hi-fi, vinyl, 78s, gramophones, telephones, communications equipment, spare parts, and much more. There is also a bring-and-buy area and free parking available. The event is open to everyone and general admission from 10.30 am is £10. Early entry from 9 am costs £25. For more details contact Jeremy, G8MLK via email at jezzer3@hotmail.com, by phone at 07799 110 080, or visit retrotechuk.com The Dunstable Downs Radio Club Annual National Amateur Radio Car Boot Sale is also taking place today, the 21st of May. The venue is Stockwood Park in Luton. All the usual facilities are available. For more information visit ddrcbootsale.org The Barry Amateur Radio Society Rally will take place on Saturday the 27th of May. The venue will be Sully Sports and Social Club, South Road, Sully, CF64 5SP. Doors open from 9.30 am for the public and 7.30 am for traders. Free parking is available on-site. For more information contact Steve on 07368 140 795. The Durham and District Amateur Radio Rally will take place on Sunday the 28th of May. The venue will be Bowburn Community Centre, Bowburn, Co Durham, DH6 5AT. The doors will be open from 10.10 am to 2.30 pm with disabled visitors gaining access at 10 am. Admittance is £2. There will be a bring-and-buy sale, trade stands, special interest groups and an RSGB bookstall. Catering and a licensed bar are available on-site. For more information, contact Michael Wright, G7TWX on 07826 924 192, or on email via dadars@gmx.com   Now the Special Event News Special callsign GB4VLB is active this weekend from the Volunteer Life Brigade Watch House in Tynemouth. The station is operating as part of SOS Radio Week in support of the Volunteer Life Brigade, RNLI and National Coast Watch Institution. For more information visit the GB4VLB QRZ page. QSL via Logbook of the World. Look out for the special callsign AU40NRO which is active until the 30th of June to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the National Institute of Amateur Radio in India. QSL via VU2NRO. North West Group Amateur Radio Club in Northern Ireland is running a special event station GB0AEL until the 26th of May to commemorate the anniversary of Amelia Earhart's transatlantic flight. On the 20th and 21st of May 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly nonstop and alone across the Atlantic, leaving Harbor Grace in Newfoundland, Canada, and landing 15 hours later in Northern Ireland. QSL via MI0HOZ, directly or via the bureau. Members of ARI Novara will be active as II1CAI until the 30th of June. The special callsign marks the 100th anniversary of the local section of the Italian Alpine Club, founded in 1863. QSL via IQ1NO.   Now the DX news Today is the last chance to work Pete, M1PTR, Tom, M0DCG and Kieron, M5KJM / EI6KP from Stockport Radio Society who are operating as EJ6KP from Great Blasket Island, EU-007. The team is active on the 40, 20 and possibly 15m bands using SSB. QSL via the bureau or OQRS. Bob, N7XR is active as V7/N7XR from Kwajalein Atoll, OC-028, in the Marshall Islands until late June or early July. He operates CW, RTTY and FT8 on the 160 to 10m bands. QSL via Club Log's OQRS. James, KI7MGY will be stationed in Djibouti until June and plans to be QRV as J28HJ on the 80, 40, 20, 17, 15 and 10m bands using SSB and FT8. QSL via Logbook of the World. Giorgio, IU5HWS will be active as 5UA99WS from Niamey, Niger until the 15th of June. In his spare time, he will be QRV on the 40 to 10m bands using FT8 and SSB. QSL via Logbook of the World, or via EA5GL.   Now the contest news Today, the 21st of May, the 1st 144MHz Backpackers Contest runs from 1100 to 1500UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. UK and Crown Dependency stations also send the first two letters of their postcode. Today, the 21st of May, the 144MHz May Contest ends its 24-hour run at 1400UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. UK and Crown Dependency stations also send the first two letters of their postcode. On Monday the 22nd of May, the FT4 Series Contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using FT4 on the 80, 40 and 20m bands, the exchange is your report. On Tuesday the 23rd of May, the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1830 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2.3GHz and up bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday the 25th of May, the 80m Club Championship runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using CW on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Saturday the 27th of May, the CQ Worldwide WPX CW Contest starts its 24-hour run at 0000UTC. Using CW on the 160 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Sunday the 28th of May, the UK Microwave Group High Band Contest runs from 0600 to 1800UTC. Using all modes on the 5.7 and 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.   Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 18th of May 2023 After last week's NOAA prediction that we would have settled geomagnetic conditions all week, it seems they were right! The Kp index never got above three – a miracle given the recent disruption due to coronal mass ejections and coronal holes. The proton flux from the Sun has declined as well. However, an M9 solar flare on Tuesday from active region 3310, and numerous C-class flares, maybe a precursor to more flare activity next week. With a solar flux index in the 130s and 140s, HF conditions have been quite good. Daytime maximum usable frequencies over a 3,000km path have usually exceeded 21MHz, with 24MHz seeing occasional F2-layer openings, as well as sporadic E propagation. At the moment, the 10m band is mainly open to Sporadic-E propagation with more DX paths now locked out until the Autumn. This is in line with predictions, as the ionosphere changes in the Northern Hemisphere summer with a change to more diatomic elements, which are harder to ionise. So, will our luck hold out next week? The Space Weather Prediction Centre forecasts that the Solar Flux Index, or SFI, will decline slightly to the 120s and this weekend should be geomagnetically settled. However, it is predicting that the Kp index will rise again from the 23rd of May. It suggests that the Kp index may hit four or even five for a few days before becoming more settled again from the 30th. The US Air Force disagrees and thinks the SFI will be higher, perhaps hitting 145 and even 155 by the 28th. It agrees that we are in for more unsettled geomagnetic conditions from the 24th to the 28th, possibly due to a coronal hole rotating into an Earth-facing position. So, expect MUFs to decline if the Kp index goes up, with poor overall HF conditions. It is certainly looking like this weekend may see the best conditions for HF, so we suggest you get your DXing in right now, with 14 to 21MHz offering the best prospects.   And now the VHF and up propagation news The upcoming weather week will be predominantly high-pressure driven, with an elongated region of high pressure from the Azores to Scandinavia. However, there is still scope for a few blemishes and as we end the current week it comes as isolated showers, especially in the south and weakening fronts over north-western Britain. Early next week, a brief period with low pressure over the near continent will threaten some heavier rain for south-eastern areas. Concentrating on the high-pressure part of the story, this means Tropo is a strong player and will hopefully be in attendance for the 144MHz May Contest and 144MHz Backpackers Contest this weekend.  Remember that, in the summer months, Tropo becomes much weaker over the land during the stronger heating of the daytime sunshine but can become quite widespread overnight and around coasts. The rainfall component can lead to good rain scatter options, especially as the summer usually produces more intense rainfall, so performs better as a scatterer on the GHz bands. The other primary propagation mode is going to be Sporadic-E as we move into the peak summer months. Follow the position of jet streams on the upper air charts, shown on propquest.co.uk and described in a daily blog. Don't forget there are always modes like aurora and meteor scatter, which can add to the excitement, but will need to be checked each day. Moon declination is at its highest this weekend for the Dubus EME 10GHz and up SSB/CW contest, peaking on Monday. With apogee next Friday, path losses will continue to increase. 144MHz sky noise is moderate early next week becoming low by Thursday. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

This is The DX Mentor podcast. I hope to help those hams trying to move up the DXCC ladder as well as those that at on the DXCC Honor Roll. As fast as technology is moving, no one can keep up on it all. I am here to help. #DX #Hamradio In this episode, our DX Gurus take us through what #QRP operating is and what can be done. It is amazing! Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions....

Av. Paulista Consolação, São Paulo (Photo by Gabriel Ramos) Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Radio Cidade Oldies made on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at 0405UTC on 10215kHz. Note that this is weak signal DXing as Paul's reception location was McGrath, Alaska.

Lauren Libby, W0LD, was my guest on the QSO Today podcast, five years ago this month, and because of a confluence of events including the ham expo and the holidays of the Jewish new year, I decided this week to go back into the QSO Today catalog and remaster an amazing interview I had with Lauren.  What's more, I got to meet Lauen in person at the Dayton Hamvention last May helping me to better choose the now remastered episode of Episode 161.  Lauren's love of radio broadcasting brought him to amateur radio, his interest in DXing by meteor scatter and EME moon bounce.  Lauren made his career in radio broadcasting and is the CEO of the World's largest International shortwave broadcasting network.  W0LD is my QSO Today.

This week on the Clubhouse we welcome Michel Smith VA6HEM from last weeks QSO. First licensed in 2014 he is active in HF contesting, team contesting and Dxing. Join us in the chat as we get to know Michel. You can reach the show at hamradioclubhouse@gmail.com HRC Monthly Giveaway sign up - https://www.hamradioclubhouse.comWant to catch the show on the go? Well now you can, we are now podcasting each episode. Available on your favorite podcast platform. If you would like to buy us a beer:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/w2hrcGuest YouTube channels:Our Channels:Joe - https://www.youtube.com/c/K5YVYAmateurRadioStationShane - https://www.youtube.com/thissideoftheradioDan BeerSnack- https://www.youtube.com/c/DanKD2FMWDon Izzo - https://www.youtube.com/smokesignalsrfSteve - https://www.youtube.com/c/SteveKO4AFLHamRadioDaniel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNcOZ7LUBddxjB0wGMYGcBwMerch Links:Joe - https://shop.spreadshirt.com/k5yvy/allShane - https://thissideoftheradio.myspreadshop.com/Discord Links:K5YVY & Friends - https://discord.gg/8WGfgJWUuTT.O.A.D.S- https://discord.gg/GaHVfUPwvT#hamradio #hamradioclubhouse #W2HRC

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:Here are two more back to back episodes from my collection of recordings of Shortwave Listener's Digest from Radio Canada International, this time from August 09, 1982 and August 16, 1982. This program's highlights are: more talk about submarine cables, changeover from GMT to UTC, part one of harmonics DXing by Glenn Hauser. The second program highlights are: more talk about submarine cables and ANARC news from Jeff White reporting on the 1982 ANARC convention, part 2 of Glenn Hauser's harmonics report.Broadcaster: Radio Canada InternationalDate of recording: 8/9/1982Starting time: 2107 UTCFrequency: 15.325 MHzReception location: South Bend, IndianaReceiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2001 and longwire

Back when the AM Broadcast Band was like the Wild WestAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

One of the great things about DXing and SWLing is the variety of music  one can hear. One of my favorite stations to listen to on shortwave for “exotic music” was Radio Tahiti, Papeete, French Polynesia, when they were still on shortwave. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe something happened to the transmitter, and they never got back on SW. They were on mediumwave through December of 2016 (738 kHz); now they are on FM only. (Maybe us hobbyists should start a funding website to put them back on shortwave!) Many a Saturday night I would turn on the DX-160 (my first SW rig) and let it warm up for a while, before tuning in 15170 to see how band conditions were. If the band was good, I'd get ready to record through the air. Once I started recording, I'd often leave the room and shut the door, because having three brothers around meant the possibilities were high for having “extraneous interference” on my recordings. Saturday evenings were a good time to tune in, because of a music program that aired with a good selection of island music. The program had an announcer who spoke in the island vernacular (Tahitian?), and when that program ended they switched to French. Here is a 30-min recording of Radio Tahiti on 15170 kHz from a while ago, most likely around one of the solar maxima of either 1980 or 1991. I'm leaning toward the 1980 cycle. My apologies for not being able to be more specific than that. I kept terrible records of my recordings. This would be recorded either with the DX-160 or a DX-302. Apologies too for the jump in volume at around the 2:37 mark. So close your eyes, imagine you are lying in a hammock on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific, with a warm breeze off the ocean and your favourite cooled beverage nearby, listening to some of the best island music anywhere. Recorded by Mark Pettifor, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive. Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

  On this episode, we talk to the three 2018 Hamvention Special Achievement award winners in Dayton, Ohio in May 2018, at the Dayton Hamvention. We're joined by Doug, K1DG, and Gerry, W1VE, to talk with Herb, KK4DCX, Victor, WP4SD, and Emilio, WP4KEY, about their amazing work to pass thousands of messages out of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck the island in Fall, 2017.  About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: A 26-year-old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,” is a 16-year-old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

Ham Radio and Neural Networking: https://hackaday.com/2017/12/16/neural-network-learns-sdr-ham-radio/ Alexa Ham Radio Skills: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dalexa-skills&field-keywords=ham+radio LoRA: https://lora-alliance.org Andreas Spiess- LoRA Experimenter on YouTube (Guy with a Swiss Accent): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu7_D0o48KbfhpEohoP7YSQ LoRAHam (LoRA for Ham Radio): https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/loraham N8RMA 2018 State of The Hobby Survey Results: https://sway.com/caKEAfl0sXg0Rwcz?ref=email Hamvention May 18-20: http://hamvention.org/ Ham Radio 2.0 Row Info: http://www.arrl.org/news/look-for-ham-radio-2-0-innovation-and-discovery-at-hamvention Forum List: http://hamvention.org/event-details/forums/ APRS Forum - Friday, 10:45 - 11:45am, Room 1. N0SSC will speak on APRS Apps Youth Forum - Saturday 9am-12pm, Room 2 Youth Forum Preview on Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp - https://www.spreaker.com/user/hamtalklive/episode-112-youth-forum-hamvention-previ Collegiate Dinner: Friday, 6:30pm at Caddy's Taphouse of Beavercreek, RSVP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1651353878280525/ Contest Supersuite Activities at Crowne Plaza: https://www.contestsupersuite.com/contest-related-events/ HAM RADIO - Friedrichshafen: http://www.hamradio-friedrichshafen.de/ham-en/ TIP JAR: Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 26 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,” is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

You probably thought this was another one of those spin-up podcasts whose hosts got bored with, didn't you? Well, you're WRONG! Yay. We debate, we get sad, we get happy, we criticize, we talk. It's ham radio like you've never heard it before!  HamRadioNow N0SSC Blog and Youtube HamRadio360 ends Workbench Podcast Field Radio Podcast and YouTube Channel 100 Watts and a Wire Ham Nation Amateur Logic Ham College Dave Casler (YouTube) The RAIN report Amateur Radio Newsline ARRL Audio News ARRL The Doctor is In Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative N6AA @ Yuma Hamfest NY2BB's Teleconference Recordings Amateur Radio Parity Act Bouvet is Off (3Y0Z) Bouvet is On (3Y0I) Dom 3Z9DX activates North Korea Hello Internet Podcast TIP JAR: Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content. 02:50 Where the Timestamps Begin 03:52 HamRadioNow Teaches Us Not To Stress over Editing 06:25 Gary Moving on from HamRadioNow, Enter David W0DHG 07:21 HamRadio360 also concludes... 08:12 PLP's friendly critique of other podcasts 16:30 Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative 18:14 Continued Beatings of the Dead ARRL Drama Horse 22:48 ARRL CEO's Retirement (heated debate!) 28:42 Don't leave the ARRL just because the board sucks at the moment... 31:35 Break 32:35 Sterling Talks about Homebrewing...Beer. 33:21 Bouvet Recap 41:35 Marty's Israel Trip  

On this episode, Marty briefly sits down to chat about where he has been and the future of the show! ►HamRadioNow Website: HamRadioNow.tv ►Ray Novak's blog on digital voice modes: http://blog.icomamerica.com/2017/10/30/is-your-digital-repeater-ham-friendly/ ►CQWW: cqww.com DONATE: Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate  Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline  Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

Marty and Sterling are on a roll with new episodes! On this one, YOTA is going on in the UK, 4O3A's fire tragedy, W0EEE update, Marty's visit to Worchester Polytechnical Institute Wireless Association (W1YK), how Marty's handling being the YHOTY, Huntsville hamfest info, N0SSC does a YouTube, we discuss Icom, we speculate FT8 killed both PSK Reporter and the radio star, and don't miss the solar eclipse...QSO party! A lot to talk about in 30 minutes, jeez. ►YOTA official website: ttps://www.ham-yota.com/ ►RSGB YouTube including a daily YOTA vlog: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRSGB ►4O3A fire cancel's YOTA's Youth Contesting Program: https://www.ham-yota.com/ycp-contest-at-4o3a-cancelled/ ►Worchester Poly Institute Wireless Association W1YK: https://qrz.com/db/W1YK ►ARRL Collegiate Amateur Radio Initative: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ARRLCARI/ ►Huntsville Hamfest, Aug 18-19, 2017: http://www.hamfest.org/ ►W5KUB LiveStream: http://w5kub.com/ ►Amateur Radio Newsline: https://www.arnewsline.org/ ►Shout out to Linux in the Hamshack: http://lhspodcast.info/ ►Find Marty featured on Ham Nation and the QSO Radio Show very soon ►N0SSC's youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/n0ssc (and the ATR2100 vs MXL990 mic check) ►PSKReporter: https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html ►Solar Eclipse QSO Party: http://www.hamsci.org/seqp-rules ►Sam KC2LRC talks about SEQP on HamTalkLive: https://www.spreaker.com/user/hamtalklive/episode-74-solar-eclipse-qso-party DONATE: Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts:Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.comMarty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

On this episode, Marty and Sterling sit down, and catch up. They talk about where the've been, YHOTY, FT8, WSPR, the Eclipse, and lots more! We hope you enjoy this new episode of the Phasing Line!  Please share the show with your friends and fellow hams, so we can get the word out! Enjoy. DONATE Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/   About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content. In contesting, he has operated from big stations like K1TTT, HH2AA, K1LZ and W7RN. His wins include the 2016 CQ WW SSB Rookie world plaque, and many regional W1 and EMA wins in smaller contests.  

Download Here This episode was recorded from the Phasing Line's booth at the Dayton Hamvention. The Phasing Line partnered with HamRadioNow to split the cost of the booths. We sat down with the queen of National Parks On The Air, Emily KB3VVE to chat all things NPOTA. This is a Phasing Line show, but Marty brought Gary, KN4AQ of HamRadioNow along for the ride. So, how was your POTA? Take a listen to Emily's story! NPOTA: NPOTA.ARRL.org W3ATB's adventure with Emily: http://w3atb.com/kb3vve-and-kc3fvn-at-the-appalachian-trail/ World Wide Flora and Fauna: wwff.co DONATE Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ HamRadioNow: HamRadioNow.tv About the host: Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

Download Here On this episode, Marty sits down with Val, NV9L to talk about DXing, Contesting, Bouvet 2018, Big Antennas, HOAs and lots more. We can all learn something from NV9L! Enjoy. Ham Nation: TWIT.TV/HN Bouvet 2018: www.bouvetdx.org/ DONATE Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

Download Here On this episode of the Phasing Line, Marty teamed up with the crew from HamRadioNow.TV to well.... ramble. We talked Dayton, Phasing Line, Emcomm, People in ham radio, Marathons, Radios, DMR, DSTAR, SDR, and so much more. Take a listening to this rambling episode of the Phasing Line! DONATE Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.  

Download Here On this episode, Marty sits down with Neil Rapp, WB9VPG to talk about well... just about everything under the sun (in ham radio)!  Enjoy. Amateur Radio Newsline: arnewsline.org Ham Talk Live: hamtalklive.com K9SOU, Neil's school radio club: https://www.qrz.com/db/K9SOU DONATE Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.  

Sterling has to take a quick break from the show until the end of April, we announce the drawing winners, and much more! Sorry for the delay with this episode, we've been pretty busy. There is another "normal" episode coming out within the next 48 hours. DONATE Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate  Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/ About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

We continue the ramblings, recapping the license survey, crappy conditions during ARRL SSB, W0EEE update, and how to design tower arrays and antennas.  Rolla Regional Amateur Radio Society Biggest Test Session Ever! 21 new and upgraded hams! http://www.rollanet.org/~rrars/testreports/030417/ Don Daso K4ZA will climb your towers: http://k4za.com/contact/ HFTA (comes with Antenna Book): http://k6tu.net/?q=TerrainProfiles EZNEC ($99): https://www.eznec.com/ 4nec2 (free): http://www.qsl.net/4nec2/ HFSS ($5000+): http://www.ansys.com/products/electronics/ansys-hfss $25 ARRL Prize Certificate Giveaway instructions: Be under 25 or a Patreon Supporter (at least $1 per month) Email contact@phasinglinepodcast.com with your name, callsign (if you have one), and proof of age or patreon support Closes 4/1/2017! What is it? You'll have to listen to find out! Disclaimer: We respect your privacy and promise not to sell or spam your information. Give us a little love, send us some dough! DONATE Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/   About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.   also, ZERO DAZE TIL THE 109TH BEST EVER ST PATS!

We interviewed Emma KC9YGJ after Sterling found her article in the December 2016 issue of QST, pages 63-64, discovering she's only 14 years old!  We chat about ham radio as it relates to aviation and the Oshkosh airshow (aka EAA AirVenture), and a W0EEE update at the end.  Shownotes:  EAA AirVenture Oshkosh: https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure W9EVT's "Ham Radio Museum" Station: https://www.qrz.com/db/W9EVT W0EEE's Current Status: Empty.   Check out our new website at http://phasinglinepodcast.com. You can also now donate using Paypal. Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate/ for more details on how to chip in.  Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/   About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.

We continue our ramblings with this latest episode of Phasing Line. Marty worked NAQP, Sterling goes on about livestreaming and youth, and we did it all while Marty had a migraine!  Sterling's Hamfest talk on Amateur Radio's Next Generation (N0SSC.com) Reverse Beacon Network 115th Congress H.R. 555 - Amateur Radio Parity Act Amateur Radio Parity Act on ARRL.org Missouri Amateur Radio Parity Act (MARPA.us) MARPA Facebook Group Check out our new website at http://phasinglinepodcast.com. You can also now donate using Paypal. Check out http://phasinglinepodcast.com/donate/ for more details on how to chip in.    Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/     About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.  

On this episode of the Phasing Line, Marty and Sterling join forces with the whole team at HamRadioNow. We talked about Youth, Contesting, Remotes, Cars, Emcomm, and everything in between! Take a listen here, or at HamRadioNow.TV. Special mention to QSO Today's episode with Brooke Allen, N2BA, which was much of the discussion of this show.  Please consider donating to help support the show. Putting on this show ain't cheap, and we aren't in the black! Consider giving us a little bit of help. Click the big logo below, or check out https://www.patreon.com/PhasingLinePodcast  Big thanks to our first 4 Patreon supporters helping us defer the costs of running the show! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Tweet at us: https://twitter.com/phasingline Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhasingLinePodcast/     About the hosts: Sterling, N0SSC: 25 year old freshly graduated electrical engineer from St. Louis, Missouri who's in the hobby for contesting, youth engagement, and just about everything else. He's a former ARRL youth editor and a big advocate for collegiate amateur radio. http://n0ssc.com Marty, KC1CWF: The infamous “Chicken With Fries,”  is a 15 year old ham from the Boston, MA area, who loves contesting, DXing, building stations and mentoring others. He is very involved in ham radio related media production and web content.