Podcasts about qth

Darling Downs Radio Club news. Coming up on 10 May we're running our inaugural annual club Foxhunt and family day. The actual hunt will start at 1030 and will run no further than a 15 km radius from the starting location at Peacehaven Park in Highfields, just north of Toowoomba. The Fox frequency will be 145.650 kHz, and the hunt is going to be staged so that experienced hands and rank beginners can both have fun. Doesn't matter where you are in the state; we'd love you to come and join us - we already know of a few distant households who will come to stay in Toowoomba overnight, and the aim is to be as social as possible. The hunt will start from Peacehaven Botanic Park on Kuhls Road in Highfields and is also the location for the post-hunt BBQ. Tons of parking, easy access, wet-weather protection, and great family amenities. Our next club tech session is on Monday, 12 May, when Simon VK4TSC will join us from the Brisbane WICEN group to guide us on the WICEN state of mind, and talk about the Hip Pocket Challenge Horse enduro, which has been rescheduled for Southbrook on 28 June. Hello, I'm Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I've been thinking. A comment about the quality of the image on one of the free-to-air TV channels started me thinking about progress. Compare the sound reproduction of a portable cassette player to a digital machine, and you can appreciate the way things have improved. With television, the images that we get when archived material is shown are appalling compared to the images we saw on the screens in our living rooms 30 or more years ago. Just as the digital TV was a vast improvement over the old PAL services, the newer HD is another jump ahead in home entertainment. This brought me around to thinking about the radios that I have used in the past. Budgets being what they are on the domestic front, most of my rigs have been 2 nd hand, so already showing their ages by the time I got to use them. From hybrid to fully solid-state HF radios, there seems not to be much difference in performance. For someone who started listening on the large console receiver dominating the lounge room and then went through home-made and commercial simple sets, it was amazing at the time what the multiband and multimode brand-name transceiver could do. Still, as most of us will have experienced, these older rigs had their own characteristics which made them good, but at times finicky and annoying on reception. They are perfectly usable, but you have to tolerate overlapping signals and front-end overload, from time to time, as they represent the technology of the period of manufacture. More recently, I was able to purchase an Asian SDR as my introduction to the multicoloured scrolling display. What a great little rig that has yet to do duty out in the rig. It is versatile and every bit a good as the best shortwave rig that I have owned. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been fortunate to use a full-blown 100W SDR transceiver made by a major Japanese company. Before receiving this piece of kit, I watched several online videos and took note of what users and reviewers had to say. I must say that I have yet to put a signal on air, and I have to fight the electrical noise which envelopes this QTH, but the received signals and sensitivity just blow me away. I am using a shortened centre-loaded vertical antenna in a poor location, but pulling voices out of nothing is amazing. There can be no trace on the display, and the audio is readable. There can be close-by signals without heterodyning, and I have yet to find out how this unit handles a really close-by and strong signal. I suspect it will use the AGC to the best advantage and still provide a clean signal through the speaker. I am impressed with the improvements that digital technology is providing now, and I hope we all appreciate the engineering developments for our recreation. I'm Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and that's what I think. How about you?

GB2RS News Sunday the 1st of September The news headlines: RSGB collaborates on a special contact with the International Space Station The RSGB's Tonight@8 webinar autumn programme starts tomorrow, the 2nd The RSGB is getting ready for National Coding Week We are delighted to announce that the Radio Society of Great Britain and ARISS, in conjunction with Girlguiding Surrey West and Brooklands Museum including the Innovation Academy, have been collaborating on a special event due to take place on Saturday the 5th of October. Girlguiding President, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh will attend a planned contact with the International Space Station as part of a visit to promote the engagement and involvement of girls and young women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Further details of the contact and the event will be announced in late September. The RSGB's autumn Tonight@8 programme starts this Monday, the 2nd of September. Brian Coleman, G4NNS will give an update on the Meteor Beacon Project which is a cooperation between the worlds of amateur radio and astronomy. The first phase of this project was completed in May 2022 when the UK meteor beacon GB3MBA went on the air from the Sherwood Observatory of the Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society. It enabled studies of meteor events over the UK using simple equipment and made possible a range of STEM projects featuring radio and astronomy. The second phase of the project, which Brian will describe in the presentation, is to develop a network of receivers streaming their data via a central server for detailed studies of individual meteor events. You can watch and ask questions live on the RSGB YouTube channel or a special BATC channel. To find out more go to the RSGB website at rsgb.org/webinars The RSGB is getting ready for National Coding Week which begins on the 16th of September. This national event is in its 11th year and encourages people of all ages to try coding, or programming as it is also called. During the next few days, the RSGB's Outreach Team will release two new coding activities for you to try on your own, with members of your local club, or at a school or other youth group. These are in addition to the seven activities the Society shared last year. This is a great opportunity to see how coding can link with your usual amateur radio activities, or for you to try something new. If you are planning an activity or an event or would like some support, please email the RSGB National Coding Week Coordinator Nigel Thrower, G3YSW via ncw@rsgb.org.uk  You can find the coding activities on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/coding The British Science Association has announced that applications for kick-start grants will open on the 17th of September 2024. The grants are provided to help schools in challenging circumstances to deliver events and activities as part of British Science Week. To find out more visit the British Science Week website and enter ‘Grant applications for British Science Week 2025' in the search box located in the top right-hand corner. If you need some inspiration on how to get involved, the RSGB is already planning for the March event. You can go to rsgb.org/bsw to find out more, as well as to view activity ideas and lesson plans from previous years. If you'd like to get involved or have any questions, you can email the RSGB British Science Week Coordinator, Ian Neal, M0KEO at bsw@rsgb.org.uk RSGB Members can ensure that they are the first to hear about the Society's online webinars and events by registering to receive updates by email. Simply log into the RSGB members' portal, select the ‘Manage Preferences' tab and click the online events option. By selecting this preference you'll be kept up to date on events such as the Tonight@8 webinars, which are already shaping up to have a brilliant programme for the Autumn. Keep an eye on your mailboxes for more news about these soon. Don't forget that the popular Churches and Chapels on the Air event, also known as CHOTA, is taking place on Saturday the 14th of September. Lots of stations will be on the air from 10 am to 4 pm so please give them a call. The operation will be focused on the 80, 40 and 20m bands. To see the list of churches and chapels taking part visit the ‘CHOTA' tab on the World Association of Christian Radio Amateurs and Listeners website at wacral.org The RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park, or NRC, will be closed for one day on Monday the 16th of September to allow time for some minor decorating and cleaning. Don't forget that RSGB members can gain free entry to Bletchley Park and the NRC by downloading a voucher from rsgb.org/bpvoucher And now for details of rallies and events Telford Hamfest is taking place today, Sunday the 1st of September at Harper Adams University near Newport, Shropshire. The doors open at 10.15 am and admission is £5. Children up to the age of 16 will be admitted free of charge. Free parking, catering, an RSGB bookstall, and a bring-and-buy area are available on site. For more details visit tdars.org.uk or email John, M0JZH at hamfest@tdars.org.uk The Caister Lifeboat Radio Rally is due to take place on Sunday the 8th of September at Caister Lifeboat station, Caister on Sea, NR30 5DJ. The doors will be open from 9 am to 8 pm and there is no admission fee. Sellers can gain access from 8 am. For more information email Zane, M1BFI via m1bfi@outlook.com or phone 07711 214 790. The Broadcast Engineering Museum near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is new and a work in progress, so it only opens a few days each year. The next open days are coming up on Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th of September from 11 am to 4 pm. The Museum contains a vast collection of historic broadcasting equipment and memorabilia, some restored and working, on display in a former RAF sergeants' mess. Free parking is available on-site. For more information email contactus@becg.org.uk or visit becg.org.uk Now the Special Event news Carmarthen Amateur Radio Society is taking part in Churches and Chapels on the Air again this year with special event station GB2SCC. The station will be operating on Saturday the 14th of September from 0900 to 1500UTC on the 40 and 17m bands using SSB. Operators will also be available for VHF and UHF FM calls. For more information see QRZ.com Austin, M0MNE, who is a marine engineer in the Merchant Navy, will be operating special callsign GB0MND on the HF Bands and flying the British Red Ensign from the seafaring town of South Shields, home of the world's longest-operating marine training college. This is to commemorate Merchant Navy Day on the 3rd of September and the merchant seafarers all over the world who work tirelessly, day in and day out, keeping global trade afloat. The station will operate from the 3rd of September until World Maritime Day on the 26th of September. On the 3rd of September, Austin will be concentrating on SSB and CW on the 40, 20 and 15m bands. During the rest of the month, he will be working on all bands using SSB, CW, FT8, and digital modes such as Olivia, Domino, Hell and SSTV. More information about the station and Merchant Navy Day is available via QRZ.com Callington and District Amateur Radio Society will activate Special Event Station GB0EKF for the annual Esedhvos Kernow Festival of Cornish Culture which this year is being held in Callington, Cornwall on Saturday the 7th of September. Listen out for GB0EKF on the local repeaters, HF bands and via the QO-100 satellite. Now the DX news Domenico, IK1MNF is active as IK1MNF/IA5 from Isola d'Elba, EU-028, until the end of September. He is operating using SSB on the 20 to 6m bands. QSOs will be uploaded to Club Log and Logbook of the World. Yann, F1SMB is active as FO/F1SMB from French Polynesia until the 15th of September. His main QTH will be Tahiti, OC-046, with a side trip to Fakarava, OC-066. Usually, he operates FT8 and SSB on the 40 to 10m bands. QSL to F1SMB directly or via the Bureau, Logbook of the World or eQSL. Now the contest news The UK and Ireland Contest Club DX SSB Contest started at 1200UTC on Saturday the 31st of August and runs until 1200UTC today, the 1st of September. Using SSB on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. UK and Ireland stations also send their district code. The Worked All Britain DX Contest started at 1200UTC on Saturday the 31st of August and ends at 1200UTC today, the 1st of September. The exchange is signal report, serial number and Worked All Britain square, where applicable. Entries need to be with the contest manager by the 11th of September. Visit the Worked All Britain website for more information and to read more on the rules for the contest. Tomorrow, the 2nd, the Autumn Series SSB Contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using SSB on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Tuesday the 3rd, the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. Using FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also, on Tuesday the 3rd, the 144MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 4th, the 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, the 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. Also, on Wednesday the 4th of September, the UK and Ireland Contest Club 80m Contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB on the 80m band, the exchange is your six-character locator. SSB Field Day runs from 1300UTC on Saturday the 7th to 1300UTC on Sunday the 8th of September. Using SSB on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. The 144MHz Trophy Contest runs from 1400UTC on Saturday the 7th to 1400UTC on Sunday the 8th of September. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Saturday the 7th, the CWops CW Open takes place in three four-hour sessions between 0000 and 2359UTC. Using CW on the 160 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is serial number and name. The All Asian DX Contest starts at 0000UTC on Saturday the 7th and ends at 2359UTC on Sunday the 8th of September. Using SSB on the 160 to 10m bands, the exchange is signal report and your age. On Sunday the 8th, the 5th 144MHz Backpackers Contest takes runs from 1100 to 1500UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Sunday the 8th, the Worked All Britain 2m QRO Phone Contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC. Using AM, FM and SSB on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and Worked All Britain square. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 29th of August 2024 We had a good week for HF propagation, at least until we had a Kp index of 5.67 on Wednesday the 28th. This was caused by the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field moving into a south-pointing position. Luckily, it didn't last long and geomagnetic conditions were back to normal by Thursday. The solar flux index remains above 200 with no sign of it dropping. But solar flare activity has not diminished either with 16 M-class flares over the past seven days and more than 60 C-class events. There remains a 55% chance of a further M-class flare and a 10% chance of an X-class event. Tuesday the 27th saw some good activity on the upper HF bands with the 10m band opening up at times. VK has been heard on 28MHz in the mornings, which bodes well for the coming months. The top DX choice this week has been CY9C on Saint Paul Island near Newfoundland. The team is active on all bands until the 5th of September using CW, SSB, FT8, Super Fox and RTTY. VOACAP Online shows that the 20 and 17m bands offer the best chance for a contact and are open from 0900 to 2000 UTC. The 30m band is another strong contender from 2000 to 1000 UTC. Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will start at around 250 but could end the week at 275. As always, it estimates the Kp index will be at 2 all week, but this will depend upon coronal mass ejections, so keep an eye on solarham.com for daily updates. If a solar flare and associated coronal mass ejections do occur, expect the Kp index to rise after about 48 hours, with a lowering of the maximum useable frequency. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The autumn season usually brings thoughts of Tropo since areas of high pressure can often be a feature of this time of year. Most models predict that there will be high pressure moving in to offer Tropo conditions today, the 1st. Thereafter, the models differ, and some bring low pressure over the country for much of the coming week, while others maintain a high-pressure story and the continuation of Tropo. This is potentially useful for the 144MHz UK Activity Contest on Tuesday and Wednesday and, if it lasts, the 144MHz Trophy Contest next weekend along with the Backpackers contest on Sunday the 8th. With the uncertain feel of the forecast at the moment, we may find rain scatter is the main option on the GHz bands. Meteor scatter is again reduced to non-shower random events with just a minor shower, the Aurigids, peaking on the 31st of August. This shower has produced brief unexpected outbursts with a zenithal hourly rate of around 30 to 50 per hour in 1935, 1986, 1994 and 2019. Random meteor flux is at its annual maximum in September with relatively good rates, especially during morning hours. Pre-dawn is the best time to try. The solar conditions continue to provide chance auroras. Keep one eye on the Kp index and lock the frequency of some northern European beacons into your rig's memory. Lastly, it's the nominal end of the 2024 summer Sporadic-E season and the daily blogs on Propquest have finished. However, some years can produce surprise Sporadic-E events during the first week of September. Moon declination starts the weekend still high but falling, going negative again on Thursday the 5th. So, Moon visibility windows will also fall, as will the peak Moon elevation. Moon apogee is also next Thursday so path losses are still increasing. 144MHz sky noise is low until Monday but, shortly after moonrise that day, the Sun and the Moon become close in the sky and continue to be until after moonset on Tuesday. This means sky noise will be very high, especially at VHF, due to wide antenna beamwidths.  And that's all from the propagation team this week.

Pues, el finaaaaal (tututun) del verano (tutututun) llegó... y se acabaron las "vacaciones". Y con el fin del verano, terminamos la serie de especiales que nos han acompañado mientras el calor a apretado más y hemos necesitado aprovechar la fresca de las noches para hacer radio y remojarnos en playas y piscinas. Repasamos algunos momentos de este radioverano 2024, tanto míos como de algunos de vosotros que os habéis animado a enviar vuestros audios ¡Me encanta cuando participáis así! Ahora que ya tengo casi las maletas vacías y esta semana empezaré a volver a montar el cuarto de radio en el QTH habitual y todos los bártulos de grabación del podcast... ¡podremos empezar la tercera temporada de CQ en Frecuencia! La próxima semana espero poderos presentar ya las novedades del nuevo curso. ¿Nos apoyas para que podamos seguir haciendo este podcast y más contenidos? Puedes apoyarnos en QRP con 1,99€ al mes o un poco más de potencia en QRO, con 5,99€ al mes aquí: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/apoyar/ Y si quieres conocer lo que puedo hacer por tu negocio a través de internet visita PODsicionando.com Envía tus preguntas, propuestas de temas o lo que quieras: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/contacto/ O en nuestro canal de Telegram https://t.me/cqenfrecuencia Y no dejéis de visitar nuestra web: https://cqenfrecuencia.com No olvides el like, subscribirte y/o darle a la campanita para no perderte ningún episodio de nuestro podcast! Nos encontrarás también en Spotify y Youtube.

GB2RS News Sunday the 9th of June 2024  The news headlines: TX Factor is marking its tenth anniversary by launching its 30th episode Changes to the four-year planning rule in England Bath Based Distance Learning's next Full licence course is starting soon TX Factor is marking its tenth anniversary by launching its 30th episode. It looks at how radio technology has advanced since Marconi conducted some of his early transmissions. The episode includes the first of a two-part feature on operating via the QO-100 geostationary satellite with a look at the hardware and software needed to achieve your first QSO at home or out mobile. Bob, G0FGX reviews the FTM-500D which is the latest mobile transceiver from Yaesu and demonstrates the many advanced features of this versatile FM and digital rig. There is a visit to Sidmouth Amateur Radio Society which secured a derelict former sports social club from the local council and turned it into a community hub and the club's new QTH. Watch this interesting episode and don't miss out on the TX Factor free-to-enter draw with a chance to win three RSGB publications. You can see this and previous episodes on txfactor.co.uk The four-year planning rule has offered a degree of protection for antennas and masts that have been erected without planning permission. Under this rule any installations which had been installed and unchanged for four years or more were protected against planning enforcement action. However, as of the 25th of April 2024, this rule ceased to exist in its current form in England under changes introduced under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. The rule has been replaced by a more stringent ten-year period for the exemption from enforcement for residential dwellings. This change does not affect Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland where the four-year rule will continue to apply. Any installation that was substantially completed before the introduction of the Act will still be subject to the four-year rule meaning, for most radio amateurs, the ten-year rule will not apply until the 24th of April 2028. For more information on planning matters visit rsgb.org/planning Bath Based Distance Learning's next Full licence course runs from August to December, with exams in January. There is no charge for the training, but applicants must work through some pre-course material and complete a quiz to be eligible for a place. To request full details, and an application form, please email Bath Based Distance Learning's Team Leader, Steve, G0FUW via g0fuw@bbdl.org.uk A reminder that the RSGB is asking radio amateurs to share their ideas on the theme of ‘change and adapt', as part of plans for British Science Week 2025. The event is run by the British Science Association and celebrates science, technology, engineering and maths. The 2025 theme offers a huge range of opportunities for creativity and discovery. Ideas could cover any area from construction to propagation, from making QSOs under supervision to space and satellites. This is a chance to show young people in schools, or anyone in your local community, just how interesting and enjoyable amateur radio can be. Please send ideas to the RSGB British Science Week Coordinator Ian Neal, M0KEO at bsw@rsgb.org.uk To find out more about the previous year's activities, or next year's theme, you can visit rsgb.org/bsw Don't forget that you have the opportunity to get even more out of your RSGB membership. If you recommend a friend who hasn't been an RSGB member during the last 12 months, you will both receive £10 cashback when they become a member paying by direct debit. Whether you're an individual RSGB member or an affiliated club, you can sign up as many friends as you like. Membership of the RSGB gives you a range of fantastic benefits so why not encourage others to join? Members have access to RadCom, exclusive online resources, RSGB award schemes and contests, as well as advice from the Society's specialist committees. The RSGB's representation to Ofcom and its ability to defend the spectrum nationally and internationally is more powerful through strength in numbers. Go to the special RSGB 'Join a friend' web page to find all the information you'll need to take advantage of this offer, including a link to the online form: rsgb.org/join-a-friend A new exhibition entitled 'What Happened Next' will open to the public on Friday the 14th of June in the Pye Building at the Cambridge Museum of Technology. It will explore the period after the Pye Group was acquired by Philips in 1967 and track the progress of these organisations up to the present day. More information on the Cambridge Museum of Technology is available at museumoftechnology.com  The 2024 Gateways on the Air event will take place between the 15th and 23rd of June. The event aims to promote and increase RF activity via UK simplex gateways. The event is hosted by the FreeSTAR International network and will feature special event stations GB0GOA and GB4GOA. Confirmed simplex gateways are listed at gota.org.uk CDXC: The UK DX Foundation is holding its annual DX Convention and dinner on the 20th of July. This year there will be a new venue: The Littlebury Hotel, Bicester, OX26 6DR. The CDXC AGM will be held at 11 am and there will be a series of talks in the afternoon. Mark, M0DXR will be speaking about WRTC 2026. Mike, G4WNC is covering all things SDR. Nigel, G3TXF will be discussing the impact of FT8 on DXpeditions. And Gregg, W6IZT will be describing the build and operation of his 'Rig in a Box' for DXpeditions. Non-members of CDXC are most welcome to come for the day and the evening dinner. Full details and booking information can be found by following the link on the CDXC homepage at cdxc.org.uk Do you live in the southeast of England and could you spare an hour on Sundays to help inform radio amateurs in your area? The GB2RS news service is looking for new volunteer newsreaders in Essex, London, and the counties to the south and southeast, ideally to broadcast on the 2m or 70cm bands using FM. RSGB members with Full or Intermediate licences, who have a good VHF or UHF station, are needed to help improve our coverage. There is flexibility in deciding a band, mode and time that would suit individual circumstances. If you are interested in finding out more about what the role entails, please contact the GB2RS News Manager, Steve Richards G4HPE, via gb2rs.manager@rsgb.org.uk There is also more information on the RSGB website, at rsgb.org/gb2rsschedule And finally, don't forget to listen out for all the amateur stations that will be on the air during the Museums on the Air activity next weekend, the 15th and 16th.  For more information about the event visit tinyurl.com/IMW2024 And now for details of rallies and events The Junction 28 Radio Rally is taking place today, the 9th, at Alfreton Sports Centre, DE55 7BD, one mile from M1 Junction 28. The doors are open from 10.15 am and admission is £4. For more information visit snadarc.com or contact j28rally@snadarc.com The Mendips Rally is also taking place today, the 9th. The event is being held at Farrington Gurney Memorial Hall, Church Lane, Farrington Gurney, BS39 6UA. The doors are open from 9 am to 1 pm and admission is £2. Access for traders will be available from 7.30 am. Inside tables cost £8 and field pitches are £5 each. Hot and cold refreshments, and free car parking, are available on-site. For more information contact Luke at 07870 168 197 or email mendipsrally@hotmail.com The Rochdale and District Amateur Radio Summer Rally is set to take place on Saturday the 15th of June at St Vincent de Paul's Hall, Norden, Rochdale, OL12 7QR. The doors open at 10 am and entry will cost £3. The usual traders and caterers will be present and plenty of free parking will be available. All proceeds from this event will be donated to a local charity. Last year the organisers were able to donate £4,000 from rally sales and Silent Key donations to the Rochdale Springhill Hospice. For more information, email Dave, G3RIK at dave@cardens.me.uk The East Suffolk Wireless Revival, also known as the Ipswich Radio Rally, will be held on Sunday the 16th of June. The venue will be Kirton Recreation Ground, Back Road, Kirton, IP10 0PW, just off the A14. Doors open at 9.30 am and the entry fee for visitors is £3. The venue has free car parking and catering is available on site. For more information, contact Kevin, G8MXV on 07710 046 846 or visit eswr.org.uk  Now the Special Event News Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Radio Belgrade, members of the Belgrade Amateur Radio Club are active as YT100RB and YU1924RB until the 30th of November. For details of an available certificate, see yu1ano.org 9A100RKZ is the special callsign celebrating the 100th anniversary since Radioklub Zagreb was founded on the 24th of March 1924. The callsign will be active throughout 2024 and details of an award for contacting the station are available via QRZ.com  Now the DX news Dave, WJ2O is active as VP6DF from Pitcairn Island, OC-044, until tomorrow, the 10th of June. He is running low power and operating CW on the 40 to 10m bands. He may also operate on the 160 and 80m bands, depending on working conditions.  QSL via N2ZN and Logbook of the World. John, W5JON is active as V47JA from Saint Kitts, NA-104, until the 13th of June. He is operating SSB and FT8 on the HF and 6m bands. QSL via Logbook of the World, or directly to W5JON. Now the contest news The IARU ATV Contest started at 1200UTC on Saturday the 8th and ends at 1800UTC today, Sunday the 9th of June. Using TV on 432MHz and up frequencies, the exchange is a serial number, four-digit code and locator. More details on the rules for this contest are available at tinyurl.com/IARUATV Today, the 9th, the Practical Wireless 2m QRP Contest runs from 0900 to 1600UTC. Using AM, FM, SSB, CW and a maximum of 5W on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also today, the 9th, the 2nd 144MHz Backpackers Contest runs from 0900 to 1300UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Monday the 10th, the 80m Club Championship will run from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using RTTY and PSK63 on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the 11th, the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. Using FM on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday the 11th, the 432MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 12th, 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 12th, 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 13th, the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The 50MHz Trophy Contest starts at 1400UTC on Saturday the 15th and ends at 1400UTC on Sunday the 16th of June. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The All Asian DX Contest starts at 0000UTC on Saturday the 15th and ends at 2359UTC on Sunday the 16th of June. Using CW on the 160 to 10m bands, the exchange is your signal report and age. On Sunday the 16th, the Worked All Britain 6m Phone Contest runs from 0800 to 1400UTC. Using phone on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and Worked All Britain square. More information is available from the Worked All Britain website. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 6th of June 2024 It seems that we haven't had a repeat performance of the auroral conditions caused by active sunspot region 3697. For Aurora watchers, that could be a disappointment, but for HF lovers it means the bands have been quite settled. The Kp index has been at 3 and below, while the solar flux index has been consistently above 175 all week. As a result, HF conditions have been quite good with maximum usable frequencies over a 3,000km path being regularly over 21MHz and often 24MHz. It is always a good idea to operate on the highest HF band that is open as absorption decreases the higher you go. Meanwhile, Sporadic-E propagation brought interest to the 10m band with stations from all over Europe being workable for long periods, but more of that in the VHF report. On the 5th of June, a filament located in the northeast quadrant erupted. The event flung a coronal mass ejection into space that doesn't appear to be Earth-directed. But this shows that we are still in the danger zone for major solar events, and anything could happen. Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will remain around 175, but we expect some geomagnetic disruption today, the 9th of June, with a predicted Kp index of 4. Otherwise, solar conditions are predicted to be calm next week. So, if these conditions continue, this is a good time to make the most of the HF bands. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The weather pattern for the coming week is dominated by low pressure, which means there is unlikely to be any significant Tropo to speak of.  There will probably be several opportunities for those on the GHz bands to search for rain scatter. However, these events look to be moving showers or rain bands, which means that you'll need to be pretty agile with the rotator to keep on the scattering target. With the solar conditions continuing to keep the pot simmering it's not impossible that the Kp index could rise high enough to promote an aurora, but it's a low probability. The early part of June is well regarded for minor meteor events and should be worth a look for those using meteor scatter modes. There were several Sporadic-E openings early in the week that finish today, the 9th. Sporadic-E was reported up to the 2m band on a few occasions. Last Sunday, the 2nd, lasted up to three hours on the path from Eastern England down to the Italian peninsula. Events initially get picked up on the 10m band and then move up through the VHF bands of 6m, 4m and finally 2m as the Sporadic-E propagation strengthens. In this peak of the Sporadic-E season, the openings on the lower bands, such as 10 and 6m, can be present for much of the day and certainly quite late into the evening. Follow the weather patterns on the daily Sporadic-E blog on propquest.co.uk and you should be able to point in the right direction for an opening. Multi-hop paths to the Far East or the Americas require a good antenna like a beam, but single-hop European Sporadic-E propagation can be very strong, and any antenna will do the job. Moon declination is at its maximum this weekend for the DUBUS 10 and 24GHz EME contest, but EME path loss is rising. 144MHz sky noise is low all week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS News Sunday the 5th of May 2024   The news headlines: RSGB insurance update RSGB Legacy Committee Chair appointed SOS Radio Week is under way   RSGB club insurance, and beacon and repeater insurance, have now been renewed for the year to April 2025. Club insurance certificates can be downloaded from the RSGB website. You will need to log in to obtain your certificate. Beacon and repeater insurance certificates are available for an admin fee of £15 from the RSGB shop. Please allow a couple of days after renewal for your certificate to be dispatched. The RSGB Board is pleased to announce it has approved the appointment of Richard Horton, G4AOJ to the role of Legacy Committee Chair. The RSGB Legacy Fund, thanks to the generosity of donors, has significant financial resources available to encourage and develop amateur radio. The Legacy Committee, which is a sub-Committee of the RSGB Board, considers proposals for grants that can be awarded to projects from the RSGB Legacy Fund. The criteria and application form are available on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/legacy  If you have an interesting idea and would like to submit it for funding, you can contact the new Legacy Chair via legacy.chair@rsgb.org.uk SOS Radio Week is underway. It is an annual event that takes place throughout the month of May to celebrate the work of the volunteers from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Independent Lifeboats and National Coastwatch Stations around the British Isles. Between them, members of these organisations save many lives who are in danger along and around the thousands of miles of coastline and further out to sea. This year is the 200th anniversary of the founding of the RNLI, and SOS Radio Week is being co-branded SOS Radio Week 200 for those operators who are supporting the RNLI during the event. Participants can operate from home, a public location, or a lifeboat or Coastwatch station, with the appropriate authorisation from the station manager. A commemorative certificate is available to all official stations that record their contacts on the website together with awards for the top individual and club, or group, stations on each band from 160m to 70cm. To read more about the event visit sosradioweek.org.uk The next in the series of the popular 145 Alive events, to promote the use of 145MHz FM, is coming up on Saturday the 11th of May, from 1pm to 3pm. The event and the supporting Facebook Group was started by Tim, G5TM and from the start of 2024 has been organised by Mark, M0XIC and John, M0XJA. The last successful event took place in January this year, when over 30 nets operated simultaneously across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern and Southern Ireland. Over 900 QSOs took place, with many amateurs operating portable, mobile or from their club or home QTH. If you would like to take part, and find out more about the event and 145 Alive in general, then join the 145 Alive Facebook Group. Next weekend, the 11th and 12th, lots of amateur radio stations will be taking to the air as part of Mills on the Air Weekend 2024. The event takes place across the UK every May with more than 300 windmills and watermills usually taking part. For more information, to register, and to view a list of registered stations, visit ddars.net/mills.html Advance notice now that International Museums Weekend will be taking place on the third and fourth weekends in June. This year, those weekends are the 15th and 16th, and the 22nd and 23rd of June. Special event stations will be operating from a wide variety of museums from many different countries. To read more about the event, and to register to take part, visit tinyurl.com/IMW2024 And now for details of rallies and events Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club's 40th Annual Radio Rally is taking place today, the 5th of May. The venue is Share Discovery Village, 221 Lisnaskea Road, Lisnaskea, Enniskillen, BT92 0JZ. The event features food and drink, bring and buy, RSGB books, the QSL Bureau, and the usual variety of traders. The doors open at 11 am. Traders are asked to arrive around 9 am. Admission, which includes a ticket for the prize draw, will cost £5 or five Euro. Contact Alan at argault91@gmail.com to arrange a table. Thorpe Camp Hamfest is also taking place today, the 5th of May at Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre, Tattershall Thorpe, Lincolnshire, LN4 4PL. The doors open at 9am for buyers and the entrance fee is £5 per person. The event will finish at 1pm. The RetrotechUK event will be held on Sunday the 12th of May. The venue will be Sports Connexion, Leamington Road, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry, CV8 3FL. The doors open at 10.30 am with an entry fee of £10. A fee of £25 applies for early-doors entry at 9 am. This is an annual event organised by the British Vintage Wireless Society. There will be almost 200 dealer stalls, clubs and private sellers. Everyone is welcome to come along and enjoy the wide range of retro equipment. For more information email info@retrotechuk.com and visit retrotechuk.com Dunstable Downs Radio Club would like to remind everyone that its annual boot sale has been postponed until the 30th of June. This is due to the site being used by BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend music festival. Updates will be posted to Dunstable Downs Radio Club's Facebook page and reminder emails will be sent out closer to the time. To add yourself to the list, visit ddrcbootsale.org  and sign up for email reminders. Now the Special Event News Special callsign 9H6HE is in use by the Malta Amateur Radio League to celebrate the swearing-in of Malta's 11th President. Look for activity until the 31st of May on the 40, 20, 15 and 10m bands using SSB, CW and digital modes. QSL via Logbook of the World. Paper QSL cards are not available. The RSGB National Radio Centre will be operating a special event callsign GB2DAY to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings during the Second World War. The station will be active between the 6th and 9th of June. In addition, volunteers will be hosting the special demonstration station GB1SOE on Saturday the 15th of June. Don't forget that RSGB Members can get free entry to Bletchley Park and the RSGB's National Radio Centre by downloading a voucher from the RSGB website at rsgb.org/bpvoucher Now the DX news Bo, OZ1DJJ is active as OX3LX from Greenland until the 9th of May. In his spare time, he operates FT8, RTTY and CW. The station was spotted recently on the 10 and 12m bands using FT8. QSL via OZ0J. Logs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World and Club Log. Tom, NL7RR is active on Wake Island, OC-053, until the 15th of May. Look for KH9/NL7RR to be QRV daily at about 0700UTC on or around 14.200MHz. QSL via Logbook of the World, or direct to Tom's home call. QSOs will also be uploaded to Club Log. Now the contest news Today, the 5th, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 0800 to 1400UTC. Using all modes on 1.3 to 3.4GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also, today, the 5th, the UK Microwave Group Millimetre-wave Contest runs from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using all modes on 24, 47 and 76GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also today, the 5th, the Worked All Britain 7MHz Phone Contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC. Using SSB on the 40m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and Worked All Britain Square. The ARI International DX Contest started at 1200UTC on Saturday the 4th and ends at 1159UTC today, Sunday the 5th of May. Using CW, RTTY and SSB on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Italian stations also send their province. The 432MHz to 245GHz Contest started at 1400UTC on Saturday the 4th and ends at 1400UTC today, Sunday the 5th of May. Using all modes on 432MHz to 245GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Today, the 5th, the 10GHz Trophy runs from 0800 to 1400UTC. Using All modes on 10GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the 7th, the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. Using FM on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday the 7th, the 144MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 8th, 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 8th, 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 9th, the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Sunday the 12th, the 70MHz CW Contest runs from 0900 to 1200UTC. Using CW on the 4m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. UK stations also send their postcode. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 2nd of May 2024 What a strange week we had. With the solar flux index in the 167 range, falling to 130, conditions should have been reasonable. But the Kp index hit 4, and even 5.33, on the evening of Friday the 26th of April, which meant propagation on Saturday the 27th was truly dire. Stations taking part in International Marconi Day on the 27th found the 40m band only open to long skip in the morning. This was due to the critical frequency being below 5MHz. The predicted MUF over a 3,000km path fluctuated between 15MHz and 19MHz for the whole day, which meant only 14MHz was open reliably. As a result, QSOs were hard to come by and many stations reported that it was slow going with virtually no signals from outside of Europe. So what happened? Well, it was a combination of factors. The increased Kp index, due to a fast solar wind, took its toll. And we are now moving to a summer ionosphere, where chemical changes make it harder to ionise. This will mean we should see MUFs dropping as the season progresses, at least during the day. Nighttime MUFs will be higher than in winter. So it may be that the glory days of 28MHz F2-layer propagation are on hold until Autumn, with only short-skip Sporadic-E on the 10m band to keep us entertained. F2-layer propagation is still available on the higher HF bands, but it may be patchy. International Marconi Day station GB0CMS in Caister, Norfolk, reported that its 20m signals were picked up by a reverse beacon network skimmer in Utah, despite not working anyone outside of Europe. Meanwhile, on the morning of the 2nd, Laurie, G3UML was quite surprised to work YJ0CA on Vanuatu on the 15m band using SSB. He also worked 3D2CCC on Conway Reef on the 20m band using CW, and JD1BMH in Japan on the 15m band, also using CW. Next week NOAA predicts the solar flux index will be in the 125 range, rising to 175 as the week progresses. Geomagnetic conditions are dependent on coronal mass ejections. We have had eight M-class solar flares in the past three days, and a Kp index of 5 on Thursday the 2nd, which doesn't bode well for next week. So, keep an eye on solarham.com for current conditions and look for the best HF propagation if the Kp index is low for a day or two. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The weather pattern remains very unsettled for the whole period with areas of low pressure edging north across the UK from the continent. There will be a risk of thundery weather at times with locally heavy rainfall, which will be good for rain scatter on the Gigahertz bands. Tropo looks to be hard to find as we end the current week dominated by low-pressure systems, but there are signs of high pressure returning after mid-week, but only temporarily. This could produce some Tropo paths, especially across surrounding waters such as the Irish Sea, English Channel and North Sea. The nominal summer season of Sporadic-E propagation is upon us and, from May to early September, daily blogs will be provided on the Propquest.co.uk website highlighting the possible Sporadic-E links to the position of the jet streams shown on the upper air charts. It's well worthwhile getting into the habit of regularly checking the DX clusters and activity maps, since the early season is usually characterised by a complex jet stream pattern with multiple potential locations for Sporadic-E propagation.  Timewise, it eventually settles into a more traditional behaviour with activity often in two phases, one in the morning and the second in late afternoon, early evening. As you listen to this report, the Eta Aquariids meteor shower should be peaking. Unfortunately, the best viewing for the shower, which is part of the debris from Halley's comet, will be in the southern hemisphere. Nevertheless, this is expected to be one of the best showers this century. For those viewing the shower, a waning Moon means that light levels should be low, making for ideal visual sighting. For EME, the Moon will be waning all week with the new Moon around the 8th of May. The Moon will be rising in the sky throughout the week, with zero declination on the 5th of May and peaking at its highest in the sky on Saturday the 11th of May. The lowest additional path loss occurs today and tomorrow, the 5th and 6th, but high Sun noise, with the Moon close to the Sun at new Moon, occurs shortly afterwards. Later in the week, as the Sun 'leaves' the Moon behind, noise levels, at least on the higher bands will fall to around normal. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS News Sunday the 28th of April 2024   The news headlines: New mock papers for amateur radio licence exams have been published A revised amateur radio examination syllabus has been released The RSGB has released the video review of 2023 by its President John McCullagh, GI4BWM The RSGB Exam Syllabus Review Group has published a new set of mock papers covering each of the amateur radio licence exams, from Foundation through to Direct to Full. These papers are in addition to those already available. They are each marked as ‘mock exam paper 3' and you can find them on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/mock-exams  The new amateur radio licence has now been in effect for a few weeks. Changes to the licence conditions have made it necessary to revise the examination syllabus. The RSGB is pleased to release version 1.6 of the syllabus which includes these revisions. Compared to version 1.5 in current use, the only section that has seen major changes is Section 1 – “Licensing and station identification”. In Section 7 – “Operating practices and procedures” – there were some minor changes, for example regarding suffixes. Exams will start using version 1.6 of the syllabus on the 1st of September 2024. The Society has released the video review of 2023 by RSGB President John McCullagh, GI4BWM. Filmed at the Ofcom Spectrum Management Centre near Baldock in Hertfordshire, the video covers a wide range of very positive activities, events and achievements. The President also talks about the RSGB's strategic priorities, gaining publicity in the mainstream media, and the important work done by the Society on behalf of all radio amateurs to protect the spectrum. One example is the WRC Conference, where the RSGB Microwave Manager Barry Lewis, G4SJH, led the IARU team responsible for defending amateur use of the 23cm band. You can watch the video on the RSGB YouTube channel at youtube.com/theRSGB At the April Regional Forum meeting, Regional Representative 10, Keith Bird, G4JED was elected as Chair, and Regional Representative 3, Martyn Bell, M0TEB was elected as Secretary. They will both volunteer in these roles until the 2025 AGM. You can find contact details for both Keith and Martyn on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/regions The next in the series of the popular 145 Alive events, to promote the use of 145MHz FM, is scheduled to take place on the 11th of May 2024, from 1 pm to 3 pm. The event and the supporting Facebook Group was started by Tim, G5TM and from the start of 2024 has been organised by Mark, M0XIC and John, M0XJA. The last successful event took place in January this year, when over 30 nets operated simultaneously across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern and Southern Ireland. Over 900 QSOs took place, with many amateurs operating portable, mobile or from their club or home QTH. If you would like to take part and find out more about the event and 145 Alive in general, then join the 145 Alive Facebook Group. If you would like to run a net on the 11th of May, contact Mark, M0XIC or John, M0XJA via the Facebook Group. Mills on the Air Weekend 2024 is coming up on Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th of May. The event takes place across the UK every May with more than 300 windmills and watermills usually taking part. For more information, to register, and to view a list of registered stations, visit ddars.net/mills.html The RAF Air Cadets are pleased to announce that they are running the ever-popular Blue Ham Radio Communications Exercise in June on the 60m band. The exercise will take place between the 17th and 21st of June. Subject to your licence conditions, the Blue Ham team hopes that you can put some time aside to join in with the cadets and staff who will be ready to take your calls. The Blue Ham Team will issue you with a participation certificate if you contact 20 or more special MRE callsigns over the period of the exercise. For more information visit alphacharlie.org.uk  Please note that only Full licensees may operate on the 60m band. South Bristol Amateur Radio Club is running a free online Foundation licence course in May. Anyone who is interested in taking part can find out more by emailing training@sbarc.co.uk When emailing, please include your name, postal address and date of birth. Please also indicate which weekday evenings and times you are available. The weekday evening that the course will take place will be decided by majority preference. MFJ Enterprises has announced in a letter to its customers that it will be ceasing its on-site production at its premises in Starkville, Mississippi on the 17th of May 2024. The news also applies to the sister companies Ameritron, Hygain, Cushcraft and others. MFJ Enterprises has been in business for 52 years and will continue to sell its existing stock after the 17th of May. It will also continue to offer a repair service for out-of-warranty and in-warranty units for the foreseeable future. And now for details of rallies and events The Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club's 40th Annual Radio Rally is due to take place on Sunday the 5th of May. The venue will be Share Discovery Village, 221 Lisnaskea Road, Lisnaskea, Enniskillen, BT92 0JZ. The event will feature food and drink, bring and buy, RSGB books, the QSL Bureau, and the usual variety of traders. The doors open at 11 am. Traders are asked to arrive around 9 am. Admission, which includes a ticket for the prize draw, will cost £5 or five Euro. Contact Alan at argault91@gmail.com to arrange a table. Thorpe Camp Hamfest will also take place on Sunday the 5th of May at Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre, Tattershall Thorpe, Lincolnshire, LN4 4PL. Traders are asked to arrive no earlier than 7 am. The doors open at 9 am for buyers and the entrance fee is £5 per person. The Retrotech UK event will be held on Sunday the 12th of May. The venue will be Sports Connexion, Leamington Road, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry, CV8 3FL. The doors open at 10.30 am with an entry fee of £10. A fee of £25 applies for early-doors entry at 9 am. This is an annual event organised by the British Vintage Wireless Society. There will be almost 200 dealer stalls, clubs and private sellers. Everyone is welcome to come along and enjoy the wide range of retro equipment. For more information email info@retrotechuk.com and visit retrotechuk.com Now the Special Event News Special callsign SZ0WARD is in use by the Radio Amateur Association of Greece in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day until the 30th of April. Look for activity on all bands using SSB, CW and digital modes. QSL via the Bureau and Logbook of the World. See sv2rck.gr/SZ0WARD for details of an available award. Also in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day, the special callsign TC3WRD is active until the 30th of April. QSL via Logbook of the World. For details of a certificate that is available, see tadx.org/awards The station was spotted recently on the 40m band using FT8. Today is the last chance to work special event station GB6WW which is active from Glasgow, Scotland to commemorate the end of the Second World War. If you have made QSOs with GB6WW on three or more bands, you are eligible to apply for an award. To apply for the award, send an email to gb6ww@ft8.me with the details of your contacts. Please include your callsign, dates of QSOs, and the bands on which they occurred. There is no application fee. Once your QSOs have been verified, the PDF award file will be emailed to you. Now the DX news Jeff, K5WE and Craig, W5CCP are active as TX7W from Raivavae, OC-114,  in the Austral Islands until the 30th of April. They are operating using mainly CW and FT8, with some SSB, RTTY and FT4, on the 160 to 6m bands. QSL via Club Log's OQRS is preferred but is also available via Logbook of the World, or directly to K5WE. Depending upon a reliable internet connection, logs will be uploaded to Club Log daily, and Club Log's Livestream will be enabled. See k5we.com/tx7w for more information and updates. Listen out for a group of 13 Camb-Hams which is active from the Isle of Mull, EU-008, as GS3PYE until the 3rd of May. The team is QRV on the 80 to 10m bands as well as via the QO-100 satellite. QSL via Club Log's OQRS. You can read a report of the team's previous visit to the island in 2015 at tinyurl.com/Mull2015 Now the contest news The UK and Ireland DX CW Contest started at 1200UTC on Saturday the 27th and ends at 1200UTC today, the 28th of April. Using CW on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. UK and Ireland's stations also send their district code. The SP DX RTTY Contest started at 1200UTC on the 27th and ends at 1200UTC today the 28th of April. Using RTTY on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. SP stations also send their province code. The MGM Contest started at 1400UTC on the 27th of April and ends at 1400UTC today the 28th of April. Using machine-generated modes on the 6 and 2m bands, the exchange is your report and four-character locator. Today, the 28th, the British Amateur Radio Teledata Group Sprint 75 Contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using 75-baud RTTY on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is your serial number. On Monday the 29th, the FT4 Series Contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using FT4 on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is your report. On Wednesday the 1st of May, the 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 1st of May, the 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. On Saturday the 4th, the 432MHz Trophy Contest runs from 1400 to 2000 UTC. Using all modes on the 70cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The 432MHz to 245GHz Contest starts at 1400UTC on Saturday the 4th and ends at 1400UTC on Sunday the 5th of May. Using all modes on 432MHz to 245GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group's Summer Marathon starts at 0000UTC on Saturday the 4th of May and ends at 2359UTC on Sunday the 4th of August. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is your four-character locator. The ARI International DX Contest starts at 1200UTC on Saturday the 4th of May and ends at 1159UTC on Sunday the 5th of May. Using CW, RTTY and SSB on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Italian stations also send their province. On Sunday the 5th, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 0800 to 1400UTC. Using all modes on 1.3 to 3.4GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Sunday the 5th, the UK Microwave Group Millimetre Wave Contest runs from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using all modes on 24, 47 and 76GHz frequencies, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Sunday the 5th, the Worked All Britain 7MHz Phone Contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC. Using SSB on the 40m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and Worked All Britain Square. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 25th of April 2024 We had another week with plenty of sunspots, and HF conditions were quite good in the second half. Earlier, the Kp index reached 3 and 4, which didn't help maximum useable frequencies, or MUFs for short. For example, on Sunday the 21st, the Kp index rose to 4 and the MUF over a 3,000km path remained stubbornly below 21MHz until later in the morning. This could have been due to a coronal hole on the Sun's equator, which added to the solar wind. By Wednesday, conditions were nearly back to normal, with a Kp index below 2 and an MUF of more than 24MHz. By Thursday the improvement had continued, giving us an MUF of more than 28MHz by 0900UTC. There have been many reports of 10m band DX being worked, including Sebastien, FK4AX and Pat, FK8HA in New Caledonia in the Pacific on SSB. Sebastien has just got his licence and is keen to work DX from the UK. This shows that it is worth keeping an eye on the CW and SSB portions of the 10m band, which can often throw up surprises. Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will decline to around 160. The Kp index is predicted to be around 2 to 3, but that may be wishful thinking. With 16 active regions visible on the Sun's surface on Thursday, anything could happen. Only minor C- and M-class flares have occurred recently but, as we always say, it wouldn't take much for those to turn into X-class events. So, make the most of quiet geomagnetic conditions when we have them as, by the time you read or hear this, we could once again have very unsettled conditions indeed. And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The cold, unsettled weather will ease its grip over the last few days of this week, ending the 28th of April, but only because the whole area of low pressure is moving across the country this weekend. Low pressure remains close by for much of the following week and only a hesitant return of high pressure west of Ireland will improve things for western Britain at the end of the week. The result is a chance of Tropo for western Britain next week, but it will probably be of limited quality since it is likely to form in cold, dry air across any temperature inversion.  The remaining option in such weather patterns is primarily rain scatter for those on the GHz bands. The many online weather radar displays can be used to highlight the areas of heaviest rain. We are past the peak of the Lyrids meteor shower, but the Eta-Aquarids, with a Zenithal Hourly Rate of 50, peaks next Sunday the 5th around 2100UTC. Until then, rely upon random activity which tends to be better around dawn. The Sun has been more active again recently, so monitor the clusters and Kp index for signs of geomagnetic activity and the chance of an aurora if the Kp index exceeds 5. Sporadic-E tends to produce a few early examples in May ahead of its June peak. Check the DX clusters during the late afternoon or early evening as openings can be very brief early in the season. Start on the 10m band and, if short skip within Europe is present, move up to the 6m band. Digital modes are more sensitive so check FT8 reports to give clues as to where the chances are greatest. For EME operators, the Moon is at minimum declination today, Sunday the 28th, meaning we'll have short Moon windows to start the coming week. Path losses are falling but perigee, when the Moon is at its closest point, is still over a week away. 144MHz sky noise is high this weekend, ending the 28th of April, but falls too low by the end of the coming week. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

Fred Hopengarten K1VR, and his wife Betty, were guests in my home after an afternoon of touring with me the unusual sites around Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, where I live a few years ago.  Fred has a long history in amateur radio and took to the law rather than engineering as a profession specializing in communications law and antenna regulations for both commercial broadcasting and amateur radio.  His book, Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur, is a must read for hams that need and want external antennas at their QTH.  K1VR discuss antenna law, contesting, and his elaborate station in this QSO Today.

Hello, I'm Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I've been thinking. Well, here it is already, the autumn season that used to herald cooler weather as we rotated into winter. The Bureau of Meteorology has released its quarterly outlook and we can expect weather that is likely to be drier than our summer but still giving us warmer nights than usual. For the night owl operators, that might suggest a further degree of discomfort or comfort, depending on individual locations. One thing that we can do personally or as part of a group activity is make things. For many people starting off, there is the temptation to develop a first-name acquaintanceship with the bank manager to finance the biggest and best. What most of us should do is get our hands on some tools and some cheap materials and put something together. There are many requests for the best antenna for a new operator and there are a multiplicity of replies by the experts, well the self-appointed experts anyway. There is a ton of practical information to be had in the videos that increase in number daily. For my backyard, I have two aerials for shortwave. One is an off-centre fed horizontal and the other is a non-resonant vertical and both have been built by me. Now I am not using the horizontal antenna but the vertical does a good job for monitoring and basically, it is a 'junk box special' made from a salvaged fibreglass pole strapped to a tripod base. I did take the easy way out and used a commercial matching transformer but for the sake of a bit of measuring and cutting and using a few cable ties, I have a perfectly usable antenna for minimal cost. This is the thing I am talking about. These days we see many newcomers wanting to only use commercially made accessories and in dodging the experience of making something they are missing the opportunity to strengthen their learning. We have all seen the responses to questions that the only suitable antenna must be a resonant one. By experimenting with a non-resonant design you can find what works at your QTH and what is the most effective for the style of operations that you take on. Being able to cheaply and quickly put together something as useful as an antenna gives a sense of satisfaction and achievement too. Terminating feed lines is a skill that is mastered with a little practice but at times buying in ready-made items might be more practical. If you are in a club, maybe you can suggest a project where several members can get together and decide on a time to share the building and testing. For many of us, a suitable squid pole will be the most expensive outlay but a club bulk buy can drop the costs considerably. Once you have completed one project, perhaps you can build into your club calendar a regular schedule for these practicals that put the book learning to good use. I'm Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that's what I think….how about you?

GB2RS News Sunday the 18th of February 2024 The news headlines: Ask the RSGB Board a question during the Society's 2024 AGM Get involved with British Science Week Registration is now open for Maritime Radio Day 2024   Over the last few years, the RSGB has been developing the way in which the Board can be asked questions at the Society's online AGMs. Last year people were able to ask questions via the YouTube live chat as well as submitting written questions in advance. This year, in response to members' feedback, there will be an opportunity to ask a question on video via Zoom. The RSGB Board will still take written questions in advance and will also answer as many questions on the day via the live chat as possible, depending on the time. The RSGB AGM will be held on Saturday the 13th of April and you can find more information about how to take part on the Q&A subpage of the RSGB AGM web section at rsgb.org/agm The RSGB has a collection of resources to help you get involved with British Science Week, which runs from the 8th to the 17th of March this year and has the theme of ‘Time'. If you already have something planned, please let the RSGB know. This will be useful for others to see and might inspire them! There are already several events for British Science Week on the RSGB website. Some of these are open to everyone, so please show your support for them. If you're going on the air, tell everyone when to listen out for you by sending the RSGB dates, times, bands and modes. The RSGB's British Science Week coordinator is Ian Neal, M0KEO and you can contact him via bsw@rsgb.org.uk  Please send Ian the resources you'd like to share and your event details including the times you'll be on the air. All details are on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/bsw Registration is now open for Maritime Radio Day 2024 which takes place annually on the 14th and 15th of April. The event is held to commemorate the almost 100 years of wireless telegraphy service for seafarers which ended with the closure in the UK of Portishead Radio on the 30th of April 2000. Commencing at 1200UTC on the 14th of April, and finishing at 2300UTC on the 15th of April, this event is a great opportunity to have a QSO with ex-Marine Radio Officers and Coast Station professionals who exchange details of their previous ships and coast stations. The mode of operation is CW and all of the HF bands are used, including the WARC bands. A certificate of participation will be issued to everyone who submits results. Amateur licence holders are invited to register to take part in Friends of Maritime Radio Day. Shortwave listeners may also submit logs. For more information and to register, visit tinyurl.com/MRD24 There are less than two weeks to go until the deadline for the RSGB Construction Competition. There are six categories to enter this year: Antennas; Beginners; Most creative and/or elegant PCB Design; Construction Excellence; Innovation; and Software and Systems. To enable members from across the country, and even the world, to enter, entries will again be judged over the internet rather than in person. 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 to 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  Don't forget, the deadline for entries is the 1st of March 2024 so get your entry in before it's too late. Many amateur radio stations have been on the air this weekend, in conjunction with The Guide Association, to celebrate World Thinking Day on the Air. The aim of World Thinking Day on the Air is to encourage Guides to make friendships with members of other units, using amateur radio as the means of communication. If you, or your club or society, were on the air during the event don't forget to send your pictures and stories to radcom@rsgb.org.uk  Please send your reports in by the 23rd of March. And now for details of rallies and events The British Vintage Wireless Society Biggleswade Swap meet and AGM will take place on Sunday the 25th of February. The venue will be The Weatherley Centre, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 8JH. A bring-and-buy stall will be available with a 10% commission on sales going to the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum. Stallholders can gain entry from 9 am. The doors open to the public at 9.30 am and admission will be £8. For more information visit bvws.org.uk or email secretary@bvws.org.uk The Red Rose Winter Rally will take place on Sunday the 25th of February. The venue will be St Joseph's Hall, Mather Lane, Leigh, WN7 2PJ. Access for exhibitors will be available from 8.30 am and the event will be open to the public from 10 am. Hot and cold refreshments will be available. Further details can be found via West Manchester Radio Club's website at wmrc.co.uk  Send enquiries to Les, G4HZJ via lesjackson@ntlworld.com or phone 07796 264 569. The Exeter Radio and Electronics Rally will take place on Sunday the 3rd of March from 10 am to 1 pm. The event will be held at America Hall, Pinhoe, EX4 8PX. For more information contact Pete, G3ZVI on 07714 198 374 or email g3zvi@yahoo.co.uk  Now the Special Event News Today is the last chance to work Francois, F8DVD who is active as TM21AAW to promote the 21st Antarctic Activity Week. He is QRV from his home QTH in France. QSL via Logbook of the World, his home call or the Bureau. Listen out for members of Radio Club Jean Bart, F6KMB who are active today, the 18th, as TM6C during the traditional Dunkirk Carnival. Operators will be working on the HF and VHF bands using CW, SSB and FT8. QSL via F6KMB. Celebrating the Scandinavian CW Activity Group's 50th anniversary, special callsign SC50AG is active on the HF bands during February. All QSOs will be confirmed via the Bureau and Logbook of the World. Now the DX news Antonio, IK7WUL is active as TY2AA until Tuesday the 20th of February while on a humanitarian mission to Benin. In his spare time, he operates SSB on the HF bands. QSL via IZ8CCW and Logbook of the World. Chuck, KG9N is active as V26CV from Antigua, NA-100, until Tuesday the 20th of February. He is operating mainly using CW and SSB on various bands. QSL via Logbook of the World, or his home call.  Now the contest news The ARRL International DX Contest started at 0000UTC on Saturday the 17th and ends at 2359UTC today, the 18th. Using CW on the 160 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and transmitter power. American stations send their state and Canadian stations send their province. On Tuesday the 20th, the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes on the 23cm band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday the 22nd, the 80m Club Championship runs from 2000 to 2130UTC. Using CW on the 80m band, the exchange is signal report and serial number. The CQ 160m DX Contest runs from 2200UTC on Friday the 23rd to 2200UTC on Sunday the 25th. Using SSB on the 160m band, the exchange is signal report and CQ zone. American stations send their state and Canadian stations send their province. The French HF Championship, also known as the REF Contest, starts at 0600UTC on Saturday the 24th and ends at 1800UTC on Sunday the 25th. Using SSB on the HF bands, where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number. French stations send their department number or overseas territory prefix. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Thursday the 15th of February 2024 We had an interesting week with the threat of a major coronal mass ejection at any time with so much sunspot activity. In the end, it pretty much amounted to nothing, with the highest Kp index only reaching 4.33 on February 11th. That's not to say we didn't have solar activity. Far from it, as the solar flux index reached 208 on the 12th and has been consistently above 180 all week. We also had high proton levels as the positively charged particles streamed past Earth. This was the result of an eruption early on Monday morning from beyond the southwest limb. This may have affected HF signals going over the poles. Otherwise, we had numerous low-level solar flares to contend with, but none of them were stronger than M-class and so of little consequence. So where did this leave us in terms of HF propagation? All in all, not bad with maximum usable frequencies, or MUFs for short, over 3,000km consistently above 28MHz in daylight hours. Daytime MUFs were peaking above 33MHz according to the Dourbes ionosonde. Looking further ahead, we are now heading towards the equinox period, so we can expect MUFs to fall from their winter highs. The good news is that we can expect north-south paths to improve. The equinox is traditionally a better time for auroral conditions. If you want to work the USA on 28MHz you still have a couple of months left to do so, but expect transatlantic propagation conditions to decline by the time April arrives. The good news is that propagation to South Africa, South America and the Caribbean may improve. Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index may reduce and be in the range of 155 to 165. Geomagnetic conditions are predicted to be quiet but, as always, keep an eye on solarham.net for a near real-time update as the risk of a coronal mass ejection, or CME, remains high. To recap, an Earth-facing CME could increase the Kp index, reduce MUFs and generally give poor HF propagation for up to a day.   And now the VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO The basic weather pattern remains unsettled with a series of frontal systems crossing the country during the period. This leaves little room for any Tropo other than the occasional transient ridge of high pressure between successive weather systems. It does however give plenty of scope for rain-scatter enthusiasts to try their luck on the GHz bands. The solar conditions continue to give hope for an increased geomagnetic Kp index, which would be a good signal for potential aurora if it goes above 5 as evidenced in visual displays over northern Britain last Tuesday night, the 13th and 14th of February. As usual, the other propagation modes can still surprise us, even though this is not strictly the best time of year. The large number of satellites in operation means that QSOs can be guaranteed even with simple hand-held equipment. So, have a look at the AMSAT-UK pages and the RSGB website for details and give it a go! Also, a reminder that the best time for random meteor scatter QSOs is around dawn and that the high solar flux could see some 50MHz openings if the Kp index remains low, especially for the far South and West of the UK.   For EME operators, the moon reaches peak declination today, Sunday the 18th, so activity should be higher with high peak moon elevations and long moon windows. Path losses are moderate but rising and 144MHz sky noise is moderate, but falling after Monday. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

It is with sadness that we report the passing of a real gentleman and former member of the Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club known affectionately to all as Doctor Rod VK4MRC. Rod Cardell was well-liked at the club and in his community and died December 27th in Nambour after ill health, his funeral was held on January 3 and attended by family, friends and club members. Dr Rod a retired doctor and former Ansett Pilot, was born in Brisbane on the 4th of July 1932 and was a child of WW2, living in the shadow of Mt Louisa Townsville in Far North Qld from 1942 to 1945 adjacent to the Stock Route Airstrip which became a US and Australian Air force base during the war. He had many great adventures and put them to paper in 1991 when he wrote the book, “Wings Around Us” which includes the story of how his father refused to sell his house to make way for the Airbase, so it was built around them. He is missed by his children, grandchildren, club members, and the local community. Vale Dr Rod VK4MRC. Hello, I'm Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I've been thinking. The fireworks that marked the New Year Celebrations are now just a memory but the world around us continues with infinite variability. The possible peak of activity may be upon us for Sunspot Cycle 25 with solar flares, radio blackouts and amazing DX if I understand the reports. The weather has been going to be wet for days but the skies cleared and people have been looking forward to basic services such as electricity, telephones and the internet. Areas that suffered from storms and deluges with extreme damage to housing are ironically getting water back to their homes as the localised flooding recedes. At my QTH, we had storm activity and woke up the following day, New Year's Eve, with no internet. With the brilliance of the design of the NBN, this also meant no home telephone and our main service provider and the one I use as backup were all unavailable. A day without online entertainment was little more than an inconvenience but it indicated how many advisory services are now geared to delivery via the Internet. We had no access to immediate weather advice or means of accessing it other than via good old-fashioned broadcast, free-to-air, services. It seems the outage was localised as it has not been mentioned on any service that I have used. We woke up for New Year's Day with the service restored but stories running in the news are indicating many people have been without services since Boxing Day and they live not knowing what is happening in the community that sustains them. For these people, it would seem the planners have put all their eggs in one basket and then dropped it. It is interesting to hear the electricity supply people saying that the quickest way of restoring power to many areas is to set up small networks that transportable generators can service. Then as if this is the ultimate fix, hearing from one spokesperson that this solution will save householders from having generators. Sorry mate, but since when has redundancy of services been unnecessary? Householders might not have the means to replace telecommunications but should be able to protect themselves with readily available equipment. I wonder what involvement there has been in the whole weather-born situation from radio amateurs and whether radio clubs have been able to assist during the Christmas to New Year period. I am not aware, at this stage. Have you been affected or has your club suffered loss or been involved? This is the news that should be shared widely. There is a spirit of generosity within our community but for it to be demonstrated, the needs have to be known. There has been some interesting activity during the recent heatwave in the south of the State with VHF signals being received in places quite distant from their source. I'm Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that's what I think….how about you?

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.

Esta semana las condiciones de propagación empeoran, a priori, un poco, aunque se van a poder trabajar las bandas de forma habitual ya que estamos iniciando un buen ciclo solar. Condiciones muy similares a semanas anteriores aunque las bandas altas, en especial 10m, empeoran sensiblemente. Tenéis el informe completo, con todos los datos y detalles en nuestra web: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/pred-propagacion/propagacion-del-2-al-8-de-diciembre-de-2023-hf/ Os pido disculpas por la calidad de grabación, pero me encuentro fuera de mi QTH y no cuento con los medios habituales. ¿Nos apoyas para que podamos seguir haciendo este podcast y más contenidos? Puedes apoyarnos en QRP con 1,99€ al mes o un poco más de potencia en QRO, con 5,99€ al mes aquí: https://cqenfrecuencia.com/cq-en-frecuencia-podcast/apoya/

In deze eerste aflevering van de reeks Technische Praatjes On Tour brachten Paul en Ko een bezoek aan Teun (PD9TL/19RF359) in het mooie lintdorp Den Ilp gelegen in de rook van Purmerend. Dit resulteerde in een leuk gesprek met veel passie over de radiohobby aan de eettafel. Bedankt Teun voor deze leuke avond op locatie....oh pardon QTH

Foundations of Amateur Radio Let's compare the same antenna in different locations... Over the years I've spent many hours building and testing antennas. I've talked about this and discussed how there is essentially an infinite variety of antennas that can exist. To give you a sense of this, picture a basic dipole antenna, two bits of wire, same length, connected to a feed-point. We're doing this experiment in space, so we're not concerned with trees or rope, or the ground for that matter, more on those shortly. We can make this dipole straight, or we can make it into a V-shape, or bend over the edges, or make each side into a half-circle and join them, or make them into a spiral, or kink the wires, or bend them over, or any number of variations. Every time you change something, the antenna radiation pattern changes and the antenna behaves differently. While at its heart the antenna might still be considered a dipole, essentially a change in radiation pattern effectively means a different antenna. In those changes or wire orientation alone we have already defined an infinite number of antennas, but that only scratches the surface. We can build an infinite variety of physical antennas. Consider the design of vertical antennas, loop antennas, log periodic antennas, yagi antennas, slot antennas, and beverage antennas to name a few. Once you start investigating antennas you'll discover just how many options there are and once you've acquired the antenna of your dreams, the work is only just beginning. To explain why this is the case, consider the process of finding an antenna to buy or build. You'll find breathless reports of how amazing an antenna is and how it allowed the operator to hear a mosquito land on the back of a container ship in the middle of a tropical cyclone whilst the sunspot activity was at an all time low. Right next to those reports you'll find another amateur describing how their dummy load performed better and cost less. If not those specific examples, you'll have no doubt found both positive and negative reviews for the very same antenna, often side-by-side and if you don't, you're not looking hard enough. Leaving aside the notion that someone is trying to discredit a commercial competitor or that the antennas are inadvertently physically different, because someone put it together incorrectly, there's plenty of opportunity for other reasons for this wide range of opinion. Let's take the popular G5RV antenna, invented in 1946 by Louis G5RV, who became a silent key on June 28, 2000. The antenna is a multi-band HF antenna and there are plenty of people offering plans and kits for this antenna. Ignoring the differences in plans, let's imagine that two amateurs purchased the exact same G5RV from the same batch from the same supplier. Both erect their antennas at their home shack, or QTH and get on air to make noise. At a local BBQ they get together and compare notes only to discover that the two antennas are behaving completely differently. How is this possible? What other factors might cause this experience? You're not going to like my answer, but "it depends". The height at which the antenna is erected, how tight you pull it between two trees, how you feed it, the type of coax you use, how much power your transmitter uses, how close it is to another object like a fence or a house, what type of ground is below the antenna, what the local noise floor is like, which direction it's oriented, which day you use it and finally, what colour clothes you're wearing at the time. That last one isn't strictly true, but it serves to highlight that some differences exist that are so innocuous as to be laughable, for example, have you considered the type of tree and how much foliage there is, when the lawn below the antenna was last watered, etc. My point is that some differences aren't obvious, but they can, and do, make an antenna behave differently. In other words, the environment around two identical antennas is hardly ever the same and thus the antenna system as a whole, since the environment and the antenna together combine into a system, are never the same. This means that when you go about finding an antenna that's suitable for you, the reviews you read are only part of the story. If the antenna needs ground radials that are physically not possible at your site, then that antenna is unlikely to be suitable for your situation, regardless of the glowing reviews. As I said, in my time I've built and bought plenty of antennas. I've also tried several by way of my local amateur radio club. I've operated a mobile station from my car, set-up a portable station in numerous locations using the exact same antenna, and learnt that while the environment is almost never discussed, it has by far the biggest influence on the performance of your antenna. My recommendation is to pick an antenna, any antenna, cheap is good, and start. Play with it, change how you erect it, set it up in different locations and I'd highly recommend that you do this with a friend. Between the two of you the shared installation can be used as a baseline to compare your own antenna against and if you're both comparing notes against what you built together, you'll both have a better chance of understanding what particular difference matters in your own setup. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Alan Higbie, K0AV, is a ham over sixty years, with an interest in CW, contesting, working DX, and working 2BSIQ mode.  Alan has developed special expertise in finding RF noise sources around his QTH using a portable SDR receiver, and as a trial lawyer, he has had the opportunity to live in unusual places that lead to unusual ham radio operating events.  K0AV is my QSO Today.

Foundations of Amateur Radio A curious thing happens when you become part of the amateur community, you start to talk like an amateur. This phenomenon isn't specific to being a radio amateur, it happens whenever you join any community. Lead by example, one word at a time, you start to inherit a vocabulary that represents that community. Amateur radio, rife with acronyms and so-called Q-Codes, a standardised set of three-letter codes that start with the letter "Q", does this in spades. If you've been around amateurs for more than 30 seconds, it's likely that you have already heard QSL, QTH and QRM, colloquially short for "Yup", "Home" and "Noise". There's an official meaning if you're keen. You can use the three letters as both a question and an answer, so QSL can mean "Can you acknowledge receipt?" and "I am acknowledging receipt." Similarly, QTH means "What is your position in latitude and longitude (or according to any other indication)?" and QRM means "Is my transmission being interfered with?" In those cases, used either with Morse code or Voice, they can make getting the message across simpler, faster, and more accurate, all important aspects of communication. It's easier to get QTH across to an amateur who doesn't speak English as their first language than it is to ask the whole question. Other letter groups also creep into common language of an amateur. You've likely heard the letters: "XYL", but if you haven't, let me explain. Given that amateur radio is an activity dominated by men, "YL" refers to Young Lady and "XYL", refers to eX-Young Lady, a less than complimentary way of referring to one's wife. I'd like to point out something curious. In Morse code, XYL is sent using: -..- -.-- .-.. It's intended to represent the word WIFE which is sent in Morse code as: .-- .. ..-. . Now, if you know anything about Morse, you'll know that a dit is one unit, a dah is three. Individual elements are spaced by one unit. The space between letters is three units and the space between words is seven units. Armed with that knowledge, XYL takes 39 units and WIFE takes 31 units to send. So, sending the shortcut actually takes longer and it's clear that this choice is not about efficiency. Describing someone as an eX-Young Lady to refer to your Significant Other seems very 1950's to me. In the situation where you are the female amateur operator, the apparently appropriate way to refer to your Significant Other is as Old Man or "OM". Are female operators supposed to refer to themselves as YL or XYL? Really? Sexism aside, this is extremely offensive in a same-sex and gender fluid community. Then there's the symbol "88", apparently meant to refer to "Hugs and Kisses", not something I'd feel comfortable sending to anyone other than my partner who is emphatically not an amateur, let alone the idea that it would be appropriate to send it to any random station or the connotations around males sending such a message to a random female operator. So, given that we now live in the 21st century and we're no longer in 1950, perhaps it's time to consider what language we teach new amateurs. One proposal by Chris M0YNG is to refer to the Operator as "OP" and the Significant Other as "SO". Seems like a good start. I will point out that this conversation was brought to my attention by Andreas DJ3EI who was participating in a Mastodon.radio conversation with Tim N7KOM who started the thread. I think it's a worthwhile thing to discuss such an evolution of our language, it goes to the heart of our community, you are what you say you are, and words matter. So, what words, acronyms and symbols do you use in your amateur community and what are you teaching new amateurs? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Rich Gussow, 4Z1JJ, discovered ham radio in high school and finally got his amateur radio ticket in his first year at Brooklyn College in 1976, where he quickly built up his operating skills and amateur theory to upgrade to Advanced within a year.   Single Side-band is Rich's favorite mode, and now Rich enjoys working amateur satellites in voice and packet modes from his QTH in Modiin, Israel.  4Z1JJ is my QSO Today.

Foundations of Amateur Radio Our community is full of TLAs, or three letter acronyms. Some of them more useful than others. For example, I can tell you thank you for the QSO, I'm going QRT, QSY to my QTH. Or, thanks for the chat, I'll just shut up and take my bat and ball and go home. Acronyms arise every day and it came as no surprise to spot a new one in the wild the other day, SHF. It was in a serious forum, discussing antennas if I recall, so I didn't blink and looked it up. Super High Frequency. Okay, so, where's that? I'm familiar with VHF and UHF and as radio amateurs we're often found somewhere on HF, that's Very High Frequency, Ultra High Frequency and High Frequency if you're curious. Turns out that the ITU, the International Telecommunications Union has an official list, of course it does. The current ITU "Radio Regulations" is the 2020 edition. It's great bedtime reading. Volume one of four, Chapter one of ten, Article two of three, Section one of three, Provision 2.1 starts off with these words: "The radio spectrum shall be subdivided into nine frequency bands, which shall be designated by progressive whole numbers in accordance with the following table." When you look at this table you'll discover it starts with band number four and ends with band number twelve, between them covering 3 kHz to 3000 GHz. In position ten you'll see the designation "SHF", covering 3 to 30 GHz, centrimetric waves. A couple of things to note. The list starts at band four. There are of course frequencies below 3 kHz. The list ends at twelve, but there are frequencies above 3000 GHz. You'll also note that I'm not saying 3 Terahertz, since the ITU regulations specify that you shall express frequencies up to 3000 GHz using "gigahertz". Interestingly the same document has a provision for reporting interference where you can report using Terahertz frequencies, so I'm not sure how the ITU deals with such reports. Another thing to note is that this table doesn't actually define what SHF means. It's nowhere in the radio regulations either, I looked. I'm not sure where the words Super High Frequency came from. There is an ITU online database for looking up acronyms and terms. That leads to a document called "Nomenclature of the frequency and wavelength bands used in telecommunications", which also doesn't use "Super High Frequency" anywhere. That said, using the ITU band four, where its definition starts, the VLF band, or Very Low Frequency, followed by LF, Low Frequency, MF, Medium Frequency, the familiar HF or High Frequency, VHF, UHF, then SHF and beyond that, EHF, Extremely High Frequency and THF or Tremendously High Frequency, yes, Tremendously High. There's a report called the "Technical and operational characteristics and applications of the point-to-point fixed service applications operating in the frequency band 275-450 GHz". It introduces the term "THF which stands for tremendously high frequency" but adds the disclaimer that "this terminology is used only within this Report." Seems that there are plenty of documents on the ITU website using that same definition, so I'm guessing that the cat is out of the bag. THF by the way is defined as being for 300 to 3000 GHz frequencies. By the way, the ITU TLA finder exposes that THF stands for Topology Hiding Function. Where's a good acronym when you need it? Speaking of definitions, I came across the definition of a "taboo channel" which according to the ITU is "A channel which coincides with the frequency of the local oscillator in the single super heterodyne receiver which is tuned to an analogue channel." Anyway, we still have a way to go. Below band four, less than 3 kHz, we have ULF or Ultra Low Frequency, SLF, Super Low Frequency and ELF, Extremely Low Frequency, which is defined as band one, between 3 and 30 Hz. Below that, some have suggested TLF, or Tremendously Low Frequency which apparently goes between 1 and 3 Hz with a wavelength between 300,000 down to 100,000 km. Others have suggested that this is an internet meme, but so far it seems to me that it has just as much legitimacy as any of the other wordings, since it appears that the ITU explicitly excludes such definitions, even if internal documents introduce terms from time to time. It did make me wonder, what comes after Tremendously High Frequencies, Red? Turns out, yes, well, infra-red pretty much follows on from Tremendously High Frequencies. If you think that's the end of it, think again. The IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has its own definitions, of course it does. Unfortunately they decided that you need to pay for their standard. It was first issued in 1976 "to remove the confusion". There's an xkcd comic called "Standards", number 927 if you're looking. It goes like this: Situation: There are 14 competing standards. 14?! Ridiculous! We need to develop one universal standard that covers everyone's use cases. Yeah! Soon: Situation: There are 15 competing standards. Anyway, the IEEE designates that after UHF comes L or Long wave, followed by S, or Short wave, then comes C, the compromise between Short wave and X or cross or Exotic. Then there's Ku, Kurtz Under, K, Kurtz, and Ka or Kurtz above, Kurtz being the German word for Short. There's the V band and the W band which follows the V band. Had enough yet? NATO, the EU and the US define these using letters of the alphabet. And broadcasters use Band Numbers which link up to nothing in particular. I wonder if the measure of a society is just how many different ways can be used to describe the same thing. Perhaps we should have stopped at Hertz or Hz, which was established in 1930 by the International Electrotechnical Commission, as an expression of the number of times that a repeated event occurs per second, in honour of Heinrich Hertz. One more three letter acronym, the International Electrotechnical Commission is better known as the IEC. I wonder if the ITU is taking suggestions, ginormous, utterly, inordinately, awfully and humongously seem like perfect opportunities for future expansion. I'm Onno VK6FLAB.

Foundations of Amateur Radio Last week I went outside. I know, it was a shock to me too. The purpose of this adventure was to test an antenna that has been sitting in my garage for nearly a year. Together with a friend we researched our options and at the end of the process the Hustler 6BTV was the answer to our question. Before the commercial interest police come out of the woodwork, I'll point out that I'm not providing a review, good or bad, of this antenna, it was the antenna I purchased and went to test. Between the two of us we have three of these antennas. I have the idea to use one as a portable station antenna and another as my base station antenna. Glynn VK6PAW intends to use his as a base station antenna. To set the scene. The antennas came in quite large boxes, just over six bananas long, or more than 180 cm. When they arrived I opened my boxes and checked their content, then sealed it all up and put the boxes on a shelf. Last week Glynn proposed that we set one up and see what we could learn from the experience. You know that I love a good spreadsheet, so planning went into overdrive, well, I put together a list of the things we'd need, starting with the antenna and ending with sunscreen to protect my pasty skin from the fusion experiment in the sky. In between were things like an antenna analyser, spare batteries, tools, imperial, since apparently there are still parts of the world that haven't gone beyond barley measurements. I jest, they authorised the use of the metric system in 1866. My list also included a magnetic bowl to capture loose nuts and washers, you get the idea, anything you might need to test an antenna in the field. Our setup was on a rural property where we had lovely shady trees and oodles of space to extend out a 25m radial mat. We tested many different set-ups. I won't go through them all, but to give you an idea of scale, in the time we were there, we recorded forty different antenna frequency scans. The 6BTV antenna is suitable for 80m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 15m and 10m. We tested with and without radials, raised and on the ground and several other installations. We learnt several useful things. For starters, sitting on the ground with radials the antenna measurements line up pretty well with the specifications and with a suitable base mount to protect the plastic base the portable station antenna is usable out of the box. Any variation on this will result in change, sometimes subtle, sometimes less so. For example, we came up with one installation where the SWR never dropped below 3:1. That's with the antenna on the ground without any radials in case you're wondering. Other things we learnt were that manually scanning each band is painful. When we do this again we'll have to come up with a better way of measuring. The aim for my base antenna is to install it on my roof, bolted to a clamp on the side of my metal pergola. This means that we're going to have to do some serious tuning to make this work for us. It might turn out that we'll start with installing the antenna at Glynn's QTH first, but we haven't yet made that decision. Other things I learnt are that I had actually put together the base clamp when I checked the boxes a year ago, so that was a bonus. The magnetic bowl saved our hides once when a spring washer fell into the lawn. The hose-clamps that come with the antenna require a spanner, but there are thumb screw variations of those that I'll likely use for my portable setup. Other things we need to do is learn exactly how the traps work and how adjusting them affects things. In case you're unfamiliar with the concept of a trap, think of it as a radio signal switch that lets signals below a certain resonant frequency pass and blocks signals above that frequency. In other words, a 10m trap resonates just below 28 MHz. It lets frequencies below 28 MHz pass, but blocks those above it, essentially reducing the length of the antenna to the point where the trap is installed. One test we did was to only use the base and the 10m trap. We discovered that this doesn't really work and that the metal above the trap, as-in the rest of the antenna, isn't just for show, even though it's on the blocked side of the 10m trap. Given that I intend to use my base antenna as my main WSPR transmission point, I need to adjust things so the antenna works best on WSPR frequencies. I intend to use a tuner for when I want to work outside those frequencies. One unexpected lesson was that the awning that Glynn attached to his vehicle was an absolutely essential item. I don't think I'll ever go portable again without one. Life changing would be an understatement. I'm investigating if I can fit one to my vehicle. Having had some health issues over the past months I was anxious about going outside and being somewhat active. I paced myself, protected my back, took regular breaks, sat down a lot, drank litres of water and slept like a baby that night. No ill effects, very happy. As a bonus, I even transferred our measuring data to a spreadsheet. I can't wait to see the results of our next adventure. Oh, we did connect a radio. Heard a beacon in Israel, heard a QSO in Italy, listened to WWV on 10 MHz and almost missed the bliss of not having to tune or switch when moving from band to band. What have you been up to in the great outdoors? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio When people think about and discuss my chosen hobby, amateur radio, there's often a perception that it's old men sitting behind a radio tapping on a Morse key, making beeping noises surrounded by all manner of imposing equipment, stacked thick and high in a tiny room that soon becomes too stifling to spend much time in. While such scenes might exist, often reinforced by old photos and messy radio shacks, any self respecting amateur will tell you that plenty of time is spent outside the shack dealing with antennas, coax and earthing systems, combined with pouring concrete, building, erecting and climbing towers and a myriad of other physical activity. My experience has shown that my own inertia bending acts often involve things like camping, portable operation in ever changing environments, throwing ropes into trees and recovering those later, erecting verticals, tying down squid-poles and other muscular movements like building temporary rotators lashed to the nearest utility vehicle to take advantage of a multi-band yagi that someone brought along to play with during a field day. The first time I really discovered just how lacking my stamina is, was in early 2014 when the FT5ZM DXpedition team to Amsterdam Island was in town. I had the pleasure of spending a day with a couple of team members showing off the sights of my QTH, Perth in Western Australia. In the middle of the city is Kings Park. To give you a sense of scale, at over 400 hectares, Perth's Kings Park is larger than New York's Central Park and London's Hyde Park. One of the attractions is the dual spiral staircase DNA tower. At 15m height, it's the highest viewing point in Kings Park offering 360 degree views of the park and the city surrounding it. Commissioned in 1966, the tower has 101 steps and has recently been refurbished. It derives its name from the DNA Double Helix molecule, which is how the staircases are arranged. One of my companions on the climb to the top was a sprightly amateur who's been licensed a decade longer than I've been alive. I marvelled when Arnie N6HC essentially ran up the tower when all I was able to achieve was puff my way up in his wake. Since then I've discovered that doing 24 hour contests, camping and other fun stuff now absolutely kicks the stuffing out of me, often requiring that I spend a day in a small dark room recovering with a blanket over my head. While my body shape and my callsign have things in common and my doctor continues to encourage me to lose weight, I can say that my recent visit to hospital, unexpected as it was, reminded me in no uncertain terms that I should look after myself, if only so I can actually participate in the next contest or camp-out. I'm not going to tell you what my fitness plan is, nor am I going to tell you to embark on one of your own, other than to ask, have you considered just how much of this wonderful hobby goes beyond keying a microphone or tapping a keyboard and consider just how safe you really are when you next climb up a ladder, tower or other height to fix an antenna? Speaking of health, I've been absolutely blown away by the incoming messages, offers of help, shared gallbladder emergency and post-operative experiences and more, from people whom I've known for years through to amateurs who took a chance to introduce themselves and wish me well. It wasn't until this week that I really understood that this community is rich in personal lived history, going well beyond the experiences I've had outside the hobby. I'm ever so grateful for your encouragement and intend to keep fighting to get well. It's going to take some time, but I'm looking forward to when I can next camp-out and not regret my life choices. So, get off your sedentary and go do something will ya? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Art Bell, W6OBB, now a silent key, was my guest on Episode 85, in March of 2016 and the interview that follows is the remastered version.  Art was a very active ham from his QTH in Pahrump, Nevada, and his 160 meter Rhombic antennas were legendary.  He was also one of the most popular late night talk radio hosts for over 30 years, syndicated nationwide until his retirement in 2007.   I was a great fan of Art's and like many of his fans truly miss him on the radio. 

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I was woken by the sound of a thunderclap. It was shockingly loud and came out of the blue. A few moments later, it happened again. I exploded out of bed, rushed to the shack, disconnected the beacon power and switched the antenna coax to "safe". After breathing a sigh of relief, everything went dark and with it came the distinctive sound of the sudden death of the uninterrupted power supply taking with it my workstation. With nothing else left to do, I reported the outage to the power company, went back to bed, pulled the covers over my head, snuggled in and surprisingly, slept pretty well despite the barrage of water hitting my QTH. The next morning the power was back on and I discovered that one of the residual current devices, the one that powered most, if not all, the wall sockets had tripped. I reset it and much to my surprise, most of my QTH came back to life. I say most, because after breakfast I had a moment to switch on my radios and see what, if any, damage there was. I could hear and trigger the local repeater, but HF was strangely dead. I could hear the coax switches turning on and off, but the SWR on the antenna was high and it didn't appear that the antenna coupler was doing anything. It's powered remotely using a device called a Bias-T. You use two of them to transport a power supply voltage along your antenna coax. In my case, I inject 12 Volts in my shack, and extract the 12 Volts at the other end near the antenna where it powers the antenna coupler. Occasionally the antenna coupler needs a reset, so I removed the power, waited a bit and reconnected. Still no response from the coupler, so I disconnected the power and left it for another time. A few days later I had a moment to investigate further, so I went outside to check out the antenna and coupler. Both looked fine. I removed and reinserted the power, heard a click, but wasn't sure since a car came barrelling down the road at the same time, so tried again and heard nothing. At this point I decided that this warranted a full investigation and started putting together a mental list of things I'd need. I wanted to test the coupler when it was isolated, I wanted to do a time-domain-reflectometry, or TDR test, to see if anything had changed. This test uses the RF reflection of a cable to determine its overall length and any faults like a cable break, high or low resistance and any joints. If you have a Nano VNA or an antenna analyser, you can do this test. It did occur to me that I didn't have a baseline to compare with, so that was disappointing, but I added it to the list. First thing to test was to check if the radio had been affected. I turned it on, did the same tests and discovered that the Bias-T was still disconnected, which could explain why I didn't hear a click when I tested a second time. Armed with a level of confidence around power, I tried again to trigger the antenna coupler and got nothing, dread building over the potential loss of a radio in the storm, I set about swapping my HF antenna to another radio. At this point I was reminded of an incident, 37 years ago, as a high school student during a class outing. My wonderful and inspirational physics teacher, Bart Vrijdaghs, took us to the local University where the head of the Physics Department of the University of Leiden gave us a tour of their facilities. He took us into a student lab full of oscilloscopes and tone generators and set-up a demonstration to show us how you could generate Lissajous figures. He was having some trouble making it work and with the impertinence reserved for teenagers I quoted a then popular IBM advertisement from 1985, "Of Je Stopt de Stekker Er In", which loosely translates to asking if he had plugged it in. I can tell you, if looks could kill, I wouldn't be telling this story. Suffice to say, it wasn't. Plugged in, that is. Back to my HF antenna. Yeah. It was already plugged into the other radio, so, unsurprisingly it was unable to send any RF to, or from, the first radio, much like some of the advanced telepathic printers I've had the pleasure of fixing during my help desk days a quarter of a century ago. After all that, I can tell you that HF seems to work as expected. The beacon is back online and I have some work ahead of me to create some baseline TDR plots and perhaps a check-in, check-out board to keep track of what's plugged in where. That and looking for another UPS, since keeping the computer it's connected to up and running, at least long enough to properly shut down, would be good. What other lessons can you take away from lightning hitting nearby? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

John Raydo, K0IZ, had a great mentor at the beginning of his ham radio story that laid the foundation for John's approach to operating amateur radio and building radio equipment from scratch. John shares this story and how he now remotely controls and has the noise benefit of his rural Colorado rig when operating from his QTH in Missouri.  K0IZ is my QSO Today.

Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the topics I've been talking about lately is the idea that we might be able to measure the performance of your radio in some meaningful way using equipment that can be either obtained by any amateur, or by introducing a process that allows results to be compared, even if they have been generated differently. Recently I came up with a tool that automatically generates a spectrogram of an audio recording. That on its own isn't particularly interesting, but it's step one in the processing of an audio signal. In addition to the spectrogram, I also created a tool that generates a tone frequency sweep, think of it as a tone that changes frequency over time, let's call it a sweep. If you combine the two, you can generate a spectrogram of the sweep to give you a starting point or baseline for comparison. You can build on that by using your radio to transmit that sweep and record the result using a receiver. In my initial experiments, I used an RTLSDR dongle to receive the audio with some success and a boatload of spectacular harmonics, but I wanted to find a better, more accessible way to do this and during the week I realised that my Yaesu FT-857d that's sitting in my shack, is connected to a perfectly functional antenna and with a few settings it could do the job perfectly. One of the biggest issues with my RTLSDR setup was squelch. That is the difference between what is a legitimate transmission and what is noise. Set it too high and you hear nothing, set it too low and you hear everything, including background noise. Since the VHF or 2m noise levels are quite high at my location, or QTH, I normally have the squelch completely closed. This is fine if you're normally using a strong repeater, but if you're attempting to receive a weak hand-held, that's never going to work. As any self-respecting amateur I was dragged down the path of last resort to read my user manual where I discovered that in addition to CTCSS, a way to transmit a tone to open a repeater, there's also a setting called Tone Squelch or on my radio TSQ, which will keep my radio squelch closed, unless it hears the CTCSS tone from another radio. Truth be told, I had to read a different user manual to discover how to actually set the CTCSS tone on my handheld to test, but that's just adding insult to injury. It has been a while since I read any manual, even though I try to get to it once a year or so. I blame it on the lack of field-day camping. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So, combining all this, the spectrogram generator, the sweep, CTCSS, and adding a Raspberry Pi with some website magic, if you're interested, an AWS S3 bucket, I now have a service that listens on a local frequency, opens the squelch if it hears the correct CTCSS tone, records the incoming signal until it stops, then generates a spectrogram from that audio and uploads it to a web site. None of this is particularly complicated, though I did have some bugs to work through. I've published the code as a branch to my existing frequency-response project on github and I've asked my local community to experiment with what I have on-air before I start doing more far reaching experiments. For example. If I were to tune my radio to a local repeater output frequency, rather than the simplex one I'm currently on, I'd be able to record and generate spectrograms for each transmission coming from that repeater. If that repeater was connected to the internet, using AllStar, IRLP, Echolink, DMR or Brandmeister, or even all of them, the global community could send their audio to my recorder and it could generate a spectrogram on the spot. If using that repeater, you played a sweep into your microphone, or used your digital audio interface to play the sound, you could then compare your signal path against others and against the baseline response. One of the issues with doing this is that much of the audio that travels across the internet is pretty munched, that is, it's compressed, frequencies are cut-off, there's all manner of interesting harmonics and the value of the comparison appears limited at best. Once I have my multi-band HF antenna, which I'm told is still being built, I intend to set this contraption up on HF where we can do point-to-point recordings and we end up having a direct comparison between two stations who transmit into my frequency-response software. I should add some disclaimers here too. At the moment I'm only using FM. The intent is to get this to a point where I can compare any mode, but when I move to HF, I'll likely start with Single Side Band and go on from there. One other annoyance is that any user needs to configure CTCSS to make this work, which is yet another hurdle to overcome, not insurmountable, but I like to keep things simple when you're starting to learn. Also, the harmonics still show, even on an analogue radio, so there's plenty more to discover. In the meantime, what kinds of things can you think of to use this for? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio For some time now I've been discussing the potential of weak signal propagation and its ability to create a live map from the data that your own station transmits. There are several systems in place that show a map of where and when your station was heard in the past little while. Using 200 milliwatts, I've been transmitting a WSPR or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter beacon on 10m for the past few weeks. At the moment, the furthest away my beacon has been heard is 13.612 km away. That's an 0.2 Watt signal heard on the other side of the planet, on 10m. As distance goes, it's a third of the way around the globe. I must point out that there's no way of knowing if this signal travelled the short path or the long path. If you've heard those terms, short and long path but were wondering what they mean, here's how it works. If I get on my bike at my QTH in Perth in VK6 and peddle East until I hit Sydney, I'll have crossed Australia, taken about 184 hours and travelled about 3.746 km. That's the short path. If I head West instead and start swimming, visit Cape Town, Buenos Aires and Auckland along the way, I'll have travelled much further, still made it to Sydney, but taken the long path. Radio waves can do the same. Depending on propagation, a signal might take either the shortest route, or go in the opposite direction and take the longest route along the great circle between two stations. I'm mentioning this because WSPR doesn't tell you if it's one or the other and if you're using a vertical, it could be either. Even directional antennas might receive a signal from unexpected directions. Using one of the mapping tools, wspr.live, I extracted all the sightings of my callsign and all the reports that I'd made from my receiver. It shows that my newest transmitter has now been heard by 11 stations across three continents. Those numbers are just the beginning. I wanted to see on the map where these stations were, so, during the week I built a proof of concept world map that I used to visually show the four character Maidenhead grid squares that my station was heard in. I also had a look to see which stations I'd heard over the years and where they were. In all, 771 different stations are in my log, either as a receiver or a transmitter. N4WQH heard me on 40m, 18.832 km away when I was using 5 Watts. My station has heard, or has been heard across 331 different grid squares. There's reports across some remote parts of Australia, Japan, India, South Africa, Europe, the United States, several across the Pacific and even a few in Antarctica. I wondered how many of the world's grid squares have actually been activated and which station was heard the furthest and how much power was used. Those numbers will have to wait for another day. I initially started using wspr.live which has a neat way of allowing you to embed an SQL query as part of the URL to download the output. I was getting some interesting results, so I thought, rather than hammer this lovely resource with my questions, I should download the raw data instead. So I did. Well, I am. Still. It's big. As of today, there's 166 files, taking up 60 GB of compressed data, with over 3.5 billion reports. The first spot in that data goes to N8FQ who heard WB3ANQ on Monday, the 17th of March, 2008 across 911 km on the 30m band transmitting with 28 dBm, or about 630 mW, reporting a signal to noise ratio of 1 dB. Using preliminary data to get started I mapped all the activated squares, each shown as a red box and saw that my entire map was red. At that point I figured that either I've got a bug in my code, or something else is going on. To give some context before I share what I found, a Maidenhead locator consists of a combination of letters and numbers. For four letter grid squares, there's a grand total of 32.400 different combinations, running from AA00 to RR99. They're 2 degrees wide and 1 degree high and their width depends on where on the planet they are. At the equator it's about 222 km wide and 111 km tall, at the North and South pole, it's 0 km wide. If you travel between two squares, you might have to move a meter, or the entire width of a grid square. Among the report, I found stations who had activated more than one square. That's fair enough, you can move your station and start making noise where ever you like. I found stations with activations across more than a thousand different squares. Before I start pointing the finger, I will mention that if you attach a WSPR beacon to an aircraft, or a balloon, you can legitimately activate plenty of squares. When you set-up a WSPR transmitter, you're required to manually enter the locator and mistakes happen. There's plenty of records with invalid Maidenhead locators, typically shown instead is a callsign. Then there are stations that pick desirable locators. This manual entry is also true for the power level and even the callsign, so I'm not outing these stations here, since it's entirely possible that the callsign shown doesn't actually relate to the transmitter or the licensed amateur. What does all this mean? It means that the information in the WSPR database cannot be trusted. I suspect it also means that the data used to lodge FT8 contacts across the planet can probably also not be trusted. It means that any propagation data you're deriving is likely contaminated by misreporting, deliberately or not. As a community, if we want to use this for actual measurements, we'll have to figure out how to make this a trusted resource, because the information that WSPR can bring to propagation is in my opinion extremely valuable. I would love to hear your thoughts on how we might fix it. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

GB2RS News Sunday the 14th of November 2021 The news headlines: Bletchley filming will disrupt NRC days Canadians mark transatlantic first Newsreader ‘Jon Island Jon' goes SK The RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park will be closed to all visitors this coming Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. This is due to filming taking place at Bletchley Park and no visitors will be on-site during this time. Please check the Bletchley Park site before planning your visit. NRC staff and volunteers plan to re-open as normal on Saturday the 20th of November. CF3BP will be operating from the York region near Toronto until the 12th of December. It will mark the anniversary of the first transatlantic amateur radio transmission from Canada by Edward Rogers Senior using the call 3BP. He was one of the few amateurs to successfully transmit across the Atlantic in an ARRL-sponsored test and the only Canadian to succeed, using a 500W spark gap transmitter. Operated by members of the York Region ARC, a schedule will be available at yrarc.org/cf3bp. You can also read more about the historical event at the same place. The RSGB has learned, with sadness, that Jon Hague, GM3JIJ, has become a Silent Key. Jon was a member of the Society for 72 years. Affectionately known as ‘Jon Island Jon' to his many on-air friends, he delivered the GB2RS News from his QTH at Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis for 26 years, his big signals covering the Highlands & Islands on 80m, 40m and 2m each Sunday. Our thoughts are with Jon's family and many friends. On Saturday the 13th of November, Barry ARS was featured in a programme on Channel 4 at 8 pm called Britain by Beach. The club was shown doing a recreation of Marconi and Kemp's CW transmissions from Lavernock Point in South Wales. You can watch the episode on the Channel 4 website by searching for Britain by Beach. The RSGB HF Contest Committee is going to use the information from a short survey to inform its planning. The committee is considering some changes to an existing contest and may introduce a new contest. Additionally, the RSGB VHF Contest Committee is finalising the VHF Contest rules for next year. It is not proposing major changes to the rules, but have a few areas where it would appreciate your feedback. You can answer both surveys, before the 17th of November, by going to thersgb.org/gb2rs/013/ The RSGB held its second online Convention on the 9th of October. A new video, RSGB 2021 Convention: Unwrapped, gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how we created the event. Months of planning went into this online event, which provided 15 presentations across two live streams throughout the day as well as regular content from the RSGB National Radio Centre. You can find it on the RSGB YouTube channel or on the Convention web page at rsgb.org/convention. And now for details of rallies and events Before travelling to any rally or event, please check the event's website as there may still be alterations or cancellations due to the pandemic, even as we head into the 2022 diary. The next rally we have details for is in 2022. The Sparkford Wireless Group Rally is due to take place on the 2nd of January at Davis Hall near Yeovil. More dates for 2022 as we get closer to the end of the year. Some rallies have been cancelled, as previously publicised, including the Bishop Auckland RAC rally, originally due to be held on the 28th of November. Now is the perfect time to let us know your group's rally or event plans for 2022. Email radcom@rsgb.org.uk with details and we'll publicise your event for free in RadCom, on the RSGB website and in GB2RS. Now the DX news TM60ANT will be on air from the 16th to the 30th of November to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty signature. Operated by François, F8DVD from Mâcon, JN26JH, operations will be on the 10 to 40m bands. Information about the event and the QSL route can be found on QRZ.com. Robert, S53R is now stationed in Kathmandu, Nepal for the foreseeable future, and will be active as 9N7AA (a reissued callsign, previously used by UA3AA in 2014). He is waiting to move to a permanent residence and for part of his equipment to arrive. He says that for the time being only limited operation is planned, but the pace should pick up by end of November. QSL via LoTW, or direct to S57DX. Oleh, KD7WPJ will be active as PJ7/UR5BCP from Sint Maarten, IOTA reference NA-105, from 18-24 November. He will operate CW, SSB and FT8 on 40 to 6m. QSL via KD7WPJ. Abie, AB1F will be active as VU2ABE from Shillong, in the Indian state of Meghalaya, between 6 November and 18 December. He will be QRV on 40, 20, 15 and 10m. QSL via home call, direct or bureau and LoTW; he will upload his log also to eQSL, QRZ and Club Log on a regular basis. Now the Special Event news OQ05PHI is the special callsign for the UBA Section de Philippeville to celebrate its 5th anniversary. It will be active until the 22nd of November. QSL via ON4PHI. Celebrating Saint Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, Welland Valley ARS will be active as GB0SA between 6 November and 3 December. QSL via G4XEX, LoTW and eQSL. Now the contest news When operating in contests, please keep yourself and fellow amateurs safe by following relevant pandemic-related government recommendations. The WAE DX RTTY contest ends its 48 hour run at 2359UTC today, the 14th. Using the contest bands between 3.5 and 28MHz, the exchange is signal report and serial number. The UK Microwave Group Low Band contest runs from 1000 to 1400UTC today. Using all modes on the 1.3 to 3.4GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Thursday sees the 70MHz UK Activity Contest, also running from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Saturday, the Second 1.8MHz contest runs from 1900 to 2300UTC. It is CW only and the exchange is signal report, serial number and your District code. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 12th of November. This last week was a little more settled than the previous one. The solar flux index remained in the high 80s and geomagnetic conditions were mostly quiet, with a maximum Kp index of three. That isn't to say that the Sun has been inactive – far from it. A long-duration M2.0 solar flare took place on the 9th of November around region 2891, which is now located behind the northwest limb. Its associated CME was luckily not Earth-directed, so it looks like we escaped that one. As a result of the settled conditions maximum usable frequencies have remained quite high. On Thursday lunchtime they were topping out at just over 28MHz over a 3,000km path. Manubhai, VU2XO in India has been logged on 10m SSB on a few occasions and Stuart VK8NSB has also found his way into many logbooks according to the 10m UK Net group on Facebook. The 10m Australian beacon VK8VF/B in Darwin has also been logged in Southern Ireland on 28.268MHz. According to the Propagation Studies Committee's beacon listing on RSGB.org the beacon runs only 25W. Next week, NOAA predicts more of the same, with the solar flux index rising from around 80 to perhaps around 90 as the week progresses. Geomagnetic conditions are currently predicted to be unsettled around the 15th when the Kp index could rise to four. But at this point in the cycle, it is hard to be precise as CMEs can disrupt the ionosphere approximately two days after a solar flare and CME event, and they are very hard to predict with any accuracy. The best advice is to keep an eye on solarham.com for news of solar events. And now the VHF and up propagation news. High pressure will build in from Scandinavia as we move into early next week. This high should bring some Tropo opportunities but suffer a brief knockback midweek as a new low pushes a weakening front south. After this, a new high will build, but this time from the Azores High with a moister surface airflow and a better prospect for Tropo. The Tropo prospects will favour southern UK regions, whereas the north will remain closer to low pressure and be less likely to generate Tropo. Rain showers may again provide some rain scatter on the GHz bands. The Leonids meteor shower peaks this week, so obviously a good chance to test out those meteor scatter techniques using digimodes MSK144 and FSK441 if you've not tried them before. SSB and fast CW on the lower VHF bands will also be possible for well-equipped stations using the right techniques. For EME enthusiasts, Moon declination goes positive again on Monday, but path losses are rising as we head for apogee a week today, the 21st. The Moon will be at 34 degrees elevation this evening, Sunday, at its zenith, getting higher as the week progresses. And that's all from the propagation team this week

GB2RS News Sunday 10th of October 2021 The news headlines: School ISS contact this Tuesday RSGB exam booking system is live New 2x1 callsigns for Australia   At 1112UTC on 12 October, GB4MHN will be calling the International Space Station to enable ten deaf children to speak to a NASA Astronaut. The children at the Mary Hare School for deaf children in Newbury will be assisted by Lloyd, M5LDF and other members of Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society. The children will each ask a question to the astronaut and the reply will then be interpreted into subtitles and sign language. The event is made possible by ARISS, which heads up the radio contacts for space agencies NASA and ESA. The ISS signal can be received on the 2m band or watched live at live.ariss.org. The RSGB's new exam online booking system is now live. On the first page, you choose whether you are an individual who wants to book a remote invigilation exam or a club that wants to book an exam for candidates at the club premises. Clubs will be able to choose whether to book and pay for their candidates, or just book the date and time then receive a link that candidates will use to pay for their own exams. You can find the new booking process and an FAQ to help you at rsgb.org/exam-bookings. The Australian Communications and Media Authority will commence the release of brand new 2 x 1 Australian contest callsigns at 10 am, 13 October 2021. The contest callsign template comprises the VK, VJ or VL prefix followed by one number then one letter. There are a number of rules governing the application for a short contest call and they will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. The RAF Air Cadets are planning to run the next Blue Ham Radio Communications Exercise on the 16th and 17th of October. They hope that radio amateurs can put some time aside to join in with the cadets and staff on the shared section of the 5MHz bands. A Blue Ham participation certificate is available to those who contact 15 or more special Cadet callsigns during the exercise. Just search for exercise blue ham to find out more information. As part of the day of lectures for the British Amateur Television Club CAT21 day, Ian, GM3SEK is giving a talk on the application of the RSGB-Ofcom Calculator to microwave bands and QO-100 satellite operation on Saturday the 16th of October at 1.30 pm. Registration is not required and full details of the day and how to view can be found at batc.org.uk/live/cat21. Jamboree On The Air is an annual event in which Scouts and Guides all over the world communicate with each other via amateur radio. JOTA 2021 runs for the full 48 hours of the 16th and 17th of October. You can find out more at jotajoti.info. Members of the BBC's radio club, The London BBC Radio Group, have been granted an exceptional all-year Special Event callsign to help celebrate the BBC's centenary year in 2022. Ofcom will permit GB100BBC to operate throughout the year, starting at midnight on New Year's Day, from the headquarters station in Broadcasting House, London. Operating slots will then be allocated for use by individual members and local groups of operators, from their home QTH, or BBC premises throughout the UK. And now for details of rallies and events Before travelling to any rally or event, please check the event's website as there may still be alterations or cancellations due to the pandemic. The second part of the BATC Convention for amateur TV will take place on the 16th of October. It will be a day of free online talks about amateur television. Just search for BATC CAT21 and follow the link for the live stream. Essex CW Amateur Radio Club will hold a CW Boot Camp on the 16th of October in Witham. You can find out more by searching on the internet for Essex CW ARC and clicking their Boot Camp link. On the 17th of October, the Hornsea Amateur Radio Rally is due to be held at the Driffield Show Ground, YO25 3AE. Doors open at 10 am and parking is free. Admission is £2. There will be trade stands, a Bring & Buy and a car boot area. Catering will be available on site. Also on the 17th, the Hack Green Radio Surplus Hangar Sale will be held at the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker in Nantwich. Doors open at 10 am and there will be equipment, components and amateur radio gear on sale. The Galashiels Rally, scheduled to take place on the 24th is cancelled, as previously publicised. The Members of Bishop Auckland RAC have, sadly, had to cancel their annual rally due to be held on the 28th of November. It will now be planned for 2022. Now the DX news Nobby, G0VJG has cancelled his operation from the Maldives and will be active as 3B8/G0VJG from Mauritius, AF-049, until the 16th of October. He will operate SSB and digital modes on the 80 to 10m bands. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS. Robert, 3B9FR is a resident of Rodrigues Island, AF-017, and is now active again. He operates mainly CW, with some occasional SSB and FT8. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS. Curtis, KC5CW will be active as FY/KC5CW from French Guiana until the 3rd of November. He will operate SSB, slow CW, PSK and FT8 on the 160 to 6m bands. He will upload his log to the Logbook of The World and Club Log. Alex, VE1RUS and Pierre, VE3TKB will be active from VY0ERC, the Eureka Amateur Radio Club station located on Ellesmere Island, NA-008, between the 12th of October and the 22nd of November. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS and Logbook of The World. Now the Special Event news From the 6th of October through to the 2nd of November, West of Scotland ARS will be running a special event station GB4GDS, celebrating 90 years of the Guide Dog Association. More information about the station can be found at www.wosars.club. Dundee ARC will be active over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of October as part of the Jamboree On The Air weekend. They will be using HF and VHF, so if you hear them please give them a call. Now the contest news When operating in contests, please keep yourself and fellow amateurs safe by following relevant pandemic-related government recommendations. This weekend, the Oceania DX CW contest ends its 24-hour run at 0800UTC today, the 10th. Using the contest bands between 1.8 and 28MHz, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Today, the 10th is the UK Microwave group's 122 to 248GHz contest. Running from 0900 to 1700UTC, it uses all modes. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. It is followed by the all-mode UK Activity Contest from 1900 to 2130UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator. Wednesday sees the data leg of the 80m Autumn Series running from 1900 to 2030UTC. The exchange is signal report and serial number. The 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC on Thursday. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend is the Worked All Germany contest running for 24 hours from 1500UTC on the 16th. Using SSB and CW on the contest bands between 3.5 and 28MHz, the exchange is signal report and serial number. German stations will also send DOK. Next Sunday, the 17th, there are four contests taking place. The first is between 0900 and 1300UTC the 50MHz AFS contest uses all modes and the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Stations in the UK and Commonwealth Dependencies also exchange the first two letters of their postcode. The second contest is The UK Microwave Group 24 to 76GHz Contest runs from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The IRTS 40m Daytime Counties Contest runs from 1200 to 1300UTC and is the third contest on the 17th. It uses CW and SSB and the exchange is signal report and serial number. EI and GI stations will also send their County code. Finally, for the 17th, the second Rolling Locator, or RoLo, contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. It is CW-only on the 3.5MHz band. The exchange is the signal report and the rolling locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 8th of October. Solar activity has dipped a little over the last two weeks. From a solar flux high of 102 on the 20th of September, activity declined to the mid-80s and stayed there. That isn't to say that HF activity has been poor. Far from it. There are numerous reports of DX being worked, including S9OK on Sao Tome and Principe. The Czech DXpedition, off the coast of western Africa, has been logged on many bands and continues to be popular. Ten metres has thrown up SSB contacts into Brazil, Chile and Uruguay for many, and openings to the Far East at times. Autumnal HF conditions are driving the DX, rather than the solar flux index. Maximum usable frequencies over a 3,000km path are often above 24 or even 28MHz in the afternoons. Next week is looking like more of the same, with NOAA predicting a solar flux index of 85, declining to 75 later in the week. Having said that, the STEREO Ahead spacecraft is highlighting two active regions due to rotate into view that may or may not develop into sunspots, so NOAA's forecast may turn out to be pessimistic. The good news is that a decline in coronal hole activity means the Kp index may remain low, perhaps down to two, which may result in continued settled geomagnetic conditions. As always, we maintain that October is one of the best months for HF DX, so do make the most of it. And now the VHF and up propagation news. High pressure this weekend should be producing good Tropo conditions for the southern half of the country, but probably peaking on Saturday the 9th. It is likely to return at times after mid-week as high pressure becomes more dominant over the country. Remember that Tropo can be long-lasting, as opposed to brief Sporadic-E openings, and it is often better on higher frequencies, so if 2m feels good then look at 70cm and 23cm too. It is worth looking up on beaconspot.uk, checking out some of the useful beacons across DL, OZ, SM, SP, LY, YL, and ES and getting them in your rig memories. In the second part of the week Tropo is more likely to favour the western side of the UK and support paths south to France or Spain. Other modes such as rain scatter, aurora and meteor scatter are worth checking and of course, you have a number of opportunities using the low earth orbit and geostationary satellites to keep you interested. The Draconids meteor shower peaked on Friday and we have the small delta-Aurigids, with a low ZHR of two, peaking on the 11th.    For EME enthusiasts, the SV5/HB9COG DXpedition to Rhodes is now over, with the team making QSOs on all bands from 432MHz up to 10GHz with just a lightweight 1.5metre portable dish and a single Yagi. Moon declination reaches minimum on Tuesday with the Moon barely reaching 11 degrees elevation at its zenith that day. Path losses are still low but increasing. And that's all from the propagation team this week.

Foundations of Amateur Radio A while ago as part of my ongoing exploration into all things radio I came across a utility called rtlsdr-airband. It's a tool that uses a cheap software defined radio dongle to listen to a station frequency or channel and send it to a variety of different outputs. Originally written by Tony Wong in 2014, it's since been updated and is now maintained by Tomasz Lemiech. There are contributions by a dozen other developers. The original examples are based around listening to Air Traffic Control channels. I know of a local amateur who uses it to listen to and share the local emergency services communication channels, especially important during local bush fires. While sophisticated, it's a pretty simple tool to use, runs on a Raspberry Pi, or in my case, inside a Docker container. It's well documented, has instructions on how to compile it and how to configure it. Before I get into what I've done, as a test, let's have a look at the kinds of things that rtlsdr-airband can do. First of all, it's intended to be used for AM, but if you read the fine documentation, you'll learn that you can also make it support Narrowband FM. It can generate output in a variety of different ways, from a normal audio file, to an I/Q file - more about that at another time, and it can also send audio as a stream to a service like icecast, broadcastify or even to your local pulse audio server. If that last one doesn't mean much to you, it's a local network audio service, popular under Linux, but it runs on pretty much anything else thanks to the community efforts of many. So, on the face of it, you can listen to a channel, be it AM or Narrowband FM, and send that to some output, but I wouldn't spend anywhere as much time on this if that was all there was to it. The software can also dynamically change channels, support multiple dongles, or simultaneously listen to several channels at once and output each of those where ever you desire. Another interesting thing and ultimately the reason I thought to discuss it here is that rtlsdr-airband also supports the concept of a mixer. You can send multiple channels to a single mixer and output the result somewhere else. Using a mixer, in addition to setting cut off frequencies and other audio attributes, you can set the audio balance for each individual channel. This means that you can mix a channel exclusively to the left ear, or to the right ear, to both, or somewhere in between. Now, to add one extra little bit of information. In my location there's about a dozen or so amateur repeaters most of which can be heard at some time or another from my QTH. The frequency spread of those dozen repeaters is less than 2 MHz. A cheap RTL-SDR dongle can handle about 2.56 MHz. Perhaps you've not yet had the ah-ha moment, but what if you were to define an rtlsdr-airband receiver that listened to a dozen amateur radio repeaters - at the same time - and using the audio balance spread those repeaters between your left and right ear, you could stream that somewhere and listen to it. I'm sitting here with my headphones on, listening to the various repeaters do their idents, various discussions on different repeaters, a local beacon, incoming AllStar and other links, all spread out across my audio horizon, almost as if you can see where they are on the escarpment, though truth be told, I've just spaced them out evenly, but you get the idea. My original Raspberry Pi wasn't quite powerful enough to do this in the brute force way I've configured this, so as a proof of concept I'm running it on my main computer, but there's nothing to suggest that doing a little diligent tweaking won't make my Pi more than enough to make this happen. As for audio bandwidth, it's a single audio stream, so a dial-up connection to the internet should be sufficient to get the audio out to the world. I will point out that there may be legal implications with streaming your local amateur repeaters to the world, so don't do that without checking. For my efforts, this is an example of: "I wonder if ..." As it turns out, Yes you can. As it happens, my next challenge is to use this code on a PlutoSDR where the bandwidth is slightly larger, mind you, I'll have to do some fancy footwork to process the data without overwhelming the CPU, but that's another experiment in my future. What kind of crazy stuff have you tried that worked? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 21st of March 2021 The news headlines: Get ready for Summer time RSGB Youth Award Blue Ham this weekend In the UK, the clocks go forward one hour at 1 am next Sunday, the 28th of March. This means we will be on British Summer Time. Please note that many contests and other events often state the timings in UTC or GMT, which will be one hour behind the local clock time here in the UK. The RSGB Youth team has created a new award, aimed at younger people but it is also open for anyone to try. Called the Radio Surfer Award, it encourages experimentation with all types of radio communications. There is a list of possible activities, each with a points value. All you have to do is get the same number of points as your age. You don’t have to be licensed to take part although having a licence will give you more options. For more information about this and the RSGB Youth Award, see rsgb.org/youth-award. The Royal Air Force Air Cadets Exercise Blue Ham 21-1 is on the MoD 5MHz shared band this weekend. RAFAC and other MoD Cadet formations will be on air over the period of operation using SSB and data modes. The Exercise Blue Ham website is at alphacharlie.org.uk. Voting for the RSGB elections is now open. The Calling Notice, Resolutions, candidate statements and voting process are on the Society’s website at www.rsgb.org/agm. Voting ends at 9 am on Thursday the 22nd of April. The RSGB will be holding its AGM online this year, on Saturday the 24th of April, and will live-stream the event. RSGB Members will be able to submit written questions for Board Directors in advance through a form on the AGM web pages. The election details are also in the April RadCom, which RSGB Members will have started to receive in the last few days. The RSGB has published an update to the RSGB EMF calculator on the website at www.rsgb.org.uk/emf. This version has had the front sheet changed in response to comments and suggestions from people who have tried using it. We are grateful for all the helpful suggestions received. Further work is needed to update the frequency dependant antenna data and would appreciate volunteers to help with this exercise. It has also been updated to use the Ofcom calculator v0.1.2 published on their website. This does produce separations for frequencies less than 10MHz. We continue to work on the calculator including producing a version that works with the newer ICNIRP2020 limits. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station is once again operational, following a spacewalk on the 13th that worked on the Columbus module cabling. The Columbus amateur station, which typically uses the callsign NA1SS, is the primary ARISS amateur radio station used for school contacts and other activities. Trowbridge & District ARC and Leyland & District Amateur Radio have shared their stories of running nets during the pandemic to support their members. You can read about them on the RSGB’s ‘Get on the air to care’ clubs and groups web page, rsgb.services/gb2rs/006 Now the DX news Mats, RM2D will be active holiday style as 8Q7MS from the Maldives, IOTA reference AS-013, from the 28th of March to the 10th of April. He will operate CW with some SSB, mainly on the 40 to 15m bands. QSL via Logbook of The World, or EA5GL. Barring Covid-related restrictions, Janusz, SP9FIH will be active as TO1K from Saint Martin, NA-105, between the 22nd of March and the 5th of April. QSL via Club Log’s OQRS, or via his home call. Now the Special Event news John, MW1CFN will be active as GB1004FTS from Anglesey, EU-005, between the 25th of March and the 8th of April. He will operate SSB and digital modes on the HF bands, 6 and 2m. QSL via Logbook of The World or direct. The special callsign celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force’s No 4 Flying Training School, which opened on the 1st of April 1921. GB2VAX will be operational from the QTH of Andy, G4ISN of Welland Valley ARS, until the 28th. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. The Russian DX Contest ends its 24-hour run at 1200UTC today, the 21st. Using CW and SSB on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Russian stations will also exchange their Oblast code. On Tuesday, the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1930 to 2230UTC. Using the 2.3 to 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Also on Tuesday the IRTS 80m Evening Counties Contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is signal report, serial number and county code. On Thursday it’s the 80m Club Championships from 2000 to 2130UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is a signal report and serial number. Next weekend it’s the CW World Wide WPX SSB contest. It runs for 48 hours from 0000UTC on the 27th to 2359UTC on the 28th. Please check the rules as there is a new multi-station category. Using the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is a signal report and serial number. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 19th of March. We had a week of settled geomagnetic conditions, following a mixed weekend. The consensus on the Commonwealth Contest was that conditions were not too good, although plenty of amateurs managed to put VK in their logs, despite the Kp index hitting four during the event. The Sun remained fairly quiet, with a solar flux index of 81 on Saturday and 78 on Sunday. Otherwise, the DX interest has been focused on the Russian DXpedition A25RU to Botswana. They are there until the 26th of March and will be operating all modes, including CW, SSB and FT8. March is a good month for these North-South paths and Predtest.uk predictions show that 1600-1800UTC is probably the best time for a contact with Botswana on 30 to 17 metres. Next week NOAA predicts the solar flux index will remain in the mid-80s, although this weekend is likely to see unsettled geomagnetic conditions again thanks to a high-speed solar wind emanating from an Earth-facing coronal hole. Expect maximum usable frequencies to decline, after the potential for pre-auroral enhancement as the plasma hits. We expect to see the Kp index rise to four on Saturday and Sunday, although this will improve as the week goes on, bringing a more settled ionosphere and a predicted Kp index of two. Meanwhile, ionospheric conditions remain subdued due to a lack of real sunspots. Spring remains a good time for North-South paths, and we also have the Sporadic-E season to look forward to in a couple of months. And now the VHF and up propagation news. The coming week is again suggesting that high pressure will feature on the weather charts for much of the period, at least in the south and east. This gives a possibility of further Tropo opportunities for most parts of the country, at least at first. The trend thereafter is for Atlantic fronts to reach the west and north of Britain by mid-week, bringing unsettled weather conditions and putting an end to any Tropo there. But to compensate a little, it could introduce some rain scatter for the GHz bands. There are always hopes that some out-of-season Sporadic-E could crop up, and there were weak 50MHz openings for digimodes last week, but ideally, we need to be a bit further on into April before getting too excited. Moon declination is at maximum on Monday, so peak Moon elevation gets to 62 degrees in the UK and the Moon is above the horizon for more than 16 hours. As we passed apogee in the middle of last week, path losses will continue to fall as the week progresses. Meteor scatter enthusiasts will have to be content with the pre-dawn random meteor enhancement until the Lyrids meteor shower, which is still a month away. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 14th of March 2021 The news headlines: New Ofcom EMF guidance Direct to Full – respond NOW Blue Ham next weekend Ofcom has just published specific advice to amateurs about the new EMF Licence condition. It is based around an FAQ type of document. It attempts to address common questions that Ofcom and the RSGB have been asked since the original announcement on the 1st of March. It contains some worked examples to help to understand. Go to ofcom.org.uk/emf. The RSGB will continue to publish advice through the EMF pages at rsgb.org/emf. You have just a few hours left to share your views in the RSGB’s Direct Entry to Full licence consultation. The background, draft syllabus and the link to the survey are on the Society’s website at rsgb.org/direct-to-full. The survey closes at midnight tonight, the 14th. The Royal Air Force Air Cadets will conduct Exercise Blue Ham 21-1 on the MoD 5MHz shared band over the weekend of the 20th and 21st of March. RAFAC and other MoD Cadet formations will be on air over the period of operation using SSB and data modes. The Exercise Blue Ham website can be found at alphacharlie.org.uk. CQ magazine has introduced a contest category to enable a multi-operator team entry during the Covid-19 pandemic. This new category will be permanent, not just for the duration of the pandemic. Basically, the Multi-Distributed category allows up to six single operators, each in a different location within the same country, to form a team. Each station uses the same callsign but must operate on different bands. Scores are added together. Ofcom has confirmed that operating a club station in different locations using the same callsign simultaneously by club members is permissible. Only club members who hold a Full Licence in their own right may operate the club stations. Please read the rules at CQWPX.com. The next such contest is the CQ World Wide SSB contest on the 27th and 28th of March. Although 2020 brought devastation across the world, the RSGB rose to the challenge of supporting radio amateurs both in the UK and around the world. It also provided new ways for people to get started in, or come back to, amateur radio. The March RadCom included an article that looked back at this great amateur radio success story. You can read the feature and see the striking infographic on the RSGB website at https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/rsgb-notices/2021/03/07/2020-a-year-in-numbers/ As part of the RSGB’s continuing Get on the air to care campaign with the NHS, and to link with British Science Week, the Society has launched a series of videos. Whether you’re a new Foundation, Intermediate or Full licence holder, the six videos will introduce you to some useful practical skills to help you make the most of your licence. Take a look at rsgb.org/practical-skills. Amateur radio operators are invited to take part in a free emergency communications training weekend. Taking place on the 10th and 11th of April, this virtual event will involve video presentations, including Q&A sessions, by communications and emergency response experts. To find out more, go to commacademy.org. The RSGB is delighted that more than 3,000 people have now passed their Foundation licence via the remote invigilation exam process. Congratulations to them – and welcome to everyone who has become a radio amateur over the last year. The RSGB provides a range of resources to support new licensees, so take a look at rsgb.org/beyond-exams. Now the DX news Bodo, HB9EWU expects to be active as 9J2BG while spending one year on a humanitarian mission at the St Paul's Mission General Hospital in Kashikishi, northern Zambia. QSL via his home call either direct or via the bureau. Please note that requests will be processed in 2022 when he is back home. Philippe, F1DUZ will be active as FG4KH from Guadeloupe, IOTA reference NA-102, from the 16th of March to the 1st of April. QSL via Logbook of The World, eQSL, or direct to F1DUZ. Rick, NE8Z is active as HC1MD/2 from the Santa Elena province of Ecuador until the 15th of May. He will operate CW, SSB, FT8 and FT4 on the 40 to 6m bands. QSL via K8LJG and Logbook of The World. Now the Special Event news Celebrating Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, Welland Valley ARS will be active as GB0SP between the 16th and 18th of March. QSL via G4XEX, Logbook of The World and eQSL. GB2VAX will be operational from the QTH of Andy, G4ISN of Welland Valley ARS, until the 28th. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. This weekend the longest-running RSGB contest takes place. The Commonwealth Contest runs for 24 hours until 1000UTC today, the 14th. It’s CW only and runs on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands. The exchange is signal report and serial number. HQ stations around the world will also send the letters HQ. Today, Sunday the 14th, the second 70MHz Cumulative Contest runs from 1000UTC to 1200UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Monday, the second FT4 series contest runs from 2000 to 2130UTC. Using the 80m band only, the exchange is your 4-character locator. On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. The 70MHz UK Activity Contest is on Thursday also from 2000 to 2230UTC. Both are all modes and the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The BARTG HF RTTY Contest runs from 0200UTC on the 20th to 0200UTC on the 22nd. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and time. Also next weekend, the Russian DX Contest runs for 24 hours from 1200UTC on the 20th to 1200UTC on the 21st. Using CW and SSB on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Russian stations will also exchange their Oblast code. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 12th of March. The bulk of last week saw settled geomagnetic conditions. Wednesday saw the Kp index at zero for much of the day, which is unusual. This was mainly due to a lack of disruptive coronal holes on the Sun’s surface, so the solar wind speed was mainly below 400 kilometres per second. The Sun was relatively spotless and at the time this report was being prepared, region 2807 was disappearing around the Sun’s edge, while region 2808 was appearing around the North-Eastern limb. Another tiny spot has appeared around the middle of the visible disk, but it doesn’t appear threatening and is likely adding very little to the solar flux index. The highlight of the week was probably the ARRL DX SSB contest last weekend, which saw plenty of stateside stations being worked. Chris, G0DWV said he worked California on 20 and 40m, plus Washington and Oregon. In fact, the only two states he didn’t work on 20 metres were New Mexico and Utah. A slender coronal hole, reaching up to the solar equator, looks like it could cause some disruption this weekend with the Kp index predicted to rise to four. NOAA predicts the solar flux index will rise from 70 on the 14th to 76 on the 21st. Don’t expect the quieter geomagnetic conditions to continue though. It will probably be a roller coaster ride next week, with the Kp index predicted to climb to five on the 18th and 19th. We said that it would be nice to have some more sunspots for this weekend’s 84th annual Commonwealth Contest, but it looks like we could be disappointed. But don’t despair, it is not unusual for stations from around the world to make an appearance, including many from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean, and more. The bonus is that there is no competition from DX hounds in non-Commonwealth countries. And now the VHF and up propagation news. A stormy end to this week, but signs of another spell of high-pressure next week. Stormy weather with its rain and blustery showers could be useful for some rain scatter on the GHz bands. The intensifying high should bring Tropo back on the menu as the week progresses and will also mean some quieter weather to repair any antennas that have suffered in the recent gales. This particular spell of high-pressure weather extends from the south-west, so it probably has moist air trapped under the inversion compared to a cold air high from the north and this could produce better Tropo conditions. We are still in the doldrums regarding Sporadic-E, but we are moving towards the spring months and April, and especially May, can bring some early Sporadic-E events, especially for those using digital modes. Moon declination goes positive tomorrow so Moon visibility windows and peak Moon elevations will increase as the week progresses. As we approach apogee on Thursday, path losses will reach a maximum then start to fall again. There are no significant meteor showers until the Lyrids, which peaks on the 22nd of April, so pre-dawn continues to be the best time for random meteor scatter contacts. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 7th of March 2021 The news headlines: 350 days of Covid-19 net Ofcom EMF Notification news NHS lauds Get on the air to care   On Thursday the 4th of March, Hambleton ARS passed the 350th consecutive day of a daily net on 2m. It started on day one of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. Its aim was to keep members and amateurs in the area in touch and able to summon help or assistance if required. The net starts at 11 am on the calling frequency and usually moves to S18 if clear. The net is now looking forward to a full year of operating, which occurs on the 18th of March. All amateurs are invited to join and topics are wide and varied. So far, over 70 different stations have called in. A Cabin Fever award is available for any station taking part. It’s issued by Tim, G0TYM via email, see QRZ.com for details. On the 1st of March, Ofcom published a General Notification on their website that proposes to vary all amateur radio licences. It requires licensees to comply with the ICNIRP general public limits of EMF. Licensees have until the 18th of April to make any representations to Ofcom. They have also informed us that they are contacting all licensees, either via email or letter, to make them aware of this process. More information on the variation process and EMF conditions can be found on both the Ofcom website at ofcom.org.uk/emf, or the RSGB website at rsgb.org/emf. A report about the hugely successful RSGB and NHS 'Get on the air to care' campaign has been publicised in a blog on the NHS Networks website this week. The RSGB has committed to keeping 'Get on the air to care' running as long as the restrictions exist. The aim is to support radio amateurs and to share the benefits of amateur radio with the general public. The Society is about to launch several new initiatives and resources as part of the campaign. Look out for announcements shortly. To read the NHS Networks blog, use the link from the RSGB website at rsgb.services/gb2rs/005. Have you given your views in the RSGB’s consultation on a proposed new, Direct to Full licence exam? Over 1,000 people have responded already so make sure your voice is heard by completing the Society’s survey. The consultation closes on Sunday the 14th of March. The background to this consultation as well as links to the proposed syllabus and the survey are on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/direct-to-full. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is inviting eight members of the public to join him on a trip around the Moon. The journey, planned for 2023, will be the first civilian mission to the Moon, not to mention the first human visit for over 50 years. According to his website, dearmoon.earth, anyone can apply, and the trip will be financed entirely by Maezawa. There is no word about whether amateur radio operation will be possible on the flight, but it is an interesting possibility. Sadly, another rally has been cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dartmoor Radio Rally, planned for Monday the 3rd of May Bank Holiday, will not take place this year. US Army researchers have built a so-called quantum sensor. It can analyse the full RF spectrum and real-world signals, a report on Physics.org says. The quantum sensor can sample the RF spectrum from 0 to 20GHz and is able to detect AM and FM radio signals, as well as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and other RF communication protocols. The peer-reviewed Physical Review Applied published the researchers’ findings. Now the DX news Bill, K9HZ Dan, W0CN and Kyle, WA4PGM will be active from St Lucia operating as J68HZ, CN and PG respectively. They will be there until the 11th of March. QSL via Logbook of The World or direct to home callsigns. Andy, DK5ON is in Curaçao until the 23rd of March. He plans to operate SSB, CW and digital modes on the 80 to 6m bands as PJ2/DK5ON. QSL via Logbook of The World, Club Log's OQRS, or via his home call either direct or via the bureau. Now the Special Event news Chris, GM3WOJ will be active as GB2CR until the 18th of March. He will operate SSB and some CW on the 80 to 10m bands using vintage valve radio equipment manufactured by the Collins Radio Company. QSL via Logbook of The World. Paper QSLs will not be available. GB2VAX will be operational from the QTH of Andy, G4ISN of the Welland Valley ARS, from the 1st to the 28th of March. Modes will be SSB / FT4 / FT8 on HF bands. Coventry is The City of Culture in 2021. GB1COC is being operated until the 13th of March on behalf of Coventry ARS by Brian, G8GMU. He will be mainly on the 80m band using SSB, 2m FM and digital speech modes. See QRZ.com. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. This weekend it’s the ARRL International DX Contest. It runs for 48 hours until 2359UTC today, the 7th. Using SSB on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and transmit power. American stations will also exchange their State, and Canadian stations their Province. The 144/432MHz contest also takes place this weekend. Its 24-hour run ends at 1400UTC today, the 7th. All modes are permitted. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Today, Sunday the 7th, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 1000 to 1600UTC. Using the 1.3 to 3.4GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The Worked All Britain 3.5MHz phone contest takes place today, the 7th from 1800 to 2200UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB square. Entries should be with the QSL manager by the 17th of March. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, there will be no mobile or portable categories, and entries will not be accepted from mobile or portable stations. However, there will be a club category, with members operating from their home QTH. On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. It is followed by the all-mode Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday it’s the CW leg of the 80m Club Championships from 2000 to 2130UTC. The exchange is signal report and serial number. Thursday sees the 50MHz UK Activity Contest take place from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend the longest-running RSGB contest takes place. The Commonwealth Contest runs from 1000UTC on the 13th to 1000UTC on the 14th. It’s CW only and runs on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands. The exchange is signal report and serial number. HQ stations around the world will also send the letters HQ. Next Sunday, the 14th, the second 70MHz Cumulative Contest runs from 1000UTC to 1200UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 5th of March. We had another week of geomagnetic disturbances due to high-speed solar wind streams. Although the week started well, with a Kp index of zero to three on Sunday, it went rapidly downhill. Monday saw the Kp index hit six and Tuesday evening saw it hit five after the solar wind speed exceeded 600km per second. The strongly-negative Bz field of the solar wind meant it coupled more easily with the Earth’s magnetic field – and plasma flooded in. It was not all bad news for HF propagation though. Earlier on Tuesday, the 17m band was open simultaneously to the Far East and the Caribbean via FT8. You were able to work both South Korea and Saint Lucia at the same time, which felt novel. This may have been a pre-auroral enhancement. But by Wednesday, with the Kp index at five, conditions had taken a hit. Maximum usable frequencies were struggling to get up above 14MHz, at least in the morning. There has been little to talk about regarding sunspots. We’ve had two groups, 2806 and 2807, but they have been relatively small, generating a solar flux index of 74 and a sunspot number of 30 on Thursday. As such, HF propagation has generally been a little lacklustre, other than the event noted earlier. Next week NOAA predicts the solar flux index will be in the range 70-76. We should start the week with a relatively quiet geomagnetic field and a maximum Kp index of two. But by Friday the 12th, the Kp index is predicted to rise to four due to returning coronal hole activity. As we head towards the Spring equinox we may expect geomagnetic disturbances to increase, due to the Russell-McPherron effect. The tilt of the Earth’s axis means the Sun and Earth’s geomagnetic field and solar winds all come into alignment and therefore encourage an enhanced chance of the particles emitted from the Sun entering our atmosphere. Fingers crossed that we have better HF conditions for the Commonwealth Contest, which takes place across next weekend, the 13th and 14th. And now the VHF and up propagation news. Good to see the return of some tropospheric propagation last week. It certainly perked up the 144MHz UK Activity Contest last Tuesday evening. All is set to change in the coming week though, so make the most of any lingering Tropo this weekend. The high will decline early next week, and thereafter, the week offers a succession of fast-moving weather systems crossing the country, bringing rain and, at times, strong southwesterly winds. At the end of the week, the unsettled weather comes more from the northwest, and it will turn colder again and perhaps wintry in the north. Either way, the main terrestrial mode of interest next week to VHF/UHF operators is likely to be predominantly GHz bands rain scatter. We are in an extended period where the lowest EME path losses coincide with low Moon declination. Declination is minimum today and tomorrow so moon visibility windows and peak Moon elevations will be at a minimum. As we passed perigee last Tuesday, path losses will still be low but increasing. The Gamma Normids meteor shower is just starting, peaking on Sunday the 14th of March with a Zenithal Hourly Rate of six and lasting until the 23rd. Nothing special, so pre-dawn continues to be the best time for random meteor scatter contacts. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 28th of February 2021 The news headlines: A landmark for Stay Safe net Share your views on the Direct to Full Licence exam Tonight @ 8 looks at propagation tools   Last Thursday evening, Lowestoft District and Pye Amateur Radio Club held its 100th Stay Safe net hosted on GB3YL. The net has been running on Monday and Thursday nights since the first lockdown with James, M1TES, helped by some other local amateurs. Each week the number of participants has increased and has even included amateurs from Holland joining in when conditions have allowed it. This is quite an achievement and has brought local amateurs together. Have you given your views in the RSGB’s consultation on a new, Direct to Full licence exam? Nearly 800 people have responded already, so make sure your voice is heard by completing the Society’s survey. The background to this consultation, as well as links to the proposed syllabus and the survey, are on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/direct-to-full. The next RSGB Tonight @ 8 webinar takes place on Monday the 1st of March. RSGB Propagation Studies Committee Chair, Steve Nichols, G0KYA will look at Using Propagation Prediction Tools. You can find out more about all the Tonight @ 8 webinars as well as links to further information, books and videos on the webinar topics on the Society’s website at rsgb.org/webinars. From modest beginnings on the 31st of March 1921, the men and women of the Royal Australian Air Force have served Australia’s national interest. To mark this Centenary, the Wireless Institute of Australia will be celebrating with two call signs. VI100AF will operate from the 1st of March to the 29th of May. It will be used by radio amateurs that are either current or veteran military personnel; some activities may be from military bases. VK100AF will be active from the 1st of March to the 31st of August. This callsign will be used by a team of over 40 radio amateurs across the bands around Australia. Full QSL information and detail on operations can be found on QRZ.com. The RSGB has launched a new page on its website that includes a video outlining the benefits of Membership. To watch the video and find out more go to rsgb.org/membership. Radio amateurs serving in the Finnish military will be using the prefix OI on Friday the 5th of March. There are only about 35 stations with an OI callsign, so it’s a rare prefix. There is an award available, just search online for OI Award Finland. Now the DX news Tom, NL7RR, is active as KH9/NL7RR from Wake Island, IOTA reference OC-053, for about 6 weeks. He hopes to be on the 40 and 20m bands, as time permits, using SSB. 5V7DE is the newly issued callsign for Daniel, HB9EHD, who is in Kara, Togo. He will operate on QO-100 SSB during his evenings and on the 40 and 20m bands FT8. QSL via Logbook of The World and eQSL, or direct to his home call. Now the Special Event news Saint David is the patron saint of Wales. Saint David’s Day is celebrated by the Welsh around the world every 1st of March. Simon, GW0NVN will be operating GB0SDD on HF and 2m from 0000 to 2359UTC on the first of March. Club Log, Logbook of The World and eQSL will be used. GB2VAX will be operational from the QTH of Andy, G4ISN of the Welland Valley ARS from the 1st to the 28th of March. Modes will be SSB / FT4 / FT8 on HF bands. Coventry is The City of Culture in 2021. GB1COC is being operated until the 13th of March on behalf of Coventry ARS by Brian, G8GMU. He will be mainly on the 80m-band using SSB, 2m FM and digital speech modes. See QRZ.com. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. This weekend the CQ 160m DX contest ends its 48-hour run at 2200UTC today, the 28th. Using SSB only, the exchange is signal report and CQ Zone. American stations also exchange their State and Canadians their Province. The REF Contest runs for 36 hours, ending at 1800UTC today, the 28th. Using SSB only on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. French stations also exchange their Department number or overseas prefix. Today, the 28th, the First 70MHz Cumulative Contest runs from 1000 to 1200UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Monday the data leg of the 80m Club Championships will run from 2000 to 2130UTC. The exchange is signal report and serial number. On Tuesday the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. It is followed by the all-mode UK 2m Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 144MHz FT8 Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. The exchange is signal report and your 4-character locator. Also on Wednesday, the UK EI Contest Club 80m contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is your locator. Next weekend it’s the ARRL International DX Contest. It runs for 48 hours from 0000UTC on the 6th to 2359UTC on the 7th. Using SSB on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and transmit power. American stations will also exchange their State, and Canadian stations, their Province. The 144/432MHz contest also takes place next weekend. Running from 1400UTC on the 6th to 1400UTC on the 7th, all modes are permitted. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Sunday the 7th, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 1000 to 1600UTC. Using the 1.3 to 3.4GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The Worked All Britain 3.5MHz phone contest will take place next Sunday, the 7th from 1800 to 2200UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB square. Entries should be with the QSL manager by the 17th of March. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, there will be no mobile or portable categories, and entries will not be accepted from mobile or portable stations. However, there will be a club category, with members operating from their home QTH. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 26th of February. We had a slightly better week in terms of solar activity, but the consensus is that HF propagation is still in the doldrums. Two sunspot groups made an appearance last week, although by now they may have vanished around the Sun’s edge again. Groups 2804 and 2805 pushed the solar flux index to 81 by Thursday, with a sunspot number of 33. Although group 2804 was quite large and also responsible for several low-level B-class solar flares, 2805 never really managed to appear as much more than a pinprick on the solar surface. Last week was dominated by geomagnetic disturbances, with the Kp index staying at four for a lot of the time. This was mainly caused by the arrival of matter from a coronal mass ejection that was launched from the Sun on the 20th of February, and ongoing high-speed solar wind streams from coronal holes. The solar wind speed has been dropping, which suggests a return to more settled geomagnetic conditions this weekend. The US Air Force predicts the solar flux index will start at 82 on Sunday, but then decline to 74 as the week progresses. This reflects the lack of future sunspot activity currently being seen on the STEREO Ahead spacecraft. Geomagnetic conditions are likely to start settled but become unsettled on the first, second and sixth of March, with a potential Kp index of five. This is due to matter arriving from a very large coronal hole on the solar surface. So it looks like a reasonable weekend for HF, but conditions and MUFs may decline early next week. And note that we are now entering March. Spring is typically a time when HF favours North-South paths, such as the UK to South Africa and South America. Make the most of the next couple of months, before we enter the Summer season, which is characterised by lower F2-layer maximum usable frequencies. However, the bands will stay open longer, perhaps even 24 hours on 20 metres by mid Summer. Short-skip Sporadic-E on 7 to 28MHz can make up for decreasing F2-layer propagation and activity, but we are still a couple of months away from the start of the Sporadic-E season. And now the VHF and up propagation news. As we ended the week, an area of high pressure extended towards southern Britain from the southwest. It should have become firmly established over the country by now and should produce a welcome return of Tropo conditions for the VHF and UHF bands. This should dominate into next week, but during Tuesday a more summer-like area of low pressure drifts north from Biscay and may produce some heavy spring showers over southern England, so possible rain scatter conditions coming up for midweek. The high doesn’t go away and should bring further Tropo after this showery interlude, but eventually, an Atlantic cold front will move into north-west Britain at the end of the week, starting a spell of unsettled, windy weather there, but leaving southern Britain under the Tropo ridge for another day or so. We are now in an extended period where the lowest EME path losses coincide with low Moon declination and hence short Moon visibility windows. This week, declination goes negative on Monday so Moon visibility windows and peak Moon elevations will reduce. Path losses continue to fall this week as we get to the Moon’s closest approach to Earth, called perigee, on Tuesday. There are no major meteor showers until mid-March, so pre-dawn continues to be the best time for random meteor scatter contacts. That’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 31st of January 2021 The news headlines: New video from Propagation Studies Committee Bath Based Distance Learning announces Full licence course New edition of RadCom Basics available The RSGB’s Propagation Studies Committee has a number of online tools available to help you work out the best band and time to make a contact. A video explaining these propagation tools has been added to the propagation pages on the RSGB website, go to rsgb.org/propagation-tools. The Bath Based Distance Learning team helped nearly 800 students to pass the Advanced exam under the old syllabus. After reworking their training material, the team are now planning their first course for the Full level exam syllabus. The course will run from March to June this year. Students will receive weekly work packages via a virtual classroom and will have access to weekly online tutorials. There will be no charge for the training, but applicants will need to work through a pre-course classroom and quiz to be eligible for a place. The deadline for course applications is Wednesday the 17th of February. To request full details and an application form, please e-mail Steve, G0FUW via g0fuw@tiscali.co.uk. The January 2021 edition of RadCom Basics is now available on the RSGB website for Members to read. It is for new licensees or anyone who wants an introduction to a different part of amateur radio. This issue looks at antennas, setting up a radio bench, making a metal box and the value of listening as a radio amateur. Go to rsgb.org/radcom-basics. A 2m beacon is operating on St Helena Island. The beacon frequencies are Channel 1 144.435MHz; Channel 2 144.325MHz; Channel 3 144.375MHz and Channel 4 144.385MHz. The next RSGB Tonight @ 8 webinar is on Monday the 1st of February. Neil Underwood, G4LDR will give you all the information you need to become operational on the microwave bands. You can watch and ask questions live on the Society’s YouTube channel. For more information about this and the other webinars in the series, see the Society’s website at rsgb.org/webinars. Leicestershire Foxes Contest Group is a new contest group. Geographically, the membership is derived from many different parts of the greater Leicestershire region. However, they also welcome operators from outside the county. If you are interested, email adyg6ad@gmail.com for more information. The RSGB Exams and Syllabus Review Group (ESRG) has appointed a new member. Jonathan Groves, M0VRI passed all three exams during the lockdown and is a member of Bredhurst Receiving and Transmitting Society. He enjoys HF operating and trying to find trans-Atlantic QSOs from a noisy suburban QTH. Jonathan is also now an active Remote Invigilation volunteer. Now the DX news Takumi, JG3PLH is a member of the 62nd Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition team and will be stationed at Showa base on East Ongul Island, AN-015, Antarctica until January 2022. He will be active as 8J1RL starting in February. QSL via the bureau. Now the Special Event news To mark the 80th Anniversary of the Formation of the Air Training Corps on the 5th of February 1941, Ofcom has issued the callsign Golf Bravo Eight Zero Alpha Tango Charlie. The callsign is valid for use between 5th February 2021 and 4th February 2022. It will be managed by David, M0SKT and a team of serving Cadet Force Adult Volunteer staff who are UK Licence holders. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Jutlandia, the hospital ship, Experimental Danish Radio Amateurs will activate OV0JUTLANDIA until the 31st of March at 2359UTC. They will be active on most amateur radio bands with CW, SSB and digital modes. All bands including WARC bands and all modes may be used. All two-way contacts and SWL reports will be valid for the special OV0JUTLANDIA award. Full details on qrz.com. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. This weekend the CQ 160m DX contest ends its 48-hour run at 2200UTC today, the 31st. It’s CW only and the exchange is signal report and your CQ Zone. Please note that American stations also exchange their State and Canadians their Province. On Monday the 80m Club Championship runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is signal report and serial number. On Tuesday, the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. It is followed by the all-mode 144MHz UK Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange is the same for both contests, signal report, serial number and locator. The 144MHz FT8 Activity Contest takes place between 1900 and 2100UTC on Wednesday. The exchange is signal report and your 4-character locator. Also on Wednesday is the UK EI Contest Club 80m Contest from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB only the exchange is your 6-character locator. Next Sunday, the 7th of February, the 432MHZ AFS contest runs from 0900 to 1300UTC. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 29th of January. We are almost into February and still, the Sun is not playing ball in terms of sunspots. This week saw groups 2797, 2799 and 2800 rotate out of view, but all were minuscule and didn’t contribute much. The solar flux index was 76 on Thursday with a sunspot number of 26. There is a plage area, which can be a precursor to sunspots, at the same latitude as group 2800, but we will have to wait and see what develops. The STEREO Ahead spacecraft view shows little of note other than a coronal hole that will eventually become Earth-facing. There was a geomagnetic storm late on Monday and in the early hours of Tuesday, which was caused by a high-speed stream from a coronal hole that we warned you about last week. This week’s highlights have been short FT8 openings on 10 metres, possibly due to mid-Winter Sporadic-E. The French Alps, Poland, Ireland and Spain have all been spotted, and short F2-layer openings to Mauritius in the morning and Paraguay in the afternoon kept interest levels up. These winter Es openings are becoming rarer and shorter, but it is still worth keeping an eye on 10m. Otherwise, the lower bands have brought the most action with 40 and 80m still providing good activity after dark. With little scope for sunspots, NOAA predicts the SFI will be in the mid-70s next week. Unsettled geomagnetic conditions are forecast for Sunday or Monday, due to yet another high-speed stream from a coronal hole, which became Earth facing on Friday. The Kp index could rise to three or four, but once it passes the Kp index may be down to two. Daytime MUFs over a 3,000km path are currently exceeding 21MHz during the daytime. Night-time critical frequencies of around 2.9-3.5MHz mean that 80m is marginal for local contacts at night while remaining fairly solid for European paths and DX. And now the VHF and up propagation news. It looks like satellites will offer the best chance of working VHF DX, with not many prospects for Tropo, as the unsettled theme continues to drive our weather over the next week or so. The south and west of the British Isles, along with the north-eastern areas, will have some temporary weak ridges ahead of slowly-advancing Atlantic systems. Overall then, with some borderline snow events on the northern edge of the rain areas, there could be some winter scatter options for the microwave bands, but otherwise another thin week. Some models do introduce a weak ridge of high pressure over the country at the very end of next week, but this is not to be relied upon this far out, and probably with dry cold air near the surface it is not such a good prospect for Tropo. Moon declination goes negative on Tuesday so as the week progresses, Moon windows will shorten and peak Moon elevations will fall. Perigee is on Wednesday, so path losses are at their lowest this week. 144 MHz Sky noise is moderate but becomes high this coming weekend. The Alpha Centaurids meteor shower is just over a week away so you may see some small improvement in meteor scatter conditions, but with a zenith hourly rate (ZHR) of just six, don't expect any fireworks. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 3rd of January 2021 The news headlines: Get on the air for Christmas continues Austrians get new bands Tonight @ 8 spring programme Get on the air for Christmas continues until the 9th of January and there are still many activities you can take part in. The special construction competition encourages hardware, software or kit-based entries and in particular simple projects that other radio amateurs could try. The Christmas Hope QSO Parties are also in full swing with different modes for each day. For more details about these and special holiday nets, at www.rsgb.org/gota4c. Claus, OE6CLD, the HF Manager of the Austrian National Amateur Radio Society, informs us that the Austrian regulator has granted access to the 60m and 630m bands for all CEPT Class 1 licensees. The 60m, or 5MHz changes are in line with the WRC-15 Amateur Secondary Allocation of 5351.5 to 5366.5kHz at 15W EIRP. For the 630m band, it is the MF Secondary Allocation from the previous WRC-12 of 472 to 479kHz at 1W EIRP. The maximum bandwidth is per the provisions of the Austrian Amateur Licence. You can read more at www.oevsv.at/home. The RSGB’s Tonight @ 8 Spring programme starts on Monday the 11th of January with a webinar on amateur radio construction. Steve Hartley, G0FUW and Pete Juliano, N6QW will talk about both hardware and software construction, giving ideas on what to do, how to do it and why you should try it. For further information see the Society’s website at www.rsgb.org/webinars. RSGB HQ reopens tomorrow, at 8.30 am on the 4th of January. Staff will continue working from home. As always, information about amateur radio, exams or RadCom is on the RSGB website, www.rsgb.org. The RSGB’s National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park is currently closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the special event news From the 1st to the 28th of January, GB4BLC will be operational from the QTH of G8GMU. The operation will take place on most bands and will include digital modes. This station is promoting the work of Lions Clubs International and amateur radio. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. Look out for the RSGB Hope QSO Parties. There are two series, which run until the 14th of January. You can find out details at https://tinyurl.com/RSGB-Christmas-Hope-QSO. On Tuesday the 5th of January the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. It is immediately followed by the all-mode 144MHz UK Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange is the same for both, that’s signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 6th of January, the UK EI Contest Club 80m contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB only on the 80m band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. On Sunday the 10th, the Datamodes AFS runs from 1300 to 1700UTC. Using the 3.5 and 7MHz bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. The Worked All Britain Christmas party runs until the 6th of January. Using all modes on the amateur contest bands, the exchange is the WAB book number. The UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon runs until the end of January 2021. Just exchange a signal report and locator.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 27th of December 2020 The news headlines: Thanks and seasonal greetings Charity auction raises over £1000 New GB2RS News Manager appointed This is the final GB2RS news reading for 2020 and we start with seasonal greetings to all newsreaders and listeners, both over the air and via the internet recordings, and not forgetting viewers of the ATV broadcast, which is available via several repeaters and kindly streamed via the BATC.TV website, as well as those that get this news via TX Factor or podcasts. We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all those that read the news, in whatever format, for their tireless dedication to their fellow amateurs. There will be an abbreviated news reading available for the 3rd of January, although it’s voluntary as the RSGB realises not all newsreaders will be available. A full GB2RS service will resume on the 10th of January. The RSGB is delighted that its charity auction for Get on the air for Christmas had a fantastic winning bid of £1,025.99. Ellie Orton, Chief Executive of NHS Charities Together said, “Thank you so much, Roy Bailey, for choosing to raise funds for NHS Charities Together in such a unique way. In addition, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the RSGB for kindly match-funding the winning bid. These funds mean we can continue to help NHS charities to support NHS staff, volunteers and patients at the centre of this crisis.” Get on the air for Christmas continues until the 9th of January and there are still many activities you can take part in. Go to the Society’s website at www.rsgb.org/gota4c. The RSGB Board has appointed Steve Richards, G4HPE as the new GB2RS Manager. A long-time GB2RS newsreader himself, Steve has had a lifelong career in broadcasting. He will start his new role in the New Year and can be contacted via email at gb2rs.manager@rsgb.org.uk. RAYNET groups in several coastal areas have been on active standby in the last few days. In the South East in particular, groups have been ready to act alongside Local Resilience Forums to help with the lorry chaos caused by the temporary closure of the French border. In areas where there are large ports, groups have been preparing to offer assistance with difficulties envisaged with Brexit. These include working with other voluntary agencies conducting welfare checks on lorry drivers who may be in long queues, plus helping to ensure the distribution of vital supplies including Covid-19 vaccines. Several groups have activated wide-area communications systems, including one where the local authority has installed a new PMR system that some feel may not be adequate to cope with extreme call volumes. On the 2nd of January, the RSGB National Radio Centre plans to host the special event station GB2DAY, to help promote the well-established KW activity weekend. The NRC hopes to operate on both the 80 and 40m bands using its KW2000D – an incredibly rare prototype model that never made it into mainstream production at the KW Factory. The event will be held within appropriate Covid restrictions. An ARISS Slow Scan TV event is scheduled from the International Space Station for late December. This will be a special SSTV event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Amateur Radio on ISS. The event is scheduled to begin on the 24th of December and continue through until the 31st of December. Dates are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments. Listen out for Youngsters On The Air stations around the world. GB20YOTA will be operating until the end of December. The full calendar is shown on the GB20YOTA page on QRZ.com. The latest ICQ Podcast contains an update on the RSGB’s Get on the air for Christmas campaign as well as a wider look at amateur radio construction. The chat with Board Director Stewart Bryant, G3YSX; Construction Competition Lockdown Category winner Roy Bailey, G0VFS; and RSGB Communications Manager Heather Parsons starts at 1:18:15 in the ICQ Podcast episode. See https://tinyurl.com/icq-gota4c-update. RSGB HQ is closed for the Christmas and New Year until at 8.30 am on the 4th of January. During that time, if you need information about amateur radio, exams or RadCom you’ll find lots of information on the RSGB website, www.rsgb.org. The RSGB’s National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park is currently closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the special event news From the 1st to the 28th of January, GB4BLC will be operational from the QTH of G8GMU. Operation will take place on most bands and will include digital modes. This station is promoting the work of Lions Clubs International and amateur radio. Members and supporters of Denby Dale ARS are running special event stations to welcome the New Year from the end of December. They will be using callsigns GB – number – HNY. For more details see the QRZ.com entry for GB9HNY. Thurrock Acorns ARC members will be on the air as GB4XMS from the 20th of December to the 3rd of January. During the month of December, Welland Valley ARS members will be running GB1XMS, GB2XMS, GB5XMS and GB9XMS from their home shacks. QSL via eQSL and Logbook of The World. Now the DX news Kenji, JA4GXS will be active as JA4GXS/4 from Otsu Island, IOTA reference AS-117, on the 25th and 26th of December. He will operate CW, SSB and FT8 on 40, 30 and 20m bands. QSL via home call. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. As per tradition, December is a quiet month for traditional contests, with no RSGB HF contests, but do look out for the RSGB Hope QSO Parties. There are two series, which run from 21 December to 14 January, with a short break over Christmas. You can find out details at https://tinyurl.com/RSGB-Christmas-Hope-QSO. On Tuesday, the 29th, the 50MHz Machine Generated Modes Contest and the 144MHz Machine-generated Modes contest both run from 2000 to 2130UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator. On the 1st of January, the IRTS 80m Daytime Counties contest runs from 1700 to 1800UTC. Using SSB and CW, the exchange is signal report and serial number, with EI and GI stations, also sending their County. On Saturday the 2nd, the CW AFS contest runs from 1300 to 1700UTC. Using the 3.5 and 7MHz bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. The first session of the EUCW 160m CW Party is also on the 2nd from 2000 to 2300UTC, with the second session on the 3rd at 0400 to 0700UTC. The ARRL RTTY Roundup runs from 1800UTC on the 2nd of January to 2359UTC on the 3rd. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number, with US stations sending their State and Canadians their Province too. The Worked All Britain Christmas party runs until the 6th of January. Using all modes on the amateur contest bands, the exchange is the WAB book number. The UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon runs until the end of January 2021. Just exchange a signal report and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Wednesday the 23rd of December. HF conditions were not terribly good over the last week with maximum usable frequencies down in general. The best DX has been on 40m, especially around greyline times, although there has been a little winter Sporadic-E activity on 10 metres as well that has seen Italy and Spain appearing on FT8, as well as Brazil on 10m via the F2 layer. The lack of sunspots has seen the solar flux index move back down to the low 80s again. Solar matter from a coronal hole pushed the Kp index up to four late on Monday evening as predicted and on Tuesday the Kp index was still pegged at three for most of the morning. NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will remain in the 80s for the Christmas period, with active region 2794 helping to push it towards 86 over Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Unfortunately, NOAA also predicts that a high-speed solar wind stream from a coronal hole may impact Earth over the Christmas period, so we may expect the Kp index to rise again to four or even five just before Christmas with detrimental effects on maximum usable frequencies. Look out for possible pre-auroral enhancements, although these are hard to predict. This should start to settle by the 27th, with the Kp index predicted to go back down to two. So DX conditions may improve after that time. There is little other festive cheer, with the SFI remaining in the low 80s for the rest of the month and into the New Year. Let’s hope 2021 sees the return of the upward trend of Solar Cycle 25 with an increase in sunspots and HF DX. And now the VHF and up propagation news. It’s looking like a predominantly unsettled period of weather over the Christmas holidays, with a ridge of high pressure to the west of Britain soon declining to allow low pressure to move in and reside over the UK for the bulk of next week. This has a chance of providing some good rain scatter conditions on the GHz bands. Sporadic-E has a habit of appearing at this time of year. There is some work that relates the chances of Sporadic-E to disturbances in the stratosphere when the winter polar vortex breaks down in a feature called a sudden stratospheric warming, where temperatures can increase by tens of degrees Celsius over 24 hours. This disturbance in the stratosphere can produce conditions where Sporadic-E is more likely because of the changed flow pattern. Check the usual Sporadic-E bands like 10m and 6m for signs of activity, especially during the first two weeks of January, but it is probably better to focus on the period 9 am to 3 pm rather than the summer pattern of mid-morning and late afternoon. The Quadrantids meteor shower peaks between late-night on the 2nd of January until dawn on the 3rd with, a huge ZHR of 110. It is known for bright fireball meteors causing big over-dense radio meteor bursts. You have to be ready at the right time though, as the peak is very short, lasting just a few hours. This is because the shower is a thin stream of particles and the Earth crosses the stream at a perpendicular angle. The Moon reaches maximum declination this Tuesday so visibility windows are long. Today we are at apogee so losses are high but 144MHz sky noise is low, not reaching 500 kelvin until Tuesday. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 29th of November 2020 The news headlines: Get on the air for Christmas 60th year for GB3VHF TX Factor 27 out soon The RSGB has announced its latest activity for the Get on the air for Christmas campaign with the NHS. The special construction competition has a prize of £100 and the winning entry will be featured on the Society’s website and in RadCom. If you’ve been making something during the autumn lockdowns or are preparing to be busy over the holiday season, why not plan to enter your project into this new competition. Projects can be hardware, software or a system and may be based on a kit. For further information see the Get on the air for Christmas at www.rsgb.org/gota4c. The 2m beacon GB3VHF will start its 60th year of operation in December. Located at Fairseat on the North Downs in Kent, the beacon is on 144.430MHz at a height of 205m ASL. It provides a propagation monitoring source that can reach across several countries. Find out more at www.gb3vhf.co.uk. Episode 27 TX Factor will soon be available. In this latest episode the RSGB’s General Manager Steve Thomas, M1ACB explains how the Society’s positive response to the spring and summer lockdown helped to boost awareness of amateur radio in the UK. Steve stresses the importance of the ongoing work needed to maintain the impetus. Bob, G0FGX and Mike, G1IAR get to grips with using an RF Shark openSPOT Hotspot for some mobile DMR action. Bob visits Don Field, G3XTT at his new QTH near Wells to see how the editor of Practical Wireless created some simple antennas to swiftly resume his on-air activities. TX Factor episode 27 is proudly sponsored by the Radio Society of Great Britain and can be viewed at www.txfactor.co.uk. The RSGB is looking for an experienced volunteer to fill the role of Convention Chair for the Society’s 2021 event. You will need exceptional organisational skills, good interpersonal skills, wide awareness of all aspects of amateur radio and good knowledge of RSGB policies and procedures. For other information, including how to find out more and to apply, see the RSGB website: www.rsgb.org/volunteers. Every year on 3rd of December the Information Programme for Disabled Radio Amateurs, which is part of the IARU, celebrates the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Some organisations put on special event stations with amateur radio activity, mostly with persons with disabilities participating using callsigns like HB9IPDA. The next RSGB Tonight @ 8 webinar is on Monday the 7th of December and is called “What next?”. Jonathan Mitchener, G0DVJ will give a jargon-free, wide-ranging talk about where amateur radio can take you, whether you are new to the hobby or returning after a gap. For further information about this and previous webinars, see www.rsgb.org/webinars. From the 1st of December, listen out for Youngsters On The Air stations around the world. Details on thirty-five of those stations can be found at https://events.ham-yota.com/. There are still some slots available to host the special callsign GB20YOTA during December if you have a youngster in your family or wider support bubble. You must be a Full licence holder and the calendar is shown on the GB20YOTA page on QRZ.com. To reserve an operating slot, contact Jamie, M0SDV via email to yota.month@rsgb.org.uk. Now the special event news Celebrating the Christmas Holiday Season, the Market Reef DX Association will be active on all bands and modes as OG1XMAS between the 29th of November and the 26th of December. QSL via Logbook of The World and Club Log. Members of Club Radio Durnal are active as OP19MSF until the 13th of December "to put the spotlight on Médecins Sans Frontières for its active role during this period of the pandemic". QSL via the bureau or direct. Now the DX news Ali, EP3CQ will be active as 6O1OO from Somalia, until the 15th of January 2021. Members of the Holy land DX Group will operate 4X7T from 0800UTC on the 25th and 1300UTC on the 26th of December. They will have three running stations on the 80 to 10m bands using CW, SSB and FT-8. The QSL Manager is Ros, 4Z5LA. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. This weekend it’s the CQ World Wide DX CW contest. The 48 hours run ends at 2359UTC today, the 29th. Activity is on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands. The exchange is signal report and your CQ Zone; for the UK that is Zone 14. As per tradition, December is a quiet month for contests, with no RSGB HF events at all. On Tuesday the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. It is followed by the all-mode 144MHz UK Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. Both have the exchange of signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend, the ARRL 160m contest runs from 2200UTC on the 4th to 1600UTC on the 6th of December. It’s CW only and the exchange is signal report, with American and Canadian stations also sending their ARRL or RAC section abbreviation. Next Sunday, the 6th of December, the 144MHz AFS contest runs from 1000 to 1600UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon starts its two month run on the 1st of December. Just exchange a signal report and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 27th of November. Last week represented a good example of how solar cycle 25 is progressing. We started the week on the 22nd with a solar flux index, SFI, of 88 and a sunspot number of 35. Just to recap, that doesn’t mean there were 35 sunspots, as we count each sunspot group as 10 and each spot as one. But, by Thursday, the SFI was up to 104 with a sunspot number of 40, and there were three large groups visible on the Sun. As well as pushing up the SFI, the spots have been very active on the solar flare front, with daily B- and C-class flares being emitted, although their effects on the ionosphere have been minimal luckily. With the CW Worldwide CW contest occurring this weekend, this SFI does bode well for HF propagation. With zero coronal holes appearing, at least on Thursday, and the possibility that the SFI could rise even further in the coming days, this looks like a good combination for one of the best CQWWs we’ve seen for a few years. An SFI of more than 100 virtually guarantees some F2-layer propagation on 10 metres. These openings may be short-lived as the MUF drops a little, but it is definitely worth keeping an eye on 28MHz at times, especially near noon on North-South paths. If you are planning to take part, it is a good idea to plan your activities using a tool like predtest.uk. Typically, on the higher bands, such as 20, 15 and perhaps 10 metres, you will work stations to the east of the UK in the morning. As noon approaches, propagation will swing south. And the afternoon will be optimum for contacts with the USA. For 40 and 80 metres, the opposite is generally true, where you should be looking for a night-time path between you and the station you wish to work. Even if you hear this broadcast on Sunday it isn’t too late to take part, as the contest runs until midnight. Do get on as there is usually a lot of activity and it is a great opportunity to increase your country score. And now the VHF and up propagation news. The background weather pattern is again looking like high pressure will predominate, with a good prospect for Tropo. It will be a typical spell of November quiet weather with frost and fog overnight, perhaps lasting through the day in a few places. This prevalence for cool moist air near the surface makes for good Tropo since you will often find the high pressure has produced a layer of warmer and drier air above the inversion. It's the contrast that changes the refractive index of the air and can create ducts for VHF/UHF DX propagation. We should point out that some models allow the high to collapse in the second half of next week, so it's worth following the daily forecasts as we go through the week. Just one minor meteor shower this week. The Phoenicids peaks on the 2nd with a variable zenith hourly rate, but its radiant is not visible from the UK. The Moon reaches maximum declination on Wednesday, so we have long visibility windows all week with falling path losses. 144MHz sky noise is moderate to low all week, but rising up to 500 kelvin on Tuesday. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 23rd of August 2020 The news headlines: Nominate a new DXer for G5RP Trophy Latest Online RSGB Convention news Vacancies on important RSGB committees The G5RP Trophy is an annual award to encourage newcomers to HF DXing. The award is not limited to youngsters or the newly-licensed; it is open to anyone who has recently discovered and made significant progress in HF DXing. If you are an established HF DXer and want to recommend someone to be awarded the G5RP Trophy for 2020, now is the time to send in your nomination. Your nominee should be an up-and-coming HF DXer who has made rapid progress in the last year and has some real achievements to show, for example, a good total of new countries worked or some serious HF DXpedition activity. Please send your nominations to Ian Greenshields, G4FSU by email to hf.manager@rsgb.org.uk to arrive no later than the 25th of September. During the online RSGB Convention for 2020, you will be able to enjoy some excellent lectures. On Saturday the 10th of October, the RSGB will be putting on two streams online for everyone to enjoy. In An introduction to… we will have Kevin, G0PEK and Lauren, 2E0HLR talk about youngsters using amateur radio and combining it with other activities such as cycling, hiking, canoeing and kayaking. In the Learn more about.... stream, the popular RSGB Convention lecturer Jim Bacon, G3YLA will talk about VHF propagation and weather. Jim will describe the processes behind compiling the GB2RS propagation bulletin. He’ll look at weather forecasting, tropospheric propagation, rain scatter and how to identify suitable candidates from forecast charts as well as Sporadic-E and its relationship to weather. We’ll highlight more lectures in the coming weeks, but you can find out more at www.rsgb.org.uk/convention. The RSGB is looking for two people to fill the important volunteer roles of Legacy Committee Chair and Nominations Committee Chair. Full details of the roles and the committees can be found on the Society’s website at www.rsgb.org/volunteers. The CW Open for 2020 takes place over the first weekend of September and is sponsored by The CW Operators’ Club. The three sessions are all on the 5th of September, from 0000 to 0359UTC, then 1200 to 1559UTC and finally 2000 to 2359UTC. See https://cwops.org/cwops-tests/cw-open/ for full details. Tim, G4YBU and Richard, G8ITB have planned a Summits on the Air activity weekend ending today, the 23rd. The objective is to activate as many of the 15 summits in the Southern SOTA region of England. The event is for everyone and it is suggested that the popular 2m and 40m bands are used, on FM and SSB. For a detailed summit list see www.sotadata.org.uk. International Lighthouses and Lightships Weekend is still going ahead this weekend. Participation will depend on local circumstances and government rulings regarding Covid-19 restrictions, see https://illw.net. Wirral ARS will be operating using GB2BHL from the club premises. Moray Firth ARS will be using GB0CSL from individual club members homes. The RSGB has released two more 2019 Convention presentations to its YouTube channel. In the first one, Don Field, G3XTT talks about the fun and experience you can have by ‘Guest Operating’ as part of a multi-operator contest or DXpedition. In the second presentation, Nobby Styles, G0VJG builds on that by giving details of the DXpedition to Wallis Island. You can watch both on the RSGB YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/theRSGB The Grid and Prefix Award Program has announced a comprehensive Digital Awards Program. Awards are available for radio amateurs and short wave listeners for confirmed grids and prefixes worked or heard using digital modes. Contacts made under any callsign you may have used in the past are valid for confirmations; there is no start time, so all confirmed digital contacts are acceptable. The program accepts electronic confirmations. See www.gapawards.com. The RSGB 2020 Construction Competition is open for entries. There are four categories, including one specifically for people who are new to amateur radio. Deadline for entries is the 25th of September. For more details, including how to enter, see www.rsgb.org/construction-competition. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of VJ Day, the RSGB has organised a VJ Day amateur radio marathon on the HF bands and 6m using SSB, CW and digital modes. Three special UK callsigns GB75PEACE, GB1945PE, GB1945PJ will be on the air until the 31st of August. See www.rsgb.org/ve-vj-marathon. August sees two GB80 special event stations on the air, marking the critical role that radar played in the Battle of Britain 80 years ago. GB80BRS will be operated to commemorate Bawdsey Radar Station in Suffolk, where radar was developed in the late 1930s. This was the location of the world’s first operational radar station. Activity will be on 80 to 10m using SSB, CW and FT8. GB80CH, Chain Home, will be operated from Chelmsford in Essex. And now the DX news Many stations will be on the air this weekend from lighthouses around Europe and beyond. Listen out for T45FM, CQ0ODX/P, TM2LW, GB9UL and OV1LH amongst many others. A full list can be found at https://illw.net. Giorgio, YI/IU5HWS is with the military in Iraq and will be operating on 40, 20 and 10 metres until the end of November. Now the contest news There are no RSGB HF contests this month, as August is the month of the traditional summer holiday. Please remember to check before the contest for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your own national and local government’s advice first and foremost, especially in the instance of local lockdowns. On Tuesday the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1830 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2.3 to 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next Sunday, the 30th, The UK Microwave group’s High Band contest runs from 0600 to 1800UTC. Using all modes on the 5.7 to 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Over the weekend of the 5th and 6th September, three RSGB contests occur. On Saturday the 5th, there is SSB Field Day that starts at 1300UTC and the 144MHz Trophy Contest that starts at 1400UTC. On Sunday the 6th, there is the fifth 144MHz Backpackers Contest, which starts at 1100UTC. Sadly, the HF and VHF Contest Committees have come to the conclusion that the Government guidance on Covid-19 does not yet allow the restart multi-operator sections in RSGB contests. As a result, the multi-operator sections in the 144MHz Trophy Contest have been removed. The single operator sections will continue as normal. For the 5th 144MHz Backpackers Contest and SSB Field Day, all sections are being restricted to single-operator entries only. The committees realise this announcement will disappoint some people, but they do hope that many will be able to enter the contests as single operators, whether from home or as portable stations. These contests normally bring exciting DX and weekend contest activity levels have been high this year, so please do come on and have some fun. The rules for all RSGB Contests are at www.rsgbcc.org. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 21st of August. Sunspot region 2772 was rotating off the Sun’s limb at the end of the week. As a result, the solar flux index declined from 74 down to 71 as the Sun’s surface cleared. There was some activity though. A solar storm cloud was hurled into space on the 16th of August by a slow-motion solar flare in the Sun’s southern hemisphere. The coronal mass ejection was due to sweep past Earth on the 20th. A group of three smaller coronal holes passed the Sun’s central meridian on Wednesday and Thursday, which could spell unsettled conditions at the weekend due to the solar wind emanating from them. NOAA predicts that the Kp index will rise to three until the threat passes. This is not really high enough to cause big problems, but keep an eye on the Kp index at solarham.com as a guide. Next week, NOAA has the SFI pegged at 71 to 72 reflecting a lack of sunspots. The Kp index should also be pegged at two, at least until Sunday the 30th of August when it could climb to four. Look out for a potential positive pre-auroral phase enhancement, followed by a decline in maximum usable frequencies as any potential geomagnetic storm progresses. Current daytime MUFs over a 3,000km path are still in the 14-18MHz range, with night-time MUFs covering 10-14MHz according to Propquest.co.uk. And now the VHF and up propagation news. A deep low and gales over the northern and western part of the British Isles is not ideal summer holiday weather and not good for antennas either. In fact, this unsettled pattern will stay with us through to Thursday, when some models show temporary high pressure over the country to end the week. It’s fair to say that not all models do this and instead of a high, it’s no more than a one-day weak ridge before further lows arrive. In terms of propagation, it’s looking like another period of weather more suitable for GHz bands rain scatter. Tropo may put in an appearance later in the week, but it might only be a brief visit and perhaps not with a well-developed inversion if it’s a temporary visit. As an aside, it’s a particularly good period of summer Tropo over the Mediterranean at the moment, with potential for east to west paths, say from EA to IT9 or IT9 to SV or 5B4. The Sporadic-E season is hanging on, particularly for digital modes, and next week should continue to offer several nicely placed jet streams for paths into Europe. Note that the propquest.co.uk website, which contains a daily blog on where the weather triggers may be more active, now contains a single Sporadic-E probability index, EPI. This combines many of the contributory factors into one experimental index on a map showing where the chance of Sporadic-E is highest. Click on the map or enter your locator to overlay the ideal distance rings for Sporadic-E from your QTH. Moon declination is now negative and falling all week, and, as perigee was Friday, EME path losses are low but rising. Moon windows will shorten as the week progresses. 144MHz sky temperatures are rising, peaking at over 3000K on Thursday, so your masthead preamps won’t help you! Read G4BAO’s GHz bands column from the April 2020 RadCom for an explanation of why. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 16th of August 2020 The news headlines: Thanks for massive lockdown efforts Latest RSGB Convention Online info TX Factor 26 is bumper episode In this month’s RadCom, RSGB General Manager Steve Thomas, M1ACB thanks all the staff and volunteers who have pulled together to cope with the challenges of the last four months. He highlights the successes we should celebrate – such as helping 1,500 people take their first steps into amateur radio in just four months via remote invigilation Foundation exams – as well as the opportunities we all have to develop amateur radio in the future. You can also read the editorial online at https://tinyurl.com/rsgb-success-story. Practical Wireless this month features a look at how the RSGB is supporting new and returning radio amateurs. From the Beyond Exams range of resources through to the Tonight @ 8 webinars and a new Facebook group, there is a lot on offer. You can read the article on the RSGB website too. With the Covid-19 pandemic changing the face of rallies and conventions around the world, the RSGB Convention 2020 is going online. You will be able to enjoy some excellent lectures. On Saturday the 10th of October, the RSGB will be putting on two streams online for everyone to enjoy. The first stream is An introduction to… and the second stream is Learn more about.... You can find more information at www.rsgb.org.uk/convention. The first two lectures are The Small Station by Joe Chester, M1MWD and QRO Magnetic Loop Antennas with Rael Paster, M0RTP. In the small station, Joe M1MWD says that most of us don’t have the good fortune to own several acres of land on which to erect tall towers for beam antennas and have just one or two transceivers and an ATU on the corner of a table. But there is lots of fun to be had operating even the most modest radio station and he’ll look at how to get the best from limited equipment, or space. In his talk, Rael, M0RTP says that a transmitting magnetic loop antenna offers the amateur a compelling option for getting on the air and having access to all the HF bands when restricted for size and height of the antenna system at your QTH. He will cover DIY construction tips, tricks and traps for QRO operation and will provide an overview on how to remotely tune a magnetic loop. Find out more at www.rsgb.org.uk/convention. Running slightly behind schedule, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a bumper Summer edition of TX Factor is now available. Episode 26 is packed full of pre-lockdown features including a very relaxed tea and biscuits interview with Tim Kirby, GW4VXE as he speaks of his big passion for VHF and UHF operating. Bob, G0FGX and Mike, G1IAR take the lid off Bob’s Icom IC-7300 and fit a Radio Analog PTRX-7300 RF interface module. Coupled with an inexpensive SDR receiver like the SDR Play RSP1A and your computer, this board gives you a proper panadapter display so you can use your mouse to click and pounce on the signals you want to hear. Bob also gets his hands on one of the very first Icom IC-705 all-mode QRP SDR transceivers to arrive in the UK and gives a comprehensive review of all its wonderous capabilities. TX Factor is viewable on all devices from smartphones to smart TVs and is available at www.txfactor.co.uk, or search for TX Factor on YouTube. TX Factor is sponsored by the RSGB and Martin Lynch and Sons. Tim, G4YBU and Richard, G8ITB have planned a Summits on the Air Activity Weekend to be held on the 22nd and 23rd of August. The objective is to activate as many of the 15 summits in the Southern SOTA region of England. The event is for everyone. Bands and modes are down to the equipment that any particular operator owns, but it is suggested that 2 metres and 40 metres are very popular both on FM and SSB. Most of the summits in the Southern SOTA region are within easy driving distance of major towns and are a short walk to the summit itself; some actually have a car park within the activation area. For a detailed summit list see the SOTA website, www.sotadata.org.uk. International Lighthouses and Lightships Weekend is still going ahead this year on the 22nd and 23rd of August. Participation will dependent on local circumstances and government rulings regarding border and national parks closures, social contact and so on. Wirral ARS will be operating using GB2BHL but operation will be from the club premises. Moray Firth ARS will also be taking part, using the callsign GB0CSL for Covesea Skerries Lighthouse. The station will be run from individual club members homes. Details of this are at www.mfars.club. The GQRP club has released a detailed agenda for its Online Convention 2020, taking place on the 5th and 6th of September. The online event, which replaces the club’s annual GQRP convention, is open to existing members. There is a special rate for non-members that will include GQRP Club membership until January 2022. The two-day event comprises a series of online presentations and knowledge-sharing meetings where people can share ideas. For more information, and to view the full event schedule, see www.gqrp.com/convention.htm The Netherlands IARU member society, VERON, is encouraging amateurs to use digital amateur television, DATV, in the 2m band on the 22nd of August between 1200 and 1600UTC. Using either 144.600 or 145.300MHz, signals should be DVB-S or DVB-S2 and have a Symbol rate 125k. Details are at www.veron.nl/nieuws/datv-experiment-2-meter/. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. Fort Purbrook ARC will put GB1PF on the air from member’s homes until the 17th of August. They will operate using CW, SSB and data across the HF/VHF/UHF bands. More information is on QRZ.com. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of VJ Day, the RSGB has organised a VJ Day amateur radio marathon on the HF bands and 6m using SSB, CW and digital modes. Three special UK callsigns GB75PEACE, GB1945PE, GB1945PJ will be on the air until the 31st of August. See www.rsgb.org/ve-vj-marathon. August sees two GB80 Special Event Stations on the air, marking the critical role that radar played in the Battle of Britain 80 years ago. GB80BRS will be operated to commemorate Bawdsey Radar Station in Suffolk, where radar was developed in the late 1930s. This was the location of the world’s first operational radar station. Activity will be on 80 to 10m using SSB, CW and FT8. GB80CH, Chain Home, will be operated from Chelmsford in Essex. And now the DX news Commemorating the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I, special event stations TC3GP and TC3GS will be active until the 23rd of August. QSLs via YM3KCN. Giorgio, YI/IU5HWS is with the military in Iraq and will be operating on 40, 20 and 10 metres until the end of November. Now the contest news There are no RSGB HF contests this month, as August is the month of the traditional summer holiday. That said, there is some doubt about going anywhere on holiday at present thanks to the current Covid-19 precautions! Please remember to check before the contest for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your own national and local government’s advice first and foremost, especially in the instance of local lockdowns. RTTY operators can participate in the Scandinavian Amateur Radio Teleprinter Group contest. The first sessions were on Saturday but today, the 16th, it runs between 0800 and 1600UTC. The exchange is RST and serial number. Multipliers are DXCC entities and call areas in VK, VE, JA and W. See sartg.com/contest/wwrules.htm for full information. On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday the 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 14th of August. Sunspot region 2770 will have just about rotated out of view by the time you hear or read this. After a promising start it quickly faded away, but there is more hope as active region AR2771, belonging to Cycle 25, is forming in the Sun’s southeast quadrant. A secondary bright plage region is also now turning into view off the southeast limb, although it appears to be spotless for now. This is very encouraging as we think it shows that Sunspot Cycle 25 is ready to get under way. On Thursday the solar flux index was 74 with a sunspot number of 24. Please note that on Propquest.co.uk, the feed from the Chilton ionosonde has been down for a few days, but if you switch to FF051 Fairford you’ll find that feed is working. Daytime critical frequencies have generally been in the range 4 to 5.3MHz, which means that 40m remains unsuitable for close-in NVIS contacts around the UK. You may find 60m or 5MHz more reliable for inter-UK working. But critical frequencies are generally staying higher just after sunset, which can be good news for stations chasing DX. The charts suggest that 14MHz is remaining open to contacts over 3,000km until nearly local midnight. Next week NOAA predicts the solar flux index will remain at around 72, with the largest Kp index being two. This reflects the fact that there are no Earth-facing coronal holes at present, although this can change without much notice. Active region 2771 could develop further, as could the plage area in the southeast quadrant. But it really is guesswork at this point. And now the VHF and up propagation news. The weather pattern is changing into something much more unsettled generally, and not just in isolated instances of severe thunderstorms as we’ve seen recently. Tropo conditions were good in some parts as last week came to an end. It's easy to get Tropo over sea paths at this time of the year and, whilst there could still be some opportunities across the North Sea early next week, most areas will be in the realm of low pressure, so no more Tropo. The Sporadic-E season has had a little boost by the recent meteor input from the Perseids so it's still worth looking at the usual times, mid-morning and late afternoon to early evening. The season can last into early September, so there’s still time. Rain scatter should be the mode of choice this coming week, with a slow-moving area of low pressure over the country bringing thundery showers and spells of heavy rain to many places. It’s a good time to use one of the many radar displays available online to track the heavy rain cells and try some GHz band rain scatter. Mid-August is a good time for meteor scatter, so keep that on the list as the Perseids meteor shower declines. Opinion was that this year was not a vintage one, with many reporting poorer performance than last year. That said, the meteorscan.com website showed hourly rates at over 100 around 0600 on the 12th and 13th. The Moon was at peak declination yesterday and path losses are falling as we approach perigee on Friday, so it’s a good week for EME. 144MHz sky temperatures are low. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 2nd of August 2020 The news headlines: Intermediate Exam practical assessment abolished RSGB creates Facebook group for new licensees Australia increases amateur licence flexibility The Examination Standards Committee is pleased to announce the latest syllabus revision for the amateur radio licence examinations. Following the valuable feedback from the tutor community, certain points have been clarified. There are no new learning points with this revision, version 1.4, but one very significant change is that the Intermediate practical assessment is to be discontinued with immediate effect. Some of the feedback has indicated a further syllabus revision that will involve new learning points. Further consultations will commence regarding this in the autumn with an expected publication date of January 2021, and the content examinable from July 2021. All the documents are on the Society’s website at www.rsgb.org/syllabus2019 As part of its continuing Get on the air to care initiative, the RSGB has created a Facebook group to support new Foundation licensees who have taken their exam this year via remote invigilation, plus those returning to amateur radio after a number of years. For details on how to join the group, see www.rsgb.org/beyond-exams. The Australian comms regulator ACMA has announced a series of changes to give Australian amateurs more options and flexibility. Digital modes and shorter three-letter callsigns will now be available to Australian Foundation Licensees. In addition, regional identifiers that indicate which State any amateur is located no longer need be changed when travelling across the country. Further details are available from the Wireless Institute of Australia at https://tinyurl.com/gb2rs-au. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of VJ Day, the RSGB has organised a VJ Day amateur radio marathon on the HF bands and 6m using SSB, CW and digital modes. Three special UK callsigns GB75PEACE, GB1945PE, GB1945PJ will be on the air from the 1st to the 31st of August. The special stations have their own QRZ.com pages with details of the activation schedule. If you wish to participate and transmit using a VJ Day radio marathon callsign, contact Ian, G0FCT via email to csc.chair@rsgb.org.uk. Full details of the radio marathon and the five awards are on the Society’s radio marathon web page, www.rsgb.org/ve-vj-marathon. Around 80 papers are now available online for the IARU Region 1 Virtual General Conference that will be held in October. Several inputs on a variety of topics are by a team of RSGB volunteers, covering HF-UHF Modernisation, support for innovation and the WRC-23 challenge in the 23cm band. The RSGB band plans may also be updated to take account of the outcome in January 2021. Full information can be found at https://rsgb.org/main/rsgb-consultations/iaru-consultations. A Facebook group promoting Special Event Stations within the UK now has over 1000 members. Any radio amateur or SWL with an interest in organising, operating or working special event stations is welcome. The group is run by Mark, G1PIE, Martyn, MM0XXW and Pam, 2E1HQY. See www.facebook.com/groups/SESUk. Milton Keynes ARS tells us that their training team has been part of the remote invigilating of exams. Over 300 candidates have been invigilated by Francis, M0UKF and Nigel, M0NYG since the online scheme started in April. The club thanks them for their efforts. Francis is taking a well-earned break to focus on other projects. The objective of the AMSAT-UK OSCAR Satellite QSO Party is to encourage all radio amateurs to make contacts via satellites during northern hemisphere summer. The event runs until 2359UTC on the 22nd of September. Prizes will be awarded to the leading entries. Full details are at https://amsat-uk.org. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. August sees two GB80 Special Event Stations on the air to mark the critical role that radar played in the Battle of Britain 80 years ago. GB80BRS will be operated to commemorate Bawdsey Radar Station in Suffolk, which was where radar was developed in the late 1930s and was the location of the world’s first operational radar station. Activity will be on 80m to 10m bands using SSB, CW and FT8. GB80CH will be operated from Chelmsford in Essex, which has the most complete surviving radar tower from the Battle of Britain. The BAE Systems Great Baddow Amateur Radio, club with amateur colleagues in local clubs, will be operating across the HF and 6m bands. And now the DX news Tony, OH1TD is active again from his summer QTH on Korpo Island, IOTA reference EU-096, until September. QSL via his home callsign, either direct or via the bureau. Mike, XW2DX is currently active as XW2DX from Vientiane and will be staying in Laos for the next few years. He is allowed to operate on the 20, 15 and 10m bands. QSL via RM0L. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. Today, the 2nd, the 432MHz Low Power Contest is single operator only from 0800 to 1200UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and first two letters of your postcode. On Tuesday the 144MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC. It is followed by the 144MHz UK Activity Contest from 1900 to 2130UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend is the WAE DX CW contest from 0000UTC on the 8th to 2359UTC on the 9th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, European stations work non-Europeans only. The exchange is signal report and serial number. Next Sunday, the 9th, it’s the 5th 70MHz Cumulative contest from 1400 to 1600UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 31st of July. The Sun showed signs of coming back to life this week with not one but two sunspot groups. The sunspot number climbed to 22, representing two spots in two separate groups, and the solar flux index rose to 73. This wasn’t really enough to make much of a difference to HF propagation though, but it is a step in the right direction. The Kp index was pegged pretty much at one or two due to a lack of coronal hole activity. Propagation-wise, we continued to have a good run of Sporadic-E, with openings to the USA and Canada on 10m SSB and FT8, and China was reported on SSB in last weekend’s IOTA contest. Even Nand, VU2NKS in India has been reported in the UK via 10m FT8. Next week NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will decline from 72 down to 68 as the two sunspots rotate out of view. The Kp index should remain low all week as well due to a lack of coronal hole activity. Propagation will remain at seasonal lows as we enter August, with daytime F2 maximum usable frequencies grazing 17-18MHz, with Sporadic-E bringing openings up to 30MHz and beyond. Night-time maximum usable frequencies are likely to exceed 10MHz over 3,000km paths, but keep an eye on Propquest.co.uk for the odd surprise. We can’t really expect F2 layer openings to improve until September, so make the most of the Sporadic-E openings for now. And now the VHF and up propagation news. The next week or so looks to be a mix of brief spells when high pressure might present us with some Tropo, as seen just recently at the end of the last week, due to a temporary high over the near continent. The longer-range part of the forecast also picks up another high at the end of the coming week, although for both these highs, the main areas of enhanced Tropo are for central and southern Britain across the Channel and North Sea into the continent and Baltic region. The period in between the two high-pressure ‘bookends’ is occupied by low-pressure systems with fronts and showery troughs adding a good chance of rain scatter again on the GHz bands. The summer months are particularly good for strong thundery shower-cloud development with plenty of high-intensity rainfall or hail. Sporadic-E has performed fairly well in the last week, particularly for FT8, but with a smattering of more traditional modes. The general advice still holds – check the bands mid-morning, late afternoon and early evening for signs of Sporadic-E. It's never too late for Sporadic-E until maybe the end of the first week in September, so it's still well worth a look. The Moon is at minimum declination today so there will be very low peak Moon elevations and short visibility windows early in the week. This means that, despite 144MHz sky noise being low, the man-made noise from the horizon will be in the main beam of all but the largest antennas. There are no significant meteor showers this week. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 26th of July 2020 The news headlines: Over 400 remote-invigilation Intermediate exams booked July’s RadCom Basic’s free to all Tokyo Ham Fair cancelled Since bookings opened on the 13th of July, the RSGB is delighted that over 400 people have booked a remote-invigilation Intermediate exam, with over 250 registering on the first day! These exams take place from the 12th of August and we wish the candidates well with their studying and the exam. With more than 1000 remote-invigilation Foundation licence students having passed, the RSGB is making the July edition of RadCom Basics a special free-to-everyone edition. With many radio amateurs world-wide still affected by national lockdown restrictions, RadCom Basics is an opportunity to introduce elements of the hobby to newcomers in bite-sized pieces. To read the July copy of this bi-monthly online publication, go to www.rsgb.org/radcom-basics. The Japanese national society, JARL, has announced that the Tokyo Ham Fair, due to be held on the 31st of October and the 1st of November has been cancelled due to coronavirus. In 2019, 42,000 people are reported to have visited the event that usually takes place in August, it was moved to later in 2020 because of the expected Olympic and Paralympic Games during the summer. The objective of the AMSAT-UK OSCAR Satellite QSO Party is to encourage all radio amateurs to make contacts via satellites during northern hemisphere summer. Whether you are a seasoned operator or a newcomer, all are welcome. Although points are given per QSO, this isn’t a contest. The QSO Party will be supported by an online leader-board that will be available from the start of the event, which runs from 0000UTC on the 1st of August until 2359UTC on the 22nd of September. Prizes will be awarded to the leading entries, full details at https://amsat-uk.org. The RSGB’s Tonight @ 8 webinars continue on Monday the 27th of July with a presentation by Dom Smith, M0BLF on Getting started on QO-100. You can watch the livestream and ask questions on both the RSGB YouTube channel or the special Tonight @ 8 channel on the BATC website. The webinar series takes a break in August then will be back on the 7th of September with James Stevens, M0JCQ who will be talking about Portable adventures with Summits on the Air. You can find out more about all the webinars via the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org/webinars. NZART, the New Zealand National Amateur Radio Society, has published an update on its 60m band page indicating that the current New Zealand 60m trial period, which was due to have been concluded on the 24th of July has been extended for a further three months until the 24th of October. Go to www.nzart.org.nz/info/60m/ for more information. The European Space Agency has released a new video ‘How to get pictures from the International Space Station via Amateur Radio’ that features radio amateur David Honess, 2E0XDO. It also has a collection of tutorial videos explaining how to receive ISS Slow Scan TV pictures for different computers and mobile devices. Go to https://tinyurl.com/gb2rs-iss to find out more. The RSGB has uploaded two more 2019 Convention lecture videos to its YouTube channel. In the first one, Richard Banester, G4CDN talks about 2m Ionoscatter and using digital modes to open up paths that are usually unworkable. The second presentation is by Dean Pesnell from the Solar Dynamics Observatory who explains more about the Observatory and how studying the Sun helps us understand the Earth and amateur radio. Go to www.youtube.com/theRSGB to watch these presentations. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. August sees two GB80 Special Event Stations come on air marking the critical role that radar played in the Battle of Britain 80 years ago. GB80BRS will be operated to commemorate Bawdsey Radar Station in Suffolk, which was where radar was developed in the late 1930s and was the location of the world’s first operational radar station. Operation will be on 10m to 80m bands, SSB, CW and FT8. GB80CH will be operated from Chelmsford in Essex, which has the most complete surviving radar tower from the Battle of Britain. The BAE Systems Great Baddow Amateur Radio, club with amateur colleagues in local clubs will be operating across the HF+6m bands. And now the DX news Tony, OH1TD is active again from his summer QTH on Korpo Island, EU-096, until September. QSL via his home callsign either direct or via the bureau. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. Today, the 26th, the UK Microwave Group contest runs from 0600 to 1800UTC. Using all modes in the 5.7 and 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The RSGB’s Islands On The Air contest ends its 24-hour run at 1200UTC today, the 26th. It’s CW and SSB only on the 3.5 to 28MHz bands and the exchange is signal report, serial number and your IOTA reference. Mainland Britain is EU-005, mainland Ireland is EU-115, while smaller islands have differing references. A full list can be found at www.qrz.com/i/iota.html. The IOTA contest has been scaled back this year, with no portable entries being accepted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On Monday the sixth FT4 series contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using the 3.5MHz band only the exchange is your 4-character locator. On Tuesday the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1830 to 2200UTC. Using all modes on the 2.3GHz and Up bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The fourth 144MHz Backpacker contest takes place on Saturday the 1st of August but with single operator entries only. Running from 1400 to 1800UTC, it’s all mode with the exchange of signal report, serial number and locator. Also on the 1st of August, the 144MHz Low Power Contest runs from 1400 to 2000UTC. Again this is single operator only entries. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and first two letters of your postcode. The Worked All Britain 144MHz Low power phone contest takes place next Saturday, the 1st of August from 1400 to 1800UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB square for UK stations. Entries need to be with the contest manager by the 11th of August. The maximum power for this contest is 10 watts input to the antenna. Mobile and portable entries are allowed but no club or multi-operator entries. Full details from www.worked-all-britain.org.uk. Next Sunday, the 2nd, the 432MHz Low Power Contest is single operator only from 0800 to 1200UTC. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and first two letters of your postcode. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 24th of July. We had quite a quiet week with the Sun with zero sunspots and a settled geomagnetic field. The solar wind speed was slow, between 280 and 330km per second, and its magnetic field was weak, with no significant negative deflections in its important North-South Bz direction. Therefore, the resultant geomagnetic activity was settled. On the 21st a sunspot appeared around the Sun’s limb. Now classified as sunspot group 2767, on Thursday it contained one sunspot, but its simple uni-polar magnetic signature suggests it is non threatening. We do expect the Kp index to rise on Friday the 24th due to the arrival of a coronal hole high speed stream. Modest magnetic enhancement is also forecast for the 25th of July with the possible arrival of a slow CME from the 19th. Expect a possible pre-aurora enhancement followed by the potential for suppressed maximum usable frequencies over the weekend and into early next week. HF conditions have been generally lacklustre, but Laurie, G3UML reports that WH6FXL and WA6QDQ/KH6, both in Hawaii, were both quite readable signals on 20m SSB at 0800 on Wednesday. Tom, GM4FDM reports working two JAs on 17m using his newly-erected dipole. The 10m UK Net group on Facebook also reported an FT8 opening to Japan on Monday as well. This just goes to show that you shouldn’t just write off the Summer as being no good for DX. Next week NOAA predicts the solar flux index will remain in the high 60s with the Kp index between two and three. This generally suggests that HF conditions will remain similar to last week. Expect Sporadic-E openings on 10 metres to continue, although not at the rate that we had earlier in the month. And now the VHF and up propagation news. A series of low-pressure systems passing close by northern Scotland and various fronts crossing the country mean that there are likely to be few opportunities for Tropo this week. High pressure is displaced to the south over France so any Tropo will be mostly likely from southern England into the continent or across Biscay to Spain. That brings rain scatter on the GHz bands onto the agenda for many regions of the UK at some time or other during the coming week. Sporadic-E still warrants a mention, but it is becoming more elusive as we move towards August. It's not a 'no chance', but it will need some strategy for being in the right place at the right time. The best options will be to monitor 10m or 6m mid-morning and again late afternoon or early evening. Paths on FT8 will prove good indicators of which direction might deliver as the Es develops. With the Moon declination negative and falling further as the week progresses, Moon visibility windows will shorten and peak elevation will be just 32 degrees today and falling, leading up to minimum declination a week today. Perigee was yesterday, Saturday the 1st, so path losses are now increasing. 144MHz sky noise peaks at 2,500 Kelvin on Friday, so low noise preamps won’t help you that day. The Southern Delta Aquarids meteor shower has a broad peak from the 26th to the 31st with a Zenithal Hourly Rate of 25, so look for enhanced meteor scatter activity in the coming week. In Europe, the shower radiant is above the horizon at night or in the early mornings. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 19th of July 2020 The news headlines: Over 1000 online exams passed Ofcom publishes EMF consultation responses Covid-19 cancels National Hamfest The RSGB is delighted to announce that recently the 1,000th person has passed the Foundation exam via remote invigilation. Congratulations to them and everyone else who has joined amateur radio via this exam process. To celebrate, the Society has launched a new web page to share the stories of just some of these successful candidates. Go to www.rsgb.org/gota2c-licensee-stories to read what attracted them to amateur radio and what they are hoping to do next. Ofcom has published the responses to the EMF consultation on their website. A link can be found on the RSGB’s EMF webpage at http://rsgb.org/emf. The RSGB would like to thank the 255 of you who took the time to respond either individually or on behalf of your organisation. The majority of all responders were against the proposals. Now that ICNIRP guidelines 2020 have been published, the RSGB is preparing updated guidelines and advice as to how to operate your stations within these guidelines. These will be published on the EMC pages of the website later this year. This guidance is being prepared by a group of experts from the amateur community including the editors of the IEEE Standard for Safety Levels for Human Exposure to EMF fields. It is with much regret that the organisers of the National Hamfest have cancelled the 2020 event. This was due to be held on Friday the 25th and Saturday the 26th of September. In consideration of their primary responsibilities to the health and welfare of volunteers, traders and visitors they have decided that this cancellation is the right decision. The environment in which the event is held presents unique and very difficult challenges in protecting social distancing, preventing handling of equipment and controlling numbers in a confined area. Arrangements are in hand for returning to the Newark Showground on the 24th and the 25th of September 2021 and they look forward to seeing you there. Registrations for this year’s popular International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend appear to have been largely unaffected by the current Covid-19 pandemic. The event will take place this year on the 22nd and 23rd of August. By mid-July, more than 200 entries had been received. New this year is Corsica, registered as lighthouse FR0030, and two lighthouses in Ghana will be on the air for the first time. All participants are urged to observe local COVID-19 safety guidelines. Find out more at https://illw.net. The Reverse Beacon Network will gain 15 new nodes, thanks to the Yasme Foundation. These will be added in regions where there is a need for reception reports to support amateur radio operation and where those reports will also have scientific value for geophysical research. The Yasme Foundation was assisted in this effort by supporting grants from Amateur Radio Digital Communications and by scientific advice from HamSCI researchers. Node locations will be available after a final list of hosts is available.  Despite the closure of many amateur radio events, you can still visit the online QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo on the 8th and 9th of August. Attendance is free and registration is now open. There will be around 70 speakers over the weekend including Ward Silver, N0AX speaking on Grounding and Bonding; Glen Johnson, W0GJ talking DXpeditions and John Portune, W6NBC on building slot antennas. Go to www.qsotodayhamexpo.com to learn more and register. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. To commemorate the 3rd anniversary of the FT8 Digital Mode Club, special event stations will be on air during the FT8DMC Activity Days until the 31st of July. All stations will bear the FTDMC or FTDM suffix. An FTDMC Anniversary Award can be earned by working the FTDMC and FTDM stations and collecting points applicable for various award classes. See www.ft8dmc.eu for more details. And now the DX news Joe, K5KUA will participate in the IOTA Contest next weekend from his home QTH on Galveston Island, NA-143. He will operate mainly CW with some SSB. QSL direct or bureau and Logbook of The World. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. Today, the 19th, the Low Power Contest runs from 0900 to 1600UTC. This is CW only on the 3.5 to 14MHz contest bands, with an exchange of signal report, serial number and power. This is the only RSGB contest with a lunch break, so please check the rules. The 70MHz Trophy contest also takes place today, the 19th. It runs from 1000 to 1600UTC. It’s all mode and the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and postcode. On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday it is the data leg of the 80m Club Championships between 1900 and 2030UTC. The exchange is signal report and serial number. Next weekend, the UK Microwave Group contest runs from 0600 to 1800UTC. Using all modes in the 5.7 and 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The RSGB’s Islands On The Air contest takes place over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of July. The exchange is signal report, serial number and your IOTA reference. Mainland Britain is EU-005, mainland Ireland is EU-115, while smaller islands have differing references. A full list can be found at www.qrz.com/i/iota.html. The IOTA contest has been scaled back this year, with no portable entries being accepted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Running from 1200UTC on the 25th to 1200UTC on the 25th, it is CW and SSB only on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 17th of July. Last week a coronal mass ejection caught space weather experts by surprise, sending the Kp index up to four for around nine hours on Tuesday. The stream had a strong southward component in its Bz field, which meant it could more easily couple with the Earth’s magnetic field. The weak CME passage was enough to generate aurora at higher latitudes. Otherwise, the Sun was relatively quiet with zero sunspots and a solar flux index of 68-69 all week. Ten metre Sporadic-E has become less prevalent this week, with Thursday showing mostly weak openings to Mauritania, Spain, Sicily and Corsica. Next week NOAA still predicts more of the same with a solar flux index of 68 and zero sunspots. There are signs of coronal holes on the Sun’s surface, which could result in unsettled geomagnetic conditions at times due to high-speed solar wind streams. The STEREO Ahead spacecraft’s extreme ultraviolet view shows signs of a hot spot on the Sun, which will rotate into view over the next week. This could be the precursor of a sunspot, but only time will tell. Meanwhile, daytime F2-layer maximum usable frequencies are still exceeding 20m, with occasional openings on 17m. Sporadic E openings still occur virtually daily with openings up to 10m. Night-time F-layer MUFs occasionally exceed 20m, especially up to around midnight. And now the VHF and up propagation news. This weekend we have developing high pressure over southern Britain, and it should provide some good Tropo opportunities, especially across the Channel and over Biscay into Spain and down the west coast of Africa. It’s also worth noting that the Mediterranean is in full-on summer mode with strong ducts over the sea from most of the usual holiday destinations, for example EA6 to IS0. These Tropo conditions should last into the middle of the week. After that, the models seem to suggest a return to more unsettled conditions as a front moves south bringing rain and heavy showers, some thundery, particularly in the south, and this weather type will last into the following weekend. So, there should be some strong rain scatter conditions on the GHz bands in the second half of the week. There have been some very strong Sporadic-E events all the way up to 2m during the last week. The traditional components like jet streams make a strong showing on the upper air charts, so I would expect to see further Sporadic-E popping up next week, so check the bands mid morning and early evening. With the Moon at peak declination today and path losses falling as we approach perigee next weekend, it’s a good week for EME. Although 144MHz sky noise is low all week, the exception is Monday afternoon when the Sun and Moon are close in the sky. There are no major meteor showers this week, so keep looking around local dawn for the best random contacts. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 28th of June 2020 The news headlines: Online remote invigilation expanding Tonight @ 8: Antennas for small gardens New Propagation Studies video released The online remote invigilation of the UK Foundation amateur radio exam continues to be extremely popular, with over 800 successful candidates so far, and more than 650 already booked for future Foundation exams. The RSGB is now contacting candidates and Exam Secretaries who had previously booked for Intermediate exams before social distancing caused their postponement. Candidates will be offered online remote invigilation exam slots. It is hoped that bookings can also be opened to new Intermediate candidates in the near future, once existing bookings are cleared. Full exams will follow on in a similar manner in due course. The FAQ’s on the RSGB website, under the Training tab, will be updated shortly. The next RSGB Tonight @ 8 webinar is on the 29th of June and is a presentation on Antennas for small gardens by Steve Nichols, G0KYA. You can watch the live stream and ask questions on either the RSGB YouTube channel or the special Tonight @ 8 channel on the BATC website, https://batc.org.uk/live/RSGB. You can find out more about all the webinars at www.rsgb.org/webinars and you can also watch previous talks in the series at the same site. The RSGB has released a new VHF propagation video, created by the Society’s Propagation Studies Committee. You can watch this interesting presentation on the Society’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/theRSGB. The annual transmission by the 17.2kHz VLF Alexanderson Alternator will take place, as usual, this year on Alexanderson Day, Sunday the 5th of July. As usual, it will use the callsign SAQ. Startup and tuning begins at 0830 and 1130UTC, with the transmission of a message at 0900 and 1200UTC. You can watch both events live on their YouTube channel and, of course, listen out if you have VLF capability. Due to unforeseen circumstances, no RSGB awards information will be published between now and 22 July. If you have submitted your data for an award and have not yet received a reply, you will be contacted after that date. The Society would encourage you to keep working towards awards in the meantime – it is a great way to gain experience, especially if you’re new to amateur radio. You can find more details of the RSGB awards on the Society’s website, www.rsgb.org/awards. We understand that Bletchley Park plans to re-open on 4 July and have further details on their website, bletchleypark.org.uk. The RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park will remain closed, for the time being, but this will continue to be regularly reviewed. Due to uncertainty about large gatherings being allowed, and in recognition that many radio amateurs may not want to attend physical meetings for some time, the G-QRP Club took the unwelcome decision to cancel their Conventions for 2020. However, following a very successful survey of members, a meeting of the Standing Committee this week confirmed definitely that the G-QRP Convention for 2020 will take place as a virtual event, over the weekend of the 5th and 6th of September. There will be a series of webinars and possibly a virtual Buildathon. A small working group are now developing the detail and a number of key speakers have already volunteered. Full details will be shared as soon as they are known. Apologies to Tony, VK5ZAI for the error in his callsign last week. Tony received the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday honours list for significant service to amateur radio, particularly to satellite and space communication. The RSGB/NHS ‘Get on the air to care’ campaign continues to feature in the media across the world. Recently there were articles in the ARRL’s QST magazine and in the Emergency Services Times publication. You can see both on the Society’s media campaign web pages, www.rsgb.org/gota2c-media. The latest Something for the Weekend video goes out today on YouTube. ML&S looks back at the 1970s and the beginning of Amateur Radio Exchange with Bernie, G4AOG. Fund raising for Alzheimer’s Disease is part of the video. Go to https://youtu.be/fICqJM_BIfw. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. Today, the 28th, is the Centenary of the Royal Corps of Signals. The Royal Signals Museum has a permanent special event callsign, GB100RSM, but due to the Covid-19 restrictions, they cannot run the station from the museum. The station will instead run from the home QTH of G3WZP in IO90BR. Activity will be until the end of June on the 40, 20 and 17m bands, using SSB and CW. Skeds are welcome. Another Royal Corps of Signals centenary station is GB100RS Royal Signals, operating from Bishop Auckland. It will start operating today, the 28th. Full details of the centenary stations and their operations can be found at https://rsars.org.uk/rsars-corps-celebrations-2020/. To commemorate their 3rd anniversary, special event stations will be on air during the FT8DMC Activity Days from the 1st to the 31st of July. All stations will bear the FTDMC or FTDM suffix, referring to the third anniversary of the FT8 Digital Mode Club. An FTDMC Anniversary Award can be earned by working the FTDMC and FTDM stations and collecting points applicable for various award classes. See www.ft8dmc.eu. Durham and District Amateur Radio Society is participating as one of the bonus stations in the 13 Colonies Special Event. GB13COL will run from 1300UTC on 1 July to 0400UTC on 8 July. The primary focus of the event will be the HF bands using SSB, CW, FM and various digital modes, but VHF and UHF will also be in use. This year’s QSL cards for GB13COL has been kindly sponsored by Martin Lynch at ML&S. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. The UK Microwave Group’s 5.7 and 10GHz bands contest runs from 0600 to 1800 today, the 28th. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Also today, the 28th, the 50MHz CW contest runs from 0900 to 1200UTC. It’s CW only and the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The 7MHz Cumulative contest runs from 1400 to 1600UTC today, the 28th. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The 3rd 144MHz Backpackers contest is cancelled and there is a different format contest to replace VHF NFD, for 2020 only, called ‘lockdown VHF NFD’. Only single operator fixed stations may enter this contest. The rules are available at www.rsgbcc.org/vhf/rules/2020/VHFNFD.shtml. The rules are loosely based around the UKAC and VHF AFS rules and include a team element. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 26th of June. After the recent excitement of a new Solar Cycle 25 sunspot, it seems the Sun has decided to go back to sleep. We have had zero sunspots since the 16th of June and the STEREO spacecraft Ahead view shows just one small bright area on the Sun, which might result in a spot in due course. Luckily, geomagnetic conditions remained quiet throughout the week, with a maximum Kp index of two. The bands were a little lacklustre, other than the continued Sporadic-E openings, which have brought almost daily fun on 28MHz. There were F-layer openings to be found on 14MHz, but these were mainly enjoyed by well-equipped stations. Ed, WA6QDQ/KH6 in Hawaii was audible at 0652TUTC on Tuesday the 23rd at G3UML’s Hendon QTH. As was William, AL7KC in North Pole, Alaska, who had a big pile up on 14.224MHz. Early morning does seem to be the best time to get on 14MHz, with Jim, E51JD on the South Cook Islands being reported again as well. But as the day goes on D-layer absorption grows and 14MHz doesn’t sound very lively at all. Fifteen metres was open to Brazil and Paraguay on Thursday afternoon, although this was mostly FT8. Otherwise, it was 10 metres and Sporadic-E contacts that continued to provide excitement, with one or two North American, South American and Caribbean openings occurring. Next week NOAA predicts more of the same, with a solar flux index hovering around 68-70 and a maximum Kp index of two. A weak solar wind stream flowing from a narrow coronal hole could reach Earth beginning on the 27th of June. A minor geomagnetic disturbance at higher latitudes may be expected. And now the VHF and up propagation news. The heatwave of midweek should be over by today, so any enhanced sea path Tropo will have weakened too. Coasts can be productive for ducts across the North Sea or the English Channel and Biscay in any quieter settled window during the week. Overall, Tropo is probably not a mode to rely upon this week, since much of the time we will have low pressure either over the UK or very close by. This will bring periods of rain or showers, many of which could have a chance of thunder and hail. This implies large convective clouds and potentially good GHz bands rain scatter. That leaves Sporadic-E, and we are still within the main part of the season, so keep up the usual procedure of checking mid-morning and late afternoon/early evening. Sporadic-E is a mode ideally suited for weak signals and digital modes can give good clues as to which directions may open later for CW and SSB as the opening develops. Make use of the good map-based clusters to see if you are close enough to where the paths cross. Ideally, the hot spot should be between about 600km and 1400km away from your station. Moon declination goes negative today but as perigee is on Monday, path losses will be at their lowest of the lunar month. 144MHz sky temperatures are low today but increasing to a peak of 2700K around midnight next Saturday. Compare this to the usual 300K cold sky temperature at 144MHz, do the maths and, you’ll see that your low noise preamps are not going to help you at this sky temperature! The June Bootids meteor shower peaked yesterday but continue looking for the best meteor scatter conditions around local dawn. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

Foundations of Amateur Radio The day came to pass when all my set-up and configuration was going to culminate in the moment of truth when I enabled TX on my WSPR mode station. Before I tell you of my experience, I should give you a little bit of background. A few weeks ago I managed to erect a HF vertical at my home or QTH. That in and of itself was news worthy, well at least to me it was, since it was the first time since I became licensed in 2010 that I had actual real all-band HF capability at home. Last weekend I ran some RG6, yes, 72 Ohm Quad Shield, low-loss coaxial cable, from my antenna, through the roof, into my shack. I was thrilled. Immediately set about getting my HF station up and running. This involved installing WSJT-X, a tool that allows you to do weak signal work, perfect for when you're a low power or QRP station like me. I've previously reported using WSPR, Weak Signal Propagation Reporter on a Raspberry Pi and a dongle, but this time I was using my Yaesu FT-857d. Reports were coming in thick and fast. Managed to hear stations on all the bands I'm allowed on, 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m, 2m and 70cm. Managed to make it report online and update the various maps around the place. Brilliant! Now I wanted to do the next thing. Transmit and see who could hear me and how far my beautiful callsign might travel on 5 Watts. So, after some abortive attempts, I configured the levels correctly, made sure that my antenna coupler, an SG-237, was tuned and hit "Enable TX" on the screen of my computer. Dutifully my computer did what was expected, turned on the transmitter and happily made the fan run on my radio for two minutes at a time. I tried 80m, 40m and 15m. All worked swimmingly. Then I looked on the map to see who had heard me. Nobody. Nothing. Nada. Niets en niemand. I could hear N8VIM using 5 Watts, 18649 km away, but nobody could hear me, not even the station VK6CQ who is 9 km from me. So, what's going on? Turns out that I'm not using a "standard" callsign. That's right, my VK6FLAB, authorised by the World Radiocommunication Conference 2003, implemented by the Australian regulator, the ACMA in 2005 and issued to me in 2010 isn't a standard callsign. Seems that the deal-breaker is the four letter suffix, FLAB, that's killing my attempts at making contact. Now I know that there are moves under way, not quite sure what stage they're at, to allow Australian amateurs to apply for any three-letter suffix and keep that regardless of their license level, but that to me doesn't really solve the underlying issue, where a perfectly legal callsign isn't allowed to be used by one of the most popular modes today. I've lodged a bug report on the WSJT-X mailing list, but to accommodate this callsign will probably require a fundamental change in the way the WSPR mode and likely several other JT modes will work, not to mention the databases, the maps, API calls and other fun things like logging. Technically I could have figured this out back in September 2019 when I was first allowed to use digital modes with my license, but I didn't have an antenna then. In case you're wondering. I also investigated using a so-called extended, or type-2 message, but that allows for an add-on prefix that can be up to three alphanumeric characters or an add-on suffix that can be a single letter or one or two digits. I could use something like VK6FLA/B, but I'm sure that the owner of VK6FLA would be upset and using VK6/F0LAB might have a French amateur yell Merde! at me when they spot their callsign being transmitted from VK6. One suggestion was to upgrade my license. What's the fun in that? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 21st of June 2020 The news headlines: Important RSGB Convention announcement Tonight @ 8: Antennas for small gardens Amateur awarded Order of Australia In response to the UK’s continuing social distancing regulations, the RSGB Convention Committee has changed the arrangements for the RSGB Convention on the 9th to the 11th October. Instead of the physical Convention in Milton Keynes, the RSGB is instead holding an Online Convention on Saturday the 10th of October. Whether you’re a new licensee or have been enjoying amateur radio for many years, there will be a range of topics from expert speakers that you can enjoy free throughout the day. The RSGB will announce further details of the presentations and how to take part over the coming weeks. Don’t forget the RSGB’s new series of webinars that began on the 15th of June. The next “Tonight @ 8” is on the 29th of June and is a presentation on Antennas for small gardens by Steve Nichols, G0KYA. You can watch the live stream and ask questions on either the RSGB YouTube channel or the special Tonight @ 8 channel on the BATC website, https://batc.org.uk/live/RSGB. You can find out more about all the webinars at www.rsgb.org/webinars and you can also watch previous talks in the series at the same site. Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI has received the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday honours list for significant service to amateur radio, particularly to satellite and space communication. Amongst his many roles, he is the National Coordinator and one of 10 official ARISS VHF/UHF telebridge stations to the International Space Station and a HamTV ground station. Congratulations Tony. Following the election of Len Paget, GM0ONX as a Board Director at the recent AGM, the RSGB Board has asked the General Manager, Steve Thomas, M1ACB to take on the additional role of Company Secretary. The Board would like to record its thanks to Len for the time he has given as Company Secretary over the last year. The RSGB and NHS ‘Get on the air to care’ campaign was the focus of a webinar for healthcare professionals this week. Roy Lilley, Director of the Academy of Fabulous Stuff and the Institute of Healthcare Management interviewed RSGB General Manager, Steve Thomas and Paul Devlin who is part of the NHS England Emergency Care Improvement Support Team and also an RSGB District Representative. The webinar was a wide-ranging discussion of the origins of GB1NHS, the scope of the ‘Get on the air to care’ campaign as well as the benefits of amateur radio for health and wellbeing and for reaching global communities who do not have internet connections. You can watch the webinar on the Society’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/theRSGB. The Software Defined Radio Academy, supported by the German National Society, is taking place as an online conference on the 26th and 27th of June. The talks are pre-recorded, but the speakers will be available via the video conferencing system to respond to questions. See https://youtube.sdra.io. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. The 28th of June is the Centenary of the Royal Corps of Signals. The Royal Signals Museum has a permanent special event callsign, GB100RSM, but due to the Covid-19 restrictions they cannot run the station from the museum. The station will instead run from the home QTH of G3WZP in IO90BR. Activity will be until the end of June on the 40, 20 and 17m bands, using SSB and CW. Skeds are welcome. Another Royal Corps of Signals centenary station is GB100RS Royal Signals, operating from Bishop Auckland. It will start operating on the 28th of June. Full details of the centenary stations and their operations can be found at https://rsars.org.uk/rsars-corps-celebrations-2020/. On the 26th of June GB1GSW will be on the air to commemorate the railway pioneer George Stevenson. See QRZ.com for the latest information. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. The 50MHz Trophy contest ends its 24-hour run at 1400UTC today, the 21st. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The All Asian DX contest ends its 48-hour run at 2359UTC today the 21st. It’s CW only on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, with the exchange being signal report and your age. The Worked All Britain 50MHz phone contest takes place today, the 21st of June, from 0800 to 1400UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB square for UK stations. Details are at www.worked-all-britain.org.uk. Today, the 21st, the UK Microwave Group contest takes place on the 24 to 248GHz bands. Running from 0900 to 1700UTC, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1830 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2.3 to 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the UK EI Contest Club Summer Series runs from 1800 to 1900UTC. It’s CW only on the 3.5MHz band, with the exchange being you 6-character locator. The 80m Club Championships SSB leg takes place between 1900 and 2030UTC on Thursday. The exchange is signal report and serial number. Next weekend, the UK Microwave Group’s 5.7 and 10GHz bands contest runs from 0600 to 1800 on the 28th. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Also next Sunday, the 28th, the 50MHz CW contest runs from 0900 to 1200UTC. It’s CW only and the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The 7MHz Cumulative contest runs from 1400 to 1600UTC on the 28th. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 19th of June. We had another week dominated by Sporadic-E HF contacts. Ten metres has been open daily to Europe and often until very late at night. There have been reports of USA and Japanese FT8 contacts from the UK during the day, continuing almost to midnight. By Thursday signal levels appeared to be dropping off at first but, by 1100UTC, Canada and the USA was rolling in via multi-hop Sporadic-E. Many people have been heard saying that HF propagation is taking off and that the Sun has woken up again. The truth is that Sporadic-E is not due to sunspots, and as we head towards July and August we can expect the Sporadic-E openings to become less frequent. On this subject, the Sun has been very quiet with zero spots and an SFI of below 70. There has been an absence of coronal holes, other than at the Sun’s poles, which has helped keep the Kp index down to two and below. F2 layer propagation is suffering from the summer doldrums, although there have been virtually daily reports of Jim, E51JD on South Cook Islands being worked on 20m SSB. Daytime critical frequencies remain in the range of 4 to 5MHz but are tending to be slightly higher just after sunset. This means that 20 metres may be remaining open to DX until nearly midnight local time. And it does suggest that 30 metres might remain open to DX all night. This is not unusual, as it is due to a change in ionospheric chemistry in the summer, with higher MUFs at night, but lower MUFs during the day compared with winter. This weekend marks the Summer Solstice, traditionally a time when F2-layer DX is harder to come by. But with the Sporadic-E season well underway there is still plenty to keep HF enthusiasts happy. And now the VHF and up propagation news. As we said in the HF section, we are still firmly in the midst of the Sporadic-E season and the savvy operators will be keeping a constant watch for Sporadic-E, starting on 10m and working up to 2m as an event develops. To save spending a whole day on it, we would also suggest looking mid-morning and again late afternoon or early evening. In most years, openings can still occur into the first week of September, but from now onwards the openings become less frequent, hence the need to develop your own early warning routines to make sure none are missed. Check the www.propquest.co.uk daily blogs to get some hints. It is likely to be a mixed spell of weather throughout the coming week with elements of high pressure at times giving occasional Tropo, especially across the North Sea and south across Biscay. Remember Tropo paths are usually quite long-lasting, so there’s no need to rush as you do with Sporadic-E. The other half of the mixed weather types involve heavy showers, sometimes thunderous with hail too. This is all good news for the microwave operators, giving a chance of some rain scatter propagation. The only way to work this on a day-by-day basis is to have some idea of where the showers are; there are many good online radar displays to help you with that. Moon declination reaches a maximum on Monday and is positive all week. Path losses are falling and 144MHz sky temperatures are low from tomorrow. Continue looking for the best meteor scatter conditions around local dawn and take advantage of the continuing high activity levels due to many people still home working. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

RSGB NEWS Sunday the 14th of June 2020 The news headlines: Join Tonight @ 8 on Monday Lockdown VHF NFD rules announced Listen to ARISS contact on Tuesday Don’t forget the RSGB’s new series of webinars begins on Monday the 15th of June. The first “Tonight @ 8” features a presentation on the Raspberry Pi by Mike Richards, G4WNC. You can watch the live stream on the RSGB YouTube channel or you can watch and ask questions via the special Tonight @ 8 channel on the BATC website, https://batc.org.uk/live/RSGB. You can find out more about all the webinars at www.rsgb.org/webinars. VHF NFD is the next big event on the RSGB contest calendar, scheduled for the 4th and 5th of July. It can’t be run in its normal multi-operator format, so the RSGB Contest Committee has designed an interesting alternative for single operator stations. The rules have been set for fixed stations only. If within 2 weeks of the event the Government guidance changes sufficiently, the rules to allow portable operation may be changed. The format of the Lockdown VHF NFD is a five-band club-based event, loosely based around the AFS rules and UK Activity Contest sections. Each band has its own two or three-hour operating slot during the weekend, with time between them to allow for equipment changes to take place. Full rules are at www.rsgbcc.org/vhf/rules/20rules/ldvhfnfd.shtml. An ARISS educational school contact is planned between Chris, KF5KDR and students in Spain. The students will be talking with the ISS from their homes over phone lines. The link to the ISS will be operated by the amateur radio ground station ON4ISS, located in Belgium. The contact is scheduled on the 16th of June at approximately 1225UTC. Downlink signals will be audible over Western Europe on 145.800MHz narrowband FM. The RSGB has released two more 2019 Convention lecture videos to its YouTube channel www.youtube.com/theRSGB. Chris Duckling, G3SVL talks about Lessons from the 6Gs VK9XG DXpedition whilst Tony Canning, G2NF discusses Urban QRM; What can I do? Region 1 of the IARU attended the virtual meeting of one of the high-level CEPT Frequency Management Working Groups in the past week. Amongst the topics discussed were Ukraine joining the T/R-61-02 HAREC reciprocal licensing scheme, as well as the next steps for updating the European Common Allocation table and Wireless Power regulatory framework. More information is on the Region 1 website at www.iaru-r1.org. The Software Defined Radio Academy, supported by the German National Society, is taking place as an online conference spanning two days, the 26th and 27th of June. The stream is starting in the afternoon. The talks are pre-recorded, but the speakers will be available via the video conferencing system with time for the speakers to respond to questions. The organisers look forward to welcoming amateurs at https://youtube.sdra.io. The IARU Monitoring System Region 1 monthly newsletter is now available. It includes reports from RSGB Intruder Watch Coordinator, Richard Lamont, G4DYA, on pages 6, 7 and 8. The newsletter summarises that May 2020 was similar to the previous months, but now also in the higher bands, some intruders were observed due to the somewhat better conditions at times. Most of the coordinators reported intruders predominantly in the 20m and 40m band. Read more at www.iaru-r1.org. It is great to see amateur radio still being profiled on the wider media as the momentum of our ‘Get on the air to care’ campaign with the NHS continues to grow. Thank you to everyone who is showing their support by getting on the air, caring for other radio amateurs and trying new aspects of amateur radio. More details can be seen at www.rsgb.org/gota2c. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. GB100MZX will be operated by Chelmsford ARS to celebrate the landmark broadcast made by Dame Nellie Melba on the 15th of June 1920 and will be on air until the 20th of June. MZX was the callsign of the 1920 15kW transmitter at Marconi New Street Works in Chelmsford, Essex where it happened. The 28th of June is the Centenary of the Royal Corps of Signals. The Royal Signals Museum has a permanent special event callsign, GB100RSM, but due to the Covid-19 restrictions, they cannot run the station from the museum. The station will instead run from the home QTH of G3WZP in IO90BR. Activity will be until the end of June on the 40, 20 and 17m bands, using SSB and CW. Skeds are welcome. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. The 144MHz Backpackers contest scheduled for today, the 14th, is cancelled. The IARU ATV contest ends its 30-hour run at 1800UTC today. Activity is on the 432MHz and up bands. The exchange is a picture report, serial number, your four-digit code and locator. The World Wide South America Contest ends its 24 hour run at 1500UTC today, the 14th. It’s CW only on the 80 to 10m contest bands. Full rules are at http://contest.com.ar/gacw-wwsa The Practical Wireless 2m QRP contest runs from 0900 to 1600UTC today, the 14th. It’s phone only on the 2m band, with an exchange of signal report, serial number and locator. On Monday the fifth FT4 contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC on the 3.5MHz band. The exchange is your 4-character locator. On Tuesday it’s the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK EI Contest Club Summer Series runs from 1800 to 1900UTC on Wednesday. Using SSB only on the 3.5MHz band, the exchange is your 6-character locator. On Thursday the 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC using all modes. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend the 50MHz Trophy contest runs from 1400UTC on the 20th to 1400UTC on the 21st. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The All Asian DX contest runs from 0000UTC on the 20th to 2359UTC on the 21st. It’s CW only on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, with the exchange being signal report and your age. The Worked All Britain 50MHz phone contest takes place next Sunday, the 21st of June, from 0800 to 1400UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB square for UK stations. Entries need to be with the contest manager by the 1st of July. Full details at www.worked-all-britain.org.uk. Please note that due to Covid-19 there will be no mobile or portable categories in this contest and entries cannot be accepted from portable or mobile stations. Next Sunday, the 21st, the UK Microwave Group contest takes place on the 24 to 248GHz bands. Running from 0900 to 1700UTC, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. And finally, join the fun of the next round of RSGB Hope QSO Party on weekdays. See www.rsgbcc.org/hf. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 12th of June. Well, we’ve finally got a good Solar Cycle 25 sunspot to talk about! Region 2765 was a big one with a number of spots appearing, taking the sunspot number to 17 at one point. But by the time it had rotated into the centre of the Sun, the spot had started to decline a little. While the sunspot had little effect on HF propagation, it is a good sign that we are moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, HF propagation continued to be dominated by Sporadic-E, often with good multi-hop paths bringing in DX. J69DS and J68HZ in St Lucia were both on 10m FT8 at 1430UTC on Tuesday the 9th, and other Caribbean contacts were also reported. An elevated solar wind stream helped to disturb our geomagnetic field with the Kp index rising to three at times. Next week NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will remain around 70, with geomagnetic conditions remaining calm. The Kp index is predicted as being around two all week. Finally, do make the most of the Sporadic-E season as conditions are likely to decline a little once we leave June. And now the VHF and up propagation news The weekend’s unsettled weather should be followed briefly by a weak high from Sunday to Tuesday, then back to largely unsettled weather for the rest of the week. This means only a brief period of Tropo is possible early next week, particularly for paths across the North Sea and the Channel into Biscay. Otherwise, the weather patterns suggest that rain scatter will feature strongly and hopefully produce some good conditions on the microwave bands. The ‘go-to’ mode is, of course, Sporadic-E at this time of year. This has been good at times, but mostly for digital modes where the bulk of the activity now lies. Let’s hope that in this peak part of the Sporadic-E season we can get some good openings to encourage CW and SSB operation. Certainly the jet stream pattern looks favourable as we ended this week, but it is not clear if it lasts into next week. Regardless, remember to check mid-morning and late afternoon/early evening for signs of activity. Moon declination goes positive again tomorrow, the 15th, but with apogee on the same day, path losses are at their highest. 144MHz sky temperatures are low, so combined with lengthening Moon windows, EME conditions will improve as the week progresses. June continues to be an active time for meteor scatter operations. The high on-air activity levels due to lockdowns mean that meteor scatter QSOs have been plenty, despite no major showers until the June Bootids on the 27th. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 17th of May 2020 The news headlines: More media coverage for #GOTA2C 2nd Hope QSO Party starts tomorrow New beta of WSJT-X updates FT4 & FT8 The RSGB’s national campaign ‘Get on the air to care’ in partnership with the NHS has received more media coverage this week, including two BBC radio interviews with local radio clubs and a video message from the NHS. Thank you to everyone who is showing their support by getting on the air, caring for other radio amateurs and trying new aspects of amateur radio. More details about the campaign, media coverage and stories from clubs and radio amateurs can be seen on the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org/gota2c. The RSGB Contest Committee is running a second Hope QSO Party event, starting on Monday the 18th of May. The rules are at tinyurl.com/Hope-QSO – please note that there are two rule changes for this second event. The calendar is at www.rsgbcc.org/hf. A new beta version of the WSJT-X software suite has been released. It includes the first updates since last autumn to the popular FT8 and FT4 protocols. Installation packages for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh are available on the WSJT-X Development Group web page. Scroll to Candidate Release WSJT-X 2.2.0-rc1. The WSJT-X Development Group request those using the new beta version to alert the developers and to report any bugs or improvements they have implemented, using instructions included in the User Guide. The transponder on HuskySat-OSCAR 107 has been activated and is open for use and testing. It’s fairly sensitive, and 5 to 10W of uplink power is plenty most of the time. The linear transponder is inverting, with an uplink passband of 145.910 to 145.940MHz and a downlink passband of 435.810 to 435.840MHz. The 1200-baud BPSK telemetry beacon is at 435.800MHz. The Air Defence Radar Museum at RAF Neatishead usually runs the permanent special event station GB2RAF. But, with the museum closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, G4PSH has obtained permission to operate the callsign from his home under a temporary licence. This will continue until the museum is able to open to the public again. QSL cards are available via the RSGB or RAFARS bureau, EQSL.com or direct to G4PSH with a SAE. The Radio Amateur Society of Australia has conducted a 60 metre band monitoring program over the past few months to build a picture of 60m activity during daylight and evening hours. The information will be used in a response to the latest Australian radio authority’s paper that proposes various options for sharing of the band between amateur and commercial users. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. GB2SHS for STAY HOME SAFE will be on air until the 24th of May in support of the NHS and care workers. It will operate from the QTH of G4ISN, a member of Welland Valley ARS, on the HF bands. QSL via e-QSL. The RAF Amateur Radio Society will be activating the special event GB75VED until the 28th May. Operations will be from members’ homes. Details are at www.rafars.org/GB75VED and on QRZ.com. Dragon Amateur Radio Club and North Wales Radio Society are operating GB0GIG throughout May, named after the National Health Service in the Welsh language. The station will be active on HF, VHF and UHF using as many modes as possible. An award certificate is available and full details can be found on QRZ.com. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day and VJ Day, the RSGB has organised the VE/VJ Day amateur radio marathon on the HF bands and 6m using SSB, CW and digital modes. Three special UK callsigns, GB75PEACE, GB1945PE and GB1945PJ, will be on the air throughout May and again between the 1st and the 31st of August. If you wish to operate one of these stations, please email csc.chair@rsgb.org.uk. Full details are at www.rsgb.org/ve-vj-marathon. Kent Active Radio Amateurs will run GB80MQ on the 22nd and 23rd of May. This station is usually run from the vessel Medway Queen, but will be operational from operator’s home addresses instead this time. Durham and District Amateur Radio Society is participating as one of the bonus stations in the hugely popular 13 Colonies Special Event. The special callsign GB13COL has been issued for this event and will run from July 1, 2020 1300 UTC to July 8, 0400 UTC. The primary focus of the event will be the HF bands, including VHF & UHF for QSOs using SSB, CW, FM and various digital modes. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. This weekend, the 144MHz May Contest ends it 24 hour run at 1400UTC today, the 17th. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and postcode. Today, the 17th, is the UK Microwave Group millimetre-wave contest, running from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using all modes on the 24 to 76GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Monday the fourth FT4 series contest runs from 1900 to 2030UTC on the 80m band. The exchange is your 4-character locator. On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday it’s the 70MHz UK Activity Contest from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next Sunday, the 24th, the third 70MHz Cumulative contest runs from 1400 to 1600UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is you 4-character locator. And finally, join the fun of the next round of RSGB Hope QSO Party on weekdays. See www.rsgbcc.org/hf. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 15th of May. We had another week dominated by Sporadic-E openings. While the Sun remained quiet with zero sunspots, Sporadic-E proved to be the major mode of propagation. It offered both single and multi-hop openings, with 10m being open to Spain, Portugal and beyond on most days. Likely multi-hop paths have seen openings to Chad, Mauritania, St Lucia and further afield. On 20m and 15m there have been F2-layer openings to the Far East, Hawaii, Alaska and South America reported, although most of these have been on FT8 by well-equipped stations. An easier catch for Chris, G3SJJ was C31CT in Andorra who “popped out of the noise” on 17m. This shows the importance of monitoring the bands and watching the cluster for those elusive short HF openings. Next week NOAA predicts that the Sun will likely remain spotless with a solar flux index of 68-70. On Thursday a polar coronal hole with a long finger pointing towards the solar equator was likely releasing a high-speed solar wind stream. This could result in unsettled geomagnetic conditions over the weekend. NOAA predicts the Kp index could rise to three on Monday the 18th. And now the VHF and up propagation news. The weather models are showing a mainly high-pressure week and therefore there should be some good prospects for Tropo. Since the high does not have a great source of moist air underneath the inversion, the Tropo may be less than ideal. However, the position of the high over this weekend may allow better Tropo conditions across southern Britain and across the Channel into France. The north and west of the UK are going to be close to fronts on several occasions next week, and on Monday a weakness in the high may allow a few showers to develop and bring some rain scatter on the GHz bands. One of the models does break the high-pressure trend and bring a deepening low past northwest Britain in the second half of next week with further rain scatter possibilities. We have seen a good number of Sporadic-E days in the last week, especially for digital modes, but CW and SSB have produced results too. The position of the jet streams suggests that Scandinavia, the Baltic and northern Europe may be the preferred regions of interest next week. Check the beacons and clusters for signs of activity, and keep QSOs short, since conditions can change suddenly from an easy 5/9 to lost in the noise. We should see the start of the Arietids meteor shower this week lasting from the 22nd of May until the 2nd of July, peaking on the 7th of June. Moon declination is increasing again, going positive on Monday but this coincides with apogee, so path losses are at their highest. 144MHz sky noise is low apart from Friday afternoon where the Sun and Moon are close to eclipse. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 10th of May 2020 The news headlines: BBC features RSGB Get on the air to care campaign VDSL call to action in new online RadCom RCF Arkwright Scholar 3D prints PPE The RSGB’s national campaign ‘Get on the air to care’ in partnership with the NHS has received widespread media coverage this week, including a prominent feature on BBC online news, an interview on the British Forces Broadcasting Service and mentions on radio stations, newspapers and blogs across the UK and, indeed, the world. Thank you to everyone who is showing their support by getting on the air, caring for other radio amateurs and trying new aspects of amateur radio. More details about the campaign, media coverage and stories from clubs and radio amateurs can be seen on the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org/gota2c The May RadCom carried a call to action from the RSGB President, asking everyone who is suffering from HF interference due to broadband VDSL to submit a complaint to Ofcom. This edition of RadCom is now on the RSGB website as a sample issue for all radio amateurs. Find it at www.rsgb.org/sampleradcom. We urge all who are suffering from VDSL interference to submit complaints to Ofcom. Details of how to report interference can be found in the May edition of RadCom and on the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org/vdsl-reporting. Many amateurs have already submitted complaints to Ofcom and we would like to thank those for doing so. But we would like yet more people to submit complaints. We have to persuade Ofcom to take action against this threat to our hobby. Jake Howarth, M0JKE, is doing his bit to help out the NHS in lockdown. The RCF Trustees were delighted to hear that the 3D printer he purchased using his Arkwright Engineering Scholarship funds has been put to great use. Not only has it helped him in pursuing his own projects, but it is also enabling him to contribute to society by producing personal protective equipment as part of the 3D-Crowd initiative. The RCF sponsors two or three Arkwright Scholars each year and many have taken up amateur radio as a result. Jake was already licensed when he was selected and he was a UK representative at the 2019 IARU YOTA event. The RSGB Contest Committee is running a second Hope QSO Party event, starting on Monday the 18th of May. The format will be the same as the first, with ten phone, ten CW, five RTTY and five FT4 events. All of these are 90-minute contests, and they start at different times each weekday. The rules are at tinyurl.com/Hope-QSO – please note that there are are two rule changes for this second event. The calendar is at www.rsgbcc.org/hf, where new series is shown in orange and the first series in yellow. Over 400 UK and non-UK stations have entered the first series so far. Following the success of WRC-19, the German regulator has expanded the frequency band and power available to their amateurs. The full 50 to 52MHz band is now available to all German amateurs on a secondary basis. Up to 750W is permitted in the 50.0 to 50.4MHz narrowband DX segment. Contest operation is now also permitted. As part of its Get on the air to care initiative, the RSGB would like to remind clubs that their nets form a valuable part of ensuring that radio amateurs don’t feel so isolated at this time. Ideas such as creating and distributing, via email, a calendar invitation to local amateurs provides a helpful reminder that these nets are taking place. Local nets are also a great way to check on the health or other needs of local amateurs. In the USA, the ARRL has a Stay Safe and Stay On The Air initiative running during the Covid-19 pandemic. Beginning with a message shared with its members in March, the ARRL has encouraged radio amateurs who are healthy and safe at home to get or stay, on the air. The message is that as online fatigue and a feeling of isolation will inevitably creep into our ‘new normal’, being on-air will introduce variety into our communication practices. Read more at www.arrl.org/read-a-message-for-member-volunteers To commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day and VJ Day, the RSGB has organised the VE/VJ Day amateur radio marathon on the HF bands and 6m using SSB, CW and digital modes. Three special UK callsigns, GB75PEACE, GB1945PE and GB1945PJ, will be on the air throughout May and again between the 1st and the 31st of August. If you wish to operate one of these stations, please email csc.chair@rsgb.org.uk. Full details are at www.rsgb.org/ve-vj-marathon. The Dayton Hamvention for 2020 has been cancelled. The Hamvention QSO Party a 12-hour fun event on Saturday the 16th of May to celebrate the Dayton Hamvention. Work as many amateur stations as possible between 1200 to 2359UTC on the 16th on the 160 to 10m bands using CW and SSB. You can work the same station once per band mode, that’s 12 QSOs possible with the same station. Exchange signal report and the first year you attended Hamvention, or 2020 if you have never attended. Only single operator entries are allowed. There are three power categories. QRP is for no more than 5 watts. Low Power is up to 100 watts, and the High Power section allows up to 1500 watts, or your licence maximum if that’s lower than 1500W. Special bonus points are available for working W8BI, the club call of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association. Scoring is simply the number of QSOs plus bonus points. There are no multipliers. Go to wwrof.org for full rules and details of the awards available. Now the special event news Since the change of regulations applying to special event stations in the UK, many activations are now able to go ahead. UK amateurs would like to thank Ofcom for their help in making this happen. GB2SHS for STAY HOME SAFE will be on air until the 24th of May in support of the NHS and care workers. It will operate from the QTH of G4ISN, a member of Welland Valley ARS, on the HF bands. QSL via e-QSL. Thurrock Acorns Amateur Radio Club will be operating GB6VED for the 75th anniversary of VE Day until the 11th of May. The members will operate on various HF and VHF bands from their homes around Essex. For further information, email acorns@taarc.co.uk Three members of Macclesfield ARS are doing their bit in supporting key workers in the UK. Greg, M0TXX will be transmitting until mid-May using GB5KW, as will Adie as GB9KW and Chris as GB4KW. They will be transmitting on all modes HF, 2m and FT8. All details can be found on QRZ.com. Fort Purbrook Amateur Radio Club is activating GB1VE over this weekend, ending today, the 10th of May. Activity is from six different members’ homes. Two are on HF voice, always on different bands, another on HF CW, one on HF data modes, one on 6m or 2m or 70cm and, finally, one on 4m and Oscar-100. Full details are on QRZ.com. GB75BVE is being hosted from homes in and around Bournemouth until today, the 10th of May. Operators will be G3YUZ, G3XBZ, G4XEE and G3WZP, using all modes and the 160 through to 2m bands. They hope to share the VE Day commemorations on the air. The RAF Amateur Radio Society will be activating the special event GB75VED until the 28th of May. Operations will be from members’ homes. Details are at www.rafars.org/GB75VED and on QRZ.com. Dragon Amateur Radio Club and North Wales Radio Society are operating GB0GIG throughout May, named after the National Health Service in the Welsh language. The station will be active on HF, VHF and UHF using as many modes as possible. An award certificate is available and full details can be found on QRZ.com. Although the Mills On The Air event has been cancelled, Chesham and District Amateur Radio Society will be operating GB0BWM for Brill Windmill from members’ homes over the weekend, ending today, the 10th of May. The operation will be on 3.5, 7, 14, 50 and 144MHz, mainly SSB, but with some CW and FM. GU75LIB will operate at varying times until the 13th of May, to commemorate Liberation Day on the 9th of May. They will be operating from home, each taking turns on band and mode. Braintree & District ARS is operating GB5VED from several members home stations, ending today, the 10th of May, commemorating the 75th Anniversary of VE Day. Operators will include some of the senior club members who were present at the original celebrations. Contacts will be sought on HF, VHF, UHF. Listen out on HF for GB4 V V V, the distinctive dit-dit-dit-DAH of wartime broadcasting, sent by the special event station managed by Andy, G0SFJ, until the 11th of May. He prefers eQSL; SWL reports are welcome. Now the contest news This weekend is busy for contests, but please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. Today, the 10th sees the 70MHz CW contest run from 0900 to 1200UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and postcode. Also today, the 10th is the IRTS 40m Counties Contest from 1200 to 1400UTC. Using SSB and CW, the exchange is signal report and serial number, with EI, GI, 2I and MI stations also sending their County. The Worked All Britain 70MHz contest takes place today, the 10th, from 1000 to 1400UTC. Entries need to be with the contest manager by the 20th of May. The exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB square. Full details of the rules and entry methods are at www.worked-all-britain.org.uk. Please note that no club or multiple operator entries will be accepted from mobile or portable stations. On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1800 to 1855UTC, using FM only. It is immediately followed by the all-mode 432MHz UK Activity Contest from 1900 to 2130UTC. The exchange for both contests is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday the 80m Club Championships takes place from 1900 to 2030UTC, using data only. The exchange is signal report and serial number. On Thursday, the 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 6m band, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend, the 144MHz May Contest will run from 1400UTC on the 16th to 1400UTC on the 17th. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number, locator and postcode. Next Sunday, the 17th, is the UK Microwave Group millimetre-wave contest, running from 0900 to 1700UTC. Using all modes on the 24 to 76GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs until the 2nd of August. Using all modes on the 50MHz band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. And finally, don’t forget the next round of RSGB Hope QSO Party on weekdays, see www.rsgbcc.org/hf for further details. Hundreds of participants have taken part, and for some, it has been their first attempt at an HF contest. One participant told us that it was their first-ever attempt at CW in 36 years! Come and join in the fun. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Thursday the 7th of May. It was a case of more of the same HF-wise last week. Zero sunspots and no geomagnetic disturbances meant that conditions were average for this point in late spring. The good news is that the Sporadic-E season has now officially started, and it is living up to its name. That is, it is sporadic! Either there is either good propagation or nothing! Openings on 10 metres have included multi-hop to the Caribbean, with Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago being workable on FT8. Other more general Sporadic-E openings have favoured Spain and Portugal one day, and Bulgaria, Romania and Algeria on another. Some amateurs have been heard to comment that the openings must mean that the new sunspot cycle has started. But this is not so. Sporadic-E is a seasonal phenomenon not related to sunspots and when this season finishes in late August or early September, we can probably expect the 10 metre band to go back to sleep. So the message is to get on 10 metres right now and work whatever you can while the Sporadic-E lasts! Other than 10 metres, 40 metres continues to be a very workable band, with openings occurring during the day and into the evening. As we head towards Summer, we can also expect 20m to stay open later, and even after sunset, due to the changing chemical make-up of the ionosphere. Next week, NOAA is predicting more of the same, with a solar flux index of around 70 all week and settled geomagnetic conditions, with an average Kp index of two. But, as we know, conditions can change quite quickly and there is always the chance of a disturbed ionosphere due to an enhanced solar wind from coronal holes. And now the VHF and up propagation news. We have a high-pressure week coming up, but getting there involves some low pressure and unsettled weather for some areas. The present high that is over, and just to the east, of the country will decline and drift away, so any Tropo will not last long. In addition to the showery weather over the south, a very marked cold front will move south across the country over this weekend, giving further opportunities for rain scatter. Any following showers will not last long as a new high builds in cold air to the northwest of the country. This drifts southeast to be over the UK by Tuesday and edges east during the second half of the week. All this means that Tropo should be the dominant mode, although it will take a while to develop a decent inversion, so it may be rather patchy in quality. The Sporadic-E season is having the odd flicker of enthusiasm but is obviously much better for digital modes than CW or SSB. Their time will come as the season builds. At the moment we seem to be transitioning from a broader period around the middle of the day to the more familiar two peaked distribution of late morning and late afternoon/early evening; it's well worth keeping a check on the 10m and 6m beacons. There are no significant meteor showers this week, so stick to the early mornings for the best random meteor scatter. The Moon is at minimum declination tomorrow so will be low in the sky. With increasing path losses and high 144MHz sky noise until Friday it’s a poor week for EME. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 26th of April 2020 The news headlines: First, remotely-invigilated exam callsigns issued Download latest 5MHz Newsletter Japanese amateurs get new privileges The RSGB is pleased to announce that the first successful candidates in the online, remotely invigilated amateur radio exams have now received their callsigns. At the close of play on the 24th of April, 29 remotely invigilated exams had taken place. Around 10 candidates per day are scheduled, with the aim to increase this number as more invigilators join the team. Dave Wilson, M0OBW, the RSGB President and Exam Quality Manager, has expressed his thanks to the invigilators that are making this work and the HQ exams staff who are doing an outstanding job under very difficult circumstances. We look forward to hearing the new amateurs on the bands. The latest edition of The 5MHz Newsletter is now available for free pdf download from the RSGB 5MHz page at http://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/5mhz/. This edition includes 5MHz news from seven countries, the GB3WES beacon closedown, a 5MHz controlled feeder radiation dipole, plus features the latest World of 5MHz map and an article on two Blue Ham Exercises. Japanese radio amateurs now have new privileges on the 160 and 80m bands. The new allocations are 1800 – 1810, 1825 – 1875, 3575 – 3580 and 3662 – 3680kHz. The new regime allows Japanese radio amateurs to operate FT8 on the 160m and 80m bands, as well as WSPR on 1836.6kHz. Additional details are on the Japan Amateur Radio League website, www.jarl.org Tim Duffy, K3LR has announced that Contest University USA 2020, usually held at the Dayton Hamvention, will be held online via Zoom on Thursday the 14th of May, starting at 1245UTC. CTU 2020 is free. The CTU course outline has been posted online. Connection details to the CTU Zoom bridge will be posted on the Contest University site one week prior to the event. Sessions will be recorded for viewing any time after the 14th of May. Slides will be posted on the CTU website as well. At the end of CTU 2020, Dave Siddall, K3ZJ, will present the 2020 CQ Contest Hall of Fame awards. RSGB President Dave Wilson, M0OBW, was interviewed recently on NARC Live! where he talked about the Society’s introduction of remote invigilation for Foundation exams. This new initiative is enabling people to join amateur radio during these times of social isolation. Dave’s piece starts at 27:50 and you see it on the Norfolk Amateur Radio Club Facebook page, which can be accessed via tinyurl.com/y7kslekf The November and December 2019 RSGB Board Proceedings have been published on the RSGB website today and can be found at tinyurl.com/RSGB-boardproc-2019 The RSGB’s campaign in partnership with the NHS – Get on the air to care – has been publicised across the world over the last week, both on the airwaves and through the UK media. The Society even received a video message of support from Tony Hadley, lead singer of 1980s group Spandau Ballet! To see this coverage, head over to www.rsgb.org/gota2c and click on the media coverage link at the bottom of the page. The RSGB is grateful to all radio amateurs who are taking to the airwaves to support other radio amateurs during these times of social isolation. If you use social media, add the hashtag #GOTA2C and send any photos or video clips of you on the air to comms@rsgb.org.uk Peter Valentine, a 96-year-old radio amateur from Eastbourne, is celebrating his birthday by aiming to contact 96 amateurs over the airwaves and walk 96 miles over the coming weeks. As thanks to the NHS which has given him good care recently, he is using the special call sign GB0EDH to represent Eastbourne District General Hospital. He is active on D-Star, 2m, 4m and 80m, so listen out for him on the air and help him to achieve his target! The RSGB has been adding updates to the ‘Sharing ideas’ section of its Coronavirus updates page, which you can find at www.rsgb.org/coronavirus-updates There are reports from Colchester Radio Amateurs amongst other clubs and Lockdown Morse to learn something new during this lockdown. Find out what others are doing, be inspired and then email comms@rsgb.org.uk to share how your club is adapting to the current challenges. Now the special event news Peter, G4XEX will be active as GB4SAH for Stay At Home until the 30th of April to help amateurs pass the time during the lockdown. Euan, MM0VIK is active as GB1COR from his home QTH in the Shetland Islands, EU-012, until the end of April in recognition and support for the health professionals and essential key workers during the coronavirus emergency. QSL cards will not be available for this special callsign. The RAF Amateur Radio Society will be activating the special event GB75VED from the 1st to the 28th May from members’ homes. On the 2nd of May, Reg, G8VHI will operate mostly on 6 and 2m as well as 70cm from Nuneaton using FM, SSB and maybe digital modes. Details are at www.rafars.org/GB75VED/ and QRZ.com SOS Radio Week will go ahead from 0000UTC on the 1st of May and concludes at 2359UTC on the 31st May. During that period participants should make as many contacts as possible with stations at home and around the world. For further details, and to register, please visit www.sosradioweek.org.uk. The Hungarian amateur radio society, MRASZ, will hold a special radio activity for the period during the Covid-19 virus threat. Their aim is to raise awareness of the threat of the epidemic and to promote the importance of staying at home. Look for the following 5 stations, of which the last two letters add up the words STAY AT HOME: HG20ST, HG20AY, HG20AT, HG20HO and HG20ME. Each station must be contacted in two different modes on any band to qualify for a downloadable commemorative award. The activity ends on the 15th of May at 2359UTC. Details are at www.mrasz.org. Several Brazilian amateurs are using the special event callsign ZW8THANKS as a tribute to health care professionals fighting Covid-19. Activity will be on all bands and modes including the satellites. QSL direct, eQSL or Logbook of The World. The Tokyo-based 7-CALL Amateur Radio Club will operate 8J17CALL for a year to celebrate the club’s 30th anniversary. Now the contest news Due to social distancing and movement precautions around the world, most contest organisers are not accepting entries from multi-operator groups or from portable stations. Check the rules before taking part. The SP DX RTTY contest ends it 24-hour run at 1200UTC today, the 26th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands the exchange is signal report and serial number, with SP stations also sending their Province code. Today, the 26th, the BARTG Sprint 75 contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is your serial number only. On Monday the third FT4 series contest will run from 1900 to 2030UTC using the 3.5MHz band. The exchange is your 4-character locator. Tuesday sees 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. The UK and Ireland Contest Club 80m CW contest runs for an hour on Wednesday between 1900 and 2000UTC. The exchange is your 4-character locator. Next weekend is busy for contests, but please remember to check before the events for new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. RSGB strongly advises obeying your own government’s advice first and foremost. The 432MHz Trophy contest and the 10GHz Trophy contest are both on Saturday between 1400 and 2200UTC. Using all modes in the respective bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The 432MHz to 248MHz Trophy contest runs for 24 hours over next weekend from 1400 on the 2nd to 1400UTC on the 3rd. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Another 24-hour contest is the ARL International DX event from 1200UTC on the 2nd to 1200UTC on the 3rd. Using phone and RTTY on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number, with Italian stations also giving their Province code. Next Sunday, the 3rd of May, the UK Microwave Group Low Band Contest runs from 0800 to 1400UTC. Using all modes on the 1.3 to 3.4GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Marathon runs from the 2nd of May to the 2nd of August. Using all modes in the 50MHz band, the exchange is your 4-character locator. A one-off independent 2m contest is being held on Bank holiday Monday, the 4th of May, to promote 2m usage during the COVID-19 lockdown. From 2 pm to 3 pm, there will be an FM contest, where operators should exchange signal reports, serial number and 4 character Grid Squares. From 3 pm to 4 pm, there will be an FT8 contest using the standard FT8 messages to exchange signal reports and grid squares. The contests are open to all licensed amateur radio operators and short wave listeners but due to the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, no portable or mobile operation is permitted. Further details can be found at www.vhflockdown.fun. And finally, don’t forget the RSGB Hope QSO Party on weekdays, see www.rsgbcc.org/hf for further details. So far around 300 UK and non-UK participants have taken part, and for some, it has been their first attempt at an HF contest. One participant told us that it was their first-ever attempt at CW in 36 years. Come and join in the fun. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 24th of April. Last week showed how difficult it can be to prepare HF propagation predictions. We said that we expected the Sun to remain settled throughout the week. But on Wednesday the 15th there was a stealthy slow-moving coronal mass ejection off the Sun that barely appeared in the SOHO spacecraft imagery. However, this CME was Earth-directed and around midday on Monday the 20th it hit. The net result was the Kp index rose to five and MUFs were adversely affected, after an initial positive phase that saw MUFs over a 3,000km path rise above 18MHz. HF conditions were still down on Tuesday, with bands above 20 metres pretty much closed. But luckily, by Wednesday things were pretty much back to normal. The highlight of the week has been a gradual increase in Sporadic-E on 10 metres. There have been numerous openings, mainly into Spain and the Canary Islands, with other fleeting openings into Sweden and Germany. While signal strengths haven’t been too strong so far, it bodes well for the Sporadic-E season, which is likely to ramp up over the next week or so. The message is - keep an eye on 10 metres. Next week NOAA predicts a continued quiet Sun with a solar flux index around 69. With zero sunspots predicted again it does begin to look like we are close to the sun spot minimum. Geomagnetic conditions are predicted to be settled, with a Kp index of around two to three, other than on Monday the 27th when it could rise to four. And now the VHF and up propagation news. We have a hybrid of weather types during the coming week, with the last of any Tropo fading as this bulletin goes out. Thereafter, it looks more unsettled with a chance of showery rain, initially in the southwest, but more generally as we run into next week. This is because an Atlantic low should develop south of Iceland and a cold front becomes slow-moving over western Britain at the end of next week. In this latter part of the week, high pressure builds from Biscay across northern France. So, expect some Tropo at first, but ending this weekend and perhaps in south-eastern areas late next week. Rain scatter looks more favourable again with several areas of showery rain or fronts involved from this weekend onwards. In view of the approaching start of the Sporadic-E season we would expect to find some openings, but as we said earlier any have been brief so far. It would seem that nobody has told the jet streams to get into line! I cannot say that this looks like a strong lead this week. The peak of the ongoing Lyrids meteor shower is over, so expect declining meteor scatter activity this week. Moon declination is positive all week and reaches its maximum on Tuesday. We are past apogee, so EME path losses will continue to fall. 144MHz sky noise is low all week. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 19th of April 2020 The news headlines: Get on the air to care Cast your RSGB election vote SOS Radio Week to go-ahead The Radio Society of Great Britain, working in partnership with the NHS, has launched a campaign called “Get on the air to care” to support the emotional health and wellbeing of 75,000 licensed UK radio amateurs – just some of the 3,000,000 worldwide. It linked with World Amateur Radio Day yesterday, Saturday 18 April, which also celebrates this innovative, global community. Steve Thomas, M1ACB, General Manager of the RSGB explains: “Please help to increase amateur radio activity through club and repeater group nets, chatting with your friends or just by calling CQ. If you’d like to show your support for the NHS at the same time, Ofcom is happy for radio amateurs to add “/NHS” to the end of their callsigns.” GB1NHS, the UK’s National Health Service radio communications station will be on the air as part of this campaign so listen out for it! The Society’s new “Get on the air to care” web page includes the launch video, so go to www.rsgb.org/gota2c and take a look. Are you an RSGB Member? Have you used your vote yet? Don’t forget that voting for the RSGB elections is still open, although it closes at 9am on Thursday the 23rd of April. This is your opportunity to choose who you want to be part of the RSGB Board and help lead the Society over the next few years. The special web pages at www.rsgb.org/agm have details of the Calling Notice, Resolutions, candidate statements and information about how to vote. The voting results and trophy winners will be announced on the RSGB website on the 25th of April, when the AGM was due to be held. SOS Radio Week will go ahead, with all participants able to operate from home using either a special event callsign issued by Ofcom, a club callsign, or an individual’s own personal callsign. The event starts at 0000UTC on the 1st of May and concludes at 2359UTC on the 31st of May. During that period, participants should make as many contacts as possible with stations at home and around the world. For further details, and to register, please visit www.sosradioweek.org.uk. In many areas of the UK, all the HF amateur bands up to and including 20m are being blighted by interference from VDSL. This is the most widespread means of providing residential broadband internet services in the UK. Ofcom, which is responsible for investigating radio interference, says that it receives, on average, only six complaints per year on the topic and won’t take any significant action. The RSGB President has written a letter in the May edition of RadCom asking every radio amateur who suffers from VDSL interference to submit a complaint to Ofcom so that we can demonstrate the size of the problem. Please read the full RadCom feature and then look at the Society’s special web page, which outlines the process for reporting VDSL interference and offers you guidance and software to help you: it’s at www.rsgb.org/vdsl-reporting CQ-Serenade is a weekly programme for Northern European radio amateurs transmitted in the short wave AM broadcast bands. From the UK it is recommended to listen on 6160kHz during the daytime and 3975kHz at night. The weekly English language amateur radio programme has a new summer schedule and the program is transmitted at the times listed at tinyurl.com/CQ-Serenade. If you want to get your story or information on the air there, send your submissions to studio@shortwaveradio.de. ARISS has postponed school/group contacts in the USA as well as in South Africa and Romania. At least one contact in the UK has been cancelled altogether. In the short term, ARISS mentors will work with each school or organisation in the amateur radio contact queue to determine the way forward. It would rely on local government COVID-19 policy for guidance in deciding whether to cancel or postpone a contact or to modify the contact schedule. Several initiatives are in the works over the longer term to transform how they interact with students and host educational institutions in light of COVID-19 by engaging virtually with students and educational institutions. ARISS also is planning several slow-scan television sessions, during which images from the ISS would be transmitted to at-home students. Some sad news now. Marc Litchman, G0TOC passed away on the 29th of March. He had been in poor health for several months. He was a well-known RSGB volunteer who had supported the Society for a number of years. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Bob King, G3ASE has also become a Silent Key. In 1941, Bob was recruited as a Voluntary Interceptor at the age of 16, followed by four and half years in the Radio Security Service stationed at Box 25, Arkley View, Barnet. There he examined logs from our intercept stations to determine which transmissions were German Abwehr and thus wanted. His work amongst the surviving VIs is legendary, including the annual reunions at Bletchley Park. Condolences to his family at this difficult time. Another Silent Key, Henry Pinchin, G3VPE, was the RSGB Regional Representative for Region 3 from July 1975 to December 1981. He served on the RSGB council from January 1982 to December 1987. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family. Obituaries for these well-known and admired amateurs appear on the RSGB website at. The RSGB has been adding updates to the ‘Sharing ideas’ section of its Coronavirus updates page, which you can find at www.rsgb.org/coronavirus-updates There are reports from Denby Dale ARC, Spalding ARC and Norfolk ARC, as well as news of two new technical videos on ATV and Microwave operations that the Society has added to its website. Find out what others are doing, be inspired and then email comms@rsgb.org.uk to share how your club is adapting to the current challenges. Now the special event news Peter, G4XEX will be active as GB4SAH for Stay At Home until the 30th of April to help amateurs pass the time during the lockdown. Euan, MM0VIK is active as GB1COR from his home QTH in the Shetland Islands, EU-012, until the end of April in recognition and support for the health professionals and essential key workers during the coronavirus emergency. QSL cards will not be available for this special callsign. Ten OH0 to OH9 special callsigns with the suffix PYSYKOTONA, which is Finnish for stay at home, are active until the 3rd of July. They’re to raise awareness for social distancing and remaining at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. QSL via Logbook of The World, eQSL, or via OH3AC. The RAF Amateur Radio Society will be activating the special event GB75VED from the 1st to the 28th May from members’ homes. Now the contest news Due to social distancing and movement precautions around the world, most contest organisers are not accepting entries from multi-operator groups or from portable stations. Check the rules before taking part. The First Machine Generated Modes contest ends its 24-hour run at 1400UTC today, the 19th. Using the 50 and 144MHz bands, the exchange is signal report and your four-character locator. The YU DX contest ends its 24-hour run at 0659UTC today the 19th. More information can be found at http://yudx.yu1srs.org.rs/2020. On Tuesday, the 1.3GHx UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday, the 80m Club Championships takes place from 1900 to 2030UTC. Using RTTY and PSK only, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Next weekend the SP DX RTTY contest runs from 1200UTC on the 25th to 1200UTC on the 26th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands the exchange is signal report and serial number, with SP stations also sending their Province code. Next Sunday, the 26th, the BARTG Sprint 75 contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is your serial number only. And finally, don’t forget the RSGB Hope QSO Party on weekdays, see www.rsgbcc.org/hf for further details. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on Friday the 17th of April. Last week we said that we expected the Kp index to rise over the weekend due to incoming solar particles from an Earth-facing coronal hole. But we did warn that it was impossible to tell how severe it might be. In the end, it didn’t amount to much, as although the stream was travelling at up to 450km per second, its density was actually quite low and the Kp index topped out at a fairly low three. The Sun remained spotless all week and the solar flux index remained pegged below 70. The only good news was that we have begun to see signs of the impending Sporadic-E season, with one or two days showing short-skip openings on 10 metres into Germany and Spain, and a probable F2 layer or multi-hop Sporadic-E opening into Paraguay and Brazil on Thursday. We expect these to increase as we head towards May, so do keep an eye on 28MHz. The FT8 frequency of 28.074MHz will likely be the first to show signs of activity but don’t rule out the CW and SSB parts of the band. Next week NOAA has the solar flux index at or about 68-70. Conditions should remain settled until the 26th when the Kp index is predicted to rise to four, due to the return of a solar coronal hole. Propquest.co.uk shows that the daytime critical frequency (F0F2) is often exceeding 4MHz, so 80m and perhaps 60m are still best for inter-UK contacts. Twenty metres still remains the optimum DX band during daylight, with occasional openings on 17 and even 15 metres at times. Ten-metre propagation, when it occurs, is still likely to be via short-skip Sporadic-E, with very rare F2 openings bringing DX. And now the VHF and up propagation news. As high pressure tends to favour cooler areas at this time the year, it’s common to find highs over Scandinavia. Conversely, as the continent slowly warms, there is a tendency for low pressure to form, say, over France or Biscay. That is pretty much the typical pattern we find through next week. What this means for propagation is that the southern half of the country starts with showery rain or thunderstorms and the prospect of some rain scatter. This rain scatter option appears to last until about Tuesday. Northern areas nearer the high over Shetland and Norway could see some Tropo. This is because another typical feature of spring is that the North Sea is often covered by a layer of misty low cloud, and that makes good conditions for Tropo. So, look for paths along the east coast from East Anglia to northeast Scotland or across the North Sea to Denmark and Germany. Most areas see some Tropo benefit in the second half of the week. We are heading rapidly towards May, the nominal start of the Sporadic-E season. The position of the jet stream’s upper air patterns suggests that paths towards Spain and Portugal are more favoured, especially at first, with the second option of paths towards Scandinavia. Wednesday sees the peak of the ongoing Lyrids meteor so look out for increased meteor scatter activity this week. Moon declination goes positive on Tuesday but with apogee on Tuesday, EME path losses are at their highest this week. 144MHz sky noise is low. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day it occurred to me that my callsign had been away from HF for months, probably longer. I didn't really want to think about how long it had been. I moved QTH over two years ago and ever since I've been working on a new antenna set-up. You know the kind, you shouldn't rush this. Anyway, having just had a camp-out with some friends for a portable contest, where I gleefully had fun with the station callsign, I thought it was time to actually do what I keep advocating to anyone who stands still long enough, to get on air and make some noise. So I did. You know that feeling when the longer you wait, the harder it gets and the more you put it off? That had invaded my thinking and my avoidance. The typical excuses of not enough space, too much noise, no antenna, radio not ready, too hard, all fought their way into prominence. I'd had enough. So, on Saturday I collected all the bits that make up my portable station. It had clearly been a while since I'd used it, since I couldn't for the life of me remember where the head of my Yaesu FT-857d was, that was until I remembered that it had previously been installed in my car, so that's precisely where I found it. The tiny jumper cable between the head and the body was located in my headset bag where I'd stashed it after forgetting it for a contest one year. The microphone was where I'd stored it in the car. The battery was easier, since I'd used that the weekend before. Pulled out a table, a chair and set about putting my station together right there in the driveway. I'd been meaning to test an antenna that to all intents and purposes was doomed to fail, a long-wire on the ground. I didn't have an un-un or a balun, but I did have my trusty antenna coupler, so I used that. One end of the antenna, twelve and a half meters going one way, the other half going at a right angle. That pretty much solved that. Then for the final touch, I turned the radio on. All worked and I set about figuring out what I could hear. Across all the NCDXF beacons and bands I could hear the local beacon about 30km away. I have mentioned the NCDXF before, but in short, the Northern California DX Foundation has since 1979 coordinated the installation and maintenance of a collection of transmitters that 24 hours a day, every three minutes transmits on a staggered schedule across 5 different bands. It's called the International Beacon Project. For funding, the NCDXF relies on donations from people like you and in Western Australia the WA Repeater Group maintain the beacon, VK6RBP. Each transmission consists of a callsign, a beep at a 100 watts, a beep at 10 watts, 1 watt and 100 milliwatts. You can hear the beacons on 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m and 10m. Their purpose is to determine what propagation is like across the world on each of the bands, in pretty much real time. It was the impetus for me to start learning Morse Code - in case you're wondering, no, I know, I'm still at it. On my wire on the ground antenna the local beacon on the 10m band was by far the strongest. I also had a listen on 80m and 40m and even found two stations in deep discussion about something or other. Didn't manage to catch their callsigns, but good readability, not so much in the way of signal strength. I called up a friend on 900 MHz, in case you're sceptical, yes I hold a licence for that, so do you, it's cunningly encapsulated in a sophisticated portable battery powered multifunctional gadget made of electronics and glass. He was in the middle of repairing some damage sustained to his G5RV Jr. antenna during our latest adventures - Hi Glynn - and afterwards we had a go to see if we could in fact hear each other. I was using 5 Watts, he something like 70 Watts. Neither of us could hear the other, even though we're a similar distance from each other as the beacon. Not yet sure if it was his radio acting up, or mine for that matter. I then started down the digital modes path. Installed a PSK31 decoder and set about programming my radio for the traditional PSK31 frequencies. Didn't hear anything, didn't decode anything, but had a ball none the less. You might think to yourself right about now what the point of all this was if I didn't make any contacts? The answer is simple, I got outside, in the sun, soaked up some Vitamin D and played radio, just like the weekend was intended for. My next adventures are likely going to involve the same antenna and a vertical for transmit to see how that goes. You don't need an excuse to get out and play and when you do you might not make any contacts, but that's not really the point of playing, is it? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio In our hobby we regularly talk about its purpose, its need, its usefulness and other potentially abstract notions. Often there's a nod towards science, learning, self-discovery, challenge, emergency service or some other higher order concept. I know I've discussed many of those over the years and encouraged you to find what the hobby means to you. There is one aspect of our hobby that's pretty much left unsaid. It's left unsaid because it's obvious, since radio is about communication at its heart, the idea that we use our radios for communication is ingrained and unheralded. You might find a few new amateurs talking about how they made their first contact on the local repeater, or how they want to use the hobby to stay in touch when they're out and about. It occurred to me the other day that much of the world is subject to travel restrictions and social or physical distancing requirements. There's places that are in total lock-down and whilst there are strong recommendations for people over 70 to stay completely isolated, that's not yet a requirement where I live. It might come to that, but at the moment the COVID-19 pandemic is changing habits and communities on an hourly basis. Technology is often sought as a solution. There's plenty of video-conferences being held. Local amateur clubs are going online to stay in touch with members while face-to-face meetings are off the menu. Then there's the ongoing access to social media, blogs, discussion groups, mailing lists and the like. There are a few brave radio clubs using something a little less technical. The radio. Shock, horror, imagine that, an amateur radio club using an actual, you know radio, to talk to each other. I must admit that communication via radio, as obvious as that sounds isn't always the first thing that comes to mind. I've lost count of the number of times when at the local club one member stood outside yelling back into the shack which way the rotator on the Yagi was pointing whilst adjustments were being made - turns out that the rotator was spinning on the mast in the wind. Took a concerted effort, seriously, to actually turn on a hand-held radio and talk to each other, like civilised people. On the weekend during F-troop, a weekly net for new and returning amateurs, I also asked how people were doing given the social isolation that is pervasive. I also started toying with the idea of running an F-troop every day, then I scaled it back to every Wednesday and Saturday and then it occurred to me that the power to host a net is in the thumb of any amateur clicking their push to talk button and I finally settled on continuing the normal activity of hosting F-troop on Saturday morning at 00:00 UTC for an hour. I understand that in a technically connected world with cheap internet and fully functional gadgets like smart phones, the idea of going back to radio might seem like a step backwards, but I'd like to point out that we're radio amateurs. That's like being a chef and ordering take-out when you have a fully stocked kitchen. If you're experienced in this hobby you'll know that nobody needs to grant you permission to host a net, but if you're new here you might not. So, to you I say: "You don't need permission to host a net, so get to it." There are some things I've learnt since starting F-troop nearly a decade ago. Start small. Depending on the skill-level of the participants, choose an option for hosting it. F-troop is run with a single net-controller, often that's me, and the role of net-control directs who's next to talk. If you're just playing around, the tried and true version is a round-robin net. You'll need to pay attention a little better because you'll need to know who comes after you so you can hand the call to them. There are also variations on this, but again, start small. I track contacts in a spreadsheet, but a piece of paper is just fine. Writing down all the stations you hear is a great idea, since it helps you keep track of who's said what. You can add information as it comes to hand. If the net is on HF you might record the signal strength you see when you're listening to each station, as well as the name and location or QTH. Pro-Tip, use a new piece of paper for each net and put a date on it. Future you will love you for it. My point is that there should be absolutely no impediment to getting on air, making noise and breaking isolation from the comfort of your own shack. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Mark Ziegler’s ham radio story began as a  youngster that moved him into a career as an electronics engineer with the famous Bell Laboratories.  Now retired, Mark enjoys operating from an RF quiet QTH in rural New Hampshire. Wind power is WA2ILB’s alternative power source of choice and is one of the subjects that we discuss in this QSO Today.

Riki Kline, K7NJ, has a long and interesting ham radio career, from humble beginnings in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a teenage ham,  to his current QTH on over 40 rural acres in Utah. Riki also lives in Israel, part time, in the village of Na’aleh, overlooking Israel’s coastal plain and the Ben Gurion, Airport.  K7NJ shares his perspective as an amateur radio operator who frequently works from either side of the World, likes to chase DX and operate contests in this QSO Today.