RSGB GB2RS News Bulletin for February 13th 2022.

GB2RS News

Sunday the 13th of February 2022

 

The news headlines:

Enter the RSGB Construction Competition

Board and Regional nomination results are online now

Mister APRS becomes a Silent Key

The RSGB Construction Competition deadline for entries is Tuesday the 1st of March so you still have time to enter. There are four categories for beginners, software, innovation and construction excellence. A cash prize will be awarded for the winner of each section, with a bonus for the overall winner, who will also be declared the winner of the Pat Hawker G3VA Trophy. If you would like inspiration, the RSGB YouTube channel has an amateur radio construction playlist and you will find details about how to enter the competition on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/construction-competition

The results of the nomination process for the 2022 RSGB Board and Regional Team Elections are now on the Society’s AGM web page at rsgb.org/agm The RSGB will share further details in the April RadCom.

Sad news now. The creator of the Automatic Packet Reporting System. or APRS, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, has become a Silent Key. While best known for APRS, he was also a retired US Naval Academy senior research engineer who had an abiding interest in alternative power sources, such as solar power.

Bletchley Park is holding an online lecture marking the 80th anniversary of the opening of Bletchley Park’s Bombe Hut 11A. The Bombe machines of Bletchley Park by Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, will explore the impact the Bombe machine had and how it was used to combat the Enigma cypher system. The lecture takes place on the 23rd of March at 1 pm. This event is free but donations are welcome. Go to bletchleypark.org.uk and click on the What’s On section for more information and to book your place.

A FreeDV Activity Period will take place on the 19th and 20th of February. It is designed to bring together people interested in HF digital voice on the air for conversation and fun. It starts at 1600UTC on the 19th and ends 24 hours later at 1559UTC on the 20th. More information can be found at freedv.org

The RSGB has published the Notice of Variation that will enable UK radio amateurs, licensed by Ofcom, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen by using the special Regional Secondary Locator Q. This NoV is only available for use throughout June 2022 but you can apply for it now on the Society’s website at rsgb.org/nov

Preparations are well underway for the GI-QRP convention, which is organised in association with the GQRP Club. The Convention will take place on the 25th of June at the Tandragee Golf Club in Craigavon BT62 2ER. Doors open at 9 am and presentations start at 10 am. More information is in the Rallies section of the RSGB website.

And now for details of rallies and events

The Radioactive Fair will take place at Nantwich Civic Hall on Sunday the 20th of February. You can find out more at radioactivefair.co.uk.

Please let us know your rally and event news as soon as possible. Send details to [email protected] and we’ll publicise your event for free in RadCom, on GB2RS, and online.

Now the DX news

Rob, DM4AO will be active as D44AO from Sao Tiago, IOTA reference AF-005, in Cape Verde, between the 13th and the 25th of February. He will operate mainly CW on the 80 to 10m bands during the local evening and night hours. QSL via DM4AO, direct or via the bureau. Please note he does not use Club Log, Logbook of The World or eQSL.

Karel, OK2WM and Vlad, OK2WX will be active as 8Q7WM and 8Q7WX from the Maldives, AS-013, from the 13th of February to the 8th of March. They will be only on the 160, 80 and 40m bands and will operate mainly CW. QSL via their home calls.

Yuri, VE3DZ will be active from Martinique, NA-107, between the 11th and 24th of February. He will be signing FM/VE3DZ between the 11 and 18th and TO4A between the 19th and 24th. QSLs via his home call and Logbook of The World.

Now the Special Event news

On the 14th of February 1922, a small group of Marconi employees began a series of experimental entertainment broadcasts on Medium Wave from a wooden hut near Writtle. The callsign of the original station was 2MT. These experiments are now regarded as the Birth of British Broadcasting and the origins of the BBC. On Monday the 14th of February 2022, to commemorate the centenary, Chelmsford ARS will be running GB1002MT. They plan to have HF, VHF and UHF stations on the air from 2 pm to 9 pm using CW and SSB.

Now the contest news

When operating in any contests, please keep yourself and fellow amateurs safe by following all relevant pandemic-related government rules.

This weekend the CQ WW RTTY WPX contest runs for 48 hours, ending at 2359UTC on the 13th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz bands where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number.

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.

The 80m Club Championships takes place on Wednesday from 2000 to 2130UTC. It is data only, with an exchange of signal report and serial number.

Also on Wednesday is the VHF FT8 Activity event, running from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using the 23cm band and FT8 or any other digital mode, the exchange is your callsign and 4-character locator. More information is at ft8activity.eu

On Thursday the 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. 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 11th of February 2022.

We had a good week for HF propagation, with a solar flux index up towards 130 and relatively calm geomagnetic conditions. There were lots of reports of openings to Australia on 10 metres and the KQ2H repeater in up-state New York often put in an appearance on 29.620MHz FM as well.

However, a Coronal Mass Ejection following a filament eruption on the 6th of February impacted the Earth on Wednesday the 9th. The solar wind speed showed only a small increase, while the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field, or IMF, was fairly neutral.

The net result was that the CME had little effect at first on the ionosphere and only resulted in a Kp index of three, despite dire forecasts in the national press of aurorae perhaps being visible from the UK. But, by 1500UTC on Thursday, the IMF had taken a sudden and swift shift southwards and the Kp index rose to five. This just goes to show how hard it is to be precise with regards to timings about geomagnetic events.

Critical frequencies continue to exceed 7MHz during the daytime, which bodes well for inter-G contacts.

Next week, NOAA predicts that the SFI will decline slightly to around 115, which hopefully should still be enough to provide openings on 12 and 10 metres. NOAA also predicts a Kp index of five on Monday, probably as a result of a returning coronal hole. Other than that, the rest of the week looks relatively calm.

As we head towards mid-February we are starting to see North-South paths opening up a little more. This will improve as we head towards Equinox in March. But for now, look out for openings to South America on 10 metres, perhaps later in the day as the Sun is setting.

And now the VHF and up propagation news.

The Tropo from lengthy spells of high-pressure weather is now some time in the past and it’s hard to see a return anytime soon. In fact, the nearest high-pressure systems are out of reach to the south of Britain and the UK will find a sequence of low-pressure systems bringing wet and very windy weather with heavy rain and even some snow in places. This is hardly conducive to Tropo, so once again we must turn to other chance modes such as aurora and random meteor scatter.

It is also worth saying that even though we assume this to be a quiet period for Sporadic-E, there have been some days when the critical frequency of the Sporadic-E layer, or foEs, has peaked at 6MHz. See the NVIS tab on Propquest.co.uk graphs for Chilton on the 8th of February. It would make it worth checking for short skip on HF and, if repeated farther afield, perhaps some strong European signals on 10m. These foEs events appear to be found on the maps near strong upper winds, known as jet streams, and these will be plentiful over the next two weeks with such unsettled weather, so it is worth checking the beacons and clusters for chance openings.

Moon declination is high, but falling all week, going negative again next Saturday. Moon windows will therefore follow suit and shorten as the week progresses. Path losses will fall as we are now past last Friday’s apogee. For VHF EMEers, 144MHz sky noise is low throughout the week, only rising above 300 Kelvin next Saturday.

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