RSGB GB2RS News Bulletin for February 6th 2022.

GB2RS News

Sunday the 6th of February 2022

 

The news headlines:

Ofcom authorises /70 for Platinum Jubilee

New RadCom Plus published

New Southern Fusion group

 

Following a request by the RSGB, Ofcom has indicated that stations wishing to retain their usual Regional Secondary Locator to identify their DXCC entity may use the suffix /70 to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. It is also permitted to use the /70 suffix with the GQ/MQ/2Q prefix if desired. The RSGB would like to thank Ofcom for its support of the Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations.

RadCom Plus is the RSGB’s online journal for the technically-minded radio amateur. The winter edition of RadCom Plus is now available to RSGB Members. There are four varied articles in this edition. You can read about high-loss RF taps for extracting samples of signals from your transmitter at levels suitable for display on test instruments such as spectrum analysers. There is the first part of a two-part series on experiments in the 30THz band or long-wave infrared. The third article is on long-standing observations of long-delayed echoes. Finally, there is an article on experiments with DIY remote operations. Go to rsgb.org/radcom-plus where you can read previous editions as well as the latest one.

Owners of Yaesu C4FM transceivers may be interested to learn of a new Wires-X room called Southern Fusion, currently room 41893. It is focussed primarily on repeater and gateway users in southern England and, of course, Wires-X users anywhere on the planet. RF access is available via a growing number of C4FM repeaters. These include GB7IV in Southampton, GB7CM in Blandford, GB7IE in Plymouth, GB7TM in Ipswich plus Gateways in Reading, Hastings and Ringwood. The room also hosts a regular Sunday morning one-hour net at 1100UTC.

The latest edition of RadCom Basics is now available. There are new topics and follow-on articles to help newcomers and those looking to brush up their knowledge. You can read about a useful DC voltmeter, try some simple experimentation with antennas and equipment as well as learn more about the DX Century Club and the RSGB’s UK Activity Contests. RSGB Members can read previous editions of RadCom Basics by going to rsgb.org/radcom-basics.

It has been reported that a person has been prosecuted for racial harassment over the air. Details of the conviction can be found in an entry on the 2nd of February on the Sussex Police website at Sussex.police.uk/news. The RSGB will be raising this with Ofcom. Anyone experiencing similar on-air harassment is encouraged to report the matter initially to the RSGB OAS Coordinator via the form on the OAS pages of our website at rsgb.org/oas

The RSGB 2022 Band Plans have been published online. In response to feedback, the Excel version is now tabbed by frequency but the alternative viewer still uses wavelengths for those who prefer the information in that format. You can see them on the Society’s website at rsgb.org/bandplans

In December 2021 and January 2022, a clandestine radio station appeared on 3.5 and 7MHz. The broadcasts were unusually in USB and could be heard throughout Europe. The IARU Monitoring System, aided by DARC Intruder Monitoring, were able to determine the approximate location of these transmissions. The German and Italian authorities were then able to have them stopped.

And now for details of rallies and events

If you are travelling to Florida in the USA in the near future, you may care to visit the 75th Orlando HamCation. It will take place between the 11th and 13th of February at the Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park.

Looking ahead to the 20th of February, the Radioactive Fair will take place at Nantwich Civic Hall. 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

Henry, LU4DXU will be active as 8Q7AH from the Maldives, AS-013, between the 8th and 15th of February. He will operate SSB and FT8 on all bands. QSL direct to LU4DXU.

John, AD8J will be active as HR9/AD8J from Guanaja Island, IOTA reference NA-057, in Honduras between the 12th and 26th of February. He will operate CW and FT8 with some SSB on the 10 to 80m bands. QSL via Logbook of The World or direct to AD8J.

Jean-Gabriel, F4CIX has been active as FW1JG from Wallis Island, OC-054, and expects to remain there for two years or more. He operates SSB and FT8 on the 20, 15 and 10m bands. QSL via Logbook of The World, or direct to his Wallis address.

Now the Special Event news

TM19AAW will be on the air from the 7th to the 22nd of February to celebrate the 19th Antarctic Activity Week. All information on this event is on QRZ.com under TM19AAW. The operation will be from Mâcon in the east of France, JN26JH, on the 10 to 40m bands. QSL via F8DVD.

Members of the Kuwait Amateur Radio Society will be active as 9K9NLD throughout February. The special callsign celebrates both Kuwait National Day on the 25th and Liberation Day on the 26th.

Now the contest news

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

Today, the 6th, the 432MHz AFS contest runs from 0900-1300UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and your 6-character locator.

On Monday the 80m Club Championship runs from 2000 to 2130UTC. Using SSB only the exchange is signal report and serial number.

Tuesday sees the 432MHz FM Activity Contest take place from 1900 to 1955. It is followed by the all-mode 432MHz UK Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator.

Staying with the 432MHz band, on Wednesday it is the 432MHz FT8 Activity Contest from 1900 to 2100UTC. The exchange is your report and 4-character locator. A serial number is not required.

The 50MHz UK Activity Contest takes place on Thursday from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.

On Saturday the 12th, the 1st 1.8MHz Contest runs from 1900 to 2300UTC. It is CW only and the exchange is signal report and serial number.

Next weekend the CQ WW RTTY WPX contest runs for 48 hours from 0000UTC on the 12th to 2359UTC on the 13th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz bands where contests are permitted, the exchange is signal report and serial number.

Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Friday the 4th of February 2022.

We had another topsy-turvy week, with lots of good sunspots, but coronal mass ejections or CMEs taking their toll on the ionosphere as well. While the solar flux index did a little better than predicted, with numbers in the 120-130 range, there was bad news on the solar-terrestrial front.

The Kp index was regularly hitting four and even five on Thursday, thanks to CMEs, which depressed MUFs considerably. But things could have been a lot worse. NASA issued a major storm warning after the CME on the 29th of January, with newspapers predicting that visible aurora would be seen across the UK. But, in the end, this amounted to very little and the warning was cancelled.

Despite all this geomagnetic activity, there were pearls to be found. Contacts with Hong Kong, China and Australia were all reported by members of the 10 metre UK Net Facebook group. As Jack, G8DX wrote on the group: “What an end to the month. ZL, JA, XV, BY, BV, HS, YB on FT8 and 30-plus VKs on phone and a few on CW.”

And bear in mind that this solar cycle has got a lot further to go, with a predicted sunspot number of more than 100 at its peak in 2025/2026. To give you some idea of what that means, this week it was 65.

Next week there may be some good news. NOAA predicts that the solar flux index could rise to 125, and perhaps even higher. As always, we can probably expect unsettled geomagnetic conditions, with the Kp index predicted to hit four on the 10th.

As always, keep an eye on solarham.com for a more accurate day-to-day update as things can change very quickly.

In terms of propagation highlights, look for openings to Sydney, Australia on 10 metres around 8-10 am. Short-path openings to Perth may peak a little later.

And now the VHF and up propagation news.

The present spell of unsettled weather is likely to continue for a while, into the first part of next week, but before that, there are signs of the next high building over southern areas. This will bring a return of Tropo conditions to many areas, although a further low will track across northern Britain towards the end of the week.

As we hinted last week, the high pressure produced some good Tropo DX down across Biscay to Spain and France on 2m through to 23cm. The situation next week is looking similar, so a good week to get some CW and SSB onto 70cm for the UK Activity Contest on Tuesday and see what happens on Thursday for the 6m UKAC.

The other modes to check are, like last week, the pre-dawn random meteor scatter options plus a chance aurora in view of the unsettled solar-terrestrial conditions at the moment.

Moon declination is positive and rising all week, so Moon windows are long and peak Moon elevation high. Path losses are also high as we approach apogee on Friday.

For VHF EMEers, 144MHz sky noise is low to moderate throughout the week, peaking at 500 Kelvin on Friday.

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