RSGB GB2RS News Bulletin for January 9th 2022.

GB2RS News

Sunday the 9th of January 2022

The news headlines:

Happy New Year

Board and Regional volunteers wanted

GB100BBC marks BBC Centenary

 

The news team and all the staff at RSGB HQ would like to wish our newsreaders, listeners and online readers a very Happy New Year. We would like to remind everyone that we always welcome your news, by email, to [email protected], and the deadline is 10am sharp on Thursday mornings. The GB2RS script is uploaded to the RSGB website by 4.30pm each Friday afternoon.

The RSGB is calling for volunteers to fill roles in its Board and Regional Team. There are Elected Director vacancies, as well as eight Regional Representative roles to be filled. The online nomination process is open and completed papers, with supporting nominations, must be received by 2359UTC on the 31st of January 2022. You can find out about applying for the roles or nominating someone via the Society’s website at rsgb.org/election

Celebrations to mark the BBC's Centenary began at noon on the 1st of January. The London BBC Radio Group was granted an extended Special Special Event radio licence by Ofcom, to operate GB100BBC throughout 2022. The amateur radio activity is one of many events organised to celebrate 100 years of the BBC, which began broadcasting from Savoy Hill in 1922.

The RSGB HF Contest Calendar for 2022, with all the rules for our contests, has been published. Go to rsgbcc.org/hf and click on the HF pages tab. For VHF and up contests, click on the VHF pages. Please put all your favourite contests into your diary for this year.

The WSJT development group has released an updated version of WSJT-X, version 2.5.4, that it’s calling a “bug fix”. The primary fix repairs a defect that caused occasional crashes when contacting stations with non-standard callsigns. It also allows MAP65’s “best-fit Delta Phi” solution to be displayed to the user.

The RSGB’s 2022 Tonight@8 webinar series starts on Monday the 10th of January with a look at amateur radio software construction by Heather Lomond, M0HMO. There is still time to be inspired and create something for the RSGB Construction Competition! You can join the free webinar and ask questions on the RSGB YouTube channel. For more information see the Society’s website rsgb.org/webinars

The Belgian IARU society, UBA, is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2022. There will be 64 different special event stations active until the 28th of February. Each special event station will be using the prefix ON75 followed by a three-letter suffix. Full details on QRZ.com under the callsign ON75DIG.

Members of the DXpedition planned for Comoros Islands, AF-007, in January 2022 have now postponed their operation due to the current Covid situation. They are planning to travel later in 2022 when, they say, hopefully, things get quieter again.

The EZNEC antenna modelling software by Roy Lewallen, W7EL is now available for free download. The software is available from https://eznec.com/

And now for details of rallies and events

Now is the perfect time to let us know your group’s rally or event plans for 2022. Email [email protected] with details and we’ll publicise your event for free in RadCom, on GB2RS, and online. There are already over twenty rallies on the calendar for 2022.

Now the DX news

W2APF will be active as VP2MDX from Montserrat, IOTA reference NA-103, from the 9th of January to the 18th of February. He will operate CW and SSB on the 80 to 10m bands. QSL via W2APF.

Now the Special Event news

To mark 100 years of British broadcasting, the BBC will be putting on special events throughout 2022. As part of the celebrations, GB100BBC will be on the air. View the GB100BBC page on QRZ.com for more information.

Now the contest news

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

The ARRL RTTY Round-up runs until 2359UTC today, the 9th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number, with US stations, also sending their State and Canadians their Province.

On Tuesday the 432MHz FM Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. 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 your 6-character locator.

On Wednesday the 432MHz FT8 Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2100UTC. The exchange is signal report and your 4-character locator.

The 50MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC on Thursday. The exchange is signal report, serial number and your 6-character locator.

It is the Worked All Britain 160m contest on Saturday the 15th of January, from 1900 to 2300UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and WAB square. The full rules are available on the WAB website.

The RSGB AFS Datamodes contest takes place on Sunday the 16th of January from 1300 to 1700UTC. It uses the 3.5 and 7MHz bands, and the exchange is signal report and serial number.

Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA, and G4BAO on Friday the 7th of January

Welcome back to the GB2RS HF Propagation News. And we start the year on a bit of a downer, with the solar flux index back in the 80s. On Thursday the 6th, the SFI was at 84 with two active sunspot regions. This is probably going to be a short-lived lull in solar activity as we know that more active regions are coming back around the Sun in due course.

The Kp index has mainly been low over the past week, reaching a maximum of four on the third, but generally being in the range of zero to three. We may get an elevated Kp index this weekend due to an Earth-facing coronal hole and its associated high-speed solar wind stream.

The big question is what happens next? Will we see a return to those glorious days just before Christmas where the SFI was 140? The likely answer is yes we will, but knowing quite when we will get there is difficult. NOAA predicts that the SFI will climb past 100 on the 12th of January, reaching a maximum of 120 a few days later. Returning active regions 2907 and 2908 should appear at the beginning of the week, but we don’t know just how active they still are.

Meanwhile, MUFs over a 3,000km path are reaching 21MHz most days and there are occasional 28MHz openings, especially around lunchtime. So keep an eye on the higher bands, which may spring some surprises, especially with low-signal modes like FT8. And the low bands, such as 160, 80 and 40m are still worth looking at and will continue to be for the next month or so.

Let’s hope we have more positive news next week.

And now the VHF and up propagation news.

There have been hints of Sporadic-E recently in digital modes on 10m and 6m, which is quite often seen around this time of the year. There is probably one more week in this window of opportunity before the lean months begin and little activity until well into April. In this case, we still have some powerful winter jet streams nearby so that's one box ticked for Sporadic-E.

Tropo is not likely to feature until after the weekend when we see a high-pressure building behind a cold front on Sunday. By Tuesday there should be some first signs, initially in the south, but models suggest a more widespread distribution to include northern areas as the high develops during the week.

Keep alert for auroras, and random, non-shower, meteor scatter is always a good banker for some DX. The Quadrantid meteor shower has peaked so we are entering the quiet period for meteor activity until the Lyrids on the 22nd of April.

The Moon has positive declination again, peaking next Sunday, but path losses reach their highest at apogee on Friday. 144MHz sky noise is low but increasing, reaching 500K next Saturday.

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