Amateur radio in West Sussex - Training, Exams, Contests and Special Event Stations

Weekly Bulletin – May 4 2018

WADARC meets at – Lions Hall, 21 Roberts Road, Lancing. BN15 8AR.

THE PAST WEEK

Chris (M0VUE) gave a great talk on Wednesday about his travels over land, sand and ‘creme brulee’ from UK to Morocco .. along with some possibly dodgy navigation into Algeria in extreme wipe-out sandstorm conditions! Thank you Chris.

As you probably know Maplin Electronics is closing down. The web site is no longer functioning but the shops are still open for a few more weeks. Some gear is selling off at low prices.
I picked up two ‘cable access kit’ packs. These are ten x 30cm reinforced rods with brass threads to join them together for cable routing in difficult places (A77QW).
I thought they might come in handy for portable antennas experiments – e.g. made up into loops, two could be joined together at right angles to make a support for loop antennas etc.

We heard at the Wed meeting that the ‘Moon Bounce’ talk could not be arranged so next Wednesday will be an on-air night with the IC7300 and we’re interfacing it with the club laptop for logging at Mills On The Air.

In the Propagation section below there is an explanation why 40m is currently a good band to use in the daytime (re. Alan’s recent e-mail about the Thursday ee40m net).
There is also useful info. on the start of the Sporadic E season (“first place to check out will be along the lines of jet streams ….”).

Andy, M6RFE is feeling much better but still has a little way to go.

Good DX to you !
Jonathan, G1EXG

CLUB MEETINGS & EVENTS

Sunday Breakfast – Goring Cafe – Sunday 6th May – 9.00am-10.00am
Moon Bounce talk – TALK CANCELLED – On Air Night – Lions Hall, Lancing – Wednesday 9th May – 8.00pm-10.00pm
Mills On The Air – Salvington Windmill – Saturday 12th/Sunday 13th May – Contact Pete, G4LKW for details and times.
Tea and Chat – Lions Hall, Lancing – Wednesday 16th May – 8.00pm-10.00pm
Practical Evening-Antennas – Lions Hall, Lancing – Wednesday 23rd May – 8.00pm-10.00pm

For further information as it occurs, please visit the WADARC website: www.wadarc.org.uk

NETS

Monday – 2 metres 145.425 MHz, FM, 7.30pm (local)

Thursday – 40 metres 7.106 MHz +/-QRM, SSB, 11.00am (local)

Saturday – 70 cms on GB3WO, 7.00pm (local)

Sunday – 80 metres 3.712 MHz +/- QRM, SSB, 7.30am-8.00am (local)

RALLIES

7 May 2018 Dartmoor Radio Rally [Bank Holiday Monday]
Tavistock College, Crowndale Road, Tavistock, Devon, PL19 8DD.
Open 10:30/10:15. Admission £2, kids free-with adult. Free parking. On-site catering.
Trade and club stands. B&B.
Details: Viv Watson, G7AWG, 01752-823427, vivwatsondrc@aol.com

17-20 May 2018 Dayton Hamvention [Thursday-Sunday]
Greene County Fair & Exposition Centre, Xenia, Dayton, Ohio, 45385, USA.
Coordinates: 39.702N – 83.9420W
Open 08:00. Flea market. Trade. RSGB books. SIGs. Daily lectures. Catering &.
Family pastimes on-site. Raffle. US exams.
Further details: international@hamvention.org http://www.hamvention.org

Details of other UK rallies can be found on this excellent website: http://www.g4rga.org.uk/All.html

RAGCHEW

Winter 2017 edition published – http://www.wadarc.org.uk/ragchew/winter-201718

PROPAGATION

Propagation News – 29 April 2018

RSGB | April 27, 2018
Last weekend’s poor HF conditions, which made for a quieter than normal International Marconi Day on the 21st, were largely caused by incoming material from a large solar coronal hole. A lack of sunspots didn’t help either.
The incoming solar wind pushed the K-index up to six at one point, but conditions settled as the week went on. By Thursday the 26th the K-index was down to zero or one.

A small sunspot group pushed the solar flux index to a maximum of 77 and the sunspot number to 34. But even this had declined to 69 and 17 by Thursday.
As a result maximum usable frequencies struggled to exceed 14MHz at times and skip on the lower bands, particularly 40 metres, tended to be longer.
The Space Weather Prediction Center says we might expect another geomagnetic disturbance this weekend due to a high-speed solar wind stream.

But after that, next week’s geomagnetic conditions are predicted to be fairly settled with a maximum K-index of two. NOAA predicts the solar flux index will remain in the low to mid seventies.
One positive is that the lower solar flux means D layer absorption is also weakened. This means 40m is often open to paths around Europe during the day—do take a look at the band as it is often open to France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, for example, when 20m is largely closed.
Putting this all together, we might expect slightly better daylight HF conditions next week with band openings on 40, 30 and up to 20, with occasional surprises on 17 metres.
We are still seeing a slight uplift in the critical frequency after sunset, and the ionosonde data show that 20 metres may remain open to DX over a 3,000km path until about 21.30 UTC.
As always, these are predictions and you need to get on the air to find out if they come true!

VHF and up

The pressure will remain low close to the British Isles and therefore tropo is unlikely to feature much, other than transient openings around dawn.
With heavy showers and thunderstorms in the forecast, it could be a good spell for rain scatter on the gigahertz bands, so radar sites such as Patrick, TK5EP’s SCP map will be your friend for setting up QSOs.

Sporadic E is coming into its time now, and there have already been some openings across Europe using FT8.
Be prepared for some more traditional openings for CW and SSB signals soon. The earlier FT8 events have been linked to the positions of jet streams, but it’s very hard to be precise, since they happen most days.
For the CW and SSB signal levels it is likely that the first place to check out will be along the lines of jet streams, especially where they intersect with mountain ranges like the Alps and Pyrenees. The upper air forecast charts do show a good deal of jet stream activity over the next week, so it’s time to set up a listening watch on the beacons and clusters.

Moon declination is negative and falling all week, reaching minimum next Saturday. This coincides with apogee, so peak Moon elevations are at a minimum and losses are highest at the same time.
This is a week to check out your antenna and receiver performance using Sun-to-cold-sky noise measurements as the Sun is getting to a good maximum elevation now.

Beacons often heard in our area:

VHF:

GB3WSX – IO80QW – 70.007 MHz

GB3BAA – IO91PS – 70.016 MHz

F1ZXK – JN18KF – 144.438 MHz

F5ZSF – IN88GS – 144.409 MHz

GB3VHF – JO01EH – 144.430 MHz

ON0VHF – JO20HP – 144.418 MHz

UHF:

F5XBA – JN18KF – 432.830 MHz

GB3UHF – JO01EH – 432.430 MHz

ON0UHF – JO20ET – 432.567 MHz

DX NEWS

HF:

This week’s bulletin was made possible with information provided by
SV2CLJ, The Daily DX, the OPDX Bulletin, 425 DX News, DXNL, Contest
Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites.
Thanks to all.

QATAR, A7. Rasto, OM6AA is QRV as A75GR while living in Doha. QSL
via M0OXO.

MOZAMBIQUE, C9. A group of operators are QRV as C8T until May 15.
Activity is on 160 to 10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY, and possibly
PSK and FT8 with four stations. This may include a fifth station
running 2 meter EME. QSL via ON1DX.

PHILIPPINES, DU. Press, N6SS is QRV as DU6/N6SS from Sibalom,
Antique Province, Panay Island, IOTA OC-129, until May 17. Activity
is on 80 to 10 meters using CW and FT8. QSL to home call.

SOUTH COOK ISLANDS, E5. Bruce, WB7OTC will be QRV as E51OTC from
Rarotonga Island, IOTA OC-013, Aitutaki Island, IOTA OC-083, and
Atiu Island, IOTA OC-083, from May 6 to 17. Activity will be on the
HF bands using QRP power. QSL to home call.

BELARUS, EW. Special event station EV73K will be QRV from May 5 to
10 to commemorate the 73 years since victory in the great patriotic
war. QSL via EW8EQ.

PANAMA, HP. A group of operators are QRV as 3F6IC from Cebaco
Island, IOTA NA-071, until May 6. Activity is on 80 to 10 meters
using SSB and various digital modes. This includes being active on
60 meters. QSL via HP1AVS.

ALAND ISLANDS, OH0. Ari, OH3KAV will be QRV as OH0KA from May 6 to
10. Activity will be on the HF bands, including 60 meters, using CW
and FT8. QSL to home call.

NETHERLANDS, PA. Operators Tonny, PD1TV and Henri, PA4HM will be
QRV with special call sign PH00GEVEEN from may 5 to 22 during the
annual Wings and Wheels event held at Hoogeveen Airfield. Activity
will be on the various HF bands using SSB. QSL via bureau.

CURACAO, PJ2. Savas, SV2AEL will be QRV as PJ2/SV2AEL from May 10
to 15. Activity will be holiday style on the HF bands. QSL direct
to home call.

TURKEY, TA. Col, MM0NDX, Max, IK8LOV and Bjoern, ON9CFG will be QRV
as TA0/home calls and as TC0AX from May 7 to 11. Activity will be
holiday style on 80 to 2 meters. QSL to home calls and TC0AX via
M0SDV.

EUROPEAN RUSSIA, UA. A number of Russian stations will switch to
the RP73 prefix from May 5 to 9. The P in the prefix stands for the
Russian word pobeda, or victory, in the English language. And the
73 stands for the number of years since the end of World War II.

MACQUARIE ISLAND, VK0. Norbert, VK5MQ is QRV as VK0AI and will be
here with the next winter team for one year. Activity has been on
30 and 20 meters using FT8 between 0400 to 0630z. QSL to home call.

SERBIA, YU. Special event station YU100APV is QRV through December
31, 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the unification of
Vojvodina and Serbia.

THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO. New England QSO Party, 10-10
International Spring CW Contest, NCCC RTTY Sprint, NCCC CW Sprint,
MIE 33 Contest, Araucaria World Wide VHF Contest, SBMS 2.3 GHz and
Up Contest and Club Challenge, Microwave Spring Sprint, ARI
International DX Contest, 7th Call Area QSO Party, Indiana QSO
Party, Delaware QSO Party and the FISTS Spring Slow Speed Sprint are
all on tap for this upcoming weekend.

The RSGB 80-Meter Club SSB Championship is scheduled for May 7.

The ARS Spartan CW Sprint is scheduled for May 8.

The CWops Mini-CWT CW Test and Phone Fray are scheduled for May 9.

The ARRL International Grid Chase runs during all of 2018.

Please see May QST, page 83, and the ARRL and WA7BNM Contest Web
Sites for details.

VHF/UHF:

13th May – 70MHz CW Contest – 09.00-12.00

19th/20th May – 144MHZ VHF Championship – 14.00-14.00

20th May – 1st 144MHZ Backpackers – 11.00-15.00

27th May – 70Mhz Cumulatives # 3 – 14.00-16.00