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

Weekly Bulletin – May 27 2020

THE PAST WEEK

Apologies for the lack of a Weekly Bulletin last week and the lateness of this one. I’ve been heavily engaged in writing specialist software and by the time I stop every day, it’s well past time for bed!

I’ve been asked to relay the following to all Club members, by Nigel, G3YSW – our RSGB Region 10 rep:

“Beyond Exams (BE) is a group of resources brought together by the RSGB Learning Team with the aim of encouraging participation and highlighting the diversity of amateur radio. It includes awards and schemes designed to help amateur radio licence holders and clubs get the most from the hobby. Whether you are new to amateur radio, want to try a different aspect of the hobby or find a new challenge, our range of Beyond Exams resources can help.

During these challenging times of the global pandemic, Beyond Exams is an important part of our ‘Get on the air to care’ campaign in partnership with the NHS. We appreciate that in the current climate of necessary social distancing, some of the activities in the Club and Individual Schemes won’t be accessible to radio amateurs at the moment so please do follow government guidelines and only try the activities you can do safely in your own home.
You can find full details on our website: www.rsgb.org/beyond-exams

The VLT and the Regional Team have been briefed about these resources over recent months and a pilot took place in Region 13. Further briefings are already organised and it is anticipated that the schemes will gather momentum gradually across the country. There will also be an article in the next issue of RadCom.”

There will be no net on GB3WO NEXT Tuesday, as Jonathan, G1EXG will be presenting a talk via the Internet, on Zoom.
Jonathan has posted details on our Discuss reflector and you should contact him via that means or direct email to book a place.

The Dutch Amateur Radio Society has reported that since the start of the Covid 19 lockdowns and travel bans, during contests etc., on 2 metres in particular, overall maximum distances worked have decreased. They say that the reason for this is due to lack of pollution, which would otherwise have reflected signals over greater distances. This is an interesting observation and ties in with what many of us have been finding when checking beacons. Beacons are reported as being much weaker than normal (allowing for regular QSB). One Amateur was about to do a factory reset on his IC-9700, because he thought that the 2 metre section had gone ‘deaf’, so he was quite pleased to be given this info!

There’s been some talk on the club reflector about DFing noise sources and Phil, G4UDU has suggested using an SDR RX to display the received signal to better identify the type of QRM. The new SDRPlay RX that was donated to the Club, is out on loan at present, but will be available before too long, if anyone needs to use one for DFing VDSL et al.

CLUB MEETINGS AND EVENTS – All suspended for the time being and replaced by nets and online talks.

  • Interactive talk via Zoom, on SOTAbeams Laserbeam-vari SSB / CW audio filter by Jonathan, G1EXG – Tuesday 2nd June7.00pm onwards – Note: Early start time – NO NET on GB3WO
  • Net each evening (Mon-Thurs) on 3.712MHz – 6.00pm onwards
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 9th June – 8.00pm-10.00pm
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 16th June – 8.00pm-10.00pm
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 23rd June – 8.00pm-10.00pm
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 30th June – 8.00pm-10.00pm

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

NETS

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

Tuesday – 70cms on GB3WO, FM, 8.00pm (local)

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

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

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

Weekday evenings – 80 metres 3.712 MHz +- QRM, SSB, 6.00pm (local)

RALLIES

Local, national and some international rallies can be found by visiting this excellent website: http://www.g4rga.org.uk/All.html

RAGCHEW

Winter 2019/2020 edition published – http://www.wadarc.org.uk/ragchew/spring-2020

PROPAGATION

HF and VHF

RSGB propagation information can be found by following this link: https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/propagation-news/2020/05/22/propagation-news-24-may-2020/

BEACONS

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:

WADARC members (and others) can subscribe to the DX News service without joining ARRL.
Send an email to this address: w1aw-list-request@arrl.org
In the subject line put the word Subscribe followed by your email address
ARRL will send an acknowledgement and you will receive the weekly DX News as an email, usually on a Friday

VHF/UHF:

The RSGB VHF/UHF Contest and Activity calendar is available via this link: https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/readcal.pl?year=2020

FINALÉ

Highly topical, just seen on Facebook – Police Officer leaning into a vehicle – “Have you been drinking sir?” Answer from driver – “Yes officer, I’ve been drinking. I’m just taking a test drive to see if I’m too pissed to drive!”

Vy 73,

Alan. G4GNX