The current International Reply Coupons expire at the end of 2009. This isn’t new news but a reminder is always helpful. Postage can be costly and despite expecting ‘ham spirit’ in the hobby, you can guarantee some of the unscrupulous ‘colleagues’ will try and offload any expired coupons they have, on the unsuspecting Manager to whom they send them. For those of you who have not been involved with using these ‘IRC’s’ in the past, let me try and describe a little more about them.
The IRC is a postal product which is exchangeable for one or more postage stamps. The stamps would be to the value of the minimum postage for an ordinary priority letter for most post-mail items or, for an ordinary air-mail letter sent abroad. IRC’s were first issued in 1907 and 2.2 million coupons are used each year for various aspects.
The main users seem to be of course us, the Radio Amateurs who exchange Qsl cards and also Students. Students use them for exchanging correspondence with regards to their academic studies between the Universities and other teaching/learning institutions.
The current issue (called the ‘Beijing 2’ – Photo: Right) can be exchanged up to the 31st December 2009 but will cease to be sold from the 31st August 2009. The new IRC (called the ‘Nairobi’ model – Photo top left) went on sale on the 1st July 2009 and is valid for exchange until 31ST December 2013.
So, to summarise – take steps and try to get rid of all your ‘Beijing 2’ International Reply Coupons asap and in any event certainly before the end of the year. If you don’t, then you could end up seriously out of pocket!
73 de Charles
Weather concerns prevented the crew from returning to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the primary end-of-mission landing site. In 7-10 days, Discovery will be transported approximately 2,500 miles from California to Florida on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet. Once at Kennedy, Discovery will be separated from the aircraft to begin processing for its next flight, targeted for March 2010.
and served as the longest tenured “crew member” in space. While on the station, Buzz supported NASA’s education outreach by creating a series of online educational outreach programs.
stores them. All you have to do is to enter your (or any) callsign into the system and within seconds it will tell you how many areas you have worked (and/or are verified). It produces them in the form of an excel sheet which is seen in the example here to the right. 
The smaller table (to the right of them both) actually informs you of which Award you have currently achieved and is displayed in ‘
is sent a GCR List, you yourself will receive the same GCR list in your email box and in the message, all the details of cost and who/how you need to make your payment to – ‘simples’ as the ‘Meerkats’ say!
There she lay, right across the (new) garage roof belonging to my neighbour. On examination, the steel wires had all snapped and although the mast had held secure in its wall bracket, it had bent like a piece of plastic at a 90 degree angle, amazing! The antenna was itself not too badly damaged although a couple of the elements were like bananas, other than that all in reasonable order and not damaged beyond repair at all. In fact the antenna went back in to service soon afterwards and worked very well given the condition.
transport chaos and damage which would run to millions of pounds. Locally to me The M1 and M18 motorways in South Yorkshire were closed after dozens of lorries were blown over. Most of the fatalities that day were caused by falling trees, collapsing walls or vehicles crashing in high winds. Two other people died in Cheshire, two in Greater Manchester, one in North Yorkshire, one in Berkshire, one in Shropshire and one in Humberside. 
Two schoolboys in Merseyside were badly injured after being crushed under trees. There were heavy downpours too and winds there reached 90mph across many parts of the country brought heavy snowfall in northern areas. Roads, 
Another lorry driver was killed in North Yorkshire when his vehicle left the road and overturned in high winds on the A629 Skipton western bypass. In the Midlands, the managing director of Birmingham airport, Richard Heard, 54, was killed on his way to work when a large branch smashed into his car windscreen on the B4373 near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, at 5.45am. Further south, in Streatley, west Berkshire, a passenger in a Ford Fiesta died shortly after midday when a tree fell on to the car, police said. British Airways cancelled 130 flights on domestic and short-haul routes in and out of Heathrow and Manchester airports. At the main line station at London Bridge, part of the forecourt roof collapsed. There were no injuries but part of the main concourse was blocked, disrupting services. The Met Office warned that the severe conditions had disrupted travel across the UK for most the day, while the Environment Agency issued 36 flood warnings for England and Wales. Peak gusts of 99mph were recorded on the Isle of Wight. Forecasters said other gusts could hit 80mph on high ground and in coastal areas, and up to 70mph across the rest of the UK…..(too late now!) Channel crossings, the M25 Dartford bridge and the M2, M6 and M20 motorways were all hit by the stormy weather, police said. Scottish Power said around 30,000 homes were without electricity in Cheshire and mid and north Wales. The gales led to the port of Dover being closed to ships. P&O Ferries, which operates services between the Kent port and Calais, advised passengers due to sail not to travel at all. In Scotland, the A9 was shut after storms brought the first major snowfall of the year and two lorries jackknifed between Dalwhinnie and Blair Atholl in the Highlands. Snow also fell on the Pennines stretch of the M62 in Yorkshire.
to get my cards was to sort the whole lot out so we made several trips by car and brought all the cards back to our house. 
October I was off to Bahia Inglesa (English Bay) with the group to operate CE1W in the CQWW contest. We made 4000 QSOs over the weekend helped with Chilean wine of course. The group will activate CE1W again this year. I also help out the local radio club in contests – we usually operate as CE2LS and the club has a good record in contests. In December I applied to Telecomunicaciones in Santiago to change my licence for a 2 letter call. This involved providing evidence of publications – luckily I had written an article some years ago in Practical Wireless – and at least 25 years operation as a ham. The application was processed quickly and when we rang Santiago to ask on its progress we were advised that I had been granted the callsign CE2WZ which was much better for contest work.
and I have been considering joining 10-10 International. I just love it when 10 metres opens up and I can make QSOs to Europe and North America. 
