Archive - August 2012

Good luck to Louise Simpson M3WSQ who takes part in this Years Paralympic Games in London which starts today.

For Louise, former Member of the Wakefield and District Radio Society, London 2012, it will be Louise’s second Paralympic Games, after she competed as part of the team that came 5th at the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000. She will be part of ther Womens Goalball Team

Louise has been playing Goalball for around 17 years, after discovering the sport when she attended the RNIB College in Worcester in 1995. She played her first international tournament in Denmark in 1996 and she has been playing for Great Britain ever since.

Of course we wish Louise and all the para-atheletes the best of luck in their events.

Well, anyone who knows me will already be aware of my interest in working Japan Stations on any mode. I am fortunate that I can work Japan very well from my QTH as and when band conditions are reasonable.

A quick look through my logbook and my JCC/JCG confirmations look quite healthy. I am however still 3 short of the total 47 Japanese Prefectures. Band slots are good for the ones I do have but I really would like to get Saga Prefecture, Miyazaki Prefecture and Nagasaki Prefecture safely in my log to give me the ‘full house’ of 47 Prefectures.

 Nagasaki Prefecture may not be far away as I am sure somewhere in the log this has been worked and maybe not recorded correctly so more examination of the log needed to confirm that.

So, any JA station reading this, please pass the word around, ”MØOXO needs your Call in his Log, (especially if you are from Nagasaki, Saga or Miyazaki Prefectures hi)”.

Every living thing on planet Earth is defined by its own molecule — what’s yours? This molecule, called DNA, spans about two meters stretched out but is coiled into every cell in your body. The many copies of DNA that compose you were all copied from one single cell, and your body is continually making new copies. The ground-breaking animated video (click image left) depicts the tiny, amazing, bio-molecular machinery that makes these DNA copies.

For a fee, it is now possible to find part of all of the code of the DNA molecule that defines you, but lively debates involving ethics may arise regarding whether you or anyone may own, disclose, patent, or copyright it. No one knows if DNA-like molecules will also define life that originates outside of Earth.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced today they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury. Making its first movement on the Martian surface, Curiosity’s drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot where it landed 16 days ago.

NASA has approved the Curiosity science team’s choice to name the landing ground for the influential author, who was born 92 years ago today and died this year. The location where Curiosity touched down is now called Bradbury Landing. This photo shows the tire tracks from Curiosity’s first test drive.The rover made its first move, going forward about 15 feet (4.5 meters), rotating 120 degrees and then reversing about 8 feet (2.5 meters). Curiosity is about 20 feet (6 meters) from its landing site.

Curiosity will spend several more days of working beside Bradbury Landing, performing instrument checks and studying the surroundings, before embarking toward its first driving destination approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters) to the east-southeast.

Pleased to log these guys a few days ago for an all time new DXCC and IOTA. That brings my records to;

All time Countries 312 worked – 307 confirmed and current Countries 309 worked – 304 confirmed  IOTA total is 531 worked and 462 confirmed.

Yorkshire has become the number one spot in Britain for turning out top athletes after five athletes from the region won gold medals (Team GB are currently ranked third in the medal table, with 22 gold medals). Five golden postboxes, painted in honour of gold medal winners Jessica Ennis, Alistair Brownlee, Ed Clancy, Katherine Copeland and Andy Triggs Hodge from as far south as Sheffield and as far north as Stokesle

Jessica Ennis from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, won gold in the women’s heptathlon while Alistair Brownlee from Leeds in West Yorkshire won gold in the men’s triathlon. Brownlee’s brother Johnny won bronze in the triathlon. Cyclist Ed Clancy, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, took gold in the team pursuit in record time. Rower Katherine Copeland, from Stokesley, North Yorkshire, took gold for the women’s lightweight double skull. And rower Andy Triggs Hodge, from Hebden, North Yorkshire, won gold for the men’s four.

The immaculately turned out dressage team of Carl Hester, Laura Bechtolsheimer and Charlotte Dujardin took the total to 22 golds at the Greenwich Park equestrian arena and Laura Trott added another in the women’s track cycling omnium event.

Chris Hoy then rounded off a day of triumph with the seventh Olympic medal of his career, and sixth gold, to rival the tally of compatriot, Tour de France winner and London time trial champion Bradley Wiggins. The victory put Hoy ahead of Wiggins, who has four titles, on ‘gold difference’ as Britain’s most decorated Olympian.

Yorkshire alone currently has more gold medallists than Canada, South Africa or Japan, meaning if God’s Own County was a nation, it would sit among the top 15 countries in the international medals table.

As of yesterday, Yorkshire had more medals per head than anywhere else in the world – one medal per 0.71 million people. The Netherlands was second with a medal for every 1.2 million and Great Britain, excluding Yorkshire, was third with one per 1.57 million people. Consistent table-toppers the USA and China are tenth and eleventh in the alternative league, with one per 4.89 million and one per 19.5 million respectively.

An image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance orbiter captured the Curiosity rover still connected to its 51-foot-wide (almost 16 meter) parachute as it descended towards its landing site at Gale Crater.

The image was taken while MRO was 211 miles (340 kilometers) away from the parachuting rover. Curiosity and its rocket-propelled backpack, contained within the conical-shaped back shell, had yet to be deployed. At the time, Curiosity was about two miles (three kilometers) above the Martian surface.

John, 9M6XRO, and Steve, 9M6DXX, will be operating as 9M4SLL from Pulau Layang Layang, Spratly Islands (IOTA AS-051) from 7 to 13 August inclusive.

Activity will be on all bands from 80 to 10m, CW, SSB and RTTY, using two stations with linear amplifiers to vertical antennas on the edge of the ocean.

Spratly stands at number 29 in the current The DX Magazine ‘100 Most Needed Countries’ survey (world-wide, mixed modes), up from number 32 last year.

NASA’s most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.

Curiosity landed near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside Gale Crater. During a nearly two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether the region ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.