Archive - November 2012

On November 28, 2012 the moon will slide through the Earth’s pale outer shadow or penumbra, resulting in a penumbral lunar eclipse.

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and Moon but the three celestial bodies do not form a perfectly straight line. The Earth revolves around the Sun and the Moon circles the Earth. During Full Moon, the Earth passes roughly between Moon and Sun.

Click here to see the event from the Slooh Space Camera who will webcast it live from The Canary Islands.

A big new sunspot (AR1618) has emerged near the center of the solar disk, and it is crackling with strong M-class solar flares.

NOAA forecasters estimate a 70% chance of more M-flares today, and a 15% chance of powerful X-flares.

If the rapid growth of AR1618 continues at this pace, the Thanksgiving holiday (USA) and the next few days could be filled with stormy space weather!

For the none-radiio hams reading this, the sun is a star, a hot ball of glowing gases at the heart of our solar system. Its influence extends far beyond the orbits of distant Neptune and Pluto.

Without the sun’s intense energy and heat, there would be no life on Earth. And though it is special to us, there are billions of stars like our sun scattered across the Milky Way galaxy which also influence heavily the regions around them.

The pilot, who was suffering from a severe migraine, was taken to hospital and the flight made its way to Frankfurt after a replacement was found.

A Lufthansa spokesperson has officially thanked the off-duty pilot for their efforts in helping to land the plane.

However, in an interview with dailymail.co.uk, they were keen to make it clear that the passengers would have been fine even without this lucky occurrence.

“In such circumstances, it’s absolutely normal procedure for the pilot, the flight captain, to continue to operate the aircraft. Also, where necessary, the cabin crew are fully trained and can be called upon to read checklists back to the pilot,” they explained.

“The procedures are in place for such an eventuality – but the efforts of the off-duty pilot were certainly appreciated.”

Lufthansa 747 – D-ABVH – Photo © Ferdi – pinkfroot.com – Thanks!

 Information from FRC members Sam WT3Q and Dale N3BNA who just operated at the station on behalf of the club during the recent CQ WW SSB ,is that the station location, all the radio equipment and the various award plaques from previous contest wins are all destroyed . The antennas remained intact.

Those involved with the station have vowed to rebuild.

Bud, AA3B was to operate from there, signing V26K, during CQ WW CW contest. he was contacted him to ask what was happening and this is his response:

 Hi Bob,

I’m in Antigua. The shack was destroyed but we’re going to try and put something together. We’ll see,

Bud AA3B

While aboard the ISS, Williams, Malenchenko and Hashide completed 39 contacts with schools via the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project. According to NASA ISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, this ties with Expedition 15 for the fourth highest number of contacts. In 2011, Expedition 26 — led by Scott Kelly — set the record for having the most ARISS contacts at 73.

Of the 39 school contacts made by Expedition 33, 14 were via telebridge, while 25 took place directly between the school and the ISS via Amateur Radio. A telebridge contact uses an ARISS Amateur Radio ground station and establishes the radio link with the ISS; voice communications between the students and the astronauts are then patched over regular telephone lines. Williams completed 22 contacts with the US, Australia, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Malaysia, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and India. “In India, we can’t have a direct ISS-to-school contact,” Ransom explained. “We have to use telebridge because you cannot become a licensed radio amateur in that country before the age of 18. That means the school children can’t legally talk on the radio, so we use a telebridge station so they can participate in the contact.”

Malenchenko made two contacts, one with the Ukraine and another with Russia, while Hashide completed 15, including four with his native Japan, as well as with the US, Germany, Australia, Poland and Italy.

“Though the Expedition 32/33 crew’s time was short on the ISS, they made the most of it for ARISS,” Ransom told the ARRL. “Sunita added 22 to her previous total of 33 events, which puts her on top for the most career schools talked to from orbit. Aki also made a great run supporting 15 events, which is an ideal number for a single crew member. We always see good numbers and great events when Sunita Williams is on orbit. She is very education-oriented and has a great way with the kids.”

Update from the team – Log updated, 12517 QSOs loaded

Strong winds and large swells continue but the weather is fine otherwise. We are now running three stations during the day and two during the night.

The very limited Internet bandwidth is a major problem as we have trouble (and large expense) uploading the logs. Also, we do not have enough bandwidth (and time) to deal with individual log search requests. We intend to make log corrections once we are back on land, but until then the logs are as published. If you can not find your QSO in the log, please work us again: it will not be a dupe! Also, we are unable to upload pictures at this time.

Today we will do maintenance on the main (160 – 10) vertical, as a large wave has almost knocked it down during the night. Also, we need to move some of the RX antennas as the Brazilian Navy crew is doing their work on the structures we have attached them to. We are also working on a dedicated 10 m vertical to run on that band when 6 meters is not open.

Because of the lack of room, we do not have space to sleep during the day. Because of that, and the daytime workload, we are getting very tired. (I fell asleep at the key on 160 two or three times last night. Sorry if it caused any confusion.)

Not likely i’ll be attending but I am sure someone from the UK will?

Anyway……The International Fair Radiocommunication takes place in Brazil. It’s the only event dedicated exclusively to radio in their country and this year it reaches its sixth year.

2012 brings major changes and innovations to a greater number of companies to showcase their latest innovations and technologies as well as cover a large number of visitors from all over Brazil and abroad.

Check out the Araucaria DX Group website by clicking here.

The CWJF Group began in the 80’s with the ideas of an excellent telegrafist, our dear friend Julio (PY4AG) who with customary cordiality taught those interested in practice of morse code.

The number of his students grew and CW became common practice of hams in Juiz de Fora. However one of these hams was outstanding in the facility with wich he learned in few lessons the reception and transmission of CW. This was our fellow member Paulo (PY4EM).

Conversation at their work place gave Julio and Paulo the idea of forming a Group of CW in the city, at first, with local amateurs only. Meanwhile as the idea consolidated, two other amateurs joined them to begin a club, Guimaraes (PY4CY) and Alvaro (PY4RU), now a silent key.

So as not to lose time, Paulo made an sketch for the diploma of the Club and drew up its by-laws.

Finally a first meeting was called on May 31, 1985, the Anniversary of the City. By the end of this first day the Juiz de Fora Group for CW (CWJF) was formed with Julio (PY4AG) as president of the first directory and with a group of 17 member operators. However by the end of the decade of the 80’s the group paralyzed its activities, only regrouping in Feb. 1993.

This year of 93 a Manchester Mineira Contest was created and in May 1993 our first contest was held for all Brazil with excellent results, which gave us the enthusiasm to continue. Several alterations in the statutes were processed principally to allow Radio Amateurs of other states and countries to take part in the group.

We are the 1st Group of CW in Brazil to maintain a national contest with participation of at least one Amateur from each state in Brazil, fact happened in 94 and repeated in 95.

For 10 consecutive years (1993 – 2003) we have surpassed our own records, a remarkable feat.

In 1997, after receiving many letters from Radio Amateurs from Latin America we enlarged the scope of our contest to all of the South American continent, obtaining with this exceptional indices of participation. At the present time more than 200 Amateurs belong to the Club, with great honor.

Our next objective is to consolidate during the next years the Manchester Mineira Contest in all America (South America, Central America, North America). In 2011, the Manchester Mineira All America CW Contest was expanded to all five (5) continents, with the new name of: CQ Manchester Mineira DX Contest.

The CQ MM DX Context, is to be held on the 3rd weekend of April.

The 7th EPC BPSK63 QSO Party 2012 takes place this coming weekend.

The European PSK Club has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the EPC PSK63 QSO Party. The objective of the competition is to establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world by using the BPSK63 mode.

Everybody can work everybody for QSO and multiplier credit. MixW statistics files by R3BB for PSK63 QSO Party: http://www.digitalrus.ru/Files/StatsEUEPC.zip

Eduardo CO8LY and his Family in their home prior to the Hurricane

Damage to CO8LY Ham Station

Further damage to station of CO8LY

Images above of the damage to the home of Eduardo/CO8LY are courtesy Frank/EA7ADH.

Please see the full story and images by clicking here. Any support you can give Frank and his Family by way of Donations is also welcomed.