Please note that I will not be available between Sunday 2nd September 2013 and Sunday 8th September 2013.
I will respond to emails and Qsl queries as and when i have time.
Last mailing before this period is will be today (Friday 30th August 2013) and next mailing after today will be Friday 13th September.
Apologies for any inconvenience between these periods.
73 de Charles
Craig VK5CE reports on his blog that he is back home safe and sound from his recent and succesfull activation of Flinders Island OC-261.
Read Craig’s account of the trip on his Blog at http://oc261.blogspot.com.au/
Marc is now QRV as V31MA from San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize.
This is not a major Dxpedition just a ‘holiday-style’ operation so the Callsign will be on air as and when Marcs other duties allow it. Main mode of operation will be SSB but also possibility of CW and DATA.
Logs will be uploaded to Clublog during his stay and traditional Qsl Cards will be available via M0OXO OQRS once printing has taken place after the operation ends. LOTW will follow as and when possible.
Your Qsl Cards are NOT REQUIRED. Please do not send Qsl cards via the bureau, please use M0OXO OQRS for ALL BUREAU requests.
If you are a radio amateur but don’t have a QSL card, maybe you are not satisfied with your current cards or just that you have run out of QSLs then here is an easy solution from myself & from Gennady Treus UX5UO.
UX5UO Qsl print offer a fast, cheap and efficient service to produce the card you desire. There is also the option to pay via Paypal, Cheque, Postal Order or Bank Transfer using their agent in the UK, me !! No more having to go into your Bank and do time wasting foreign bank transfers, this is easy.
Check out these links and see if we can help you at all, it cost nothing to ask!
http://www.m0oxo.com/ux5uo-qsl-cards.html
VK5CWL commenced operations from Kangaroo island (IOTA OC-139) this morning as part of the International Lighthouse & Lightship weekend (ILLW).
The main activation isCape Willoughby lighthouse on Kangaroo Island, but the IOTA is also in high demand by IOTA chasers too (including me!).
The call sign was issued in 2013, and this year’s ILLW event ( 2013) will be the first time that this call has been utilised.
VK5CWL will be on air from Friday 16th August 2013 – Monday 19th August, 2013 inclusive and you can read more about their event at http://vk5cwl.weebly.com/index.html
The trip to Flinders Island had a successful first day on air yesterday and continuing today with S9 signals (LP) on 20M SSB.
Flinders Island is an island off the coast of South Australia. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his younger brother Samuel Flinders, a midshipman on HMS Investigator in 1801. It is part of the Investigator Group and an important Bird Area
The island has been subject to diamond exploration following the discovery of a wide range of kimberlite indicator minerals there. These minerals include chromite, pyrope, diopside, picroilmenite, forsterite, orthopyroxene, as well as small diamonds.
Read more about the trip on Craig’s blog at http://oc261.blogspot.co.uk/
May I just remind you that I no longer accept IRC’s.
Soon IRC’s will no longer be able to be cashed in the UK and due to that, prior to the 31st May this year I posted a message on the web page ”How to Qsl” that I would no longer be able to accept them as a method of payment for sending out Direct Qsl requests.
I am still receiving IRC’s at an alarming rate so clearly no-one is taking notice of the information.
Please note that forthwith, I will destroy any IRC’s received as payment for postage costs and the requested Qsl cards WILL BE RETURNED VIA THE BUREAU.
….then check out The Daily DX or The Weekly DX for immediate news from the DX World.
The Daily DX™ – is a text DX bulletin sent via e-mail to your home or office Monday through Friday and includes DX news, IOTA news, QSN reports, QSL information, a DX Calendar, propagation forecast and much, much more. With a subscription to The Daily DX you will also receive DX news flashes and other interesting DX tidbits. You can see a sample here.
The Weekly DX™ – is a product of The Daily DX that can be sent weekly to your home or office via e-mail in the form of a PDF (portable document format). It includes DX news, IOTA news, QSN reports, QSL information, a DX Calendar, propagation forecast and graphics. You can see a sample here.
You can find more information on the website at http://www.dailydx.com/
You may find this article of interest, written by Clublog Author Michael G7VJR?
”A question that comes up in the context of DXpeditions is just how many uniques are there out there? We’re aware that there are at least 50,000 (a record set by T32C in 2011) but can we estimate the full size of the population?
I ran a short database analysis against Club Log’s records for QSOs made after 1 January 2012. How many unique callsigns are worked in each continent?…..”
Read the full article by visiting Michaels website (click here).
During last 24 hours solar wind stream buffeted Earth’s magnetic field causing geomagnetic storms around the poles. Geomagnetic conditions were short lived reaching G1 – Minor geomagnetic storm levels (Kp=5). At those levels weak power grid fluctuations can occur, minor impact on satellite operations is possible, migratory animals are affected at this and higher levels and aurora is commonly visible at high latitudes.
At about 05:13 UTC on August 4, Phi angle became positive (away) and total field, temperature and wind speed began to rise. Wind speed rose from 350 km/s to a maximum of 586 km/s at 23:00 UTC.
The Bz component turned mostly southward for several hours and reached -13 nT by 20:25 UTC. This sequence of events brought unsettled levels of activity and a single period of minor storm conditions between 15-18 UTC.
During the same period, major storm levels were observed at high latitudes.
Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at mostly quiet levels in the absence of any transient solar wind features. Recurrent coronal hole high speed streams are expected to bring unsettled to active conditions on August 5, 6 and 8, August 18-19, 21-23 and 31.
There is a slight chance for minor storm conditions on August 5 and again on August 31.
