Archive - August 2014

There are many users of my OQRS Bureau facility, some of whom request multiples of 5-20 Qsl Cards at any one time. May I remind you that no bureau system or bureau requested card is ‘free’, it actually costs me a LOT of money. There is the cost of printing the QSL cards and also, as I mail Direct to World RSGB Bureau’s (not via the RSGB Bureau) for a far faster and efficent service, these costs come directly from my pocket.

Please therefore consider donating via PayPal towards these Qsl expenses. Donations of any amount (drop-down selection) can be made using the PayPal ”Donate” button in the Menu to the left of this message.  Thank you !

A one-kilometer long earth crack opened up on 15th of August 2014, in Sonora, Mexico. The crack severed Highway 26 between the city of Hermosillo and the coast. At some points it is 5 meters wide and 8 meters deep.

According to El Imparcial newspaper, it is still unknown what caused the crack but Municipal Civil Protection believes that it was triggered by an underground water stream. Some speculate that an earthquake at the San Andreas Fault last Sunday may have been the cause.

Geological investigations are underway. Another crack was reported to have opened near Highway 4 in the same area.

Click the image to see footage was recorded by aerial drone.

As many that read this blog are IOTA enthusuasts, it will be old news to all of you that electronic submission and credit is still not available and more than likely will not be for many years.

This recent presentation from our friend Rick (The Locust) K6VVA gives a new take on the subject and a way which he believes this could actually occur.

Click the image to view the 20 minute You Tube video of Rick’s ideas.

 The latest batch of the GB1PC special event cards have been mailed today.

Bureau cards for this event have also been prepared ready for the next mailing.

 If you require a card please use M0OXO OQRS. Thank you.

Craig VK5CE is now qrv from IOTA OC-173.

VK5CE/8 has arrived and started his Dxpedition from Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, Australia. Known as ‘the islands of smiles’, the Tiwi Islands, are located 100 kilometres north of Darwin, where the Arafura Sea joins the Timor Sea.

The Tiwi Islands comprise Bathurst and Melville Island, and nine smaller uninhabited islands: Buchanan, Harris, Seagull, Karslake, Irritutu, Clift, Turiturina, Matingalia and Nodlaw. Melville Island is Australia’s second largest island after Tasmania.

Almost 90% of the people living in the Tiwi Islands are of Aboriginal descent. They have occupied the Tiwi Islands for around 7,000 years.

Check out Craig’s website at http://oc173.blogspot.co.uk/

NASA’s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has traversed the orbit of Neptune. This is its last major crossing en route to becoming the first probe to make a close encounter with distant Pluto on July 14, 2015.

The sophisticated piano-sized spacecraft, which launched in January 2006, reached Neptune’s orbit — nearly 2.75 billion miles (4.4. billion kilometers) from Earth — in a record eight years and eight months. New Horizons’ milestone matches precisely the 25th anniversary of the historic encounter of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft with Neptune on 25th of August 1989.

A visually beautiful solar flare erupted from the east limb of the sun yesterday.

Extreme UV radiation briefly ionized the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere; otherwise, our planet was not in the line of fire. 

The responsible sunspot will turn toward Earth in the days ahead, boosting chances for geoeffective solar activity as the week unfolds.

Solar-terrestrial indices for 25th August are – Solar flux 141 and estimated planetary A-index 4. The estimated planetary K-index at 0300 UTC on the 25th August was 0.

7J4AAL in Japan is now the largest Yagi for 160m meters.

A “full size”, 3 elements, a monster on top of a 200 feet (60mts) rotating tower.

Solar activity has been low for weeks. A new sunspot turning toward Earth could change that.

AR2149 announced itself on the 21st of August with a M3-class solar flare that sent waves of ionization coursing through Earth’s upper atmosphere. 

The active region appears capable of more eruptions in the days ahead.

A team of Russian cosmonauts has deployed the Peruvian Chasqui-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat into orbit during a spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS).

Expedition 40 Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev released the tiny, 1 kg spacecraft at 1423 UTC on August 18. Chasqui-1 is a project of the Peruvian National University of Engineering (Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria or UNI), in collaboration with the Southwestern State University in Kursk, Russia. According to AMSAT-UK, the CubeSat’s batteries were charged last week.

It was launched in February 2014 on board a Progress cargo craft.