Author - Charles M0OXO

Harald (DF2WO, D44TWO) will be QRV next Year from Burkina Faso.

He will be active on SSB and CW during the last week of January and the end of February 2014 from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country’s largest city, with a population of 1,475,223. The city’s name is often shortened to Ouaga.

The fastest way to receive any Qsl Card I manage is to request them via M0OXO OQRS.

Ant MW0JZE will be QRV later this week from Kos (IOTA EU-001).

Ant’s Callsign will be SV5/MW0JZE and he will be operating ‘holiday-style’ whilst taking a family break on the Greek Island of Kos. Listen for him between 19th & 25th September 2013.

He will be running 100 watts from an Elecraft K3 into a vertical antenna. Bands will depend upon propagation and conditions but it will be restricted to HF operation only.

QSL is via M0OXO OQRS (preferred) Direct or Bureau.

Your Qsl Cards are NOT required

This year the National Hamfest Team are really working hard to make it even bigger and more enjoyable this year.

Rob Mannion G3XFD, Practical Wireless Editor starts the lecture program at 1100 on Friday with his talk titled:- “Rob’s PW Club Visits & Other Editor’s Adventures – Including the Admiral who ‘encouraged’ G3XFD to join the magazine!

For the first time Elecraft are coming at the invitation of Waters & Stanton and are providing their new K3 line to be used for the National Hamfest Special Event Station GB13NH. (You will be allowed to operate GB13NH if you bring your own licence to the event.)

You can receive the latest updates by following the National Hamfest on Twitter @N_Hamfest and we are even on Facebook

See more info as the dates approach on their website click here.

With the Sun’s disk almost completely devoid of sunspots, solar flare activity has come to a halt. Measurements by NOAA’s GOES 15 satellite show that the sun’s global x-ray emission, a key metric of solar activity, has flatlined.

The quiet is unlikely to break this weekend. NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 1% chance of M- or X-class solar flares during the next 24-48 hours.

The quiet spell is a bit strange because 2013 is supposed to be a year of solar maximum, with lots of flares and sunspots. Supporting this view are data from NASA-supported observatories which show that the sun’s magnetic field is poised to flip–a long-held sign that Solar Max has arrived. Nevertheless, solar activity is low.

One possible explanation is that Solar Max is double-peaked and we are in the valley between peaks. If so, solar activity could surge again in late 2013-2014. No one can say for sure, though. Researchers have been studying sunspots for more than 400 years, and we still cannot predict the behavior of the solar cycle. Continued quiet or stormy space weather? Both are possible in the weeks and months ahead.

(tnx SpaceWeather.com)

News from Michael G7VJR that his popular DX Cluster program DX Lite has been upgraded.

He says ”dxlite is a popular little tool I wrote about 5 years ago, designed to provide lightweight HTML access to the latest DX Cluster spots. The number of pages served by DXLite is sometimes thousands an hour, mainly from mobile phone clients but also from PCs and Macs. DXLite has some minimal searching filters which are explained in the docs, so if you’ve never come across it before and wonder what the big deal is then you can start here.”

Read more on his blog at http://g7vjr.org/2013/09/dxlite-implemented-as-a-zero-message-queue-json/

The HP0INT Team are now Qrv from the penultimate Island as their Panamanian Island tour continues.

I managed to work them this afternoon on 15m which leaves just the last Island to log later this week when they arrive at Colon (Bocas Del Torro) NA-088 in a few days time (all being well).

Signals today from Iguana Island NA-203 were a lot better than the previous activation of NA-202 when they were hampered by high terrain towards EU making signals very weak for me at least.

More information can be found on their website at http://www.invokerteam.com/hp0int/

Toshi JA6TBE is currently qrv from Tsushima Island IOTA AS-036.

Tsushima Island is an Island of the Japanese archipelago situated in the north of the Tsushima Strait, between the Japanese mainland and the Korean Peninsula. The island group measures about 45 miles (72 km) by 10 miles (16 km) and has a population of about 34,000 as of 2013.

Thanks for the new IOTA Toshi san, good to hear you this afternoon!

At last I can report that the Qsl Cards for G_100C are now at the print shop (not the image on the left of this page).

This has been a long wait since the event started in January and I offer my apologies to all who have already requested a card by one of the several routes available for the RSGB Special centenery Event.

The delay has been out of my control unfortunately but I would like to thank Rob G4LMW for his work over the last week which will result in the fast processing of the cards when they arrive.

Please keep an eye on this Blog and I will post up to date information over the next few weeks on the progress of the cards. I expect them in three weeks time and they will be processed immediately on receipt.

Again please let me offer my apologies for what has really been an unacceptable delay.

Since the introduction of the new WWFF program and to avoid confusion with the old WFF program, I have now removed the WFF pages from this website.

If you wish to find information regarding WWFF then please contact Andrew M6ADB at http://m6adb.me.uk or visit the new WWFF site at http://www.wwff.co/

73 de Charles

Toffy DJ6ZM plans be QRV in Belize during the last week of October this year as V31ZM.

He is a member of the FOC fraternity so expect some good CW operating during his stay.

Qsl via M0OXO OQRS.