Author - Charles M0OXO

Ofcom today announce the use of special Callsigns and NOV’s to celebrate the Royal Wedding later this month;

Facilitating the use of special temporary Amateur call signs in respect of the Royal Wedding for Amateurs holding UK; Full Licences, Full (Reciprocal) Licences, Intermediate Licences and Foundation Licences;

1. Following a request from the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), Ofcom has decided to permit Amateurs holding valid UK; Full Licences, Full (Reciprocal) Licences, Intermediate Licences and Foundation Licences to apply for and receive authorisation for the use of individual special temporary call signs which are linked to their existing licensed call sign.

2. The only format for the individual special temporary call sign permitted, is as follows:
Subject to prior authorisation, the existing Regional Secondary Locator in the existing call sign may be replaced by the Letter “R” except in the case where no Secondary Locator exists, the Letter “R” may be inserted as a Secondary Locator. For the avoidance of doubt, where the existing call sign commences with the digit “2”, the Secondary Locator i.e. the second character of the existing call sign (the letter “E”, “U”, “D”, “J”, “I”, “M” or “W”) may be replaced by the letter “R”.

3. The duration for use of these special temporary call signs will be from 29 April 2011 through to 9 May 2011 inclusive only.

4. Examples:
MØOXO is amended to MRØOXO
GM0ABC is amended to GR0ABC
2E0ABC is amended to 2R0ABC
2W0ABC is amended to 2R0ABC
2J0ABC is amended to 2R0ABC
M1ABC is amended to MR1ABC
MI0ABC is amended to MR0ABC
MD6ABC is amended to MR6ABC
MU3ABC is amended to MR3ABC

5. To facilitate the administrative process, applicants, both members and non-members of the RSGB must apply to the RSGB and on-line only, by using the following web link: http://www.etcc.rsgb.org/RoyalWedding

6. The RSGB will liaise with Ofcom prior to Ofcom granting the authorisations, and following which, the authorisation will be received by the applicant from the RSGB as indicated on the RSGB website. Any queries regarding the processing of the NoV must be directed in the first instance to the RSGB and not to Ofcom.

7. Early application is encouraged, as Ofcom will aim to process only those requests received by 18.00 on 26 April 2011, although timely receipt of the Notice of Variation to the Licence (NoV) by the applicant from the RSGB will also be dependent on RSGB processing time. NoVs will not be distributed after 28 April 2011.

Click here to apply for your NoV.

MRØOXO Nov applied for and LOTW Certificate already received!!!

73 de Charles

This report from the DX Code of Conduct Committee – Randy W6SJ;

We have received over 12,700 unique visitors to our website.  This is a significant accomplishment given that we have now been “in business” for just a year and our budget is zero. Over 80% of the visitors are NOT from the U.S.A. so we are achieving our goal of having this be a truly universal, international movement.

We have added more clubs and more DXpeditions who endorse the Code. Feedback from some DXpeditions suggests that we are making good progress.

We have recently developed a new logo. We should have done this a year ago but getting it translated into over 30 languages seemed more important at that time.  So here it is top left of this report.
I hope each of you will put this on your website or QRZ.COM page and use it as a link. Ideally, every DXer, particularly the ones who NEED to align their operating practices with the Code, will see it and realize how strong the support is.

To that end, it is incumbent on each of you to carry this message

1. to your HF operator friends, particularly DXers,

2. to  your club, especially if it is a DX club,

3. to your national society and encourage them to send information about the Code to their memberships and to post the logo at their society website.

Get EVERYONE to put the logo up on the web so we can increase our visibility.

We have a Power Point that is intended for use at Club meetings.  It is available with an audio track, or you can narrate it yourself.

Cards on their way to the Bureau…..

346 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for KP2ZZ
203 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for V25G
231 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for KP2/G4RCG.
320 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for GBØANT.
140 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for GB4IPY.
120 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for MØOXO.
460 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for G4RCG.
140 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for GB4IPY.
67 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for ZD8UW
73 Cards to the RSGB Bureau today (04th March 2011) for VP8DMN
17 Cards Direct for PW2D.
20 Cards Direct for 4W3A.

All Bureau Cards have now been dispatched and I have none pending.

A ball bearing makes turning the mast effortless even with a very heavy headload. A brake is provided. The bottom of the mast ‘box’ fits into a field base plate which can tilt in two planes to accommodate sloping ground up to 20°. A protractor ring is fitted calibrated in increments of 5°. The top socket for the antenna attachment is 40 mm dia. Hand operated locking collars on each telescopic section of the mast allow sections to be individually locked in the extended or closed positions.

Feeder cables are prevented from flapping in the wind by the provision of rubber guide rings. At the top of the mast the collar, to which guys may be attached, is arranged to allow the mast and feeder cables to rotate 360° within the guy ropes. Although a handpump is included in the standard kit, when the mast is vehicle mounted, a small Clark Masts battery powered compressor is preferable.

The inclusion of the Prop stand, enables the mast to be raised clear of the ground for antenna attachment. Then with 2 legs already fixed to the mast box, the whole can be lifted into the vertical position and the 3rd and 4th legs added. Legs are then adjusted with reference to the bubble level.

Let’s see how it performs over the next few days at this, an extremely windy and exposed location as you can see above!

Japan remains under its worst threat to an ever rising toll, widespread
destruction, power, fuel and water shortages follow the massive earthquake,
tsunami and failed 40-year old nuclear power stations.

Ken JA1CJP quoting local news sources said, “The situation is getting worse.
On March 15, police announced that 2,414 people have been killed (up from
1,627 24 hours earlier) and 3,118 are reported missing (about double in the
same period).

“Some 55,380 houses/buildings were damaged by the earthquake and 3,000
houses washed away by the tsunami.”Thousands of bodies are reported to have been found on the coast of the tsunami suffered area,” he said. A Miyagi prefecture source says that the death toll will be in the order of ten
thousands in that prefecture alone.

Rescue teams have arrived and started their activities in the affected areas. They came from many nations including Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, China, USA, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, United Kingdom and Russia.

The 8.9 on the Richter scale quake hit off north-eastern Sendai durning the late afternoon on Friday March 11, and triggered a ten-metre tsunami. At the request of Central Emergency Communication Committee, Ken JA1CJP, the IARU Regional 3 Secretary, said the JARL is operating its HQ station JA1RL in Tokyo, and regional HQ stations.

Earlier it was reported that JA1RL was using 7 MHz SSB, 144 MHz SSB/FM and 430 MHz SSB/FM. He said, “Many other radio amateurs are thanked for providing information and exchanging support to the rescue and disaster
relief operations. Those who can operate in the affected areas are providing a lifeline for rescue teams and those at local shelters. Some stations are operating with car batteries and others with engine generators.”

Ken JA1CJP said, “Another problem is the nuclear power plant where the water
supply system failure caused overheating of the nuclear fuel bar. That
causes some radioactive gas release from the plant and people have been
evacuated from the surrounding area.”

Many other stations are active and are using various frequencies including some battery powered and others using small generators to exchange rescue and disaster relief operation information with JA1RL and others.

While 3525, 7030, 7043 and 7075 have been mentioned as in use, it’s wise to keep those and all of the Centre of Emergency (CoA) clear of normal and non-urgent traffic.

I think everyone’s thoughts this week go out to the Japanese Nation.

Images (courtesy of Google) above show before and after shots on Minima Sanriku, one of the worst affected areas.

Conditions still remain good but from one day good to one day bad. 10/12/15 metres have been the bands to watch of late with very good propagation to the Caribbean and also to the Far East. As well as several JA, BY and VK on 15M, I worked my first JA on 12M along with JT, VU, ZS & D2 on 10M.

The Band on 10M was well open by 0900UTC and VK stations were very abundant. After several qso’s with VK4, I managed to work Stuie VK8NSB in Darwin, cracking signal here and made all the more interesting by watching his live internet feed, (watching the qso through the internet whilst at the same time talking on 10m), amazing.

Shortly afterwards I heard Brendon VK8FQRP calling again on 10M, calling from Wanguri in the Northern Territory of Australia. His RST was 59 down to 57 with QSB and in return I received 59. Brendon was running 10 watts into a 3 element Quad (Photo above) as opposed to my 400w into the 2 element SteppIR. Brendon then suggested a qso with 1 Watt, just to see if we could make it and I obliged. I turned my power down as low as possible (FT1000MP around 3-10 watts?, difficult to measure accurately) and Brendon returned with 1 watt. He still had a 4/1 signal into my QTH, quite remarkable, even more so that it happened on 10M SSB!

Well done Brendon, hope to hear you again soon!

All the Qsl Card requests for the Yorkshire Dales Day event (GB1YDD) have now been issued.

If you require a Qsl Card confirmation for this event (WFF- GFF-020) then please email me or apply on-line here and I will drop one in the system for you.

Dxpedition team now Qrv on Sable Island (IOTA NA-063).

Managed to work them on 17m this lunch time with a very good signal.

The contact not only gave me a precious all time new DXCC, but also my 500th IOTA reference!

Many thanks Wayne & good luck with the trip!

Earlier today, International Space Station (ISS) transited the Sun and it was visible over south Florida.

“The ISS paid a visit to the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys,” says Allan Friedman, a resident of New York.

“A fine transit of the ISS across the sun was scheduled for 2:39 p.m. not far from this annual gathering of astronomers.

I was scheduled to give a talk on astrophotography ending at 1:30 p.m. As soon as it was done, I made a mad dash to set up and record the pass.

We barely made it in time to catch the ISS silhouetted against the limb of the sun.
Total elapsed time of the transit from our location at Knights Key Resort and Marina – one fifth of a second. A blink of an eye and an 1800 mile drive to see it!”

There were two good passes of the ISS in the UK last night. Sadly though, both the Space Shuttle Discovery and the ISS had ‘merged’ by the time it go to us so no viewing of Discovery as a seperate unit :-(. Nevertheless, it was awesome as always (IMHO)!.

A solar wind stream hit Earth’s magnetic field on March 1st, sparking a day-long geomagnetic storm and bright auroras around the Arctic Circle.

NASA space physicist James Spann photographed the display from Poker Flat, Alaska.