Category - Blog

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.

An impromtu mailing session over the weekend took place chez G3NUG!

Whilst attending the CDXC (Chiltern DX Club) Summer Social/AGM in Leominster I took the opportunity to get rid of a few Qsl cards to various people attending including Michael G7VJR (left) and Tim M0URX (right).

Just over 7Kilo of outgoing cards were left with Tim for onward mailing direct to World Bureaux (not via the RSGB) via our Royal Mail mailing contract and also a few incoming cards for Michael G7VJR were included in the mailing session. I have approx 1 Kilo to send to RSGB Bureau (all for ‘G’ stations) and 2 Kilo that need mailing to Japan which will go later this week once D44TWO cards are mailed (see previous blog entry).

Thanks to Nigel G3TXF for the Photo. There are several more on Nigel’s website if you would like to see them click here. Check out the link if you would like know more about the CDXC group and membership information.

The Qsl Cards for the D44TWO trip arrived yesterday and I will have them mailed on Friday 26th July.

My apologies to anyone for the slight delay but it took almost two weeks for the Photos to arrive from Harald as he had an unfortunate accident and was hospitalised for a short time.

If you need a Qsl Card for this trip then please use the link here at M0OXO OQRS. Your card is NOT required so please DO NOT SEND one, it is unnecessary!

Have you ever had trouble identifying different noises on the Bands? Maybe a usual one which we class as ‘Radar’, Digital Modes such as PSK or RTTY or maybe just something that arrives at short notice and you haven’t heard it before?

Check out a few of these noises on the links listed below. Its likely you will find the answer here;

– Plasma-TV on 3500 kHz (USB)
– Plasma-TV on 3500 kHz (AM)
– Plasma-TV (standby condition) on 3500 kHz
– TV switching power supply on 14000 kHz
– Small LCD-TV on 7000 kHz
– Large LCD-TV on 3515 kHz (USB)
– TFT Computer Monitor on 21377 kHz
– Computer monitor on 18100 kHz
– Broadband (DSL) modem on 21000 kHz

Failing that, click the link below to see a full list of the many soundfiles that should help you identify what you hear;

IARU Region 1 Monitoring System Soundfiles

Every year the IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) holds an international amateur radio contest organised by the ARRL.

The contest is usually held on the second full weekend of July, beginning 1200 UTC Saturday and ending 1200 UTC Sunday (July 13-14, 2013). Both Single and Multi operator stations may operate the entire 24-hour period.  Detailed information can be found on the ARRL IARU HF Championship website.

The objective of this contest is for radio amateurs to contact as many other radio amateurs, and especially IARU member society HQ stations, around the world using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands, by Morse (CW)  and Voice  (SSB).

GR2HQ is the callsign being used by the UK Headquarters Station. This the callsign of the team which represents the RSGB and UK amateurs.

This intention behind this website is to provide information specific to the GR2HQ entry, how and when to work the station, the awards available to those contacting the station,and of course QSL information.

2013 is the Centenary of the RSGB, an organisation that played a major part in the IARU and of course the early days of radio communications.

Click here to see more information about Awards and how to request your Qsl Card from GR2HQ!

Please remember, we DO NOT NEED YOUR QSL CARD, please DO NOT SEND IT !

Every QSO counts ! Including yours ! 

British Airways has released photos of the first Airbus A380, MSN95, painted in the airline’s red, white and blue livery this week. Here ius a little ‘useless’ information for you;

It took 24 painters at Airbus’ Hamburg hangar two weeks to complete using eight movable platforms up to 30 meters from the ground.

They applied five coats of red, white and blue gloss paint (2,300 litres of paint) covering an area of 3,500 square meters and with a total weight of the paint totalling 650kg.

Check out this great You Tube video of the handover to BA and also of the aircraft in flight (click here)