Category - Blog

An Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on 31st January 2013 (07:09 UTC) was accompanied by a large prominence eruption best visible in light with a wavelength of 304 angstroms.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this footage from 10 p.m. January. 30, 2013, to 4 a.m. the next morning. In this video, the imaging cadence is one frame every 36 seconds

The Heliospheric Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 575 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs. Historically, CMEs at this speed are mild.

Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later. Click image to see YouTube video.

A large filament stretching hundreds of thousands of kilometers erupted on Thursday 31st january, 2012. The eruption lasted about 4 hours and was located in the northeast quadrant of the Sun.

The following SDO video shows a variety of views of the break-up of this structure.

Filaments are anchored to the Sun’s surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun’s hot outer atmosphere, called the corona. A filament forms over timescales of about a day, and stable filaments may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space. (Click image to see YouTube video).

Some of the plasma was released into space but not all could escape the gravitational pull of the Sun. It’s not surprising that plasma should fall back to the Sun. After all, the Sun’s gravity is powerful.

Filaments are formed in magnetic loops that hold relatively cool, dense gas suspended above the surface of the Sun. When you look down on top of them they appear dark because the gas inside is cool compared to the hot photosphere below. But when we see a filament in profile against the dark sky it looks like a giant glowing loop — these are called prominences and they can be spectacular.

The latest video from the International Space Station (courtesy of the crew of Expedition 34) shows the view from ISS when crossing from night into day, and then slips back into night again.

ISS cross the terminator and experience this day-night cycle 16 times a day. This sped-up view shows two complete orbits on 3rd January 2013 from 11:43 to 15:49 UTC.

The sequence of shots were taken on a pass from northwestern Australia, making two complete orbits to eastern Quebec, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This fast-paced video features the ISS completing two and a half orbits around the Earth, crossing the terminator line several times in the process.

Click the image to view the YouTube video.

Listen out from this weekend for more special event stations on air celebrating the RSGB Centenery.

Following from their successful operations of GR2HQ and GO2HQ, starting this weekend the teams will activate on HF the Callsign ”G1ØØC” from England. Following this event we expect to see ”GM1ØØC” from Scotland, ”GW1ØØC” from Wales and ”GJ1ØØC” from Jersey also take to the air (dates and times to be fixed). You can keep an eye on who is operating and from where by clicking here.

Please keep an eye on this blog entry and I will post more information when I have it along with the website which will hold all information for these events.

Qsl route is via MØOXO OQRS (Your Qsl Cards are not required so please do not send them!). GL !!

Not being my first mode of choice albeit still vy pleased to receive the Certificate for working 600+ Prefix’s on PSK-31.

The European PSK Club, or EPC for short, is an informal club of amateur radio operators dedicated to maintaining high levels of amateur radio communications on PSK modes. Its purpose is to promote activity and good operating practice on the PSK modes on all amateur bands. Membership is FREE for any licensed radio amateur, club or SWL. All of our managers serve on a voluntary basis. A high quality and colorful membership certificate in PDF format is sent via email to new members when membership is granted. Each new member is assigned a unique “EPC Number” which is retained for life.

Well credit where its due, congratulations to ARRL LOTW (Logbook of the World) Staff after the latest upgrades to their system.

There was much criticism from some corners about the delays and performance of LOTW over the last few months but after the hardware upgrade, what a fantastic difference it has made. Logs are uploaded with incredible speed so whatever technicians have done has made a huge impact on the doubters of LOTW and a huge difference on its performance.

Granted my latest upload of my personal log was only a few Qso’s but nevertheless to process it and have the results available in less than 2 seconds is incredible (see below).

2013-01-22 08:26:04 LOTW_QSO: Successfully processed 32 QSO records in 1.571724 seconds 2013-01-22 08:26:04 LOTW_QSO: 1 QSL record entered 2013-01-22 08:26:04 LOTW_QSO: No errors encountered

It wasn’t a fluke either! I have uploaded several other logs for ‘managed’ stations and there upload has been at equal speed. If you would like to know more about LOTW then click the image above.

Well done LOTW !

Out near the orbit of Jupiter, a faint speck of light is moving through the black of space.  At first glance it doesn’t look like much, no brighter than a thousand distant stars speckling the velvet sky behind it; indeed, it takes a big telescope make out that it is a comet. But what a comet it could turn out to be…?

Later this year, “Comet ISON” could blossom into a striking naked eye object visible even in broad daylight.  

“Comet ISON is a sungrazer,” explains Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab. “The orbit of the comet will bring it very close to the sun, which we know can be a spectacular thing.”

On the 28th November 2013, this “dirty snowball” will fly through the sun’s atmosphere little more than a million km from the stellar surface. If the comet survives–a big IF–it could emerge glowing as brightly as the Moon, briefly visible near the sun in broad daylight. The comet’s dusty tail stretching into the night sky could create a worldwide sensation.

Click the image above to view the YouTube video.

Thanks again to the Award Managers in the European PSK Club for the latest Awards received. A couple of  the selection are shown here.

The European PSK Club, or EPC for short, is an informal club of amateur radio operators dedicated to maintaining high levels of amateur radio communications on PSK modes. Its purpose is to promote activity and good operating practice on the PSK modes on all amateur bands. Membership is FREE for any licensed radio amateur, club or SWL. All of our managers serve on a voluntary basis. A high quality and colorful membership certificate in PDF format is sent via email to new members when membership is granted. Each new member is assigned a unique “EPC Number” which is retained for life.

David ZS1BCE has been appointed as the new radio technician for Marion Island until 2014.

He departs from Cape Town in April this year and will only be active once the ship departs with the old team about 4 weeks later. He will be active on most HF bands; SSB only.

No call sign has been applied for yet, but David wishes to apply for ZS8D. Our old friend Pierre Tromp ZS1HF / ZS8M will be his Qsl Manager.

All enquiries strictly via ZS1HF.