Category - Blog

GB1SAK England

From Nigel GB1SAK (M0NJW) ;
 
”The 2022 St Annes Kite festival was a roaring success. Thank you to all the callers and also to the amateurs that made themselves known at the event. Special thanks to all of you who received greetings messages from the general public visiting the festival and also to the Northern Kite Group for giving me kite advice and inviting me once again.
 
I hope that it has inspired some of you to suspend wire antennas from kites. Many callers seemed surprised at the station and were working a kite antenna for the first time.
 
QSL Cards available via M0OXO OQRS.
 
I hope to do it all again on the first weekend of September 2023”

3Y0J The Bouvet Island Dxpedition

3Y0J team is currently packing at our staging site at Oslo Airport, Norway. Temperature here is around 0’c degrees so we need warm clothing!
 
We will spend the whole weekend packing, and hopefully make great progress. Soon the container will be shipped.
 
 
 

The Transatlantic Centenary Tests

The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) are hosting an International Amateur Radio Activation, The Transatlantic Centenary Tests, on the HF bands to commemorate the centenary of the achievement of Amateur Transatlantic communication, during the Transatlantic Tests that were held between 1921 and 1923.
The Tests will run from 1 December 2022 to 31 December 2022.
24 December 1922 was when the very first amateur signal from Europe was heard in North America; this was from the RSGB station (G)5WS which was established at Wandsworth in South London, as part of the Third Transatlantic Tests.
Unlike the tests of the 1920s, which mostly consisted of one-way communication, the 2022 tests will encourage world-wide two-way communication with UK & CD based stations.
Special stations will be activated from the UK by RSGB members and Clubs, using original RSGB callsigns from the 1920s.
 
The Club Log team have kindly agreed to provide the supporting infrastructure for the Tests.
In anticipation of this centenary celebration, with the assistance of Ofcom (the UK licensing authority), the RSGB have renewed five call signs which they held in the 1920s:
 
G5WS, used for the 1922 tests – “the first to get across”
G5AT, used for the 1923 tests
G6XX, used for the 1923 tests
G6ZZ, used for the first amateur tests on a moving railway train in 1924
G3DR, Scottish Highlands Call – GM3DR.
 
These historic call signs will be activated by RSGB members and Clubs, using G5WS, G5AT, G6XX, G6ZZ and G3DR (England), GM5WS (Scotland), GW5WS (Wales), GU5WS (Guernsey), GD5WS (Isle of Man), GJ5WS (Jersey) and GI5WS (Northern Ireland).
(Image shows the massive power station chimney at Wandsworth used to support the (G)5WS aerial in December 1922.)
Information and images copyright of the RSGB

VY0ERC Nunavut, Canada

Logs have just arrived for the latest activities of Pierre VE3KTB and Alex (VE1RUS) operating from the Eureka Weather Station on Ellesmere Island (IOTA NA-008) in the High Arctic as VY0ERC.
 
The logs are available to search on M0OXO OQRS where you can also request your QSL Cards for fast despatch.
 
Please ensure you search the correct log ”VY0ERC NA-008”.

VK0MQ Macquarie Island, Antarctica

Logs for VK0MQ have now been received from Matt on Macquarie Island, Antarctica and are now available on M0OXO OQRS which is open for Log searching and requests.

**QSL Cards are currently being designed.
**The first LOTW upload has been made, (thanks to ARRL LOTW Staff for the fast processing of the application).

(Please don’t email me with questions asking ”when?…..”)

Macquarie Island Station
54° 37′ 12″ S, 158° 51′ 40″ E
GRID QD95lm
CQ Zone 30
ITU Zone 60
IOTA AN-005

VP8TAA (VP8TAA/p) Falkland Islands

Jonathan (2E0KZN), is now working at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Mount Pleasant Complex in the Falkland Islands until early November. Whilst there he will be emphasizing winter SOTA activations as VP8TAA & VP8TAA/P.

This past Sunday he and VP8AMH operated from Mount Kent (VP8/EF-006). He’s operating with an IC-705 and AH-705 ATU transmitting into a Sotabeam linked dipole (40-20M) and an 80ft or so random wire mounted on a 7 meter high mast. He also has a four cell lifepo4 6ah battery to supply his 705 with 10 watts. He can operate on all bands but will most likely be on 20 and 15 meters. He prefers SSB however operating on “PSK31 and FT8 while portable doing SOTA are easily achieved with a GPD Micro PC running Windows 10 for wsjt-x and fldigi”.

Jonathan is “a novice at CW” and is working on increasing his skills. He recognizes SOTA activities in the South Atlantic “is quite rare” and plans to do his “best to get up the hills here but free time is limited and weather conditions can be difficult”. He may also operate from the RAF Club station (VP8RAF) running QRO and an assortment of radios.

Logs and QSL Cards will be available in due course, OQRS will open as soon as the first log arrives.

QSL is via M0OXO OQRS

Credit – Bernie@TheDailyDX
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http://www.dailydx.com/free-trial-request/
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VE3KTB/VY0 NA-009

From Pierre (VE3KTB/VY0ERC)
 
”I will be returning to Ellesmere Island, NA-008 and will be operating VY0ERC roughly from 1 August to 16 August. It will be a busy time for us, so I probably won’t have an opportunity to put up much more than a vertical, but I will be active most days as the work schedule permits. Likely modes are SSB, CW, FT8.
 
As part of the requirements for this trip, I will be isolating enroute for 10 days in Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, NA-009. I am taking a Wolf River Coils vertical setup with me and an Icom IC-705, running 10W so I hope to be active using CW and FT8. However, I don’t know what my options are as yet for an operating location (remember, I have to stay isolated) so not sure how that will work. Hopefully I will be on for several hours on several days.
 
Qsl route via Charles, M0OXO”