Category - Blog

As part of a natural cycle, ice shelves periodically calve icebergs.

In March 2000, Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf released a mammoth berg nearly the size of Connecticut. Named B-15, it was one of the largest icebergs ever observed. B-15 broke into smaller pieces, but it mostly remained trapped in cold climate conditions and lasted more than a decade.

One fragment of B-15, dubbed B-15J, made an appearance in satellite imagery in early December 2011, The iceberg had finally strayed far from Antarctica 11 years later, and began breaking into smaller pieces. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of B-15J on 2nd December, 2011.

Sliver-shaped pieces of ice form an arc around the oblong iceberg, which had disintegrated discernibly since last spotted in late November. B-15J and the smaller fragments were roughly 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) east-southeast of New Zealand. Floating into warmer waters prompted it to break apart. An iceberg from the Larsen Ice Shelf underwent a similar disintegration in 2008.

As of late November 2011, several other remnants of Iceberg B-15 were still drifting in the Southern Ocean.

275 GR2HQ Cards completed this morning and in bundle destined for the RSGB Bureau at the end of this week.

I have no outstanding bureau cards at all now so if you requested one, it must be in the system by now!

Don’t forget, if you need a card from any station I manage, then please use the OQRS system which will cut down the time in which you receive your card by half, making it far more efficient way to obtain the confirmation.

“What a cool milestone!” says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute. “Although we’re still a long way — 1.5 billion kilometers from Pluto — we’re now in new territory as the closest any spacecraft has ever gotten to Pluto, and getting closer every day by over a million kilometers.

Now New Horizons, which is healthy, on course and closer to Pluto than Voyager ever came, will continue to set proximity-to-Pluto records every day until its closest approach – about 7,767 miles (12,500 kilometers) from the planet – on July 14, 2015.

“We’ve come a long way across the solar system,” says Glen Fountain, New Horizons project manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “When we launched [on Jan. 19, 2006] it seemed like our 10-year journey would take forever, but those years have been passing us quickly. We’re almost six years in flight, and it’s just about three years until our encounter begins.”

From New Horizons’ current distance to Pluto – about as far as Earth is from Saturn – Pluto remains just a faint point of light. But by the time New Horizons sails through the Pluto system in mid-2015, the planet and its moons will be so close that the spacecraft’s cameras will spot features as small as a football field.

Check the New Horizons homepage for more information and updates en route to Pluto:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

Qsl cards processed:

4.5 (3 x 1.5Kg) to the
RSGB Bureau plus, 1.5 Kg to JARL; and 1.5Kg Direct to World Bureau’s (via M0URX)….these included;

V55A – 136
GB1HI – 127
GB1TAN – 76
GR2HQ – 135
M0BZH – 8
PX2C – 27
PYMTV – 13, PW2D – 43, G3SZU – 1 M0OXO – 134, MR0OXO – 15, M0IAA – 3, MR0IAA – 1, RA3CQ – 12, G4RCG –32, GR4RCG –6, GB6WRS – 4……and a further 115 letters Direct from OQRS and Post Mail for V55A and 47 other Direct requests for various other cards.

Thanks for all the requests for the V55A Cards.

The Qsl Cards arrived this morning and all will be mailed 30/11/2011.

127 Cards have been sent Direct (received via OQRS or Post Mail) and 149 will be sent direct to your World Bureau’s this week.

If you have any questions about this or any other station I manage then please drop me a line and I will get back to you asap.

Thanks, Charles

Well where have the MC0SHL Team been of late? Would it be true to say we have been quiet since Ramsey Island in July? Not really! This update from our fellow Member Chris G1VDP;

Well we have been a little quiet here at the Strumble Head DX & Contest Group, although we have all been busy with daily life.

Tim M0URX and Charles M0OXO are busy with the 4W6A QSLing & V55A and are awaiting the cards from the printers – hopefully within the next week so they can be posted out and then the mammoth task of the T32C Qsl Cards for the 210,000 they worked will be on the horizon, busy times!

Ant MW0JZE has been inundated with requests for Hexbeams after the success of the antenna on the 4W6A expedition, and as he only builds them to order he now has a nice waiting list. He also had a go in the CQWW Phone contest on 10M, again using his Hexbeam only.

Tony G4LDL has also been busy with his duties following the trip to T32C with the FSDXA team, again I understand he has been on QSLing duties as part of the team.

Rob MW0RLJ has been busy with is work on the farm, carrying out maintenance around the fences and along with getting the fields ready for next years crops he has been re-vamping the Club Shack!

Chris G1VDP has started a job where he works funny hours, starting at 01:00 and finish at 12:00. This is no good for DXing as he is away in the mornings for the Pacific openings, and asleep in the afternoons for the Carribean, South, Central and North American openings.

Oli’s VK8DX is still down in Australia and is busy in his work down there.

And finally Villiam OM3AAO has been busy with his holiday cottage business in Slovakia. He also entered the CQWW Phone contest from his home station and was heard by all the other guys making at least one QSO with us all.

The boys are also planning to gather at the farm for New Year, or as many as can get there will. They will also have their wives and partners with them so it may be that they do not get on the air as this is going to be a social gathering for the families, and as usual photo’s will follow.

One final thing. SHDXCG is a closed club and we do not accept new members unless invited in to the group, so any of you who try to join on CLUB LOG will not be accepted!!!!!

Thanks to Chris G1VDP for the update!

Jabal Al Lith IOTA AS-191 (Arabic: الليث‎) a coastal island in western Saudi Arabia, now QRV on most Bands.

Location:
E40 08 12 N19 57 48
WW Locator: LK09bx

Dates
From 17 Nov 2011 to 25 Nov 2011

Bands 10m 12m 15m 17m 20m 40m 160m Modes SSB CW RTTY

Rig (power)
6 Transceivers 200 watts only

Antennas

1 Spiderbeam
1 Tri-Band Yagi
1 5 Band Rotary Dipole
1 5 Band Vertical
1 5 MiniBeam
1 2 Element Vertical 40M

QSL via 7Z1CQ

Thanks for all the requests for the V55A Cards.

The Qsl Cards have been designed and are currently with the Printer at UX5UO Qsl Cards in the Ukraine.

Once arrived here in the UK, all OQRS/Paypal and Direct/Post Mail will be processed and mailed within 24 hours. OQRS/Buro will follow within 48 hours.

Please check back on this page from time to time for an update of when they are received and under process.

Thanks, Charles

This received from and on behalf of the team;

Less than 24 hours before the take off. The team is in a very good mood and the “reconnaissance patrol” (XE1L) sent good news from Nepal. The weather is warm and clear and the early tests show good signals incoming to our location. Sunspot figures are even better and we are really confident to have the bands in excellent shape for DXing! Check the propagation charts (http://www.mdxc.org/nepal2011/propagation) by IK8LOV to find your window.

A great job has been made by our members in Kathmandu with the officers of the Communications Ministry to clear all the necessary steps to get the licence: for the first time in Nepal’s history we will have a multi-operator licence to operate on ALL the HF ham bands. But greater news arrived in the very last hours: for the first time in history we will have the official permission to use the 6 meters band from Nepal, without restrictions! This will fulfill all the DXCC requirements for a top wanted country in the magic band!

As we already have team mates in Nepal right now, the main group will land in Kathmandu on Sunday evening. The last member to join will be Adhi YB3MM, arriving the 14th November. Since it’s impossible to
announce a start time, we hope to be on the air as quick as we can. Once our stations will be QRV, they will be populated immediately by enthusiast operators to spread out the pile-up and ready to give a
chance to work Nepal in your missing slot. Don’t forget the Nine-November Trophy, indeed!

We will try to put the log online everyday. Please take in account that the internet connection cannot be always efficient and we will do our very best to provide an updated log. Please follow the DX Code of Conduct and follow its simple rules to have fun working us. If you do have any questions, please contact our pilots and stay tuned on the website for more exciting news from the top of the World.

N.B. Click Logo Banner above to visit the 9N7MD Website!