Qsl cards processed:
10KG (5 x 2Kg) to the
RSGB Bureau, 2 Kg to JARL;
GB1HI – 284
GB1TAN – 255
GR2HQ – 230
M0BZH – 20
PX2C – 62
PYMTV – 75
PW2D – 82
G3SZU – 37,
M0OXO – 349,
MW0X – 179,
MR0OXO – 234,
M0IAA – 10, MR0IAA – 8,GW8ASA – 3, RA3CQ – 77, M0AID – 20, G4RCG –10, GR4RCG –70, G1WRS – 122……and a further 120 letters Direct from OQRS and Post Mail.
CQWW SSB is upon us this weekend and with the increased band activity now the higher bands are open, it promises to be an amazing weekend with lots of new DX.
One of the new Teams out this year are V55A in Namibia. It is their first outing this weekend and we all hope that all goes well for them. They will also have a logbook on-line courtesy of our favourite Clublog.
Also active with be Thomas and Fabio as PW2D and also Andre PY2MTV may make an appreance from home. Listen out for the guys and if you hear them please give them your support. GL guys!
(click the logo to the left for the V55A Log Search)
(Qsl for all above via M0OXO)
We got on air at 17:23 UTC, first call in the log this time was Christian, 2W0LLL on 40M, it was soon apparent we were a big signal as the radio front end seemed to explode with stations calling us. We had G stations at 10 over, being knocked back by VK and JA coming in at 20 over. The wall of sound was amazing.
Two things had contributed to this, the tide was coming in and we had 1.2 Km of radials under the antenna. We were really moving nicely, 160 was good, with lots of US and EU stations worked on CW, but 40 and 20 were our main stays. We opted to try for 10M on the first morning, bad move. The elderly tuner I have did not like something and blew several caps, it also popped a doorknob Cap off the Linear, this in turn affected our whole higher bands jaunt.. Bah! Two hours later after much head scratching we were up and running, 15, 17 and 20 metres being the mainstay, and the pile ups were fantastic. Some of the comments on the signals blew us away, we knew that we put a decent signal out previously, but it seemed the extra radials had made a huge difference. we had gone up from 40 radials to over 120, some being 40M long for 160.
We worked around the world, VK1-7, ZL, JA, BY, BA, W/K1-0, ZD8, TI are all stations that came in loud. Even QRP stations were strong with us, I worked a VK4F station with 10 watts, he was 57 at times! 40M has been our main band, we had huge pile ups, but 20 and 15 threw some huge surprises in for us, hearing a BX station stomp in at 10-15 over 9 against an s9 Plus EU pile on 15 was amazing. working Frank, VK7BC on “his ” Island at 10-15 over 9 astounded me, we activate Hilbre for two reasons, 1, to give you EU120 Hilbre, and 2, so Frank can hear the Island he grew up on and courted his Lady Wife there!
We ended up on 1197 contacts in the time on the Island, 350 down on last time, but…. This time we have operated for less time through break down, if we had got 10 M running without problems, if we hadn’t struggled with the mast, if, if, if… One thing is certain, no if’s or buts we have had another amazing time on Hilbre, we have learned a huge amount about amateur spirit, good and bad. We have also found that Mart and I are a great team, we work well together, even under pressure. We hope to visit Hilbre again next year, this time to work 10 and 12, maybe even 6m, who knows! One of my favourite films is “Forest Gump”, and to quote a famous line, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Isn’t that what makes it so much fun?”
Thanks to everyone that assisted or orked us, it means a lot, thankyou!
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining down in an alien solar system. The downpour resembles our own solar system several billion years ago during a period known as the “Late Heavy Bombardment,” which may have brought water and other life-forming ingredients to Earth.
During the Late Heavy Bombardment, comets and other frosty objects from the outer solar system pummeled the inner planets. The barrage scarred our Moon and produced large amounts of dust.
Scientists have spotted a band of dust around Eta Corvi that strongly matches the contents of an obliterated giant comet, probably destroyed by a collision with a planet or some other large body. The dust is located close enough to Eta Corvi that Earth-like worlds could exist in the collision zone, suggesting that planets like our own might be involved. The Eta Corvi system is approximately one billion years old, which researchers think is about the right age for such a hailstorm.
A second, more massive ring of colder dust located at the far edge of the Eta Corvi system seems like the proper environment for a reservoir of cometary bodies. This bright ring, discovered in 2005, matches the size of a similar region in our own solar system, known as the Kuiper Belt, where icy and rocky leftovers from planet formation linger. The comets of Eta Corvi and the Almahata Sitta meteorite may have each originated in the Kuiper Belts of their respective star systems.
About 4 billion years ago, not long after our solar system formed, scientists think the Kuiper Belt was disturbed by a migration of Jupiter and Saturn. This jarring shift in the solar system’s gravitational balance scattered the icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, flinging the vast majority into interstellar space and producing cold dust in the belt. Some Kuiper Belt objects, however, were set on inward paths that crossed the orbits of Earth and other rocky planets.
QST, to all Radio Amateurs
15 October 2011
World-wide HF operators are kindly requested to QSY away from 7.060-7.063 at all times due to use by Thailand hams during the massive flood emergency affecting millions of people in North and Central Thailand.
Today, the emergency is on-going with huge areas flooded of from a half to two meters of water, some areas are deeper and a few spotty areas are mostly dry in the region.
News estimates say that the flooding will continue for four to six more days, at its height, and subsidence will be over a month. Clean-up and rebuilding may extend more than a year. The majority of flood radio traffic is being carried on the two meter band by scores of ham volunteers, some of which have had their own homes inundated. It is impossible to estimate how many ham radio operators’
shacks are now affected, but the significant flooding covers huge swaths of the region as seen on http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/Rural_Training_Center-Thailand/pages.
The Thai National Club Station, HS0AC, home of the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand, is threatened tomorrow and is under watch. Timely updates can be seen at http://www.qsl.net/rast in English.
Reported by HS0ZCW, Charly
Qsl cards processed and ready for Bureau:
GB1HI – 321
GB1TAN – 290
GR2HQ – 330
M0BZH – 8
PX2C – 32
PYMTV – 35
PW2D – 52
G3SZU – 27
M0OXO – 249
GB0WFF – 177
From Col MM0NDX;
Much has happened since the first press release was issued on August 27th. A few days later, we got word that the 2009 MM0RAI/p Rockall team were again going to attempt an activation of EU-189 at the end of September. To cut a long story short, IOTA chasers will be aware that the Belgian team did eventually activate the island, with the aide of a converted navy rescue vessel and large inflatables – we congratulate MM0RAI/p on their achievenment as we all know how heavy the seas can be out there in Autumn.
With careful consideration and much deliberation, we have decided to postpone our intended activation of the islet for at least one year. This decision was not taken easily considering our planning and organisational aspects were going extremely well. Suffice to say, we believe an activation so soon after the Belgian effort now makes Rockall a less attractive target – that is the crux of our decision.
It is not lost on us that the majority of the world, outwith a proportion of Europe, still require EU-189 for their IOTA scores. With that in mind, this planned activity will not be cancelled, only postponed.
All donations will be refunded. We thank sincerely those kind operators and groups who pledged financial support.
What we can say is that another excellent location/target is now being organised. This involves a rare DXCC and IOTA. However, unlike MS0INT 2012 plans, we prefer to keep silent on this, and only release news and website one week before departure, sometime in mid-2012.
A great way of listening to current Ham Radio news. It includes local and national topics in a formal ‘chat’ atmosphere and also provides a propagation report.
Its great to improve your knowledge of Ham Radio and gives you the info in basic terms and well explained topics. Give it a try whether in your Shack or on your Ipod/Mobile Fone.
Click the image for a link to the icqpodcast website and then select the ‘Latest Podcast’ on the left side.
We started our SSB operations at the weekend with an entry in the Oceania SSB contest in which we believe we have comprehensively beaten the previous contest records. We will not, however, be entering the CW leg as this would undoubtedly lead to a lot of unnecessary duplicate contacts as we will by then have been very active on CW on all bands.
There has been high demand for Christmas Island, especially on LF and also on 10 and 12 where, for many years, there has been little or no propagation. So far the sunspots have been helping those bands along, with 10m being our QSO leader to date. We have pretty much been working all comers to clear the decks so that we can begin to focus more on Europe where band openings are much more limited than to the US and Japan. We would appreciate cooperation from those two areas – US and Japanese stations should find plenty of opportunity to work us on all bands. We did have to delay starting our RTTY operations – our original plans would have allowed us to be on RTTY right from the start. The good news is that RTTY is now well under way on several bands. If 10m continues to play well, we may even show up on FM!
On 160, we made our first European contacts last night, Italy and Germany and at our sunset and Russia, Ukraine and Finland at our sunrise. Hopefully these openings will improve over the next week or two. 80m shows a similar pattern but with longer openings, but right now only our topband station has access to the Beverages.
We will continue to make regular updates on our website and Michael G7VJR will no doubt update Twitter while he is here (he leaves with the first group next week). The online log on ClubLog is getting a very high hit rate, as expected – we are uploading logs twice a day, at 7am and 7pm local time here. The Internet connectivity from the hotel is turning out to be better than we had anticipated (since our site visit a year ago the hotel has installed a satellite Internet), and not only does this make log uploading easier but has meant that we have been able to follow everyone’s feedback better than expected – we are grateful for that and it feeds into our daily team meetings. There is a feedback facility on the t32c.com website, which is the best way to reach us.
Finally, for that small but enthusiastic group of 6m EMEers, we are still hoping to give this mode a go in the second two weeks of the expedition, but cannot at this time make any guarantees.
Don G3XTT
We have made encouraging progress on almost every front. Over 20,700 hams have visited our site and there is strong representation from hams in countries all around the world. One of our main objectives was to have this be a true international movement.
Take a look at the Flag Counter on our main page and click on it to see more statistics. You may be surprised to see how much support there has been from some countries where the number of supporters is well out of proportion to their population. This is due mostly to small number of hams in those countries who have dedicated themselves to spreading the word about the merits of improving behavior among their compatriots. You can do the same within your country too.
Another feature that shows this also is the rotating globe from Revolver Maps. This shows previous log-ins but will also highlight your QTH when you are at the page. Click on the globe for more detail. The support of DXpeditions has been very encouraging.
Of course, those operators are the major beneficiaries of ethical operating behavior. I have been listening to T32C and 3D2R and the pileups seem quite well-controlled compared with stories I heard about ST0R. That said, I would like someday to understand why, when the DX station asks, “M0?” someone whose call is K4XXX continues to call. There is no way the DX can hear him if he is listening to someone else!
Take a look at www.T32C.com where we are featured on the main page and on http://www.t32c.com/How_to_Work_T32C That kind of prominent notice does a great job in telling DXers that the DXpedition thinks the Code is important and that DXers need to adhere to the Code to better their chances for a contact. Almost every DXpedition is showing their support with a logo and a link. A major thrust for 2011 that you can help with is to get the support of your country’s national society. The new page http://dx-code.org/national.html shows societies like RSGB and DARC that are pushing the project in their countries. There are others that are listed, although a few have supported us in the past but I cannot now find a link.
Please take a minute to think about how you can get your country’s society to support the project, put the logo up at their website, tell their members about it, perhaps through an article in your society’s magazine or newsletter. You can also help by putting the logo on your webpage and on your QSL card the next time you print some. We’d like our logo to be EVERYWHERE so that it will be impossible to miss and so every ham will learn about it.
On behalf of our Committee, I would like to thank you for the hundreds of e-mails I have received expressing the support of the Code project. You can feel good about the worldwide enthusiasm for a project with such high ethical goals. Keep spreading the word.
73, Randy W6SJ
