Cezar (VE3LYC) is back on the air again, this time from another very rare island group in Nunavut (Kitikmeot Region), Canada.

The East IOTA Group, NA-208 (CQ Zone 2) has only been on the air once, 15 years ago, and is on the Most Wanted List, in demand by 89% of IOTA chasers.

‘VYØX’ had very good signals on 20 & 30M yesterday and of course this came with huge pile-ups, callers desperate to get this rare one in their log. Kitikmeot Region is an administrative region of Nunavut Canada. It consists of the southern and eastern parts of Victoria Island with the adjacent part of the mainland as far as the Boothia Peninsula, together with King William Island and the southern portion of Prince of Wales Island. The regional seat is Cambridge Bay (population 1,477).

Kitikmeot is the location of the coldest recorded wind chill in Canada of −78 °C (−108.4 °F)

13/08/2010 1230, first contact on 20M CW

14/08/2010 0527, second contact on 30M CW!

On August 1st, the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity.

There was a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more.

The movie recorded by extreme UV cameras onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows an enormous magnetic filament breaking away from the sun.

Some of the breakaway material is now en route to Earth in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME)

I was very saddened today to hear of Nuccio Meoli’s passing. Many of you would have worked him very regularly.

He was a keen activator of programs such as Italian Castle Awards, World Antarctic program and many others.

Our condolences from the UK to his family and many many friends in the Ham Radio community.

The UK Headquarters team will again be active in the IARU Championships this weekend. This is the 8^th year that the team has taken part in the contest ‘nationwide’ using several calls over those years such as GB5HQ, GB7HQ and new for this year ‘’GR2HQ’’ (website), a new and unique prefix.

This year the team has expanded to include more than 60 experienced contest operators, operating simultaneously from 16 locations around the UK. The main 20M stations are in Northern Ireland and Orkney Islands. Other stations are on the Isle of Man, the Midlands, East Anglia, Wales and Somerset etc.

Please try to work the team on as many of the possible 12 band slots that are available (only dual-mode Contest [SSB & CW]). Sometimes it is difficult to work within the UK on the higher bands but with ‘Sporadic E’ in full swing anything is possible. On 10M for example, the GR2HQ station will be operating from several different locations during the 24 hours of the contest.

There are several Awards available again this year. This award is available to any licensed radio amateur who makes contacts with GR2HQ during the IARU HF World Championship contest on 10-11 July 2010 on a minimum number of bands/modes (maximum is 12 : i.e. 6 on CW and 6 on SSB)

Bronze award: GR2HQ on three band/modes
Silver award: GR2HQ on six band/modes
Gold award: GR2HQ on nine band/modes
Platinum award: GR2HQ on all twelve band/modes

All UK Stations are encouraged to work other HQ stations and other IARU stations in addition to working the UK HQ station. The full rules of the IARU HF Championships can be found at www.arrl.org/iaru-hf-championship

Have fun, support ‘your team’ and most of all, enjoy the event!!!

This trip also takes place during the RSGB IOTA Contest (July 24-25th) where they  will be on the air using the club contest callsign MW9W over the weekend. They will again try to make as many contacts both before and during the contest.

They will have3 stations using the following equipment: two Elecraft K3 Transceivers, one Yaesu FT2000, two G3TXQ Hexbeams, 80m Dipole, 40m Vertical and three Acom 1000.
The team will be using MC0SHL on 17 and 12 meters during the contest to try to give as many contacts on these bands. They will be on the air mostly on SSB, but with some RTTY and CW thrown in.

Full details on last years trip can be found here and also in the Gallery.

DIODE Communications supply all the wide ranges of cable available to date.

They specialise in RF Cable, Cable assemblies and RF connectors from LF to Microwave. They are the UK dealer of Ecoflex and low loss Pro Cables.

DIODE Comms. can also give you competetive quotes on all available Ham Radio equipment from Tranceivers to Antennas.

Check out the link above or click the image to the left to be direct to their website.