Rockall 2022 Dxpedition – MM0UKI/p

6th May 2022
Unfortunately, it is now highly likely the Dxpedition to Rockall (scheduled June 2022) will be postponed for a year.
 
Sadly, the team have not been able to secure the correct type of vessel and currently, their only hope is for a cancellation (of another vessel). This seems very unlikely at this late stage so we anticipate the Dxpedition to be rescheduled to 2023. Dates will be announced in the coming months.
 
The Team are obviously very disappointed but thank you all for the support and encouragement that you have given the project.
 

5X7W Uganda

6th May 2022
5X7W, Anders (SM0HPL), from Naalya, Kampala.
 
He is on now until May 10th with 5 watts from “mcHF and uBITX” radios to a Rybakov
7.6M antenna on a fifth story rooftop.
 
He is on 40 meters and up, FT8, FT4 and CW.
 
QSL via M0OXO

Mailing Statistics 2021/2022

21st April 2022

As the 2021 – 2022 financial tax year comes to an end, it is time to take a look at how our mailing facility has worked over the last year. Overall  12,207 items of mail were posted at a cost of £13,298.42. We post QSL cards, bureau parcels and magazines using the various products as shown in the table above. During Covid times the costs were going up and up, but recently, since January we have seen costs fall, as new mailing products were introduced this year. The day to day QSL card mailings have dropped by 11p per item which is taking us back to the postal rates for letters before Covid. We  kept direct QSL costs the same during that time.

DX’pedition QSL costs are very competitive as always and we welcome talking to DX teams about mailing your QSL cards in the future. Bureau costs remain higher due to the worldwide shipping freight capacity under constant high demand. As we prepare for the next Bureau dispatch we are trying to find ways to reduce those costs. The biggest challenge to Bureau shipments is the worldwide customs regulations where we are seeing many countries putting a customs tax on Bureau shipments. No word yet from IARU about this matter. One benefit of Brexit is that we no longer have to pay 20% tax on sending mail to EU countries a saving of £1k last year.

With solar cycle 25 packing a punch, we continue to provide top QSL support to all. 

‘Managed’ Callsign list updated

19th April 2022
 
I have just updated the list of Callsigns I manage through OQRS which includes the following on behalf of the RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain);
 
HM Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee (June 2022)
(70 years on Throne)
 
GB70D Isle of Man
GB70E England
GB70I Northern Ireland
GB70J Jersey
GB70M Scotland
GB70U Guernsey
GB70W Wales
 
 
Commonwealth Games 2022
 
GB22GD Isle of Man
GB22GE England
GB22GM Scotland
GB22GW Wales
GB22GI Northern Ireland
GB22GJ Jersey
GB22GU Guernsey
GB22HQ Birmingham NEC, Commonwealth Games Site, England
 
Qsl Cards will be available through M0OXO OQRS. Please note there may be a slight delay getting these logs collated and uploaded so please be patient!
 
**Please check out the individual QRZ.Com pages for more information on the locations and Certificates that will be available
for working each of the DXCC’s)**

9X2AW, D44TWO & XT2AW 2022

19th April 2022

DF2WO, Harald, has some DX travels in the works. He flies to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, June 1, staying to June 22. This is grid KI48xe.
He will have his FT991A and hopes to be on all bands and satellite QO-100. He will have his usual antennas, a vertical, dipoles, and homemade hexbeam made of bamboo and wires. For QO-100 he will have an
80cm dish and BU500 rig, one watt.

He will mostly spend his time on FT8 but will switch to CW and SSB if conditions are good and “by appointment,” by emailing him at [email protected].

After Rwanda he plans to go to XT2AW, Burkina Faso, and D44TWO, Cape Verde, in September.

QSL via M0OXO OQRS

J28MD Djibouti 2022

19th April 2022
After two years of forced stop, the Mediterraneo Dx Club (MDXC) will be soon on air again with a new challenge.
 
From 29th of October till the 7th of November 2022, a very skilled international team (IZ8CCW-IZ4UEZ-IZ3GNG-IZ2GNQ-YO8WW-AG4W-IK4QJF-DJ5IW-DL6LZM-DL8JJ-KO8SCA-DL8OBF-NG7M-IU8LMC) will be active from Djibouti as J28MD, with special focus on low bands and WARC.
 
More on www.mdxc.org/j28md. Any support is welcome.
 
See you on pile-up.
73
MDXC H.Q.

The Thermosphere is heating up!

24th March 2022
Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying–and Earth’s upper atmosphere is responding.
“The Thermosphere Climate Index (TCI) is going up rapidly right now,” reports Linda Hunt of Science Systems and Applications, Inc. “It has nearly tripled in the past year.”
 
TCI is a number published daily by NASA, which tells us how hot Earth’s upper atmosphere is. The thermosphere, our atmosphere’s highest layer, literally touches space and is a sort of “first responder” to solar activity. Hunt created this plot showing how TCI has unfolded during the last 7 solar cycles. Solar Cycle 25 (shown in blue) is just getting started.
 
“So far Solar Cycle 25 is well ahead of the pace of Solar Cycle 24,” notes Hunt. If this trend continues, the thermosphere could soon hit a 20-year high in temperature.
 
Before we go any further, a word of caution: This does not mean Earth is about to heat up. The thermosphere is hundreds of kilometers above our heads. Here on the planet’s surface we do not feel its heat; summer days are no warmer when TCI is “hot.” As Dr. Marty Mlynczak of NASA notes, “energy driving the climate system near Earth’s surface is hundreds of thousands of times greater than in the thermosphere.” As far as we know, cyclical warming and cooling of the thermosphere by the solar cycle does not affect climate.
 
 
Nevertheless, the thermosphere is important. When it heats up, as it is doing now, it also puffs up. Think of a marshmallow held over a campfire. The thermosphere can expand upward so much it actually touches Earth-orbiting satellites. Almost 40 Starlink satellites fell out of the sky earlier this year as a result of aerodynamic drag up there.
 
TCI might also have some predictive value. Hunt’s plot shows that the index is on an upward trajectory that most closely mimics Solar Cycle 20, which peaked back in the 1970s. Solar Cycle 20 was an above average solar cycle with plenty of solar activity. Coincidentally, a new prediction for Solar Cycle 25 based on the arrival of the Termination Event suggests the same thing: 25 could be the new 20. If this turns out to be true, Solar Cycle 25 would be stronger than its immediate predecessor, weak Solar Cycle 24.
 

VK9NT Norfolk Island

21st March 2022
VK9NT Norfolk Island
 
Chris VK3QB, Luke VK3HJ and Alan VK6CQ will be active from Norfolk Island (IOTA OC-005) 14 April – 25 April 2022 (UTC) as VK9NT.
 
They will operate on 160 – 10m and 6m – CW, some SSB and FT8 as time allows. This information may change as their plans mature…
 
QSL via M0OXO OQRS