RSGB GB2RS News Bulletin

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 21st October 2018 The news headlines: Call for IARU R1 input RSGB Convention Construction Competition winners First of six new IOTA groups announced The RSGB has opened a call for inputs as part of its preparation and consultation process for the 2019 IARU Region 1 Interim Meeting that will be held next April. Topics on HF, VHF/Microwave and EMC matters will be considered. Whilst suggestions are welcome at this stage, full Draft papers are required by December, ahead...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 14th October 2018 The news headlines: RSGB Past President GI3KYP SK VHF Contest Consultation Now On Do you want to activate GB18YOTA? RSGB Past President Alexander Davidson Patterson OBE, FIEE, GI3KYP, died on October 10, 2018, peacefully, at home, surrounded by his family. Better known as Barney, he was RSGB President in 1967. Barney travelled widely during his Presidency and, among many other achievements, oversaw the purchase of 28 Little Russel Street, London, as...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 7th October 2018 The news headlines: RSGB Club of the Year winners announced Jamboree on the Air looms large Renew your 146 to 147MHz NoV At the National Hamfest on the 29th of September the winners in the RSGB’s National Club of the Year 2017 competition were presented with their prizes. Once again, we thank Waters and Stanton for sponsoring this year’s event. There are two categories, Large clubs with 25 members or over, and Small clubs with under 25 members. The...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 30th September 2018 The news headlines: Renew your 146MHz NoV NOW DXCC card checking at Convention Enigma Reloaded at National Radio Centre All current 146-147MHz band Notices of Variation (NoV) expire on Tuesday the 31st of October. Ofcom has agreed that the band will be made available for another year. However, to continue to use the frequencies you must obtain a new NoV. These are available free from the RSGB website via www.rsgb.org/nov Currently, 548 NoVs have...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 23rd September 2018 The news headlines: Railways on the Air this weekend Planning Permission guide update for RSGB Members RSGB Operating Advisory Service pages online This weekend is Railways on the Air and many clubs will be operating special event stations from railway related sites around the country. It celebrates the anniversary of the first steam powered passenger railway that took place on the 27th of September 1825 – the first passenger train ran on a line in...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 16th September 2018 The news headlines: Amateurs prepare for Hurricane Florence IARU plan for the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference Details on more RSGB Convention lectures CNN reports the American Radio Relay League has sent seven amateur radio kits to South Carolina to assist with emergency communication ahead of Hurricane Florence. The group used the same kits in Puerto Rico last September when Hurricane Maria knocked out power to most of the island. Short...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 9th September 2018 The news headlines: Brazil gets 60m and other new bands soon South Africans’ YOTA report Exciting Buildathon opportunity ANATEL, the Brazilian telecoms regulator, has produced an updated band plan, effective in a couple of months, which releases 60m to their amateurs. This is the WRC-15 Secondary allocation 5351.5 to 5366.5kHz with 25W EIRP for Class A operators. In addition they have been granted another two new bands, 135kHz with 1 watt EIRP and...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 2nd September 2018 The news headlines: Annual Reunion of Code Breakers Respond now to Ofcom consultation New Exams Standards appointment Today, Sunday the 2nd of September, it’s the Annual Reunion of Code Breakers at Bletchley Park, including those who were Voluntary Interceptors. This event is organised by Bletchley Park and more can be seen at www.bletchleypark.org.uk Preparations for the next World Radio Conference, WRC-19, are increasing. An important Ofcom...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 26th August 2018 The news headlines: FT8 in UK and EU contests Petition launched to save WWV GB3RS and GB7BP service interruption Recently, the RSGB Contest Committee has seen some FT8 QSOs being claimed within contest logs. At present it is difficult to complete a full contest exchange using FT8, although an EU contest compatible version is under development. A, machine generated modes, or MGM-specific contest ran in April this year, with a set of rules...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 19th August 2018 The news headlines: Norway gets 1kW on 6m and other bands Train the Trainers in Wolverhampton Share your VHF NFD experiences On the 8th of August, Norway got an updated amateur licence, allowing all Norwegian amateurs access to 50 to 52MHz with a power of 1kW. Other new privileges include permission for non-amateurs to operate an amateur station, under supervision of a licenced amateur, for training and educational purposes. On higher bands,...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 12th August 2018 The news headlines: More Newcomers on 5MHz – Ecuador and Bosnia-Herzegovina Early Bird deadline for the RSGB Convention approaching ARISS contact for German school The Ecuadorian telecoms regulator, ARCOTEL, has authorised operation on 5MHz under the new WRC-15 Secondary Allocation 5351.5 – 5366.5kHz with a maximum power of 25W EIRP. Bosnia & Herzegovina have also been authorised by their regulator, for 5MHz operation under the new WRC-15...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 5th August 2018 The news headlines: New Exams Syllabus soon YOTA 2018 gets under way 71MHz activity thriving The RSGB is pleased to announce that, following its formal approval by RSGB Board in July, the new syllabus will be released during the week commencing 13 August. This will link with the publication of the first set of project communications in RadCom to give a fuller understanding of the milestones of the changeover. The Society will also release a...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 29th July 2018 The news headlines: WRTC 2022 venue announcedLighthouse 300 registeredKraftwerk jams with astronaut on ISS After the recent successful World Radiosport Team Championship in Germany it has been announced that the 2022 event will be hosted by Bologna in Italy. The invitation-only event pits the world’s greatest DXers against each other in over sixty teams. They compete with each other using similar stations in similar terrain to level the playing field....

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 22nd July 2018 The news headlines: WRTC 2018 resultsAmateur innovation thrivesNew CubeSats reach ISS Last weekend’s World Radiosport Team Championship ended with a win for Lithuanian amateurs Gedas Lucinskas, LY9A and Mindis Jukna, LY4L, who scored nearly 5.7 million points from 5139 QSOs. The runners-up were Germans Manfred Wolf, DJ5MW and Stefan von Baltz, DL1IAO, who scored nearly 5.3 million points from just under 5000 QSOs. In all, the 63 two-person teams made...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 15th July 2018 The news headlines: New service to replace AROSHam-designed comms support cave rescueInternational Youth at Sea begins Following an extensive review of the Amateur Radio Observation Service, AROS, the RSGB has decided to create a new service to provide guidance to operators who experience misuse of the amateur bands by others. This service will be known as the Operating Advisory Service, or OAS, and will replace AROS. The change will come into effect...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 8th July 2018 The news headlines: World Radiosport Team Championship looms RSGB NRC opens all week during holidaysBeware scam emails The World Radiosport Team Championship takes place this week, running from Thursday the 12th to Monday the 16th. This invitation-only event pits the world’s elite contesters against each other in two-person teams. To level the playing field, all the contesters use similar stations with similar antennas, all within a relatively small...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 1st July 2018 The news headlines: Receive SSTV from the ISSSAQ transmits todayIARU welcomes St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Amateur Radio Society This weekend ARISS Russia is running a special slow-scan television event from the International Space Station. Unfortunately we learned the details too late to include in last week’s bulletin. The transmissions started around 0900UTC on Friday and continue until around 1830UTC today, Sunday the 1st. The cosmonauts will be sending...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 24th June 2018 The news headlines: ITU chief declares Z6 prefix illegalOfcom equipment on auctionCurtis Keyer inventor goes SK The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union has said that authorising Kosovo Z6 callsigns is “unauthorised and illegal”. Houlin Zhao said, “ITU has not allocated call sign series Z6 to any of its member states. Consequently, the utilisation of callsign series Z6 by any entity without a formal allocation and consent of...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 17th June 2018 The news headlines: Three balloons go up on Thursday70MHz experimental NoVs now easierRBN adds FT8 spots Three high altitude balloon launches will take place from a site in Welshpool on Thursday 21st of June, conditions permitting. Starting between 10.30 and 11.30am, the balloons will have a number of experiments on to look at various aspects of space flight. Involving a number of schools in the north west, the launches are by a team from Hi-Impact...

GB2RS NEWS Sunday 10th June 2018 The news headlines: South Africans get 100kHz on 60mUK prepares for WRC-19Why not chase the HuMPs Excluding Marilyns Award? The South African regulator, ICASA, recently published their 2018 National Radio Frequency Plan. In this, amateur radio was allocated 100kHz on a shared basis in the 60 metre band. 5.350 to 5.450MHz is now available to all licensed radio amateurs on a shared, non-interference basis, with a power limit of 15W EIRP. The South African...