Subject: rsgb gb2rs news 13th december
Distribution: world
Organization: 5/10
X-Mailer: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.18)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 03:48:44 +0000

Good morning. It's Sunday the 13th of December and here is the GB2RS news
broadcast, prepared by the Radio Society of Great Britain.

First the headlines:- The RSGB's AGM took place a week ago and we have the
RSGB Council election result. Later in this week's bulletin we have the usual
solar and propagation news, which includes details of the Geminids meteor
shower which peaks today.

The RSGB's 66th Annual Meeting took place on Saturday the 5th of December in
Central London. One hundred members attended what has been described as the
most positive and friendly meeting for many years. The result of the RSGB
Council election was announced as follows:

For the three Ordinary vacancies -

G R Morris, GW1ATZ, received 695 votes; T I Lundegard, G3GJW, 1352 votes; J
Bazley, G3HCT, 1355 votes; F S G Rose, G2DRT, 734 votes; J Greenwell, G3AEZ,
1322 votes. Messrs Lundegard, Bazley and Greenwell were declared elected. For
the vacancy in Zone D - P W Mayer, G0KKL, received 66 votes and J N Gannaway,
G3YGF, 215 votes. Mr Gannaway was declared elected.

Amongst the awards presented after the AGM were the Founders Trophy for
services to the Society which went to Roger Western, G3SXW, for his work prior
to the RSGB Strategy Conference, and three Certificates of Merit which went to
Pat Hawker, G3VA for his contributions to amateur radio literature for many
years; to Kurt Davies, W8PTA, for assistance to the Society at the Dayton
Hamvention; to Pop Seymour, G3GNS, for 25 years of slow Morse transmissions;
and S H Foster, GI3GAL for 25 years reading the GB2RS bulletin. Four awards
went to the writers of RadCom articles: The Ostermeyer Trophy was awarded to
Mike Grierson, G3TSO, for A Miniature 80-metre SSB Transceiver; the
Courtney-Price Trophy to Les Moxon, G6XN, for All Band Beam Antennas; the
Wortley-Talbot Trophy to Bob Rylatt, G3VXJ, for The EXJAY Multiband Antenna
System; and the Norman Keith Adams Prize to Geoffrey Billington, G3EAE, for An
Impedance Diagram for Transmission Lines. The Minutes of the AGM and a report
on the nformal session will be published in Radio Communication as soon as
they are available.

The latest news on the Pentland South Pole Expedition is that Sir Ranulph
Fiennes and Dr Mike Stroud are still on schedule, having walked more than 300
miles across the Antarctic to their present position which is 4,000 feet above
sea level. Their sledges still weigh over 400lbs each but the explorers' own
weight loss is still low at only about 7lbs each. Radio links are good and
VP8/GB4MSS is operating from the expedition base location at 80 degrees 18
minutes South, 81 degrees 21 minutes West at an altitude of 2,860 ft. Links
between Antarctica and UK are OK. The Inmarsat satellite has been accessible
for 2 to 3 hours a day which is remarkable as no-one has accessed Inmarsat
this far south before.

Sheila Johnson, G7GJC, daughter of Southampton GB2RS Newsreader Peter, G8LVC
will be presented with her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award at St James's Palace
this Tuesday the 15th of December. Sheila sat the Radio Amateur's Examination,
as part of her training towards the award which will be presented by His Royal
Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, the Patron of the RSGB.

There has been a very encouraging response to the request in the December's
RadCom and via GB2RS for Radio Amateur's views on a UK class of HF licence
which does not require a Morse qualification. Anyone who has not yet responded
may wish to read the article A Code-Free HF Licence on page 7 of the December
edition of RadCom. Comments should be sent to: The RSGB HF Committee via RSGB
HQ, Lambda House, Cranborne Road, Potters Bar, Herts EN6 3JE.

The fault on the Wrotham 144.925MHz Beacon, GB3VHF, has been traced to the
output amplifier, which is nearly 20 years old and is probable beyond economic
repair. The beacon will now be operated without it and is expected to be back
on the air before the end of the year. The power will, therefore, be reduced
from 50 to 10 watts ERP until further notice.

Now some items of HF DX news from the weekly RSGB DX News Sheet which is
edited by Brendan McCartney, G4DYO. From Rotuma Island, 3D2AG, is active from
now until the end of December. From Costa Rica, N9IUO will sign TI2IDX from
Saturday the 12th of December, until Wednesday the 6th of January 1993, on the
10 to 160 metre bands using CW and SSB. From Haiti, HH2PK is often active on
160 metres from 0100 to 0300GMT on 1825kHz, CW or 1842kHz, SSB. From Aruba,
P4/K5BDX will be active from now, until next Tuesday the 15th of December.
From the Somali Republic, KA1PM will sign T5CB on SSB only. Check these
frequencies: 14195, 14246, 21295 and 28495kHz.

Rally news now, there are three events we know of for today, Sunday, the 13th:
The Centre of England Christmas Radio, Computer, Electronics and
Communications Rally is being held at the National Motorcycle Museum, near the
National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. Take junction 6 off the M42 motorway.
Doors open at 11.00am or 10.30 for disabled visitors. There will be trade
stands and refreshments. There is ample car parking space. Talk-in will be on
channel S22.

The Leeds and District Amateur Radio Society Rally is being held at the Pudsey
Civic Centre, Dawsons Corner, Pudsey, Leeds. The Centre is located near the
junction of the Leeds Outer Ring road with the Bradford road. Doors open at
10.45am and there will be all the usual facilities.

The Verulam Amateur Radio Club's Christmas Rally is being held at the
University of Hertfordshire, formerly the Hatfield Polytechnic which is
located just off the A1(M) and A414 South of the Hatfield tunnel. Doors open
at 11.00am. There will be the usual trade stands and a bring and buy stall. As
an added attraction Robin Page-Jones, G3JWI, will be signing copies of his new
book A Radio Amateur's Guide to EMC, published by the RSGB.

We know of no rallies for next weekend, Saturday the 19th, and Sunday the 20th
of December.


Contest news:

During this weekend there is the ARRL 10 Metre Contest, from 0000  on Saturday
the 12th, to 2400 on Sunday the 13th. See December's RadCom page 15 for
further information. The next RSGB Contest is the 7MHz LF Cumulative for
Sunday the 27th of December, from 1000 to 1200GMT. See December's RadCom page
62 for further details. On the VHF front, the RSGB 70, 144 and 432MHz Fixed
Station Contest is scheduled to run from Saturday the 26th, to Tuesday the
29th of December. See July RadCom for further details

And now the solar factual data:

As expected, the period from the 30th of November to the 6th of December has
seen a decline in spot counts and solar flux levels, due to the quiet side of
the sun looking our way. Despite this, there have been 4 M type flares with
the biggest being an M2.6/1N on the 30th of November. There have been a number
of short wave fade outs, but at most each one only lasted a few minutes. Spot
counts meaned at only 97, and solar flux levels averaged 126 units, declining
from 140 down to 116 over the period. The geomagnetic Ap index declined from
very unsettled, down to quiet over the period and averaged 12.8 units. The
state has been nil, nothing to report, throughout the period. The radio
quality indices started well above normal on the 30th of November with the
Stavanger circuit being up to excellent, but a steady decline set in, reducing
levels to well below normal by the 4th of December, with the Tokyo, New York,
and Boulder circuits being very poor. A slow recovery was taking place by the
6th with levels almost back to normal. The aa indices, as supplied by the
British Geological Survey for the period 24th to 30th of November, were down
to very quiet with the daily averages being only 17.1 nanoTeslas about K2.
Some periods were down to only 2 nanoTeslas. Bartells rotation 2177 starts on
December 17th, and the Geminids meteor shower started on the 7th and continues
till the 16th with the peak being today the 13th.

Now the ionospheric data for Central France:

The F2 daytime critical frequencies at Poitiers as reported by Meudon averaged
10.9MHz, and the darkness hour lows 3.2MHz. There has been some spread F at
odd times, and on the 6th some blanketing E.


Now the ionospheric data for the north:

The F2 daytime critical frequencies at Ekaterinberg averaged 8.8MHz, though
they declined from 9.6MHz down to 7.6MHz by the 3rd, but had recovered to
9.4MHz by the 6th. The darkness hour lows averaged 3.0MHz. I'll repeat the
figures. Highs - 8.8 MHz; lows - 3.0 MHz.

And lastly the solar forecast:

This week, the more active side of the sun will be coming into view, solar
flux levels are expected to be about the 130s and geomagnetic activity is
expected to be quiet. MUFs during daylight are expected to reach 30MHz, and
the darkness hour lows about 18MHz.

And that's the end of the solar information.


Finally in the main news, SSL, has informed the Society that as of last
Wednesday morning, the latest callsigns issued were in the G0 S T and
G7 N X series, and Novice calls in the 20 A E and 21 B H series.


You're listening to GB2RS, the news broadcasting service of the Radio Society
of Great Britain, transmitting in the 80, 40, 6 and 2 metre bands.