4AØMAYA

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Created on Saturday, 15 December 2012 12:54

On December 21, 2012 Mayan Culture will celebrate the beginning of a new cycle in your calendar, an event that occurs every 5125 years.

For that reason members of the Radio Club Cancun, A.C. will be transmitting from the Piste Yucatan, a Maya community place where the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, is located. They will also be active from the Riviera Maya, at the archaeological site of Tulum, Mexico with special call 4A0MAYA.

The event runs from the 19th to 23rd December 2012 on 80 thro 6m Bands using SSB, PSK-31 and RTTY Modes

The special Award for working 4AØMAYA on 3 or more bands can be seen in the image above. (Click para ver el diploma)

Why the World didn't end yesterday

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Created on Saturday, 15 December 2012 09:10

NASA is so sure the world won't come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, they have already released this news item for the day after.

''If you're reading this story, it means one thing:  The World Didn't End Yesterday. According to media reports of an ancient Maya prophecy, the world was supposed to be destroyed on Dec. 21, 2012. Apparently not.

"The whole thing was a misconception from the very beginning," says Dr. John Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy.  "The Maya calendar did not end on Dec. 21, 2012, and there were no Maya prophecies foretelling the end of the world on that date."

The truth, says Carlson, is more interesting than fiction. A new ScienceCast video explores what the Maya really thought about Dec. 21, 2012. Click the image to see the video.

Read more by clicking the green banner

Read more: Why the World didn't end yesterday

XRØYG - Easter Island

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Created on Thursday, 13 December 2012 10:35

Between 20-27 March 2013, a team of British hams will be active from Easter Island on all bands 160m to 10m, mainly CW. We will run the HF bands but we also plan to work challenging paths on the low bands, emphasis on Europe.

We are using Elecraft K3s, small PAs and vertical antennas. Depending on the space available we will use a beverage or flag for RX on the low bands.

Club Log uploads and LoTW uploads will occur daily and OQRS will be available.

Team Members are - Michael G7VJR, Nigel G3TXF, John G4IRN, Martin G3ZAY

Log search here    

GB1WH

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Created on Tuesday, 11 December 2012 07:15

GB1WH is Qrv from today.

This is a special event station operated by Ian MØIAA in aid of Charity on behalf of Wakefield Hospice.

New EPC PSK Awards

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Created on Monday, 10 December 2012 15:01

Thanks to the NA stations that have assisted me in achieving the NASPA Award.

The Certificate was one of several Awards earned in my recent upload to the EPC Members Centre and of course all are gratefully received. All Awards will be available for viewing in the Gallery on my website once I have ironed some bugs out of the current system ;-)

Check out the European PSK Clubs website by clicking the image above. Whether you are interested in Data modes or not, there is some interesting stuff on their website and its definitely worth a browse.

EPC announce - UK DX Contest

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Created on Monday, 10 December 2012 14:27

News from the EPC ...

''The European PSK Club has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the UK DX BPSK63 Contest 2013. The objective of the contest is to establish as many BPSK63 contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world and radio amateurs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland including all the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.

Everybody can work everybody for QSO and multiplier credit. Since this year this contest is handled completely by the European PSK Club. We would like to invite you to take part in the contest, the rules and other information can be found at www.eupsk.com website.

It is strictly a BPSK63 contest now, no other modes are allowed so please check the rules as there are other important changes.

Please mark your diaries! The new-style contest starts at 12:00 UTC on Saturday 12th January, 2013 and ends at 11:59 UTC on Sunday 13th January, 2013. All the very best to all of you and see you in the UK DX BPSK63 Contest 2013! - EPC Committee.''

IIØXMAS card preview

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Created on Monday, 10 December 2012 07:12

Good news that the Qsl Card for IIØXMAS special event (see Blog entry here) has now been provided by Antonello IZ0VHY.

It will be several weeks before the Qsl Cards arrive so please be patient and keep an eye on this Blog for further updates on this and other stations I manage.

Qsl cards for IIØXMAS and all other stations managed by MØOXO.com can be requested via this address http://www.m0oxo.com/oqrs/ .

IIØXMAS also now Qrv

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Created on Saturday, 08 December 2012 11:21

For the first time this year, Antonello IZ0VHY has organised this special callsign IIØXMAS to celebrate Merry Christmas and to wish everyone a pleasant New Year in 2013.

The station will be operational from 07/12/2012 to 01/01/2013 on 80 - 10M Bands using SSB and Digital Modes.

A special QSL will be printed to celebrate the event which is available via MØOXO OQRS (Direct or Bureau) or if you prefer EQSL then this is available only via IZ0VHY EQSL account.
 
The log will be uploaded on real time on Ham Radio Deluxe HRD and uploads will also be made to excellent Clublog Program (click Logo)

Santa Claus OF9X

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Created on Thursday, 06 December 2012 15:19

Santa lives at the freezing North Pole, leading a harsh but exciting life under the Northern Lights (Aurora Oval). But no one has actually thought about Santa's specific location – there is no such DXCC entity as North Pole in the world – at least not yet.

Now much to everyone’s delight, Santa’s location is clearly marked on all maps. Santa lives in the Santa Claus region of Finland. That is Lapland, OH9 district, situated north of the Arctic Circle, only a stone's throw away from the Radio Arcala operating site amid the barren tundra where reindeer run wild. In December, the locals do not see daylight – it is dark all day. As compensation Mother Nature has created a distinctive polar path on 20 meters to North America.

Click the image above to read more about this event.

ZL9HR almost over

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Created on Thursday, 06 December 2012 13:07

Latest information suggests that ZL9HR will QRT late Saturday and leave the island on Sunday 9th December, 8am local time.

Campbell Island is a remnant of a dissected volcanic dome. It is 16km by 16km in size, with an area 11 268 ha. Steep cliffs dominate the western shores, while the east coast is broken by several large inlets. Terrain is hilly, with deep gullies and numerous streams.

So time is running out for your chance to secure a contact with ZL9 Campbell Island, New Zealand, the Number 15 on the current DXCC most wanted list.

The ZL9HR log can be found on line courtesy of Clublog.org Click image to be directed to the on-line Log search facility.

Doomsday - The End Of The World, Special Event

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Created on Tuesday, 04 December 2012 10:16

That’s right! The end is finally near!

According to one of the three Mayan Calendars, the end of the world will occur on Dec 21, 2012. To celebrate this literally once in a lifetime event, Special Event Station N0D (Now Zero Days) will be activated for three days. December 20; is a celebration of the end of the world. December 21; the day of destruction, they will be on the air as long as possible. December 22nd, that is a little iffy right now!

More information is available on the Official N0D website, www.nowzerodays.com . You can also e-mail the N0D team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with questions or suggestions about Doomsday.

Saturn's North Pole Vortex

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Created on Tuesday, 04 December 2012 08:47

What's happening at the north pole of Saturn?

A vortex of strange and complex swirling clouds. The center of this vortex was imaged in unprecedented detail last week by the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn. These clouds lie at the center of the unusual hexagonal cloud system that surrounds the north pole of Saturn.

Saturn's north pole precessed into sunlight just a few years ago, with Cassini taking only infrared images of the shadowed region previously. The above image is raw and unprocessed and is being prepared for release in 2013.

You can view a ''movie'' of this event by clicking the image above.

PTØS summary & video

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Created on Sunday, 02 December 2012 13:45

The recent PTØS dxpedition to St Peter & St Paul Rocks by members of the Araucaria DX Group managed to log 44,000 q's. in 12.5 days of operating.

Broken down into Continents, EU had the most amount of Qso's logged with 20,386, swiftly followed by NA with 16,207. Asia had 3200 qso's logged and SA had 3034. The African continent had 729 logged and Oceana 397 qso's giving a total of 43953 qso's.

You can read a PDF report about there trip by clicking the link below and also view a YouTube clip by clicking the photograph top left in this Blog entry.

Read PTØS summary PDF here

Qsl requests help Air Ambulance

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Created on Saturday, 01 December 2012 06:00

I would like to give a big thanks to all who requested Qsl Cards over the last 6 months from www.m0oxo.com.

All of the used Postage Stamps on your incoming letters are saved. After several processes and some hard work by other colleagues, the money raised from the 'sale' of these stamps are given to a local Charity.

The Charity here is the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA). As a rapid response air emergency service the Charity serves a population of approximately 5 million people across 4 million acres. Our two air ambulances operate from Leeds Bradford International Airport and RAF Topcliffe near Thirsk, and together both air ambulances cover the whole of the Yorkshire region. This service costs £7200 per day to keep these aircraft running and saving lives.

A £50.00 (GBP) cheque was handed to the YAA this week so thanks for all your help. Its not a huge amount in the big scheme of things but every penny raised is a huge help towards running this invaluable service - Thanks for YOUR help!

Read more about the Yorkshire Air Ambulance by clicking this link. (Photo copyright & with kind permission of YAA).

Ice on Mercury - New evidence

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Created on Friday, 30 November 2012 14:18

New data from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft suggest that there's enough ice on Mercury to encase the entire US capital !

Given its proximity to the Sun, Mercury would seem to be an unlikely place to find ice. But the tilt of Mercury's rotational axis is almost zero -- less than one degree -- so there are pockets at the planet's poles that never see sunlight. Scientists suggested decades ago that  water ice might be trapped in those shadowed areas at Mercury's poles. The idea received a boost in 1991, when the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico detected unusually radar-bright patches at Mercury's poles, spots that reflected radio waves in the way one would expect if there were water ice. Many of these patches corresponded to the location of large impact craters mapped by the Mariner 10 spacecraft in the 1970s. But researchers weren't sure if the radar-bright patches detected by Arecibo corresponded to shadowy places in the craters.

The image top left shows Mercury's north pole. Red denotes areas that are in shadow in all images acquired by MESSENGER to date. (The mapping of shadows is still incomplete near the pole.) Yellow shows the locations of bright polar deposits imaged by Earth-based radar.

EPC-UA this weekend

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Created on Friday, 30 November 2012 14:12

The Ukrainian Section of the European PSK Club (EPC-UA) has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the EPC Ukraine DX BPSK63 Contest 2012. Dates/Time: starts at 20:00 UTC on Saturday 01.12.2012, ends at 19:59 UTC on Sunday, 02.12.2012.

We would like to invite you to take part in the contest, the rules and other information can be found at EPC Ukraine website.

It is strictly BPSK63 contest, no other modes are allowed.

ARRL 10M SSB Contest 2012

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Created on Friday, 30 November 2012 13:54

Good prospects maybe, having read this on the ARRL website recently? Whether they are right though is a different matter!

''Will it be possible to beat the 2011 running of the ARRL 10 Meter Contest? With more than 5300 logs received and worldwide openings last year, that may be a tall order. This past weekend during the CQ WW CW Contest, 10 meters was in great shape, despite a coronal mass ejection that hit on Friday evening.

In the US, Novice and Technician class operators can get in on the fun, too. Both classes are permitted SSB operation between 28.3-28.5 MHz with 150 W. Single Operator entrants can use either CW only or SSB only -- or a mixture of both. They can choose between High Power, Low Power (150 W or less) or QRP (5 W or less). Want to share the fun with your friends? Invite them over and enter in the Multioperator category. Stations that operate as a Single Operator are not allowed to use any spotting network; if Single Operator stations wish to use spotting networks, they will be entered in the Multioperator, Single Transmitter category. Even though this is a 48-hour contest, all stations -- be they Single or Multi Operator -- can only work 36 of the 48 hours. This means that operators will have to plan the best strategy to be on the air at the right time to take advantage of the propagation.''

The ARRL 10 Meter Contest runs from 0000 UTC Saturday, December 8 through 2359 UTC Sunday, December 9. Logs must be e-mailed or postmarked no later than 2359 UTC Wednesday, January 9, 2013. Paper logs should be sent to ARRL 10 Meter Contest, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.

A guide to Solar Flares

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Created on Thursday, 29 November 2012 08:49

You may find this interesting?

Solar flares happen when the powerful magnetic fields in and around the Sun reconnect. They’re usually associated with active regions, often seen as sun spots, where the magnetic fields are strongest. Flares are classified according to their strength. The smallest ones are B-class, followed by C, M and X, the largest. Similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a ten-fold increase in energy output.

So, an X is 10 times an M and 100 times a C.....OK so far?

Within each letter class, there is a finer scale from 1 to 9. C-class flares are too weak to noticeably affect Earth. M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts. Although X is the last letter, there are flares more than 10 times the power of an X1, so X-class flares can go higher than 9.

The most powerful flare on record was in 2003, during the last solar maximum. It was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. They cut-out at X28. A powerful X-class flare like that can create long lasting radiation storms, which can harm satellites and even give airline passengers, flying near the poles, small radiation doses. X flares also have the potential to create global transmission problems and world-wide blackouts.

Rio DX Group - PR1T Team WAE 2012

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Created on Thursday, 29 November 2012 08:42

Check out this video showing Members of the Rio DX Group operating as part of the Worked All Europe (WAE) Contest 2012.

(Click on the image to view the You Tube clip).

You can read more about this Group by browsing their Website, click here.

Sunspot 1620 generates M2.2 solar flare

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Created on Thursday, 29 November 2012 08:17

Sunspot 1620 produced M2.2 solar flare with peak at 21:36 UTC on November 28, 2012. 

Fast growing sunspot AR1620 has a beta-gamma-delta magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. M-class activity is also possible from region AR 1618 which has now rotated off the visible solar disk.

Approximate Flare Start : 28-11-2012 2131 UTC

Antarctic Sea Ice cover increases

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Created on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 14:21

Antarctic sea ice drift caused by changing winds are responsible for observed increases in Antarctic sea ice cover in the past two decades according to new study by British Antarctic Survey and NASA.

While Arctic experienced dramatic record ice loss due the climate change, Antarctic sea ice cover has increased due the climate change. Antarctic  ice cover expands to an area roughly twice the size of Europe during the winter season. 

By the end of winter the ice covers an area of 19 million square kilometres, more than doubling the size of the continent.