Archive - September 2012

Qsl Cards to bureau

K1024 SNV35131

I don’t usually post the details of my mail drops as it tends to be rather boring given the 130+ Callsigns I manage. However, quite a reasonable drop of cards went to the bureau today.

Whilst visiting the national Hamfest, I took the opportunity of passing 9 Kilo of cards today to the RSGB Bureau representative. There were cards included for most callsigns I manage from a single card to several hundred.

I also sent 1,370g of cards Direct to World Bureaus (and NOT via the RSGB) for;

4W3A, CM5FZ, CM5LV, DV1UD, DX1X, JY9ET, KH6ZU, GO4RCG, MO0OXO, GQ4RCG, MQ0OXO, PW2D, PX2C, PY2MTV, RA3CQ, V55A, VK2CZ, VK4HAM, VK4NM, VK8AA, ZD8UW and ZL7M.

RI1ANF Antarctica (IOTA AN-010)

1

Thanks for the heads up this evening from Chris G1VDP informing me about RI1ANF on 10m CW. Bellinghausen base in Antarctica wasn’t a new base for me (IOTA AN-010), I have it confirmed on other bands but Antarctica on 10M (any mode) was new so pleased to rush to the shack and log him after a few calls, thanks Chris!

The Bellinsgausen station is situated on the Filds Peninsula in the south – western part of King-George Island (Waterloo island), being a part of the South Shetland Isles. The coordinates of the station are 62° 12 S and 58° 58 W, its altitude is 16 m above sea level. The station buildings are built on free of ice soil, on the both banks of the brook, rising from the small Kiteg lake and flowing into the Ardly bay. This bay is suitable for ships visits, the disembarkation is executed usually with help of floating transport, sometimes by helicopters. The King George Island is the largest island of the archipelago (its length is about 80 km, its width is 30 km). Most of the island is covered by ice with maximal glacier thickness of 326 m.

10M continues to be good…..but for how long?

Phasing out/Withdrawal of IRC’s in the UK

K800 IRC new

Information recieved via a colleague is that the Post Office are about to start the next stage of the withdrawal of International Reply Coupons from the UK very soon.

“QSL Via M0OXO” will now be phasing out the use of IRC’s for exchanging QSL cards.
I will continue to sell IRC’s for the time being while I have stock.
 
This is completely out of my control so I am sorry that as from the end of 2012 NO IRC’s will be accepted.
I do not have a date that the Post Office will stop accepting IRC’s it is likely that the service will just be withdrawn without notice.
 
QSL exchange after this time will be $2 by post or OQRS €2 ONLY
 Suggestions are that maybe they should wait until the current run of IRC’s (valid until 31/12/2013) expire but no clarification on that yet. Any updates will be posted here.

DPØGVN – Neumayer base, Antarctica

4c4fc09626

DP0GVN was logged this morning for my first contact with this particular German reasearch Station on Antarctica. Signals not too strong but working over the Long Path, 53 RST out and 51 RST in was all we could manage.

Situated on the Ekström Shelf Ice, Atka Bay, north-eastern Weddell Sea (Position: 70°40’S, 008°16’W, Neumayer Station III is the first research station to integrate research, operational and accommodation facilities in one building, situated on a platform above the snow surface, and connected to a garage in the snow.

Within a protective casing, the platform accommodates 100 containers with living quarters, a kitchen, a mess, a hospital, various laboratories, workshops, a radio operator room, sanitary facilities, the power supply station and a snow-melting plant. K640 b5cec166dcThe garage underneath the platform contains storage, waste and fuel containers, as well as space for vehicles, ranging from Pistenbullies to motor sleds to a rotary snowplough.

Normally, nine people live and work at Neumayer Station during the Antarctic winter: A medical doctor who also acts as the head of the station, a meteorologist, an airchemist, two geophysicists, an engineer, an electrician, a radio operator/electronics engineer and a cook. During 2010, additional 2 construction workers stay at Neumayer the whole winter through.

Each team overwintering at the station stays there for 14 to 15 months. For nine months of that time, their only link to the outside world is by radio and internet. Photo’s courtesy Alfred Wegner Institute.

 

ZL4HR Campbell Isld update

zl9hr logo

The HARAOA president and DX’Pedition leader Tommy VK2IR has just finished construction of a 40metre, 2 element Moxon antenna – yes that’s right a two element 40 metre beam is going on the ZL9HR DX’Pedition to Campbell Island (IOTA OC-037) for the activation between November 28th. and December 9th.

The element length is 15 ½ metres long! To see the construction of this monster simply search for ZL9HR on Youtube.

The fitting out of the four shipping containers to take all the equipment has also been finished and they are being packed. All of this is on schedule to be ready to be shipped out of Sydney in just a few days around the 15th. of September.

Please refer to the web site ZL9HR.COM for the full, up to date, information about this major DX’Pedition to the Great Southern Ocean.

 

 

Curiosity on the move

onthemove curiosity 960

Curiosity is on the move across Mars — but where is it going? The car-sized rover’s path after 29 Martian days on the surface is shown on the map.

Curiosity is still almost 300 meters from its first major destination, though, a meeting of different types of terrain called Glenelg and visible on the image right. It may take Curiosity two months or so to get to Glenelg as it stops to inspect interesting rocks or landscape features along the way.

The above image was taken about one week ago from high up by the HiRise camera onboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

 

 

 

GO2HQ Cards in mail next week

GO2HQ

GO2HQ Qsl Cards received from the printer yesterday.

 

Cards being processed and will be in the mail next week. Apologies for the delay which was caused with processing log before submission to the IARU Contest Adjudiucators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

9th CIS DX PSK Contest tomorrow..

epcseven

The European PSK Club has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the CIS DX PSK Contest 2012. The objective of the contest is to establish as many QPSK63 contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world and radio amateurs in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Everybody can work everybody for QSO and multiplier credit.

The CIS DX PSK Contest is held every year on the third weekend of September. This year it starts at 12:00 UTC on Saturday 15th September, 2012 and ends at 12:00 UTC on Sunday 16th September, 2012.

Important changes since this year: Since 2012 we only accept logs submitted through UA9QCQ web interface at

http://ua9qcq.com/contests/submit_log_eng.php

We don’t accept logs sent via e-mail any longer!

Complete rules can be found here. Good luck to all and see you in the contest!

 

 

London 2012 Olympics ended

 

This is the third and final instalment of reports of the London 2012 Olympic Games wirtten by Chris Colclough G1VDP. Please see the full report by using the link below. Thanks Chris……

Sadly we are coming to the end of the Paralympic games, and the Olympic games in London 2012. And to the end of what has been a memorable event here in the UK. It has shown that people from ordinary walks of life can achieve their goals and become winners at all levels.

There have been tears of joy, of pain, and of failure. Smiles and laughter. And every other emotion that a human can show. Photographs in the media of a proud parent looking on as their child has just won a medal, photos of the atheletes – both able bodied and paralympians – crossing the finish line with the smiles of the winner and anguish of thesimmonds 2326555i loser, and one that as I have previously said will stand out for me of the british rower crossing the line and the sudden realisation of winning gold and saying to her partner “we just won the Olympics”. But every competitor, in my book, is a winner for qualifying and taking part. Heroes all.

Well done to all involved with the London 2012 Games and thanks to all of the Ham Operators who we have worked with MO0OXO, GO1VDP, MO0KYI & GO4RCG and for their kind words and flowers!

Scroll down this page for the previous two reports from Chirs and click link to see the full report from Chris which is help on our Club site of the StrumbleHead Amateur Radio Klub (S.H.A.R.K.).