Archive - September 2013

Eruption of Jebel Zubair volcano

jebel zubair eruption sep 28 2013 lrg

 

A new submarine eruption started on September 28, 2013 NW of the island Jebel Zubair in the Red Sea. The ongoing eruption is SW of the 2011-12 eruption which created a new volcanic island there.

Satellite image from January 7, 2012, suggested that the eruption has risen nearly completely above water. A plume of steam, other volcanic gases, and ash spewed from a distinct cone. The land surrounding the vent has grown, and was about 530 by 710 meters (1 700 by 2 300 feet) across. Once above water, past eruptions in the Zubair Islands were primarily effusive, with relatively runny lava forming thin lava flows. In contrast to the fragmented rock that forms when lava interacts directly with water, lava that solidifies on land is tough, so this new island is likely to stick around.

 

The 5-km-long Jebel Zubair Island is the largest of a group of 10 small islands and submerged shoals that rise from a shallow platform in the Red Sea rift.

This latest phase of activity occurred on the morphologically youngest islands of Zubair, Centre Peak, Saba, and Haycock. Historical explosive activity was reported from Saddle Island in the 19th century. Spatter cones and pyroclastic cones were erupted along fissures that form the low spine of Zubair Island.

ZM9ØDX celebrating 90 years of Kiwi DX

goyder and pow

1923 and 1924 marked the zenith of long distance communication records culminating on the 18th of October 1924. Between 0615 to 0730 UTC on 80 meters with the First Trans-World contact between Frank Bell (A sheep farmer) Z4AA (ZL4AA) in Shag Valley NZ and Cecil Goyder (A 18 yr. Student) at Mill Hill School using the callsign G2SZ in London.

New Zealand Dxers are proud of the many ZL DXing milestones over the years. The Kiwi DX Group an informal group of ZL Dxers and contesters are commemorating this event and many other ZL firsts, which occurred during this period.

Join us in celebrating 90 years of DX in ZL. The Special Callsign ZM90DX will be in use between October 1, 2013 to October 31, 2014.

http://zm90dx.com/
http://gb2nz.com/     …..for more information

XZ1Z confirmed LOTW

XZ1Z 201308QSLfs

Thanks to Zorro for the latest confirmations on LOTW.


The recent XZ1Z operation from the Union Of Myanmar (Burma) was confirmed yesterday after my latest upload to LOTW.

This now brings me to 314 DXCC (W) and 290 DXCC (C) on LOTW.

XT2AW – Burkina Faso 2014

DF2WO

Harald (DF2WO, D44TWO) will be QRV next Year from Burkina Faso.

He will be active on SSB and CW during the last week of January and the end of February 2014 from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country’s largest city, with a population of 1,475,223. The city’s name is often shortened to Ouaga.

The fastest way to receive any Qsl Card I manage is to request them via M0OXO OQRS.

SV5/MW0JZE EU-001

K800 2013-09-17 115239

Ant MW0JZE will be QRV later this week from Kos (IOTA EU-001).


Ant’s Callsign will be SV5/MW0JZE and he will be operating ‘holiday-style’ whilst taking a family break on the Greek Island of Kos. Listen for him between 19th & 25th September 2013.

He will be running 100 watts from an Elecraft K3 into a vertical antenna. Bands will depend upon propagation and conditions but it will be restricted to HF operation only.

QSL is via M0OXO OQRS (preferred) Direct or Bureau.

Your Qsl Cards are NOT required

National Hamfest ”Bigger & Better”

20110927-133632

This year the National Hamfest Team are really working hard to make it even bigger and more enjoyable this year.

Rob Mannion G3XFD, Practical Wireless Editor starts the lecture program at 1100 on Friday with his talk titled:- “Rob’s PW Club Visits & Other Editor’s Adventures – Including the Admiral who ‘encouraged’ G3XFD to join the magazine!

For the first time Elecraft are coming at the invitation of Waters & Stanton and are providing their new K3 line to be used for the National Hamfest Special Event Station GB13NH. (You will be allowed to operate GB13NH if you bring your own licence to the event.)

You can receive the latest updates by following the National Hamfest on Twitter @N_Hamfest and we are even on Facebook

See more info as the dates approach on their website click here.

”All Quiet Alert”

data

With the Sun’s disk almost completely devoid of sunspots, solar flare activity has come to a halt. Measurements by NOAA’s GOES 15 satellite show that the sun’s global x-ray emission, a key metric of solar activity, has flatlined.

 

The quiet is unlikely to break this weekend. NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 1% chance of M- or X-class solar flares during the next 24-48 hours.

The quiet spell is a bit strange because 2013 is supposed to be a year of solar maximum, with lots of flares and sunspots. Supporting this view are data from NASA-supported observatories which show that the sun’s magnetic field is poised to flip–a long-held sign that Solar Max has arrived. Nevertheless, solar activity is low.

One possible explanation is that Solar Max is double-peaked and we are in the valley between peaks. If so, solar activity could surge again in late 2013-2014. No one can say for sure, though. Researchers have been studying sunspots for more than 400 years, and we still cannot predict the behavior of the solar cycle. Continued quiet or stormy space weather? Both are possible in the weeks and months ahead.

(tnx SpaceWeather.com)

DX Lite updated

vjr

News from Michael G7VJR that his popular DX Cluster program DX Lite has been upgraded.


He says ”dxlite is a popular little tool I wrote about 5 years ago, designed to provide lightweight HTML access to the latest DX Cluster spots. The number of pages served by DXLite is sometimes thousands an hour, mainly from mobile phone clients but also from PCs and Macs. DXLite has some minimal searching filters which are explained in the docs, so if you’ve never come across it before and wonder what the big deal is then you can start here.”

Read more on his blog at http://g7vjr.org/2013/09/dxlite-implemented-as-a-zero-message-queue-json/

HP0INT/9… penultimate Island

Hp0 logo

 

The HP0INT Team are now Qrv from the penultimate Island as their Panamanian Island tour continues.

I managed to work them this afternoon on 15m which leaves just the last Island to log later this week when they arrive at Colon (Bocas Del Torro) NA-088 in a few days time (all being well).

Signals today from Iguana Island NA-203 were a lot better than the previous activation of NA-202 when they were hampered by high terrain towards EU making signals very weak for me at least.

More information can be found on their website at http://www.invokerteam.com/hp0int/

 

JA6TBE/6 AS-036

as-036

Toshi JA6TBE is currently qrv from Tsushima Island IOTA AS-036.

Tsushima Island is an Island of the Japanese archipelago situated in the north of the Tsushima Strait, between the Japanese mainland and the Korean Peninsula. The island group measures about 45 miles (72 km) by 10 miles (16 km) and has a population of about 34,000 as of 2013.

Thanks for the new IOTA Toshi san, good to hear you this afternoon!