Category - Blog

On 15th July, NASA’s ion-propelled Dawn probe will become the first spacecraft to enter orbit around a main-belt asteroid.

Dawn will orbit Vesta for one Earth-year, studying the giant space rock at close range to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system’s history.:

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on 9th July 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 26,000 miles (41,000 kilometers) away from Vesta, which is also considered a protoplanet because it is a large body that almost became a planet. Each pixel in the image corresponds to roughly 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers)

This is an exciting and relatively new company to Amateur radio who have been trading since 2009.

They produce high quality maps of many sizes and are just getting a good foothold into the market an area which has been lacking for some time.

The maps can be printed on various media from foto quality silk paper to foamex board.

They are probably the best Amateur Radio Maps I have seen in years and are a welcome addition to any Shack who’s owner only wants the best!

Have a look on the link above (click Map) and see what you think.

GR2HQ Award

1.   UK HQ Club Challenge Award

This award is available once a year by participating in the IARU HF World Championship (July 9/10^th 2011)

The object of the UK HQ Club Challenge is for all members of radio clubs to produce a Combined Club score by working the UK headquarters station GR2HQ on as many bands/modes as possible during the IARU HF Championship 2011 contest. Stations wishing to enter the IARU contest can add their score to the overall club score.

Whilst stations are encouraged to work any station active in the IARU event, only QSOs with GR2HQ will count for the UK HQ Club Challenge. Stations with limited band or mode capability are encouraged to operate from either a friend’s station or their local club station, whichever is appropriate to maximise their club’s overall score.

Date/Time : 1200UTC on Saturday 9th July 2011     until     1200UTC on Sunday 10th July 2011

Bands : 160m to 10m – excluding WARC bands

Modes : CW and SSB

Exchange : RS(T) + ITU Zone    [ all of the UK is in ITU Zone 27 ]

Sections: 1. Small Club or Group – up to three entries per club

2. Medium Club or Group – up to 9 entries per club

3. Large Club or Group – 10 or more entries per club

Frequencies: the usual HF contest frequencies – See the full IARU HF Championship contest rules at :

http://www.arrl.org/iaru-hf-championship

Scoring : One point per contact with GR2HQ – up to a maximum of 12 points (6 bands x 2 modes) per club member.

Entries: One club member should collate all the individual club member’s entries and produce a summary sheet of all QSOs which must be in Cabrillo or Excel format and must include each member’s name and callsign and their club or group name to be valid. This summary sheet should be sent by e-mail ( awards@gr2hq.com ) to Stewart GW0ETF who will do the log checking by 31st July 2011 (3 weeks after the contest).

Sorry – paper logs will not be accepted.

Awards: In each of the three sections listed above there are two UK HQ Club Challenge trophies which will be awarded to the club or group with the highest overall score in each of two geographical regions – the UK and Europe.

In the event of two or more clubs or groups having the same final points score, the group or club which achieves this score first during the 24 hours of the contest will be the winner.

2.   Award Certificates for working GR2HQ

Individual stations that contact GR2HQ on up to 12 band/mode slots will also be eligible for a special certificate issued by the GR2HQ team.

This is the 9th year that these award certificates have been available.

Bronze award certificate :        GR2HQ on three, four or five band/modes
Silver award certificate :          GR2HQ on six, seven or eight band/modes
Gold award certificate :            GR2HQ on nine, ten or eleven band/modes
Platinum award certificate :    GR2HQ on all twelve band/modes

W-HQ-S Award

From IARU HF Championship rules:
(…) To contact as many other amateurs, especially IARU member society HQ stations, around the world as possible using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands (…)

rules

1. The award is issued by MK QTC (The Polish Radio Amateurs’ Journal)
Editor.

2. The purpose of this award is to maximize contacts with
national IARU central stations all over the world, during the IARU HF
Championship (July, 9-10 2011 r.).

3. The award is issued in two classes: Basic, for having at least 10
contacts with the HQ stations, i.e. AO8HQ, DA0HQ, GB5HQ, EM7HQ, SN0HQ,
IU8HQ etc. Special, W-HQ-S Special Award, limited to top three
operators worldwide, for having the highest number of HQ stations
contacted during the Championship. Note: one HQ station counts per
band and per mode, up to 12 times i.e. 1.8MHz-CW, 1.8MHz-SSB,
3.5MHz-CW, 3.7MHz-SSB, 7MHz-CW, 7MHz-SSB, 14MHz-CW, 14MHz-SSB,
21MHz-CW, 21MHz-SSB, 28MHz-CW – 28MHz-SSB.

4. A list of valid contacts should be submitted within 30 days after
the Championship to the following address: qtc@post.pl

5. W-HQ-S Award may be issued in two formats: – High resolution print,
with the applicant’s individual call sign, original seal and Chief
Editor signature, for a fee of 5€ or $7 USD. The funds may be sent via
PayPal to: qtc@post.pl (award name and applicant’s call sign should be
included as a transaction note) – Electronic (JPG file) with call
signs of all winners, at no cost.

6. The award is available to SWL.

7. Operators unable to submit electronic applications may apply using
standard paper forms. The application and the fee should be sent to:
MK QTC, Suchacz-Zamek, PL-82340 Tolkmicko, Poland.

8. Any questions on the Award rules interpretation may be submitted
to: qtc@post.pl