GB2RS Headlines 9 September 2012

| September 9, 2012

16th ARDF World Championship bannerARDF World Championships this week

The RSGB ARDF World Championships team flies out to Serbia on Monday 10 September. All nine of the UK competitors are self funded. UK ARDF events using the IARU rules have been run by the RSGB since 2002. In contrast, most eastern European nations have been pursuing this radio sport for over 50 years and have a great deal of experience. These nations dominate the results, with Russia, the Ukraine and the Czech Republic particularly successful. There are four days of competition and the results will be posted on the event website each evening at www.ardf2012.org. Wednesday 12th sees the first of the classic races with both the 3.5 and 144MHz bands in use. The inaugural World Sprint ARDF championships take place on Thursday 13th and this format uses 3.5MHz. Friday 14th is the second day of the classic races, with competitors using the band they did not use two days earlier. Finally there is a Fox-Oring race on the Saturday and this also uses the 3.5MHz band. Watch out for the M40 and M70 team results. In the individual results, Andrew G4KWQ (M40) and David M3WDD (M50) are our best prospects and there is a chance that the RSGB might get someone on the podium for the first time.

New allocation in the Philippines

Amateurs in the Philippines have been granted some additional spectrum. Depending on licence class, amateurs will be permitted to operate from 135.7kHz to 137.8kHz, 472kHz to 479kHz and 7.201MHz to 7.3MHz, with Class B and Class C allowed to operate HF mobile.

Gough Island to be activated

ZS6KX will be going to Gough Island sometime this month. He is hoping to be issued the callsign ZD9KX. If you made contact with a ZD5KN on Gough Island you will not be getting any credit for the contact as that callsign has never been issued.

Also in GB2RS this week

Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society event

The Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society has organised a social event in Coventry and all are welcome. It will take place on 14 to 16 September. The main event is a gala dinner on the Saturday evening and will include pre-dinner drinks and entertainment. On Saturday a coach trip from the hotel in Coventry to the National Memorial Arboretum is also to be run as part of the event. Membership of the RNARS is not a requirement to attend this social event. Details are on the RNARS website.

Goodbye to world record-beating 2O12L

Cray Valley members started operating 2O12L on 25 July, in the first 10 hours over 3,300 contacts were made. The station closes at 4pm Sunday, 9 September. As well as introducing visitors to amateur radio the station exceeded the world record for special event station QSOs on 21 August and reached their target figure of 60,000 QSOs at 2305UTC on Friday 31 August.

Category: GB2RS Headlines