Also in GB2RS this week…

| February 22, 2019

For the first couple of days after KickSat-2 was deployed last November, nothing was heard from the satellite. But in February, Nico, PA0DLO reported receiving several short and weak telemetry bursts on 437.5077MHz. KickSat-2 was scheduled to deploy up to 104 tiny Sprite satellites into low Earth orbit. The Sprites then would transmit on 437.240MHz at 10mW. The Sprites, which are less than two square inches, are expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere within weeks. There is no news on whether these Sprites will be deployed.

Provisional results for the last IARU Region 1 50-70MHz Contest are now available on the IARU Region 1 website. Several UK stations are in the top 10 in various categories. The six hour 50MHz category saw G4ZAP/P achieving fourth place and G0VHF/P got 10th place. In the multi-operator 50MHz section, the GJ8P stations achieved fifth place.

The ARRL has released version 11.7 of the Logbook of the World configuration file. This has added the ability to confirm QSOs made through the JO-97, FO-99 and QO-100 satellites. Users should receive a prompt to update their configuration file when opening recent versions of TQSL. The file can also be downloaded from https://lotw.arrl.org/lotwuser/config.tq6.

The RSGB has changed the way it hosts the online version of RadCom. This now uses HTML5 to display the pages and no longer requires Flash to be installed. The pages will also load faster. All this year’s editions are now available to Members in the new format at rsgb.org/radcom and we will be converting back issues from previous years in due course. The March edition will be on the website from 12 noon on Monday, 25 February 2019.

Car parking charges will be waived for The West of England Radio Rally on 16 June 2019 at Frome’s Cheese and Grain. Last year, Mendip District Council introduced Sunday charges in a number of car parks across Frome, including the exhibitors’ site. According to BBC News, the council has announced it will stop charging for the duration of the event.

Category: GB2RS Headlines