GB2RS News for Sunday, 28 October 2012

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympics QSO Parties

Certificates have been dispatched for both of the QSO Parties that were formed around the use of the special prefixes this summer. 32 certificates were issued for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award and 24 for the Olympic Award. They turned out to be quite challenging awards. Whilst QSOs were not that difficult as there were plenty of stations who wanted a QSO with one’s special prefix, it was more challenging to find other Q or O stations to make up the required 100 contacts. The organisers hope that all those who took part enjoyed the event, even if they didn’t make the requisite total to claim their certificate. Congratulations to the certificate recipients! The RSGB would like to thank Ian Pawson, G0FCT and Pete Lindsay, G4CLA, of the Contest Committee for facilitating the adjudication and to Kevin Williams, who designed the certificate.

RSGB Extraordinary General Meeting, 17 November 2012

RSGB Members should have received their copy of the November 2012 RadCom. Contained with in it are details of the EGM to be held on 17 November 2012 near Stratford, at which Members will be invited to vote on new governance arrangements for the Society. RSGB Members can vote electronically via the RSGB website, by post or in person at the EGM. The Board is very keen to ensure that the outcome of the EGM accurately reflects the view of the whole membership, and all Members are encouraged to cast their vote.

AMSAT-UK delivers FUNcube-2 boards

On 19 October, after some final testing and characterisation checks, Graham Shirville, G3VZV of AMSAT-UK handed over to Clyde Space Ltd of Glasgow the set of three PCBs that form the FUNcube-2 subsystem on the UKube-1 spacecraft. Clyde Space is leading the development and assembly of this CubeSat project for the UK Space Agency. FUNcube-2 on UKube-1 will provide a 435 to 145MHz linear transponder for amateur SSB and CW communications and telemetry for school students around the world. The UKube-1 spacecraft is expected to be launched on a Soyuz-2 launcher from Baikonur in Kazakhstan in March 2013.

Also in GB2RS this week

New Zealand amateurs may have to wait for 6m

Amateurs across New Zealand may have to wait a bit longer to get full access to the 6m band, currently in use by channel 1 television transmissions. The New Zealand national amateur radio society is working with the nation’s Radio Spectrum Management on arrangements for the period between when all the Channel 1 transmitters are turned off, in November 2013, and their management right expires in 2015. In the meantime, any New Zealand amateur in an area where TV channel 1 is no longer operating can apply for a permit to operate on the band.

DARC to ask German standards body to oppose draft PLT standard

DARC, Germany’s national amateur radio society will be asking the Deutsche Commission for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies to oppose a new pan-European draft Power Line Transmission standard. Like the RSGB, DARC is concerned about the future ambitions of the manufacturers of other PLC products in the direction of higher limits for the emission of harmful electromagnetic or EMC interference. This could lead to a weakening of the previous limits in other European EMC standards.

Swedish amateurs get 1.85 – 2MHz

Swedish amateurs are now allowed to use the full band of 1.85 to 2MHz with Secondary status, as well as the Primary amateur radio allocation of 1.81 to 1.85MHz. For many years Swedish amateurs were not allowed to use 1.85 to 1.93MHz.

ITU members approve universal power adapter standard

International Telecommunications Union members have agreed first-stage approval of a new Universal Power Adapter technical standard for devices such as modems, set-top boxes, home networking equipment and fixed telephones. The standard will complement ITU’s very successful Universal Charging Solution for mobile devices enabling further energy savings, reductions in e-waste and enhanced consumer convenience by expanding the concept’s application to the vast majority of ICT devices.

Category: GB2RS Headlines