GB2RS News for Sunday, 13 January 2013

5MHz band news

The new variation to the UK Amateur Full Licence, allowing a wider range of privileges, came in force from 1 January 2013. Following the Christmas and New Year period, RSGB web support for the new frequencies has been updated. You will find a link at www.rsgb.org/main/5mhz [LINK TO OLD SITE]. Whilst the RSGB continues to encourage experimental work on the 5MHz band, the experimental licensing requirement has been dropped and it is considered that the Society no longer needs to continue to run the 5MHz Experiment to the extent that it has in the past. The 5MHz Working Group has agreed that its primary role has been done and that it can be stood down as a working group. The RSGB would like to acknowledge the contribution by the 5MHz Working Group for its work in developing our presence at 5MHz. The Society also looks to its Members, indeed all UK amateurs, to act responsibly in respect of the new privileges at 5MHz.

Irish amateurs get 472kHz band

Irish amateurs have been informed by ComReg that the band segment 472 to 479kHz is available to all licensed radio amateurs in Ireland, on a Secondary basis. Stations must not cause interference to the Primary Users, including coast stations and the aeronautical radio navigation service.

Gx100RSGB locations this week

The special event callsign celebrating the RSGB Centenary, G100RSGB, will be operated Sunday, 13 January, by Furness ARS. On Monday and Tuesday, South Manchester Radio and Computer Club will put the station on the air in Sale. South Lancs ARC will run the station from Wigan on Wednesday and West Manchester Radio Club take up the callsign in Astley on Thursday. On Friday and Saturday the callsign will be on the air with Wirral & District ARC and then it moves to the Isle of Man as GD100RSGB on Sunday and Monday when the Isle of Man ARC runs the station. Details of how to get your QSL card or check that you are in the log appear on the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org/main/centenary [LINK  TO OLD SITE].

Also in GB2RS this week…

New amateur radio Facebook group

A new group has been formed on Facebook for amateurs wishing to organise skeds with other amateurs. So if you need a particular contact for an award, or just a chat, then go to www.facebook.com/groups/hamsked and have a look.

Logbook of The World speeding up

The Logbook of The World queue has been shrinking steadily since 7 January, when the system was brought back online after the installation of a new database server equipped with solid state drives. Since then, the delay between a file being uploaded and processed is about 8 days and is dropping by one day approximately every 10 hours.

Volunteer programmer sought for IOTA project

The IT support group for the IOTA programme is engaged in the beta testing of a ADIF log upload module on a live test server. Additional software support is required to assist Dom Smith, M0BLF with this process, as well as other developments on the IOTA site. The RSGB is looking for a volunteer to provide software programming support for IOTA. The ideal candidate would have skills that include object oriented PHP, MySQL, Javascript and associated technologies such as AJAX, JSON, jQuery, etc and be familiar with working in a GitHub collaborative environment. A team worker, comfortable with virtual collaborative working, would be essential. Whilst someone resident in the UK would be an advantage, consideration will be given to overseas applicants. Expressions of interest, with a brief CV, should be sent to John Gould, G3WKL, by e-mail to g3wklbtinternet.com.

Still time to enter National Club of the Year

UK amateur radios clubs still have time to enter the National Club of the Year competition. Kindly sponsored by Waters and Stanton, the closing date for the Regional entries is 31 January. After judging by the Regional Managers team, each of the 13 winners will go through to the national competition, the winners of which will be announced at the RSGB AGM on 20 April. Entries should go to the Regional Manager and details can be found on the Regional websites.

Category: GB2RS Headlines