Also in GB2RS this week…

In the Europe to North America Summit-to-Summit event last Saturday, the 13th of May, a total of 36 European summits and 18 North American summits were activated. Despite abysmal radio conditions with deep fading and high band noise levels, several trans-Atlantic QSOs were made, including some summit to summit contacts. Overall everyone enjoyed the event and many are already looking forward to the next event on the 18th of November, when it is hoped that conditions will be significantly improved.

Mexican telecoms regulator IFT, the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, has approved amateur operation on the new WRC-15 60m amateur Secondary allocation of 5351.5 to 5366.5kHz. Maximum power permitted is 20W EIRP. Separately, the Icelandic authorities have decided to extend the experimental license privileges for radio amateurs in the 5MHz band until the 31st of December. The privileges are for 5260 to 5410kHz, with 100W EIRP. Mode of emission: CW, USB, PSK-31 and other digital modes. Currently 25 TF licensees have permits for 60 metres.

Several papers for the International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 2017 general conference are now online. These include C3, General Matters; C4, HF; C5, VHF and microwave; and C7, EMC. They can be downloaded under the heading ‘conference papers’ at tinyurl.com/GB2RS-2105A. There is also an RSGB Forum on these and other papers at tinyurl.com/GB2RS-2105B.

Bletchley Park opened a new exhibition this week, celebrating the centenary of Bill Tutte’s birth. In World War Two he was an elite codebreaker and renowned mathematician. Due to the secrecy surrounding his work, his contribution is sometimes overlooked, but his successes were on a par with those of Alan Turing. After the War, Tutte worked on many civilian projects including graph theory, which laid foundations on which today’s internet search engines are built. Full details of the exhibition, which is free with admission to the Park, can be found at www.bletchleypark.org.uk. RSGB Members can download a free admission pass to Bletchley Park from the RSGB website.

Category: GB2RS Headlines