Also in GB2RS this week…

Sweden’s Alexanderson alternator station SAQ has planned a Christmas Eve transmission on 17.2kHz. The transmitter will be tuned up starting at around 0730UTC and a message will be transmitted at 0800UTC. Guests are welcome to attend the transmission at the radio station in Grimeton from 8am. The Alexander association will arrange coffee and Christmas cookies, free of charge, and there is no entrance fee. Amateur radio station SK6SAQ will be active on the 24th on 7.035 and 14.035MHz on CW, and 3.755MHz SSB. Two stations will be on the air most of the time.

The TX Factor team is celebrating an important milestone with the release of the 25th Episode of the only TV show dedicated to amateur radio. Bob, G0FGX talks to Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ about the new Elecraft K4 transceiver and Mike, G1IAR finds out about the WQ Weather Radar by Weatherquest. Mike and Bob took a trip to Southampton and Portsmouth to meet a team of radio amateurs who are working with their local emergency planning officer to make their repeaters resilient by using point to point RF links utilising off the shelf kit; there is also some information on the recent ITU World Radiocommunication Conference held in Egypt. Look out for the RSGB explanation on how it represents radio amateurs both nationally and internationally at around 28 minutes into the show. TX Factor is sponsored by the RSGB and Martin Lynch & Sons. Episode 25 is viewable in HD on all devices from smartphones to smart TVs and is available at txfactor.co.uk, where you will find all the previous episodes too.

Now for a licence revalidation reminder. All amateurs are required to revalidate their licence with Ofcom at least every five years. If it has been a while since you did that, go to ofcom.org.uk/manage-your-licence or email spectrum.licensing@ofcom.org.uk. The process doesn’t take very long.

The GB2RS 5MHz Team has need for readers on the rota of its Sunday afternoon national broadcast at 1500UTC on 5398.5kHz USB. We would welcome applicants, who should contact the RSGB’s GB2RS Manager via email to gb2rs.manager@rsgb.org.uk. Note that 5MHz readers need to possess a Full UK amateur radio licence and be RSGB Members.

The RSGB has released a bumper crop of lectures from the 2019 Convention for members to enjoy over the Christmas break. Chris Duckling, G3SVL speaks about lessons from the 6Gs VK9XG DXpedition including logistics, 160m and FT8 Fox and Hounds mode; Roger Balister, G3KMA and Igor Znamenskiy, UA9KDF talk about the Arctic Legends DXpedition by RI0B to the Russian polar Arctic; Chris Whitmarsh, G0FDZ talks about 122GHz and up and Elaine Richards, G4LFM explains about writing for all variants of RadCom. Head over to rsgb.org/videos to view these and many more.

You may like to take part in Worked All Postcodes, sponsored by Moonraker and assisted by several other dealers. The idea is simple—work as many different postcode areas as you can on 4m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm. The award website is www.amateur-radio.co.uk.

Category: GB2RS Headlines