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GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 18th of April 2021 The news headlines: Vote now in RSGB elections New 122GHz DX record Video explains EMF Calculator   Voting in the RSGB elections closes at 0900 on Thursday the 22nd of April. Don’t miss your opportunity to decide who you would like to represent you as RSGB President and on the RSGB Board of Directors. You can find voting guidance and read statements from all the candidates on the RSGB website. RSGB Members can submit written questions in advance for Board Directors. Please note that the form will only be available until voting ends. The AGM takes place on the 24th. After the formal business ends there will be a presentation by John Rogers, M0JAV on the new EMF licence regulations. For all information, including how to watch the AGM live, go to rsgb.org/agm. UK amateurs continue to create new DX records on the 122GHz millimetre-wave band. On the 7th of April, using barely one milliwatt, a new all-time UK record was set. The contact was between Roger, G8CUB and Chris, G0FDZ, from Danbury Hill in Essex to the Isle of Sheppey, a distance of nearly 36km. This is all the more remarkable given the very low powers and high atmospheric loss due to an oxygen resonance that affects this particular microwave band. RSGB Board Director and EMC Chair, John Rogers, M0JAV, has created a helpful video to demonstrate how to use the RSGB/Ofcom EMF calculator. The calculator itself has also been updated on the RSGB website. You can find links to the video and the calculator at rsgb.org/emf. The RSGB’s new Friendship on the Air Award links in with the chosen theme of Home But Never Alone for World Amateur Radio Day today, the 18th of April. It is a chance to get on the air, represent your club and have a proper chat with radio amateurs across the airwaves. There are monthly and annual awards for individuals, clubs and the highest-scoring club in each region. To find out how to take part, visit rsgb.org/friendship-award. Belgian individual operators and radio clubs are authorised to replace their ON prefix with OS between the 18th of April and the 12th of December. This is to celebrate World Amateur Radio Day on the 18th of April and the 120th anniversary of Marconi's first reception of transatlantic radio signals on the 12th of December 1901. The RSGB remote invigilation exams have been very successful during the Covid-19 lockdown. Last week, the remote invigilation exam team saw the 1000th Intermediate candidate pass their exam. Congratulations to all the students. Over 3,100 candidates have made the first step into the hobby by obtaining a Foundation pass and over 330 to the Full licence. Thanks go to the team of volunteers who run the programme. We are very grateful for their effort during these difficult times. The latest GB2RS Broadcast Schedule can be downloaded from rsgb.org/gb2rsschedule. We’re always looking for new readers to join the teams around the UK and Crown Dependencies. If you would like to find out more, and you are an RSGB Member with a Full or Intermediate licence, please contact the GB2RS Manager via email to gb2rs.manager@rsgb.org.uk. Eugene Marlow is in the very late stages of producing a documentary about China starting in the 1920s. He is looking for high-resolution photos of the use of radio in the 1920s in China to incorporate into the documentary. If you think you have photos that could be used, contact Eugene via email to meiienterprises@aol.com. Now the DX news Joe, 9H5JO will be on the air at weekends during April from Malta. Between 1200 and 1300UTC each Saturday and Sunday, he will listen specifically for Foundation licensees on, or very near to, 14.268MHz. This could be a really good opportunity to get Malta in your logbook. Mark, W5MED is stationed at McMurdo Station on Ross Island in Antarctica, AN-011, until October. He will operate as KC4USV on the 18th of April at 0600 to 0800UTC and from 2100UTC until midnight. Look for him on 14243kHz SSB and 14070 kHz FT8. QSL direct to K7MT and Logbook of The World. JW1I is the club callsign for the Meteorological Station on Bear Island, EU-027, Svalbard. The operator is Erling, JW/LB2PG, who is expected to stay there until the 15th of May. QSL via the bureau. Now the Special Event news Today, the 18th of April, is World Amateur Radio Day, with the theme Home But Never Alone. The South African Radio League is holding a WARD QSO Party from 0600 to 1800UTC on all bands and modes. Participants must contact various stations to obtain points adding up to 96 because the IARU and the SARL are both celebrating their 96th anniversary in 2021. Special certificates are available. For full details, search online for SARL WARD QSO Party. GB1PF will be on the air from the 23rd to the 26th of April, operated by members of Fort Purbrook ARC. Activity will be from members’ homes, with activity planned on HF using CW, SSB and data and VHF/UHF using SSB and FM. GB1PPP has been issued to G0CCT until the 30th of April to commemorate the life of Prince Philip, who passed away on the 9th of April. Now the contest news With different parts of the UK having different lockdown restrictions, please make sure you follow the appropriate rules. Several contests now accept portable entries, so please check the contest rules. Above all, please follow relevant national and local restrictions. On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 2130UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Wednesday it’s the SSB leg of the 80m Club Championships, running from 1900 to 2030UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend the SP DX RTTY contest runs for 24 hours from 1200UTC on the 24th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number. SP stations also exchange their Province code. Next Sunday, the 25th, the BARTG Sprint 75 contest runs from 1700 to 2100UTC. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is just the serial number. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 16th of April. The Sun continued to remain quiet last week with a maximum solar flux index of 75.3 on the twelfth and a maximum sunspot number of 17. Sunspot region 2814, whose physical width was equivalent to four Earth diameters, spawned a few B-class solar flares but showed little sign of growth and as you read or hear this report will be rotating out of view on the Sun's limb. The STEREO Ahead spacecraft is showing some future potential spots, with two areas exhibiting magnetic activity, but it is too early to say whether these will amount to actual spots when they rotate onto the visible solar disk. What is more obvious is a large coronal hole that will be Earth-facing by Friday and promising a high-speed solar wind that will hit us by late Saturday or Sunday. This is predicted to make the Kp index rise to an estimated five, although, rather like the rise in the Kp Index on Thursday the 15th, it will likely be short-lived. As the Kp Index rises expect a decrease in maximum usable frequencies until the ionosphere recovers. NOAA predicts the SFI will be in the range 72-75 next week with relatively calm geomagnetic conditions once we get past the Kp increase this weekend. We are now probably just a couple of weeks away from the start of the Sporadic-E season, and as the weather forecast for this next week is quite good, it may be an ideal opportunity to check your 10m antennas. One upcoming highlight is International Marconi Day on Saturday the 24th of April when special event stations in locations with significance to Marconi's work will operate around the world. For more details, just search online for GB4IMD. And now the VHF and up propagation news. With another week of high pressure on the charts, it will be a Tropo theme for propagation. Although for some of the time the surface air, which ideally should be cool and moist, looks likely to be cold and dry, so Tropo may not be as strong as it could be. Sometimes the presence of misty low cloud or fog in the morning will put things right temporarily, but conditions will fade thereafter as the fog or cloud clears. Northwestern parts of the British Isles will have some spells of frontal rain and a chance of some rain scatter, but even here the high will become more dominant later. That leaves us with the approaching Sporadic-E season to consider. It's coming, but these early season opportunities tend to be fleeting and more likely on the lower bands like 10m and 6m using digital modes. With the Moon at maximum positive declination today and falling path losses, towards perigee a week on Monday, it’s a good week for EME. There will be long Moon windows and high peak elevations. Thursday the 22nd sees the peak of the April Lyrids meteor shower and on Friday the smaller Pi-Puppids. These showers signal the end of the annual meteor activity minimum and already there are signs of more meteor reflections being reported, so get looking at the usual frequencies for the mainly digimode activity. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.