October 14, 2008 by kb3ljm.

Well-known contester, DXer, and QST and NCJ author Paolo Cortese, I2UIY, passed away from a brain aneurysm the weekend of October 11. He was 48. According to fellow contester Doug Grant, K1DG, Cortese was the “most popular competitor” at the first WRTC in Seattle in 1990.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/10/14/10386/?nc=1

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January 28, 2008 by kb3ljm.

In two spectacular openings on the two metre band, a new Australia to New Zealand record was set. On 29 December, VK4DMC worked ZL1CN at a distance of 3549 kilometres. VK4DMC was running 200 watts into an 11 element Yagi just 8 meters above ground. Then on 9 January, there was an opening to ZL from VK5 resulting in several contacts, the best being between VK5BC and ZL1TWR over a distance of 3482km. [RSGB]

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January 16, 2008 by kb3ljm.

After the successful DXpedition to Norfolk in February 2007 where VK9DNX logged more than 60.000 QSOs the next activity is planned from Willis Island (OC-007) in October 2008.

The same experienced team, comprised of DJ7EO, DJ9RR,DL1MGB, DL3DXX, DL5LYM, DL6FBL, DL8OH and DL8WPX will be QRV with four high power stations in CW/SSB/RTTY on 160m-10m for about 17 days.

More information can be found at: http://willis2008.dl1mgb.com

[DXNL via Southgate ARC]

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2008/willis_island.htm

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January 7, 2008 by kb3ljm.

ARRL DXCC Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, announced today that the following 2007 operations have been approved for DXCC credit: S79UU and S79AB — Seychelles Islands; 5L2MS — Liberia, and D2NX — Angola. If you have any questions concerning these operations, or any questions about the ARRL DXCC program, please e-mail the DXCC Desk.

http://www.arrl.org/?artid=7932

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January 3, 2008 by kb3ljm.

During the period between 17th-21st December 2007, many UK amateurs experienced some of the best tropospheric propagation conditions in several years. The lift was particularly favourable in the North of England and along the East coast of Scotland, with stations on 144MHz working well into the Baltic States, Russia and the Ukraine. The DX cluster was reporting contacts with YL, ES, UA2, UT2, OH, OH0, UR, RA3 and UY5. It appears that propagation was also extensive on the 70cm and 23cm bands, too. One of the best-reported contacts occurred on 2M between GM0TGE (IO87) and UR5LX (KO70) at a distance of around 2,700Km. This contact is even more remarkable given that the path extended across the landmass of EU and so was not solely due to sea ducting. The opening did not, however, favour everyone and stations in the South and West of the UK reported that very little was being heard. It will be interesting to read reports of this remarkable event over the coming months in order to determine the range and extent of the super DX that was worked on VHF and above.

http://www.eham.net/articles/18257

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January 3, 2008 by kb3ljm.

HQ8R QRV from March 15-23, 2008.
Iota NA-35, Grid EK87.. [E-Ham]

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November 9, 2007 by kb3ljm.

Guinea-Bissau DXpedition by F6KOP
11-21 January, 2008. http://www.j5c.eu
Emphasis on 40-160 meters…..
(Thanks, RSGB)

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July 9, 2007 by kb3ljm.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Environment Center (SEC) released their monthly forecasts of sunspot number and 10.7 cm radio flux, including high and low bounds to their forecasts. The SEC forecasts that the smoothed sunspot number reached its low value of 11.7 in March 2007, and predicts that the solar flux will reach its low of 75.4 this month. This is the fourth month in a row that the SEC predicts the solar flux will bottom out in July. Based on the SEC predictions, this is probably at the bottom of Cycle 23 and extremely close to the beginning of Cycle 24. Two events will mark the beginning of the next sunspot cycle: The observation of the first opposite magnetic polarity sunspots compared to Cycle 23 sunspot polarity, and the observation high solar latitude sunspots — the Cycle 23 sunspots are now very near the solar equator. The SEC predictions table and sunspot number and solar flux prediction graphs are available on the SEC’s Web site — The Daily DX

http://www.arrl.org/?artid=7568

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July 5, 2007 by kb3ljm.

South Africa’s Space Research Institute says Radio Amateurs can do much to heat up the ionosphere and improve DX conditions, this the SARL was told by a prominent space weather researcher. “By many amateurs transmitting at the same time the resultant RF hitting the ionosphere will cause it to ionise and become active like during the high sunspot years”, he said. He made the point that during major DX contests the 10 metre band opens up while the day before and the day immediately after the contest the band is dead. This conclusively proves the point that high RF levels impacting on the ionosphere does the trick. (sarl news, via RAC home page)

Ed Note: We ran this before but it merits repeating… Believe it or not!

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July 5, 2007 by kb3ljm.

Approval has been granted for the use of the Special Prefix “VR10″ in addition to “VR2″ for Hong Kong Radio Amateurs starting from the 1st of July 2007 to the 30th of June 2008 for the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s reunification with China. More details are available in the OFTA letter for Hong Kong Radio Amateurs, which can be found at www.ofta.gov.hk/en/amateur/ama-cir200706.pdf.

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