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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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Please be aware that Mid Sussex District Council have changed the charging times for Cyprus Road car park, and fees are now payable until 8pm - so you'll have to pay for an hours parking each and every Friday club night!
Don't get caught out. It would be a painful experience.
Reference: https://www.midsussex.gov.uk/parking-travel/parking/
Might I suggest that the committee consider changing the club meeting start time back to 8pm?
Berni M0XYF
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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Those of you who read this column regularly will know that I use 60m (5 meg) for many of my FT8 contacts. This band was introduced about 15 years ago as an experiment, allowing us limited use of vacant military frequencies.
This was based on the USA system called MARS, Military Auxiliary Radio System. This allowed amateurs to use US air force frequencies in support of their communications network in times of need.
November was the 70th anniversary of this, with 14 special event stations on the air. I managed to hear most of them but could only manage to work two, probably due to our power limit of 100W here in the UK. The image below shows the activation certificate.
Another, but most important anniversary was the 100th of the first direct contact between UK and New Zealand on the 18 October 1924. I managed to work both ends of this during the 90th however only the UK end this time with David Goyder, nephew of Cecil and a student at Mill Hill School. The QSL card has photos of both the operators and a map of the world highlighting the radio gear.
The beginning of December bought in my 221st DXCC for 2024, my best ever, beating 195 in 2014. However, I am still trying to get the all-time score over 300!
Using 15m in the late afternoons and 60m in the evenings, I have worked more USA stations than I care to count. I have a chart of the US grid squares that I use to mark contacts, and there are now very few that are still blank. I doubt I will ever work them all, which reminds me that I log every county that I can get information on. There are 3077 in all - a huge number - but with a score of just over 1,000 I’m well on my way. [Ever tried GridTracker Chris? - Berni]
On the 20th I was monitoring 15m FT8 when a German call popped up. It did not seem to be one of the regulars, so I persisted with a contact and worked Alex, DP0GVN at the Neumayer III research station on Antarctica. Last month I said Tierra del Fuego was probably as far south as you can work, well this beat that at 70.5 deg South with a balmy summer temperature of –2 deg C.
Something I have found working the US is that most of the stations worked have high towers dominating their property, rather than the blue wire in a tree that we use. When I worked my 1,000th county with KE8RFE, I looked up his locator, translated it to Google Earth and saw a lattice tower the best part of 80ft tall!
So, a quick summary of the year; I finally worked 224 DXCCs (an all-time best for me, that would have got me the DXCC with extra stickers) of which 146 were islands (which would have qualified for the basic IOTA award) including many new ones, mostly in the Pacific area. All this as the sun cycle has been near the maximum for this cycle.
I wonder what 2025 will bring?
Happy New Year and good DXing,
Chris, G4ZCS
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Late last year, the committee discussed a proposal from several people, that the club allow registered members the individual use of our famous callsign, Louis Varney's G5RV. It's registered as a club call, along with G1ZMS and G3ZMS, but rarely gets an outing these days.
Phil G4UDU gave it a good airing on new year's day, and from what I gather, made around 170 contacts.
This Sunday, Rob M0KPD will be giving it an even more serious workout, running though most bands from 80m on up, starting at the most refreshing time of 3am through to the early evening. Look out for him, and perhaps check the cluster and give him a spot. I think Rob is very excited to use the call - his comment on Friday's lunchtime net was 'I was BORN for this!'
Well done Rob. Your patience has paid off 👍
When I get a chance, I'll be adding a facility to the website so that you can see which members have a reservation for using the callsign and when. I'll also be publishing details of how you can have a go, and the protocols that have been put in place for it's use. Be aware though, that you will almost certainly be facing the biggest pileup you've ever experienced, so not for the faint-hearted!
It's a special callsign, and we should respect its usage, but by the same token, I'm very pleased that it will once again be heard around the world, and fly the flag for Mid Sussex Amateur Radio Society.
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Dick G0LFF sent me a few interesting photos on his return from holiday this week, and they are definitely worth sharing. Dick commented:
'I met up with Derek ZB2CW, ex G4BLX, in Gibraltar during our winter cruise this year'.
'Derek used to live on the right as you drive up Ditchling Beacon. Anybody calling into Gibraltar can call Derek through the 2M repeater ZB2BU which Derek monitors while driving his tour bus.
We did some 6M contests together with stacked five element Tonna Yagis, including the MSARS VHF Field Days'.
It is not hard to work out Derek’s preferred mode of radio operations with his present callsign.
Dick G0LFF
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Today sees the release of the annual GCHQ Christmas puzzle-teaser. See how you get on with this multi-layered conundrum.
There are a few dots and dashes to give some of you old-school radio types a bit of a head start, although apparently it takes more than experience, raw IQ or a direct hotline to Santa to solve all the facets of this years quiz.
If fact, GCHQ's Director Anne Keast-Butler says 'The challenge has been designed for a mix of minds to solve, so is best tackled in groups of classmates, families or friends. Whether you have an analytical mind, a creative brain or prefer engineering, there's something for everyone'.
I was intrigued to watch the BBC's tightly-chaperoned visit to GCHQ's Cheltenham headquarters on breakfast TV this morning, where I was pleased to observe that the reporter didn't exactly go easy on any of the interviewees, bringing up issues of mass-surveillance and even mentioning Mr Snowden at one point! Cheeky devil. Well worth a watch if you can find it on iPlayer or wherever.
You can view and download this years challenge resources on the GCHQ website, where you'll find the seven increasingly tricky tasks. I managed the first one, but then I was unexpectedly called away on urgent business... 🤔
Good luck, and Happy Christmas to all MSARS members!
Berni M0XYF
