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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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Well, I have made it into another year, and started off to see what I could work during 2024.
I have not set any targets yet, but time will tell.
Thanks to Ken providing a replacement for my duff high power ATU. I have dabbled a bit on several bands using Voice, CW and data. I reset the counter for the 60m band and to date have contacted over 60 DXCCs. Last year I worked data from August to the year-end with a count of 98, and filled two logbooks.
On the propagation front I have enough data to guess at least part of the mechanics of this band. Local contacts out to about 500 miles make up the bulk of contacts and are unlikely to be ground wave, more likely NVIS from my low-level dipole. Using the grid square map, I have worked just about all squares out to 1200 miles, so a second hop of NVIS or a regular F2 reflection could be the path.
I have now enough confidence to guess that the elusive DX I mentioned last year is appearing to be a form of grey-line. Usually we expect to work the sunrise/sunset track to DX stations for an hour or so. 60m seems to be different. The contacts seem only to last a couple of minutes at most and not only use the SR/SS route but also SR or SS to darkness. My daytime is generally dead for most days but as darkness falls the band opens - not only to the locals but also the DX that is already, or still, in darkness. During our late dark evenings, contacts can be made with sunrise stations to the far east and to sunset ones in the far west.
It's all very strange to me, and I hope that someone reading this can shed some light on what is really going on!
One unfortunate trait I have noticed is 'out of band' working. Here in the UK, we are strictly limited to keep within our allocated frequencies. On 60m FT8 the operating dial setting is 5.357 MHz. The upper edge of our band slot is 5.358, so, the highest audio tone we are allowed to transmit is 1 kHz (5.357 +.1 = 5.358).
Unfortunately, far too many UK calls can be seen well above this limit, having said that, when I started to use this band, I did make the same mistake and got 'shouted' at for my troubles. Ironically this was from a station that was himself too high!
At a recent ham-meet I enquired of an expert why my 60 metre contacts were not appearing in some databases? The answer is that, as yet the ARRL have not recognised this band for scoring DXCCs. Their reasoning is that there are still a number of countries that have yet to allow amateurs on this band so until then that would not represent a fair playing field!
Until next time,
73's
Chris G4ZCS
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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An informative and interesting evening was had by all for Phil’s talk
There was a pretty good turn out for the talk on Friday, where Phil brought along a variety of hardware to demonstrate the joys of portable use.
Questions were asked and answered as we went along with everyone having the chance to have a closer look at the tech on show at the end.
It was a lovely insight to Phil’s passion of operating all over the world with everyone hopefully going home feeling inspired to put together their own Grab 'n' Go Kit.
Finally my thanks go to Phil for taking the time and effort to do this talk and to Stella for the Tea, Biscuits and Cake enjoyed by everyone at the end.
Chris Hodgkinson (M7VJE)
MSARS Chairman.
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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As we come to the end of 2023, I’ll do a quick review of my year, so this will be a bit longer than usual.
I was hoping to work 100 DXCCs as quickly as possible and preferably in January, well I did, sort of as it took till early February. This year I used a mix of CW and SSB mostly outputting 100W and up to 400 for the big pileups. As I write this, I have 115 on phone, and 156 on CW and a grand total of 194 that includes data (more later) 1 short of my all- time best of 195 in 2014 when I was still feeling OK.
January bought in a rush of stations too many to mention but Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and Greenland come to mind. In February with solar conditions improving, China, Mongolia, Bali, Nepal and most of the US and Canadian states & provinces.
By the end of March, the score had risen to 162 with the Falklands, and New Caledonia adding to the total. April, however, was a disaster in all senses, my health took a battering, so I wasn’t up to doing too much, then the antenna farm threw its toys again. This was fixed by renewing the 450 feeders with the last of my stock. Then, the computer threw a wobbly. It turns out that Windows had added a new security feature that prevented programs loading up, but with no warning or notifications. I asked for help with this and eventually identified the fault and fixed it. Since then, many dozens of others have reported the same thing but now get a 1 minute 'fix' as the procedure has been well publicised.
May, as usual, bought a load of outdoor activities like gardening (not so easy these days) and checking the antennas. The DX included VK, Hong Kong, American Samoa, and Rockall. June was equally quiet but lots of island contacts, and with Singapore, Ethiopia, and the Sovereign Military order of Malta. However, still a little way to my 200 target.
July is my month to chase islands and this year a good crop of Chinese and American ones. Another bout of side effects laid me low for a while, so I started to look into the new datamodes. With a good deal of help from Dick G0LFF I managed to get a signal out using FT8 as an experiment. I was hoping to get this running before the Autumn & winter. I found this system is a bit boring when I am feeling well, but really relaxing to use (and addictive) when I’m not feeling too good, so it’s a great help to keep me on the air.
August saw us bid farewell to Ron, G0WGP another source of wisdom and memories from WW2.
Down the garden a slight hint of hot plastic! An inspection of my weatherproof box revealed some brown colour and the smell of smoke. Checking everything revealed the balun had overheated due to dry joints on the sockets (they don’t seem to like the heat cycling out in the garden, an ongoing problem). The plastic case had to be renewed and then I found the ATU had started to play up. This limits my 15 Metres to 50W. The darker evenings bought 60 Metres to life, so I thought I’d try FT8 on this band. As I have reported in these articles this has been a great experiment to try. Some time I must do a write up of my results and thoughts on this unusual band. If anyone out there has any knowledge of the low band characteristics, I would like to hear from you.
In September I started to work some DX with FT8 on 60m and for a change I also tried 30m. This brought my first ever contact with South Dakota for worked all states. 30m behaves as one would expect propagation wise, and with the possibility of better DX, it is populated most of the day and into the evening while 60m is usually dead during our daylight hours. I think my lack of any western states is due to the fact that when the band is open here in the evening it is dead during their midday. All I need to do to get California is to stay awake till 5 in the morning!
October was great for working Europe and as I had set a target of working all Europe squares, I was filling lots of slots. At the time of writing, I have worked most of the squares out to 1,400 Km from here. The gaps are mostly sea or uninhabited! However, I still get a few new ones each week. I only now need Egypt and Syria to have all the countries on my Europe map! On the DX front 39 major squares (we are in IO) with received signals from many more including New Zealand. I guess that some of the gaps are because not all countries have the 60m allocation yet.
The end of the year bought the sad news of the passing of Mick G4EFO, another great loss to ham radio.
In the last few hours of the year 60m was still springing a few surprises with contacts with Kuwait, Monaco, Georgia, Belize, and Argentina.
So, an eventful year in spite of problems. I asked for comments last time, but I have not had any replies yet, so again, if anyone can help explain 60m propagation I would like to hear from you.
If Berni can stand it, and you want to read it, I might be able to do some more of these bits for the news next year.
[Yes please Chris, but I'm afraid I can't help you with 60m props info! Berni]
Good DXing in 2024
Chris, G4ZCS
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A cheerful piece of news to start the year!
Terry G0SWS and Hilary, his long time dog walking companion in Mablethorpe, were married last Friday. They didn't tell any of their friends or family but revealed all to the 4 members of MSARS who joined in Sunday's New Year's Eve net.
We were sent this lovely photo of the register being signed, and MSARS members that know Terry would like to congratulate the happy couple and wish them both the very best for the future.
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This (summary) from Ofcom today:
What we have decided - in brief
We have decided to change the amateur radio licensing framework to make the following changes as proposed in the 2023 Consultation document, with some amendments in light of the responses to the consultation. The changes will:
1. Change the licensing framework to:
• Streamline Notices of Variation (NoV) under the three-tier licensing structure;
• Update our mechanisms for re-validation while maintaining lifetime licences;
• Only permit licensees to only hold a single personal licence, requiring the surrender of lower level licences as a licensee progresses; and
• Allow anyone to operate amateur radio under a licensee’s supervision.
2. Streamline and modernise call sign assignment to update call sign allocation policy to:
• Introduce a new M8 and M9 Intermediate call sign format;
• Make the use of Regional Secondary Locators (RSL) optional and simplify the process for using a special RSL;
• Introduce the RSL ‘E’ for optional use by radio amateurs operating in England;
• Simplify the licence terms on the use of call sign suffixes;
• Allow old call signs to be reissued online, and permit licensees to periodically change their call sign;
• Simplify the rules around Special Event Stations; and
• Change the number of call signs that can be held.
3. Adjust technical parameters to reflect the evolving needs of the hobby and provide radio amateurs with greater operating freedom by:
• Increasing the maximum transmit power to allow (i) 25 Watts for Foundation and 100 Watts for Intermediate licensees in most bands; and (ii) 1000 Watts for Full licensees in bands where amateur radio has a primary allocation;
• Allowing Foundation and Intermediate licensees to use the internet for remote control operation;
• Permitting the deployment of repeaters, beacons and gateways without requiring an NoV in most cases;
• Allowing Foundation licensees to build their own equipment and access the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands; and
• Enabling low power airborne use in some frequency bands.
4. Provide clearer updated rules, with terms and conditions which are easy for everyone to understand by:
• Aligning various terms and conditions with other licences that Ofcom issues;
• Simplifying conditions to remove unnecessary complexity and make them clearer; and
• Removing provisions not necessary for spectrum management purposes.
In response to feedback from stakeholders we have decided to proceed with an amended version of our proposal in some areas. We will:
• Increase the period before a call sign can be reissued or changed to 5 years; instead of the proposed 2 years;
• Increase the permitted transmit power for Foundation licensees to 25 Watts;
• Increase the permitted transmit power for Foundation licensees in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands to 2 Watts; and
• Allow the use of certain data stations without the need for an NoV.
To implement many of these decisions we need to make changes to all existing amateur radio licences. This means that many of these decisions are subject to the outcome of the statutory processes for varying existing licenses. We have therefore decided to start the statutory process to vary all amateur radio licences by publishing a General Notice which sets out the proposed licence variations. We will publish our final decisions in February 2024 following the conclusion of this process.
The full document can be downloaded here:
