CCARC NEWS 13-02
CCARC NEWS 13-02
THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
ISSUE No 13-02 13th. January 2013
In this Issue:
- A different kind of field day contest.
- Cosmic weather changing.
- Broke & fixed.
1. A different kind of Field Day contest.
As you will know from my last posting, I called off the clubs planned portable VK2EH/P entry into the WIA Summer VHF-UHF Field Day contest on the basis of the predicted hot weather and bush fire danger.
In place of this we gathered to operate as the VK2AFY “home station” in the air conditioned luxury of the club rooms. As you will see from the few photos below, there was some portable construction to be done, temporarily installing 6metre and 70cm antennas to compliment the clubs 2metre LFA Yagi. We did not consider it worth erecting anything for 23cm given the location of the club rooms (surrounding trees etc.).
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Activity in this contest was even less than we saw from the Spring contest with a total of just over 30 contacts (and some of those repeats after the three hour time limit) I will submit a log just to get the club listed in the official results and to act as a check log for others entries.
It did however give us chance to try out the new rotator (loaned by Bob VK2PEP – thanks) and mast (loaned by Rod VK2LAX – thanks) both of which worked perfectly. We used the clubs TS-590S on six meters and the club’s IC-910H on 2m and 70cm.
Three people operated (or called, called, called), while others watched on. All helped to put up and take down the mast and aerials. Due to the lack of activity on the bands we only operated from the start at 12 noon through to 5pm.
Lets hope the next contest has more activity and all present can get a chance to work many stations.
Ed VK2JI.
2. Cosmic weather changing.
For those interested in HF propagation, here is a report just listed on the Southgate News list from Space Weather.
Increasing chance of flares
Space Weather reports that big sunspot AR1654 is growing more active
They say it is now crackling with M-class solar flares, such as this one recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Friday morning at 09:11 UT.
AR1654 is getting bigger as it turns toward Earth. Not only is the chance of flares increasing, but also the chance of an Earth-directed eruption. This could be the sunspot that breaks the recent lengthy spell of calm space weather around our planet.
Watch the video on the Space Weather site at
http://spaceweather.com/
From Southgate News. (to read all of the latest Southgate News headlines, simply go to the bottom of the Contests + DX page on our website ccarc.org.au where they are listed in real time).
3. Broke and fixed.
I am happy to report there is nothing on the broke or fixed list this week, all of the clubs infrastructure appears to be working fine at the moment.
Ed VK2JI
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