Southgate Amateur Radio News

FCC formally adopts proposals to remove amateur 3-GHz band, invites comments
At its December 12 meeting, the FCC formally adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in WT Docket 19-348 and invited comments on its plan to remove “existing non-federal secondary radiolocation and amateur allocations” in the 3.3 – 3.55 GHz band and relocate incumbent non-federal operations

CWops 10th Anniversary QSO Party
In January 2020 CWops will be celebrating it’s 10th anniversary with a month long QSO party with CW activity on all the HF contest bands

The Space Weather Woman
A Fleeting Sunspot and A Familiar Hole – The latest space weather forecast from Dr Tamitha Skov WX6SWW

GB4GCT – Greenham Control Tower
Newbury Weekly News reports on the new permanent amateur radio station at Greenham Control Tower established by the Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society

SMOG-P and ATL-1 designated Magyar-OSCAR 105 (MO-105) and Magyar- OSCAR 106 (MO-106)
On December 6, 2019, the Technical University of Budapest’s SMOG-P and ATL-1 PocketQubes were launched on an Electron launch vehicle from the Mahia Launch Complex in New Zealand

CAMSAT CAS-6 satellite will be launched soon
CAMST’s amateur radio payload CAS-6 piggybacked on a technology test satellite TIANQIN-1 will be launched at 3:21 UTC on December 20, 2019 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center of China using a CZ-4B launch vehicle

DX News from the ARRL
The American Radio Relay League’s round-up of the forthcoming week’s DX activity on the amateur radio bands

New Irish beacon on 60 MHz now on the air
Back in early 2018, the 60 MHz (5-metre) band was allocated to radio amateurs in Ireland (EI) on a secondary non-interference basis. Now we have news that the very first beacon on 60 MHz went on air on the 16th of December 2019 using the call EI1KNH

ARRL: Dare to Imagine
The ARRL CEO Howard E. Michel WB2ITX challenges radio amateurs to dare to imagine what amateur radio will look like in 2025 and beyond. Dare to imagine change

Tony’s 10m Band Report
No contacts for me on 10m again this past week. The weekend 10m contest was a success for some but not for me. Look at the contact maps below for Saturday and Sunday. Not too much into or out of the UK

FCC seeks to remove 3 GHz ham radio band
ARRL reports the FCC has formally adopted proposals to remove the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite Service 3 GHz Band and is inviting comments

Most Sunspot free days since 1913
It looks like 2019 will end the year with more days without Sunspots than any year since 1913

Ham radio history exhibit
The Los Altos Town Crier reports a Museum exhibition highlights the history of ham radio operators

Winter YOTA – Let’s go PA 2019
Winter Youngsters On The Air (YOTA) took place December 12-15 in the Netherlands with the theme “Let’s go PA”

RSGB Contest Club
A warm welcome to the discussion group to those who have recently joined. I hope you will find it useful. This is a quick update of news about the RSGB HF Contests in 2020

Major QRM on 40 metres
This week’s SARL News say European and South American radio amateurs have reported major interference from Russian OTH Radar stations (Over-the-Horizon Radar stations). Interference has been reported on 7 064, 7 109, 7 170 and 7 190 kHz. All signals are 12 kHz wide

Bethlehem 2m beacon on-the-air
The Bethlehem 2m beacon that has previously been reported on, is now on the air. A dedicated group of VHF enthusiasts installed the two 8 element Yagi antennas, splitter and LMR400 coax on the mast of the Free State Amateur Radio Club in Bethlehem (South Africa) on Saturday 7 December 2019

Spanish special event
The following Spanish Christmas special event stations will be active until the sixth of January next year: AO1XMA, AO2XMA, AO3XMA, AO4XMA, AO5XMA, AO7XMA, and AO8XMA

Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club elects new officers
The Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club held its election of officers for 2020