Southgate Amateur Radio Club News

Here’s the latest Amateur/Ham Radio News from the UK-based Southgate Amateur Radio Club.

Views expressed in this post are those of the reporters and correspondents.

Content provided by the Southgate Amateur Radio Club.

Accessed on 30 May 2020, 2000 UTC, Post 1462.

Source:

http://www.southgatearc.org

Please click link or scroll down to read your selections.

News for Saturday 30 May

Foundations of Amateur Radio
If you’ve ever used a spray can of WD-40, you might have wondered what the name means. It stands for “Water Displacement, 40th formula”. In my time as a radio amateur I’d never stopped to think what the RG in RG-58 stood for. Turns out that it too has a meaning, “Radio Guide”, though I have found some interesting alternative descriptions where the G stood for Government

Amazing opening on 144 MHz from Cape Verde Islands to Poland
On Friday the 29th of May 2020, there was an extensive Sporadic-E opening across Europe which reached as high as 144 MHz allowing stations across the continent to make many fine contacts

New RSGB Online exam remote invigilation FAQ
The RSGB have released a new version of the Online exam remote invigilation FAQ PDF which covers the new automated exam booking system that will be available on Monday, June 1

ESA invites proposals for lunar lander mission in late 2020’s
Development of Europe’s first ever lunar lander was agreed upon by ESA Member States in 2019 and now ESA is seeking your ideas for science and robotic missions on the Moon, Andy, G0SFJ is going to propose an amateur radio mission, using low signal technology in an amateur band

NHS supporting ‘Get on the air to care’ campaign
Pete Gordon, Head of Emergency Care Improvement in the Emergency Care Improvement Support Team (ECIST) explains how delighted the NHS is to be partnering with the RSGB in the successful ‘Get on the air to care’ #GOTA2C campaign

ATMega328 SSB SDR For Ham Radio
Danie Conradie writes for Hackaday about an amateur radio ATMega328 SSB SDR developed by Guido PE1NNZ

The Space Weather Woman
Big Flares and A Solar Storm Hits During SpaceX Astronaut Launch – The latest space weather forecast from Dr Tamitha Skov WX6SWW

VK6WIA NewsWest
In NewsWest for Sunday 31st May 2020 we ask the question “Were German Amateur Radio Stations used to broadcast propaganda during World War Two?”

We’ll tell you all about it, because in today’s NewsWest we take a peek at Amateur Radio History as reflected in the Amateur Radio Magazine of May 1940

Drive-in ham radio exams in California
The ARRL reports that Volunteer Examiners (VE) in California have carried out a successful drive-in amateur radio exam session and more are planned

Propagation de K7RA
No significant solar activity over the past week, and still no sunspots observed since the end of April. According to Spaceweather.com, the percentage of spotless days in 2020 has inched up another notch to 79%. The percentage of days showing no sunspots for all of 2019 was 77%

DXCC Country/Entity Report
According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Friday, 22nd May, through Friday, 29th May there were 209 countries active