Good morning. It's Sunday the 14th of March and here is the GB2RS news broadcast, prepared by the Radio Society of Great Britain. First the headlines:- There's been more favourable publicity for amateur radio; and we have news of a forthcoming Microwave Round Table. This week, the national news media have continued to give favourable reports of amateur radio being used inside Yugoslavia to assist the United Nations in their humanitarian relief efforts. The RSGB heard this week of a UK amateur who also managed to help. Jim Atherfold, G0FZB, of Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, was called on 20m by YU1ADJ requesting medicine which was urgently needed to save the life of a young man in a Belgrade Hospital. He was able to pass this message to the Red Cross for further action. A spin-off of this was a very favourable local newspaper story which praised amateur radio, distanced amateurs from eavesdropping scanner users, and listed the meeting times and contact addresses of two local clubs. All in all, a fine effort. This is a timely opportunity for a reminder that although the Amateur Radio Licences prohibit the passing of third party traffic, the sort of message received by G0FZB may be passed to an authorized government official. This would normally be the Radiocommunications Agency (on 071 215 2171) who will see that it reaches the appropriate destination. The Southern Microwave Group will be holding a round table meeting at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire on Sunday the 21st of March commencing at 10.00am. Attractions include a calibration and alignment service, microwave component service, technical talks and a bring and buy stall. Full catering facilities will be available. For more information contact Mike, G3LYP on 0494 881298. The RSGB's Amateur Radio Direction Finding Committee has a vacancy for someone with an interest in VHF Fox Hunts who is keen to assist in the organising of the National VHF D/F events. Applications and enquiries should go to the committee chairman Brian Bristow, G4KBB, whose address is correct in the RSGB Call Book. The RSGB QSL Sub-Manager for the GW0, 5,6,7 and 8 series: Mr D C Green, GW3MRI has now retired. In future all cards for the GW series will be dealt with by Mr K Hudspeth, GW0ARK. The Sussex Repeater Group voice repeaters, GB3HO on RB1 at Horsham and GB3WS on R6 at Crawley, are now back on the air following re-engineering. Reports will be welcomed by the Group, send to Mike Mundy, G0GNV. Now some items of HF DX news from the weekly RSGB DX News Sheet which is edited by Brendan McCartney, G4DYO. From Madagascar, DL7FT and DL7AFV will sign 5R8DJ from now until Monday the 29th of March on all bands. Check 'usual channels' on SSB and plus 5kHz up on CW. From Belize, AE0Q, KT0F and WN0B will sign V31RY from Ambergirs Cay from Friday the 19th until Sunday the 28th, mainly on RTTY but with some CW, taking in the BARTG RTTY Contest. From Iraq, SP5AUC is active as YI9CW. The length of stay is not known. From Tuvalu, JF1WQC will sign T20WQ, from Saturday the 20th to Tuesday the 23th of March on all bands, using CW and SSB running 100W to an all band vertical. From Aruba, AA4NC, will sign either P40NC or P40AA from Monday the 15th to Tuesday the 23rd on all bands 10 to 160 metres, using CW and SSB. From Cayman Islands, W2HKM will be on as ZF2TX from now until Sunday the 21st. Check 21.300MHz and 28.495MHz SSB. Rally news now, and we know of two events for today, Sunday the 14th and two events for next Sunday the 21st: Today, Sunday, is the final day of the London Amateur Radio and Computer Show being held at the Picketts Lock Centre, Picketts Lock Lane, Edmonton, London N9. Doors are open from 10.00am, and there are facilities for the disabled. There are many suppliers of radio and computer equipment, an RSGB stand, a bring and buy stall and a special interest group section. Ample car parking space and refreshments are available. Talk-in will be on 2 metres and 70 centimetres. Also today, the Wythall Radio Club Rally is being held at Wythall Park, Silver Street, Wythall. This is located near Birmingham, on the A435, 2 miles from junction 3 of the M42 Motorway. Doors open at 11.00am. There will be the usual trade stands in three halls and a bring and buy stall run by the club. Refreshments will be available and talk-in will be on channel S22. Next Sunday, the 21st, the Norbreck Radio Rally, a Radio, Electronics and Computing Exhibition is to be held at the Norbreck Castle Hotel Exhibition Centre, Queens Promenade, North Shore, Blackpool. Doors open at 11.00am, or 10.45am for disabled visitors through a ramped entrance. There will be over 100 trade stands, Novice Licence details and practical demonstrations, an RSGB stand and book stall, and a bring and buy stall. There will be free car parking and a free shuttle service. Refreshments will be available. Talk-in is to be on channel S22. Further details can be obtained from Peter Denton, G6CGF by telephoning 051 630 5790. Also on Sunday the 21st, the Tiverton South West Radio Club Rally will be held at Pannier Market, Tiverton, Devon. there is easy access, only minutes from junction 27 of the M5 Motorway. Doors open at 10.00am. There will be the usual trade stands in two halls and a bring and buy stall, There will be a mobile snack bar and free parking. Further displays and full refreshments facilities are available in the club-room bar. Talk-in will be on channel S22. Further details can be obtained from G4TSW, Mid Devon Rally, PO Box 3, Tiverton, Devon. Next the contest news: The BARTG Spring RTTY contest is scheduled to take place from 0200 on Saturday the 20th to 0200 on Monday the 22nd of March on the 3.5MHz to 28MHz bands. Contact G3UFY or G4SKA for contest rules. On VHF, the fifth and final RSGB 70MHz Cumulative Contest takes place today, Sunday the 14th of March, from 1000 to 1200GMT. See December's RadCom page 61 for further details. Also on four metres, the RSGB 70MHz Fixed Contest is scheduled to take place on Sunday the 28th of March from 0900 to 1500GMT. See February's RadCom page 66 for further details. The Wrexham Amateur Radio Society will be using the callsign GC4WXM/P, from the North East Wales Institute, Plas Coch College, Wrexham on Friday the 26th of March. This is during their 'day of awareness raising' for the European Community. And now the solar factual data: The period from the 1st to the 7th of March has seen some M-type flares causing minor magnetic storms at high latitudes. Though the stratosphere warming is declining it is still covering from 60 degrees north to the pole. On the 2nd there was an M5.1/SF flare, and on the 6th M3.8 and M7.7/3B flares together with a type 2 and 4 radio sweep. A minor proton event occurred on the 4th but only reached 17 particle flux units and quickly died out. The mean sun spot count was 135 and solar flux levels increased every day from 132 on the 1st up to 167 units by the 6th. The average was 154 units for the period. The geomagnetic Ap index was up to sub-storm levels of 24 units from the 1st to the 4th, affecting mainly northern latitudes. It declined to quiet levels from the 5th, with the period averaging 17 units. The state has been proton alert and stratwarm up to the 5th, then nil. The radio quality indices were up to very good on the 1st with the Fort Collins Boulder, Tokyo, and Canberra circuits being up to excellent. However, levels declined generally from then on and were back to normal by the 7th. It has been a good week for the HF bands. The aa indices, as supplied by the British Geological Survey for the period 23rd February to the 1st March, were quiet most of the time, with the 27th being very quiet, down to only 2 nanoTeslas at times. The daily levels averaged 18.2 nanoTeslas about K2. The X-ray flux considerably increased from B4.5 up to C1.0 by the 3rd but slowly declined from then on, returning to B3.5 by the 7th. The period averaged B6.5. Now the ionospheric data for Central France: The F2 daytime critical frequencies at Poitiers, as reported by Meudon, averaged 9.8MHz and the darkness hour lows 3.2MHz. The daytime highs are now being reached later up to 1500 hours some days, with the darkness hour lows being mainly around 0600. Now the ionospheric data for the north: The F2 daytime critical frequencies at Ekaterinberg averaged 7.7MHz and the darkness hour lows 3.0MHz. Though the X-ray flux and solar flux follow similar patterns, there are times when massive bursts of X-rays do not show up on the solar flux. These are usually precursors of pre-auroral enhancements on the HF bands. And lastly the solar forecast: This week, the most active part of the sun will be rotating away. Solar flux levels are expected to be at about the 120s. Magnetic activity is expected to be quiet to just unsettled most of the time, but the passage of a coronal hole towards the end of the period may cause some disturbance. Ionospheric levels during the daylight are expected to be up to 30MHz with north/south paths predominating. Darkness hours should be up to 18MHz. And that is the end of the solar information Finally in the main news, SSL has informed the Society that as of last Wednesday morning, the latest callsigns issued were in the G0 T G and G7 O R series, and Novice calls in the 2 0 A E and 2 1 B O series. You're listening to GB2RS, the news broadcasting service of the Radio Society of Great Britain, transmitting in the 80, 40, 6 and 2 metre bands.