Good morning. It's Sunday the 18th of December and here is the GB2RS news broadcast, prepared by the RSGB and intended for all radio amateurs and short-wave listeners. Now this week's headlines:- The President of the Qatar Amateur Radio has visited the RSGB, RSGB Headquarters is open during the Christmas holiday, and we bring you our traditional Review of the Year. On Thursday, the 8th of December, RSGB Headquarters hosted a visit by His Excellency Mr Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the Minister for Energy and Industry of the State of Qatar. He is also an active radio amateur, A71AU, and is the President of the Qatar Amateur Radio Society. His Excellency was met by RSGB President-Elect Clive Trotman, GW4YKL, and General Manager Peter Kirby, G0TWW, and was then given a tour of the HQ building. He had the opportunity to meet staff and see first hand the workings of the Society. He took an interest in the production of Radio Communication, spent a considerable time in the Museum and Library, and concluded the visit operating the HQ station, GB3RS. For those needing to call at RSGB Headquarters or make a telephone enquiry during the holiday period, HQ will be open for business on Wednesday the 28th, Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th of December. The Chelmsford beacon, GB3CMS, on 10.36896GHz, returned to service on the 3rd of December. The Salisbury UHF repeater, GB3SW, will be off the air until mid-January for engineering work. The keeper, G4YRV, regrets any inconvenience to users. Now some items of HF DX news from the weekly RSGB DX News Sheet which is edited by Brendan McCartney, G4DYO. From Barbados, G3VBL will sign 8P9EM from now until Thursday the 12th of January, concentrating on CW on the WARC bands. From Pukapuka Atoll in the North Cook Islands, ZL2HU will sign ZK1KH until the end of January 1995. Activity will be on all bands, using SSB. From the Maldive Islands, I4ALU will sign 8Q7BX from Monday the 26th of December until Friday the 6th of January. Activity will be on all bands CW only. There's one item of HF contest news: The RSGB Affiliated Societies Team Contest takes place on Sunday the 8th of January from 1400 to 1800 UTC. The rules can be found in the December edition of RadCom. There's one item of VHF contest news: The RSGB 70, 144 and 432MHz Fixed Station Contest takes place from Monday the 26th to Thursday the 29th of December inclusive, from 1400 to 1600 UTC daily. See November's RadCom, page 78 for full details. And now the first part of our annual review of the past year as brought to you by the RSGB's GB2RS News Service. We are very grateful to newsreader Vic Kusin, GM4HCO, for researching and compiling this review. This week we deal with January to June, and the Bulletin for Sunday the 1st of January will cover July to December. The RSGB's 1994 President Ian Suart, GM4AUP was formally installed at an evening reception and dinner held in Glasgow on the 15th of January. In attendance were representatives of the French, Belgian, Dutch and German national societies. In his address, Ian spoke of plans to hold more regional meetings where members could meet and question officials of the RSGB. The 1994 New Year Honours list mentioned several radio amateurs. RSGB Propagation Studies Committee member Professor Les Barclay, G3HTF, received an OBE in recognition of his work in the field of propagation. RSGB member Donald Michael, GM0KCY received an MBE in recognition of his work as a Principal Lightkeeper with the Northern Lighthouse Board. Another RSGB member, Andy Watts, G4VIW, received an MBE for services to the Institute of Plumbing. At its January meeting, the RSGB Council elected Clive Trotman, GW4YKL, as the Society's Executive Vice-President for 1994 and Peter Sheppard, G4EJP, became Chairman of the Membership Liaison Committee, which deals with the Society's service to members. At a meeting of the Association for Science Education at Birmingham University an organisation known as STELAR was formed. STELAR, which stands for Science and Technology through Educational Links with Amateur Radio, is a group of educationalists whose aim is to promote amateur radio as a means of supporting good practice in the teaching of science and technology. STELAR's chairman is Richard Horton, G3XWH. In February, the Scarborough Amateur Radio Society presented Jim Lynch, G0NXX, with the Fred Powel Trophy for working 225 DXCC countries, all on CW using 80 watts to a Ground Plane antenna. Thinking Day on the Air took place over the weekend of 19 and 20 February. Guides and Brownies all over the world communicated with each other via amateur radio stations and, as usual, many governments relaxed their third party message restrictions for this event. The Yeovil Amateur Radio Club operated a special event station, GX3XMH/P, on the 40th anniversary of the first sky-wave contact with a transistorised transmitter. The 1994 station, using a single transistor running just twelve milliwatts, made 18 contacts, the best of which was at a distance of 260 miles. March saw an RSGB Supreme VHF/UHF Award issued to David Bullock, G6UWO. This coveted certificate was awarded for obtaining three Senior awards between October 1990 and March 1994 for contacts with 60 counties and 15 countries on 144MHz, 40 counties and 9 countries on 432MHz and 40 counties and 6 countries on 1296MHz. Brian Underdown, G7LIJ, gained the RSGB 144MHz award for having confirmed contacts with over 100 squares and 20 countries. What makes this really remarkable is that his certificate was endorsed: 'All contacts to achieve this award were effected during the first year of being licensed'. In April, amateur radio was featured on the BBC TV series 'Why don't You?' The broadcast, aimed at young people, presented the hobby as modern and exciting, featuring everything from crystal sets to packet radio. Members and friends of the Rishworth School Radio Club in Yorkshire were heavily involved in the making of the programme. Emma Constantine, 2E1BVJ, in which she described her enjoyment of radio, both at home and at the school radio club. The 23rd of April was International Marconi Day - held each year on the Saturday nearest to the birthday of Marconi and co-ordinated by the Cornish Radio Amateur Club. 1994 saw the biggest event to date, with over 35 special event stations taking part from around the world, including GB0IOW from Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight, described by Marconi as "the World's first permanent wireless station", GB1IMD, using amateur satellites, operating from a Marconi factory in Leicester, GB2IMD from Rathlin Island, Marconi's site in Ireland. There was amateur operation from the liner RMS Queen Elizabeth II during its world cruise which ended on the 28th of April. The station was set up and operated by the ship's medical officer Dr Andrew Eardley, G3UXO/MM. Using a marine HF magnetic loop antenna, Andrew operated for seven weeks on 15 and 20 metres, logging a total of 338 QSOs. Celebrating the official opening of the Channel Tunnel on Friday, the 6th of May were special event stations GB0CT, at New Romney near Folkestone, and TM5TSM, at Wimereux near Boulogne. The stations had a two-way amateur television link and the Chairman of Shepway District Council, G0BPS, spoke on the air to the Mayor of Wimereux. Amongst the news items in the May edition of the RSGB's Radio Communication magazine was one concerning Cheshire Raynet members who, whilst walking on Clwyd mountains, came across an injured boy. They raised the alarm via the GB3MP repeater and the emergency services quickly responded and took the boy to hospital, where he has made a full recovery. The three heroes were Anthony Lewis, G6LBC, Graham Pemberton, G7NEH and Peter Baston, GW0PJA. Cheshire's County Emergency Planning Officer commented that the three "had undoubtedly saved Alfie's life" and that this was the quality of response that he had learned to expect of the Raynet group. A dedicated group of amateurs from North Wales and the Wirral were awarded a prestigious award for outstanding services to amateur radio in the Republic of Ireland. Tony Jones, GW4VEQ; Martin Vernon, GW6HVA and Dave Fernant, G4PGO were awarded the Pat Conway Memorial Cup for designing and building a packet radio mail link which allows amateurs all over Ireland to connect into the European and World-wide packet radio networks. The award was presented by the President of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society Jim Ryan, EI3DP at the IRTS Annual General Meeting in Donegal. This is the first time that this award has been made to non Irish nationals. The STELAR Group reported that their first crash RAE course for teachers was a great success. The week-long residential course was sponsored by Trio-Kenwood UK and was held at their Watford Headquarters. The training involved both practical and theoretical aspects of amateur radio. Fifteen teachers took the Radio Amateurs Examination on 9 May. They are expected to use amateur radio as a classroom aid. During May, the number of RSGB-registered Novice Instructors topped the one thousand mark. Many instructors had commented that their reward was hearing their students using their new callsigns on the air and obviously enjoying every minute of their new found hobby. Britain's amateur satellite organisation AMSAT-UK donated 68,500 to enable the AMSAT Phase 3D team to obtain a higher capacity battery, which is expected to prolong the life of the satellite transponders to between 10 and 12 years. Phase 3d is a new type of satellite which should bring space communications within the reach of the majority of the world's amateurs. It is due for launch in 1996. On Saturday, the 4th of June the RSGB HQ held its annual open day. Despite continuous rain, everyone who attended enjoyed their day, meeting the HQ staff and visiting the QSL Bureau, the shack and the museum. Next year's HQ open day is scheduled for Saturday the 22nd of April 1995. If you haven't been to the Headquarters s building, put this date in your diary now. Many special event stations commemorated the 50th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings which marked the turning point of the Second World War. Memories of the 1994 National Field day will be of rain-soaked teams and tents. The 4th and 5th of June was, reportedly the wettest weekend the event had experienced for 30 years. Record breakers, Reading and District Amateur Radio Club, G3ULT/P secured their fourth consecutive victory in the Overall and Open sections, winning the NFD Shield and G3YF Memorial Trophy. In the restricted section, Gravesend RS, G3GRS/P, were the winners. The low power section was won by the Echelford Amateur Radio Society, G3UES/P. Over the weekend of 16/17 June, many clubs and individuals used GB calls from lifeboat stations in order to help raise money for the 25th Anniversary Appeal by the Worked All Britain Group. 10,000 was needed to provide a lifeboat for the RNLI. To qualify for the WAB Lifeboat Award, stations should have worked 10 of the special event stations active during July. Members of the Central Lancashire Radio Club used Very Low Frequency radio from 1,000ft underground to connect with GB4CRO on the surface. With special permission from the Radiocommunications Agency, the group used an 87kHz 'Molephone', loaned by the Cave Rescue Organisation, to link to an HF station via an interface built at Lancaster University. The first 10GHz moonbounce contact between two 'G' stations took place on 19 June, when G4RFR in Wimborne, Dorset made contact with G3WDG in Rushden, Northants. Good reports were exchanged and both stations were able to hear their own echoes. G4RFR is the club station of the Flight Refuelling Amateur Radio Society and the moon bounce system comprised a 4 metre dish and a 15 watt transmitter. G3WDG's station was using a 3 metre dish and a 40 watt transmitter. And that concludes our review of the first half of 1994, as reported by GB2RS. And now the solar factual data: The period from the 5th to the 11th of December saw solar activity at very low levels. Despite an increase in sunspot numbers, only one flare, a B8/SF, was reported on the 7th. Geomagnetic activity remained quiet. The sunspot indices increased, particularly towards the end of the period from 14 on the 5th to 85 on the 11th. The mean for the period was 50. Solar flux levels averaged 84 units for the period, increasing from 78 units on the 6th to 95 units by the 11th. The electron fluence levels are still high to very high and have affected some satellites with electron static charging. The X-Ray flux has also increased from A2.9 units on the 6th up to B1.2 units on the 11th, giving an average of A5.5 units for the period. The 90 day solar flux averaged 82 units on the 11th of December. Geomagnetic activity was mostly quiet, but increased to unsettled conditions on the 6th with an Ap index of 16 units. The 10th was the quietest day with an Ap index of only 5, and the period averaged Ap 9 units. The state as been 'nil, nothing to report'. For the period from the 29th of November to the 5th of December, the aa indices, as reported by the British Geological Survey, averaged 25.7 nanoTeslas which is about K3. The most disturbed day was the 2nd with a daily index of 45.4 nanoTeslas, about K4. November's geomagnetic Ap index was 12, with the May smoothed level being 17.8 I'll repeat the figures: Spots - 50, Flux - 84, Ap index - 9, X-Ray flux - A5.5. November magnetic Ap 12. Now the ionospheric data for Central France: The F2 daytime critical frequencies at Poitiers, as reported by Meudon for the period from the 2nd to the 8th of December, averaged 7.3MHz, with the 6th being the best day at 7.9MHz. The darkness hour lows averaged 2.4MHz. Spread F was reported for 9 hours, lasting from 20.00 on the 6th until 05.00 the following day. The highs are taking place mostly around mid-day and the darkness hour lows between 05.00 and 06.00. I'll repeat the figures: Highs - 7.3MHz, Lows - 2.4MHz. And lastly the solar forecast: Solar activity could well increase this coming week as the more active side of the sun will be looking our way. Solar flux levels are expected to be into the 90s. Geomagnetic activity is expected to be at mostly quiet levels especially midweek but may increase to active levels by next weekend due to the passage of a coronal hole. Ionospheric MUFs during daylight hours in the south are expected to be about 24MHz, and for the north 20MHz. Darkness hour lows are expected to be at about 8MHz. And that's 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 allocated were in the G0 Victor November and G7 Tango Whiskey series, and Novice calls in the 2 0 Alpha Juliet and 2 1 Delta Oscar series. -- NEWS FOR THE SOUTH EAST Meetings for Tuesday the 20th of December: Acton, Brentford and Chiswick Radio Club has a talk entitled 'Taming the End-Fed Antenna' by G3GEH. For further details telephone: 0181 749 9972 Chichester and District Amateur Radio Club has a Christmas Party and Presentation of the Marcuse Trophy. Details from G0KNU on 01243 573541. Reigate Amateur Transmitting Society has a Constructional Contest. For further details telephone 01342 325322. Meetings for Wednesday the 21st of December: Chesham and District Amateur Radio Society has its Christmas Social evening. For further information contact Ian, G0RTF on 01494 676391. Cheshunt and District Amateur Radio Club has a Christmas Get-together. Details from Roger, G4OAA on 01992 464795. Havering and District Amateur Radio Club has a Christmas Social night at Queens. There is no meeting on the 28th. Details from Brian, G6EBO on 01708 769724 Meeting for Thursday the 22nd of December: Hoddesdon Radio Club has its Christmas Social evening, with refreshments and a prize draw. Details from John, G7OCI, tel: 01920 466639. Meetings for Friday the 23rd of December: Itchen Valley Amateur Radio Club has an Open Meeting with Festive spirit!. Contact Les, G3ABA on 01703 732997 for details. Loughton and District Amateur Radio Society has a Christmas visit to the Victoria Tavern. There is no meeting at Loughton Hall. Details from G8DZH on 0181 508 3434. Meeting for Tuesday the 27th of December: Basingstoke Amateur Radio Club has a Two Metre Direction Finding Competition: 'The Turkey Settler'. Telephone 01256 25517 for details. NEWS FOR THE SOUTH WEST Meeting for Monday the 19th of December: Appledore and District Amateur Radio Club has its Christmas Party. For further details contact G4ETJ, tel: 01237 477301. Meeting for Thursday the 22nd of December: Yeovil Amateur Radio Club has a Social evening with mince pies. Further details from Cedric, G4JBL on 01258 473845. NEWS FOR THE MIDLANDS Meeting for Monday the 19th of December: Stourbridge and District Amateur Radio Society has its Family Christmas Social Gathering. Contact James, G7HEZ on 01384 374354 for more details. Meetings for Tuesday the 20th of December: Radio Society of Bloxwich has its Christmas Social and Awards night. For further information contact Chris, G0MLY on 01922 683877. Loughborough and District Amateur Radio Club has a Christmas 'Spirit' at The Swan, Shepshed. Further details from G8SNF on 01509 218259. Meetings for Wednesday 21st of December: Derby and District Amateur Radio Society has a Christmas Party. Contact Hayley, G7PXA on 01773 856904 for further details. Telford and District Amateur Radio Society has an informal Christmas Social evening with refreshment. More details from G4EIX on 01952 588878. Meeting for Thursday the 22nd of December: Amateur Radio Club of Nottingham has a 'Now for Something Completely Different' evening with G2SP. Details from Simon, G0IEG on 0115 950 1733. NEWS FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND Meetings for Monday the 19th of December: Sheffield Amateur Radio Club has its Christmas Quiz. The 197 club will be closed on the 26th and also the 2nd of January. Further details from David, G0JJR, tel: 0114 244 6282. Thornton Cleveleys Amateur Radio Society has a Christmas Party and Hot-pot Supper. Details from G4BFH who is QTHR. Meetings for Tuesday the 20th of December: Halifax and District Amateur Radio Society has its Christmas Social at the 'Tap & Spile' at 7.30pm. Contact David, G0DLM on 01422 202306 for details. Liverpool and District Amateur Radio Society has a Christmas Social. There is no meeting on the 27th. Further details from Ian, G4WWX who is QTHR. Wakefield and District Radio Society has a Christmas Social and Quiz. There is no meeting on the 27th. Further details from G0TBY on 01924 893321. Meetings for Wednesday the 21st of December: Hornsea Amateur Radio Club has its Christmas Party. For details contact Jeff, G4IGY on 01964 533331. Mid-Cheshire Amateur Radio Society has its Christmas Fayre at Cabbage Hall. Details from Ted, G0RBA on 01606 592207. Stockport Radio Society has its Christmas Party. For further information telephone 0161 439 4952. White Rose Amateur Radio Society has its Annual Christmas Quiz hosted by Bill, G7DHM. The venue is the Moortown RUFC, Moss Valley, Leeds 17 and the meeting starts at 8.30pm. Further details from G7ELS on 01973 189276. Wirral Amateur Radio Society has its Christmas 'Bunfight'. For further details contact G3FOO, tel: 0151 644 6094. Meeting for Thursday the 22nd of December: Keighley Amateur Radio Society has a Christmas Buffet. Contact Kathy, G0RLO on 01274 496222 for details. Meeting for Thursday the 29th of December: Bridlington and District Amateur Radio Society has a talk by Jack, G5VO. For further details contact Norman, G4NJP on 01262 673635. NEWS FOR WALES Meeting for Monday the 19th of December: Dragon Amateur Radio Club has its Christmas Party. For further details contact Tony, GW0FMQ, tel: 01248 600963. -- GB2RS is prepared by the Radio Society of Great Britain and is broadcast in the 80m, 40m, 6m and 2m bands. Tel +44 1707 659015 Fax +44 1707 645105