10FM Repeaters in Europe

With the summer Sporadic-E (Es) season here I have been reviewing a new 10m monoband rig for the RSGB's RadCom. It is an SS6900 from the French company CRT (although it is made in the Far East).

It is fully programmable, runs CW, AM, FM and SSB and works quite well, especially on 10FM.

I noticed that the list of 10m FM European repeaters at the HB9HD web site seemed to be out of date.

After a lot of searching I found another site that seems to be better and lists all the 10FM repeaters in this region.

If you can find a better, more to date one, let me know:
http://www.g4nsj.co.uk/ten.shtml

Podcast: HF Propagation Report, May/June 2011

A look at the last 30 days' solar and geomagnetic conditions and where have all the sunspots gone? What you can work on HF these months with a focus on Sporadic E.

Click on the headline to listen to the programme online or if you prefer to listen to it on your iPod search for G0KYA on iTunes.

UK Propagation charts for May 2011

This month's predictions are based on a smoothed sunspot number of 44. Expect to see good openings up to 20, 17 and possible 15m. The Sporadic E season should be under way too from around 1st May. Look for short skip on 15 and 10m. So good DX. Anyway, here are the charts.

Video: GB0CMS, Caister Marconi Station

I have produced a short video of my club's activities for International Marconi Day (IMD).

The Norfolk Amateur Radio Club ran GB0CMS - Caister Marconi Station - on the Norfolk coast as part of the international event.

The video explains what IMD is, tells you the history of the Caister station and takes you on a tour of the Lifeboat Visitor Centre.

It also looks at the equipment the club used to make 165 contacts in 24 countries on Saturday 30 April 2011.

See http://www.youtube.com/user/norfolkamateurradio

Podcast: HF Propagation Report, April 2011

A look at the last 30 days' solar and geomagnetic conditions and how Solar Cycle 24 is humming . What you can work on each HF band and how to get a free ebook.

Click on the headline to listen to the programme online or if you prefer to listen to it on your iPod search for G0KYA on iTunes.

Propagation predictions for International Marconi Day

Right: Peter (M0RYB) hard at work on the key at GB0CMS last year. International Marconi Day will be held on Saturday 30 April 2011 this year. I help to run GB0CMS at Caister Lifeboat in Norfolk and thought it would be a good idea to have some idea of propagation conditions to the other IMD stations around the world. I have therefore created some charts that show the reliability of paths to Italy, East Coast of USA, West Coast USA, Iceland, Newfoundland and Uruguay - the locations of the majority of the IMD stations. These should help you get your award. See http://www.infotechcomms.net/IMD/ For info, they were created using HamCap (a VOACAP-based program) using a smoothed sunspot number of 41 and based on 100W CW to a dipole at 35ft. Scale your results accordingly.

UK Propagation charts for April 2011

This month's predictions are based on a smoothed sunspot number of 41. Expect to see good openings up to 15m, with 12m/10m making a good showing if the flux remains high. April is also good for North/South paths, such as UK<>South Africa/South America. I would expect to see the Sporadic E season starting around 1st May too. So good DX. Anyway, here are the charts.