UPDATE

DX News

HB9CRV has announced that as of December 31st, 2008, he
is no longer the QSL manager of CT3BX. No new QSL
Manager has been found and the logs are closed.

EA5GVH will be on the air from Aruba as P40PZ from
January 12th to the 28th. He will operate 80 through
6 meters using SSB and the digital modes only. QSL
via EA5GVH.

G3NKC, G4XUM and MD0CCE will be active as MD4K from the
Isle of Mann during the CQ 160-Meter CW Contest, on
January 24-25.The trio will operate as a Multi-Op
entry. QSL via G3NKC and be sure to include sufficient
return postage with your QSL request.



Radio Rallies

15th February 2009 Coolmine Radio Rally,

The Coolmine Radio Rally, run by the Phoenix Radio Club
will be held in the Coolmine Community School,
Clonsilla Dublin 15 on Sunday 15th February 2009. Doors
open 9.30 am for table bookings and information please
contact Tony 087-2439997 or Tom 01-8211043 See map on
www.coolminecs.ie/locationmap.php



Launch Alert for Seven Small Satellites on January 21

Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL sent a Cubesat launch alert for seven amateur
radio satellites planned as secondary payloads when Japan launches
its GOSAT IBUKI satellite on January 21, 2009 at 03.54 UTC.

GOSAT - Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite is an environmental
monitoring satellite which will be launched from Japan's Tanegashima
Space Center aboard the H-IIA F15 booster.

Information about the primary mission can be found on-line at:
http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f15/overview/ibuki_e.html
http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gosat/index_e.html

Information about the launch vehicle can be found on-line at:
http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f15/overview/h2a_e.html

The small satellite palyload will consist of:

Satellite Downlink Beacon Mode Callsign
--------- ----------- ----------- -------- --------------
KAGAYAKI 437.375 437.375 FSK9k6/CW
STARS 437.485/465 437.305/275 FM/CW JR5YBN/JR5YBO
KKS-1 437.445 437.385 AFSK/CW JQ1YYY
PRISM 437.425 437.250 AFSK/GMSK/CW JQ1YCX
SOHLA-1 437.505 437.505 AFSK/CW
SPRITE Scientific observation satellite
SDS-1 Small demonstration satellite

(Ed. note - this table and all links can also be found on the
main AMSAT web page http://www.amsat.org - see the bottom story.)

Masa, JN1GKZ reported that the small satellites are technically not
CubeSats since they are larger in size and each platform is a unique
design. He provided the following links to provide more information
about each satellite.

Kagayaki 31x31x35cm, 28kg
http://www.sorun.co.jp/kagayaki/top.html (sorry, Japanese only)

STARS - Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite
KU (Mother Satellite) 16x16x25cm
KAI (Daughter Satellite) 16x16x15cm
http://stars1.eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp/english/index.html

KKS-1 Kouku-Kousen-Satellite-1 15x15x15cm, 3kg
http://www.kouku-k.ac.jp/~kks-1 (sorry, Japanese only)

PRISM Pico-satellite for Remote-sensing and Innovative Space Missions
20x20x40cm, 8kg
http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/prism/main-e.html

SOHLA-1
http://www.sohla.com/docs/index.php

They will be launched into a sun synchronous orbit to an altitude of
660km with an inclination of 98.1 degrees. The orbital period is
estimated to be 98 minutes.

[Thanks to Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL and Masa, JN1GKZ for the
above information]



VE3NPC and G3VZV Complete Transatlantic AO-51 Mode V/S Contact

Clare, VE3NPC and Graham, G3VZV completed a transatlantic contact
via AO-51 running an uplink of 145.880 MHz FM and downlink of
2401.200 MHz FM at 10:11 UTC on January 9, 2009. Clare reported
the elevation at 5 degrees and a range of 2700 km. The two stations
completed a short QSO with clear signals.

Clare says his equipment consists of a 52 turn helix with reflector
cup into a DEM preamp and downconverter into SatPC32 controlled
FT-736 for 13cm receiving on 2401.200 MHz. He used an FT-847 with
2 watts into 2 x 6 el quagis for 2m for his uplink. Complete infor-
mation on the 52 turn helix was published in the September/October
2008 AMSAT Journal.

At the other end of the contact Graham, G3VZV says he was operating
with an IC910 barefoot. The antennas included WIMO circular polarised
VHF (10 dBd) and UHF (12 dBd) crossed quad antennas and the famous
G3RUH 600mm/2 foot dish and patchfeed with a Kuhne DB6NT preamp at the
feed left over from AO40 operating. The antennas are all at about 40
feet. The satellite reached around 3 degrees elevation. Graham
says he did all doppler tuning correction by hand.

In other AO-51 news, AMSAT-NA VP Operations, Drew KO4MA provided
updates to the AO-51 Operating Mode Schedule to better support a
hamfest operation, and a DXpedition to Namibia.

January 12 - January 18

FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

FM Repeater, L/U
Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

January 19 - January 25

FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

9k6 BBS, L/U
Uplink: 1268.700 MHz 9k6 FM
Downlink: 435.150 MHz 9k6 FM

January 26 - February 1

FM Repeater, L/S
Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM
Downlink: 2401.200 MHz FM

SSTV Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.860 MHz FM SSTV
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM SSTV

The full AO-51 schedule and Command Team News can be found on-line
at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php. The AMSAT
main web page will also provide a quick status update when the infor-
mation changes. Operating mode requests can be sent via e-mail to
ao51-modes@amsat.org .

[Thanks to Drew, KO4MA, and congratulatulations to Clare, VE3NPC, and Graham, G3VZV for the above information]



Costa Rican Emergency Frequencies

On Thursday, January 8 at 1921z, an earthquake
measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale struck the Central
American country of Costa Rica. The earthquake, with
an epicentre located about 22 miles northeast of San
Jose. This Earthquake comes after a series of almost
60 seismic events that have rocked the country since
early this week

The Radio Club de Costa Rica (RCCR) -- that country's
IARU Member-Society -- is monitoring local repeaters
and 7090 kHz.

IARU Region 2 Emergency Communications Coordinator
Cesar Pio Santos,HR2P, requests that 7090 kHz be kept
clear of non-essential traffic due to possible
emergency communications dealing with the earthquake.
The ARRL encourages all amateurs to be aware of the
emergency operations on this frequency.


FREE Contest Log Mapping Tool

Some exciting news about EI8IC's unique Contest Log Mapping Tool - its now completely FREE to use, and its just been updated with the results of 35 new contests.

Working from an online database of about 970,000 W/VE callsigns past and present, LogView plots the QSOs in a Cabrillo-format contest-log on to one of 8 different maps of North America.

Essentially a post-contest log-visualisation tool for analysing contest performance, LogView is also useful in defining gaps in your antenna coverage, by comparing the positions of entrants to the contest against those entrants actually contacted.

You can step through the log manually, or animate the contest at a range of speeds and watch QSOs build up in the order that you made them. Each spot can be annotated with a callsign-label, and you can keep a running check of Multipliers worked, position - distance - bearing information for each QSO, and a variety of other information, whilst choosing which bands are currently displayed.

All the maps you create can be saved for offline viewing and detailed future analysis - full details on the website.

The following contests are supported by LogView: ARRL-10 ARRL-160 ARRL-DX-CW ARRL-DX-SSB ARRL-RTTY ARRL-SS-CW ARRL-SS-SSB ARRL-VHF-JAN ARRL-VHF-JUN ARRL-VHF-SEP ARRL-UHF-AUG CQ-160-CW CQ-160-SSB CQ-WPX-CW CQ-WPX-RTTY CQ-WPX-SSB CQ-VHF CQ-WW-CW CQ-WW-RTTY CQ-WW-SSB IARU-HF NAQP-CW NAQP-RTTY NAQP-SSB RSGB-IOTA STEW-PERRY TARA-RTTY

LogView also has a separate, dedicated Results-Viewer, that lets you create a map of the published contest results for any one of over 120 different contests, and compare them to the results of other contests in the database.

To start using LogView on your own contest logs, visit:
http://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/logview

Thanks Tim EI8IC for the above information.



BLACKMAIL ON CQ WW CONTEST COMITTEE

Some hams are labling the operation of HK3RA by Russian amateur Dimirti Kryukov RA3CO
as a hijacking, or the unauthorized use of a callsign not assigned to the operator. In his defense, Dimitri
claims that he was lent the callsign by its actual owner, Wolfgang Torres, who is reportedly not
a contester. Regardless, Colombian law does not permit amateurs to lend their callsign to another person.

A group of Colombian hams, led by Juan Camilo Rodriguez, HK3CQ, have filed a formal complaint
to CQ WW CC .

Further complicating the matter are the actions of another Colombian station, HK1AR, a.k.a. Tony
Rogozinski (W4OI), who permitted Kryukov and others to rent his QTH and operate his station in
the 2007 CQ WW Contest. Also named in the complaint is Girts Budis, YL2KL as an HK1AR callsign "user".


The bottom line is that a group of Colombian operators are asking that the prohibition against
"callsign lending" be strictly enforced in their country and that RA3CO and YL2KL be prohibited from
conducting further operations in Colombia and to be DQed .

For more details see these links:

http://contesting.at-communication.c...l_k3est_hk3ra/

Namibian VHF DXpedition logs 89 EME contacts on first night

The DXpedition is operating with the call of V5/KT6Q and the first contact was made in the early evening on 8 January at around 18:15 local time by the KT6Q license holder Dan, HB9CRQ, with his large EME station back home, HB9Q.

Operation continued through the night until 4 in the morning when the moon finally sank into the Atlantic.

When the activities of the day were totaled there were 89 contacts in the log which included Glenn, ZS2GK, near Umtata. With no access to previous statistics this is a remarkable feat of EME operation from a relatively small portable station. Although most stations contacted were in Europe and Asiatic Russia, they were scattered among 27 DXCC entities which also included Japan, Canada and the U.S.A.

The Diaz Point location can only be described as perfect but not everything was a great start. The first priority was the 144 MHz station and the four Yagi antenna array mounted on the trailer. At the same time the 144 MHz station was being assembled and tested but when the time came for a "Smoke Test" they got just that, smoke, as the weary FT-736R of ZS6WB produced clouds of it.

After a bit of equipment chopping and changing the IC-910, that had been destined for 432 MHz, was pressed into service and the 144 MHz station was ready to be put into operation just after moonrise, late Thursday afternoon.

Them team was assured that reliable power was available at Diaz Point but this turned out to be completely untrue and it was necessary to rent a generator capable of handling their power requirements. This of course has added an additional burden to the budget that is already stretched well past the breaking point.

Visit www.sarl.org.za for the full story.

4m Band News - Denmark Increase Allocation.

Bo,OZ2M reports

As of 1 January 2009 Danish radio amateurs can also use the 70,225 MHz channel, i.e. the segment 70,2125-70,2375 MHz. This also means that two smaller segments are now joined into one segment 100 kHz wide.

For more details see the Danish bandplan: www.70mhz.org/bandplan_oz.htm