RAC Bulletin 2015-02-28

RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for February 28, 2015

This is V_3___, Offical Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of Canada, with this week's bulletin.

NATIONAL NEWS

PROVINCIAL NEWS

1. Are you prepared for the next winter storm?

visit the E.M.O. website and take a 10 question quiz to determine your knowledge of what to do in an emergency.

You can find it at: http://beprepared.emergencymanagementontario.ca/epquiz/ 

Other areas of the site will help you build an emergency kit to help keep your family safe when disaster strikes.

OTHER NEWS

2. DX UP FRONT: VK0EK HEARD ISLAND DXPEDITION

With the K1N Navassa Island operation now over, Heard Island appears to be the next up as far as top 10
Most Wanted entities in the DXCC Program's list.

Based on this need, the next Heard Island Operation is tentatively scheduled for the 2015 southern hemisphere summer.
The planned expedition will operate from about November 22nd to December 8th. The callsign to be used will be VK0EK.
Heard Island was last activated eighteen years ago back in 1997.

From Amateur Radio Newsline


3. No One in the Shack as Station Logs 4200+ Contacts in ARRL DX CW Contest

A group of six operators operating as K3TN in the ARRL DX CW Contest may have made Amateur Radio history by operating
the first completely remote-controlled multioperator contest effort. The K3TN team worked via the Internet through the
station of Jack Hammett, K4VV, in Northern Virginia. Three of K4VV’s well-equipped operating positions can be operated
via remote control from anywhere in the world.

The “Team K4VV” contingent made 4224 contacts and logged 556 multipliers for a claimed score of more than 7 million points.
Not a Top 10 score but respectable. For comparison, the top-scoring multi-multi station, K3LR, has claimed 18.85 million points.

They are now hoping to gather a team of operators to mount a similar multi-multi effort in the ARRL DX Contest SSB event in March.

--- ARRL News


4. German Radio Amateurs Breathe New Life into “Orphaned” Shortwave Channel

When 'Deutsche Welle' decided to close down one of their 500 KW short wave broadcast transmitters near Munich at the end of 2012,
a group containing some German radio amateurs applied for and were allocated the then available short wave frequency of 6070 KHz.

DARC Radio — which has a business association with the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC) but is privately owned —
now has a 10 kW broadcast station, built from parts of the 500kW transmitter. Its branded “Channel 292,”,
and a new Amateur Radio DX program will debut next month.

The DARC is planning a weekly Amateur Radio-oriented magazine of DARC news, contest schedules, DX information, interviews,
DXpedition reports, market reviews, technical hints, and “some nice old music from the 70s and 80s.”
It will debut on Sunday, March 22, at 1000 UTC. The program will be in German, but the RSGB has expressed interest in
contributing English-language program segments. The inaugural show will be repeated on Monday, March 23, at 1600 UTC.

Channel 292 was monitored via a web SDR in Toronto, the best time to hear the station is when both ends of the path are in darkness.

In North America Canadian broadcaster CFRX occupies 6070 kHz, transmitting at 1 kW and beaming west; Radio Havana also uses the channel.

All reception reports to Channel 292 will be answered with a QSL card. Outgoing cards will go out via the DARC QSL bureau.

For the full story, see ARRL News.


This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or
clarifications?