This is our regular competition where we show an unusual object, tool, gadget or thing-me-bob sent in by one of the NARC members and you have to guess (or maybe you know!) what it is for...

Have a good look at the picture below - what on earth is this or what is it used for  ...?!

You have until 3pm on the next NARC Live to let Tammy and David know...

We are running low on What on Earths.... please see if you can send a picture of something unusual for the competition - don't forget to tell us what it is too!  Thank you

Please email your answers with the subject 'What on earth' to David & Tammy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 3pm latest on the WEDNESDAY OF OUR NEXT NARC LIVE and we will read out all of the entries and tell you what it is!

73 

David G7URP & Tammy M0TC  

Remember please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. not just reply to the newsletter or any other email address or Facebook otherwise David & Tammy will not receive it directly and may never receive it!  

Last weeks mystery object was a vintage Cigarette Holder kindly submitted by Colin M7OPB:

Tonight we meet at CNS School for a Social Informal meeting and Bright Sparks for our younger members who will each be making an Animated Bell Christmas decoration.

And don't forget you can bring anything radio related you want to give away to others at any informal CNS meeting on our informal 'Show and Share' table.  

NARC Christmas Dinner - LAST CHANCE DEADLINE TONIGHT!

Tonight is your last chance to book for the NARC Christmas Dinner -  just ask at the till for a printed form and pay by cash to David G7URP or pay by BACS and complete the form online. (Christmas Dinner is on Wednesday 18th December at the Village Inn - £15 for 3 course dinner). 

As usual we meet from 1900-2130 in the CNS 6th form common room - Cold drinks and biscuits will be available to purchase and there is also a hot drink vending machine in the adjacent canteen room. 

Please do not enter the school until our hire from time 19.00 - thanks.

David G7URP

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60 Years of Islands on the Air...UPDATE

Last Wednesdays NARC Live with Roger G3KMA was about 60 years of IOTA and you can watch the recording we made here:

https://youtu.be/J_5FW3y6SEA

Roger has asked me to share the following comments following my question about whether Remote operation was allowed for awards:

"IOTA does accept for credit remote operations within certain limits: if the station and controller are within the same DXCC country and no more than 500 km apart. We do not accept for credit operations where there are remote operators in a variety of different countries, often thousands of miles away, operating the IOTA station. We also do not accept operations where the control station is at sea except in one particular set of circumstances.

We do accept for credit digital modes e.g. FT8, FT4 where the operation includes contemporaneous direct initiation by the operators on both sides of the contact. Unattended operations are not acceptable for IOTA credit"

Further information from these websites:

www.iota-world.org

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or email Roger:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

There are a number of interesting meetings being planned for meetings for next couple of months at CNS School and you may like to add these to your diary:

WRTC is coming to the UK!

Wednesday December 11th - CNS School 1900-2130

WRTC presentation - The World Radiosport Team Championships is the Amateur Radio equivalent of the Olympic Games and just like the Olympics it only runs every 4 years.

What makes the 2026 event special is that it is being hosted in Great Britain and, not only that, but it is being held in East Anglia with many of the 50 stations in Norfolk!  

The WRTC26 Committee are coming to NARC to give us a special Christmas 2024 presentation and we hope as many members come as possible will be there as there are many ways both members and NARC can get directly involved :)

3D Printing evening!

Wednesday January 8th - CNS School 1900-2130

Martin G7UGB has agreed to bring in his 3D Printer to demonstrate and explain how they work and what you can do with them - we encourage other members to bring in theirs too so it becomes a great way to see and share ideas.

Contests 2025...

Wednesday January 22nd - CNS School 1900-2130

We ask that all NARC members interested in Contesting come to the meeting this evening to discuss options and agree on which main events both HF and VHF contest groups enter for the club in 2025 and where to do them from etc.

Welcome to week one hundred and sixty six of NARC’s contest news.

Results:-

On VHF

The results of the 144MHz UKAC of 5th November were released on 18th November. Conditions were excellent from JO02 to Europe and some excellent contacts were made. 9 of us entered and good results were obtained. Our combined scores put us in 3rd place in this one closing the gap slightly on overall 3rd placed Wirral & DARC. Link to results here. 

NARC is running 10th at the moment in this year's VHF championships out of 84 clubs. Link here 

In the overall UKAC we are still running 4th out of 57 in the General clubs section. Link to this here 

On HF

There are 3 new HF results this week.

Firstly, the results of the 80m Autumn series SSB contest of 13/11/2024 were released on 20th November. Despite some good placings by the 7 of us who entered, not enough of us entered to gain an overall win coming in 5th place. Despite this, our overall score means a win for the series is almost certain. Link to results here. 

The results of the 160m Club Calls AFS contest of 9th November were also released on 20th November. We managed an A team of 4 and a B team of 1 this time. The A team who came 6th overall comprised M0RYB/P who was our leading scorer, Myself, G3LDI and M1AFQ and our B team who came 30th was John G8VPE. Link to results here. 

The results of the 2nd 1.8MHz contest, (CW), of 16th November were also released on 20th November. Activity was reasonable and many Europeans joined in. Congratulations are due to Stewart, G4AFF, who has won the UK Assisted secion and therefore wins the Victor Desmond Trophy. Roger, G3LDI came 3rd and this station managed 5th place. Link to results here. 

If people are entering other contests of whose results I am obviously unaware please e-mail me to let me know the outcome and I'll mention it here.

Contests:-

On VHF

The 1.3GHz UKAC contest ran on Tuesday 19th November. Conditions were abysmal for this one ! Average scores were much lower than usual as were mean distances worked. I am aware of 4 stations on for NARC. Currently only 3 entries from us have been received out of 63. Link to claimed scores here. 

The 70MHz UKAC ran on 21st November. Conditions were really terrible with a lot of noise in some directions and long, slow very deep QSB. Really only managed some of the usual distances using aircraft scatter. Scores were generally lower than usual. At least 4 of us were active, Myself, G4DYC, G8VPE and G4KQY. Link to claimed scores is here. 

On HF

On Saturday 16th November the 2nd 1.8MHz contest, CW, ran. The results are already out - see above. (I wonder if this is a record?)

Please let me know if you were on in any other VHF or HF contests and I'll put a summary in next week's news.

Upcoming contests in the next 2 weeks (all times in UTC):-

On VHF / UHF / SHF

Before each of the 2m and 70cm UKACs there is an FM leg starting 1 hour before for 55 minutes. I hear almost no activity in this from here but others may have more luck! Rules etc on RSGBCC site.

* Tue 26th Nov. 1930-2230 SHF UKAC
* Tue 3rd Dec. 2000-2230 144MHz UKAC
* Wed 4th Dec. 1700-2100 144MHz FT8 AC 2h and 4h sections

Also of interest for some on the vhf / uhf bands are the EU FT8 activity tests - see the following link for more information. These are on the first (144 MHz), second (432MHz) and third (1.3GHz) Wednesdays of each month. 1700-2000 Hrs EU FT8 series website 

On HF

* Sat 23rd Nov. 0000 for 48h CQ Worldwide DX CW contest - Link to rules here 
* Mon 25th Nov. 1300-1400 QCX (includes QMX and QDX) CW challenge - Link to rules here 
* Thu 28th Nov. 2000-2130 80m Autumn series CW - this is the last in this year's series - please turn out to support our team.
* Mon 2nd Dec. 1630-1729 OK1WC memorial CW contest 80 and 40m - Link to rules here. 
* Tue 3rd Dec. 0100-0159 Worldwide SSB Activity contest. Link to rules here. 

See Link to WA7BNM for other contests not mentioned above.

Wednesdays throughout the year, CW ops 1 hour mini tests 13:00, 19:00, Thurs 03:00 and 07:00, exchange Name and G if not a member or CWOPS number if you are a member.
See CWOPS website for more details.
Also on Fridays 2000 to 2100 and Mondays 0000 to 0100 each week CWops runs the K1USN slow speed CW contests. Any speed up to 20wpm is acceptable. For rules see :- CW OPs SST page these contests are open to anyone.

All RSGB contest rules and further details plus log submission at RSGB contest site
Look to WA7BNM’s contest calendar for other contests and links to rules etc at WA7BNM weekly contest calendar
A link to John 2E0TWQ’s site’s Narc contest history page - 2E0TWQ's NARC contest results page 

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Contesting can be great fun but I know there's a reluctance to step into unknown waters. It's a great way of improving many aspects of our hobby including one's own performance and the quality of your station. If you have any interest whatsover please call in to the contest net on Friday evening at 9pm on 145.250MHz FM or speak to any of the regular contesters on 450. Or indeed email me!
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Submissions or comments for this news to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

73 until next week,

Phil G4LPP

GB2CW Morse Corner 22.11.24
.

Morse Classes

Classes are still progressing well but it would be nice to see a few more join them.

.

.

KEY OF THE WEEK
..

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Base drilled & tapped for mounting, fits Leg Mount, Qwikmount, and BW Desk Base
Desk base weighs 2 pounds for solid mounting
Manufactured in the USA, with LIFETIME UNCONDITONAL WARRANTY!

Head copy with a difference.
.
Slapping the paddle has been a phrase used by competent CW operators for decades. We all do it! However, how about slapping the table and having a QSO that way? I used to do this with Pat G3IOR in my early licenced days. We had a lot of fun with that. You can do it too. You don't need any dits or dahs, just a few slaps "in time" on the table. Try it yourself. Here is what it sounds like:
.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=qrq+maniacs#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7eb2e47a,vid:yaPDbg6igIA,st:0
.
Any good experinced CW operator is capable of having a QSO this way. It might also help if you are a good drummer!

  I used to incorporate some Morse when playing piano for dinner music. Not many people were able to copy it however so that would be a good way of getting a message over in a clandestine way.

The NARC CW Monday Night Net.

.
This now takes place on 3543 at 8 p.m. on Monday evenings. We have a Net controller each week and the idea is to encourage you to conversational Morse. If you can read and send at 23wpm, do come and join us. 23wpm is the speed at present and we may be increasing that as time goes by. The overs are short but protocol is adherred to and just a few comments from each attendee is all that is needed. Give it a try!
.

.
And again still nobody joins us on Monday evenings, other than the normal faithful. There is no need to be shy. Learning conversational Morse is a skill in itself. Anybody can work a DX pile-up by using macros or sending their call and 599 TU. Try holding a conversation for about an hour and see how you get on. If you aspire to CWOPS or FOC it's the only way you will get in to those clubs, by showing and proving your proficiency with a paddle. Not only that, but it really is very satisfying to be able to hold a conversation for that long at around 25wpm with minimal mistakes. PLUS of course you can then monitor the CW end of the bands and hear just conversations and not just dits and dahs.
.

.
CW OPS
.
Phil must have insomnia. He joined us again at 3 a.m. this week so there were three of us on. Propagation is not great at that time and the US was suffering QRN last night so it was hard going. There were some exotic calls on however, with people getting ready for the CQ WW at the weekend.
The four sessions are still going well and we have managed to get decent scores each time. This is a great way of making friends with other amateurs. You may not think that the case, but it is surprising how you do get well known in those sessions and further QSOs follow on. You also receive a very nice Newsletter after you join.
.
General CW Operating.
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For those of a nervous disposition, try joining FISTS. FISTS caters for the more casual, laid back operator who does not feel comfortable at more than 23 wpm. They also have a LADDERS competition on 40m which is good practice. Actually for what you pay for membership it really is a great deal with a quarterly magazine too called Keynote. It contains lots of interesting articles.
.

That's it, open the cage, play the music.
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If you have any input, please email me.

73 de Roger, G3LDI GB2CW Coordinator. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. May the Morse be with you.

Author Roger Cooke

HF News

We’ve had yet another week of relatively calm geomagnetic conditions. The solar
flux index has been in the 160s and despite having 14 M-class solar flares over
seven days we haven’t had any coronal mass ejections to contend with.
As a result, the daytime maximum usable frequency or MUF over a 3,000km
path has been high, reaching more than 35MHz at times.

The MUF declines after sunset, as expected, settling at about 12-13MHz,
meaning the only HF band open to DX has been 10MHz in the 30-metre band.
DX this week has included 3D2Y in Rotuma. This Pacific DXpedition has been
spotted in Europe, on 20m, 15m and 17m CW, so plenty of choice as to which
band you try.

E51SGC in Rarotonga on the Cook Islands has also been spotted across many of
the HF bands, but they will be leaving on November 24. The good news is that
the team of Stan LZ1GC and Ted LZ5QZ are moving on to Tonga as A35GC from
25 November – 7 December 2024.

Gerben (PG5M) is active on the Falkland Islands as VP8G and has been spotted
on 20m, 15m and 10m CW. He is there until November 25th so get in quick!
Next week, NOAA predicts that the SFI may rise to the mid-250s again.
Geomagnetic conditions are largely predicted to be good, although do keep an
eye on solarham.com for updates.

And don’t forget the CQ Worldwide CW contest is this weekend, the 23rd and
24th November, which should bring a lot of DX to the HF bands.

VHF and up

The weather is now in an unsettled phase with areas of low pressure bringing
alternating spells of mild wet and windy weather interspersed with colder
brighter and breezy showery weather.

This raises a couple of radio-related points; one is that we will see some very
strong and potentially damaging winds in some areas, so check daily forecasts
and make sure your mast guys are secure, and secondly an absence of any
marked high-pressure Tropo weather.

Rain and snow scatter may be worth checking on the GHz Bands in such
unsettled weather. Meanwhile, meteor scatter is worthy of greater attention as
the upcoming week’s list of showers includes the small Alpha Monocerotids
shower and the tail end of the big Leonids shower.

This introduces another potential nugget of interest in that since it is widely
accepted that meteors form the source material for Sporadic-E and, despite
being out of season in the traditional sense, the prevalence of stronger jet
streams in unsettled weather makes the next week a possible ‘watch period’ for
Es.

If you are curious about what these might look like, check out the
www.propquest.co.uk website and look for the near vertical incidence skywave
or NVIS tab for Wednesday 20th November 2024.

The two events in the middle of the day and evening both reached foEs, or the
critical frequency of the Es layer, values of near 10MHz, which could equate to
four-metre propagation on a good day, and you will see the Es blog tab upper air
charts also show a jet stream of greater than 100 knots.

For EME operators, the Moon has passed peak declination so Moon availability
and peak elevation will be falling. Path losses are high and rising towards apogee
on Tuesday the 26th. 144MHz sky noise is low all week.