Maplin put up for sale

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High street electronics retailer Maplin has been put up for sale with a price tag of up to £200m.

Montagu Private Equity is understood to have hired accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to handle the sale, which comes after a number of potential bidders approached the buyout firm to snap up the 214-strong chain.

It is thought the business could fetch between £100m and £200m.

Full story - http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/02/maplin-sale-private-equity

Transatlantic 29 kHz VLF transmission

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Roger Lapthorn G3XBM has reported that both the 29.499 kHz Transatlantic transmissions have been heard in the UK

“In recent weeks a number of amateur tests have been running from the USA to Europe around 74kHz and at 29.499kHz using several hundred watts to large antennas. 74kHz has been well copied, but the surprise is 29.499kHz with SWL Paul Nicholson and Marcus DF6NM, and others, copying the test signals, for example, at over 15dB S/N in 424uHz bandwidth. As far as I know, these 29.499kHz VLF signals are the first amateur VLF ones to span the Atlantic - fantastic results by well equipped stations using suitable RXs and good software.”
— Roger Lapthorn G3XBM

His transmitter has a 3CX3000A7 tube in the final, running grounded grid and generating 800 W. The effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), however, was estimated to be approximately 1 mW. To operate on 10,000 meters, Raide has a 90 foot vertical antenna using a reconfigured Zepp, fed via a huge loading coil that is 4 feet tall, more than 1 foot across and comprised of some 2000 feet of #14 wire. He employs a few thousand feet of “chicken wire” for his radial system.

The transmission consisted of “XBA” sent at a rate of 120 seconds (2 minutes) per dot and 360 seconds (6 minutes) per dash of CW. In the UK Nicholson copied the signal on software using a PC sound card with a preamplifier ahead of it. His antenna is a pair of orthogonal loops, each 20 meters square, at ground level, transformer coupled to the preamplifier.

Full ARRL Story - http://www.arrl.org/news/hams-experimental-vlf-signals-heard-in-the-uk-europe

Spectrogram of the 29.499 kHz VLF signal - http://abelian.org/vlf/sg29499.shtml

Paul Nicholson VLF website - http://abelian.org/

Roger Lapthorn G3XBM Blog - http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/

Amateur Radio Beacon and Repeater renewal 2014-2017

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The UK communications regulator Ofcom has announced that the Licence Variations authorising the establishment and use of beacons and repeaters respectively are due to expire at the end of March 2014  

Ofcom has published on their website a notice that explains the options for beacon and repeater keepers. Ofcom will also be writing to all licensees who hold one of these variations to invite them to renew it until March 2017.

They note that if a beacon or repeater is not used (or has never been put into operation) and if its assignment is preventing them from authorising another station, then Ofcom may further vary the licence to withdraw the facility, to enable them to assign the frequency to the new applicant.

Ofcom Beacon and Repeater notice - http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/amateur-radio/licensing-updates/beacon-repeater-variations