Karoo Radio Frequency Ban to Avoid QRM

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The Square Kilometre Array or SKA, an International science project located in South Africa and Australia, will be the world's most powerful radio telescope once completed, comprising 3,000 dishes.

 

The project, dubbed the greatest scientific project of the 21st Century is currently in design phase, with scientists mapping out the size and shape of land required for the site, away from radio frequency interference. The team will need a site of 131,500 hectares free of interference,

As a result, radio frequencies in the spectrum 100 MHz to 25,5 GHz could be banned from a large portion of the Karoo.

A possible ban of certain radio frequencies in the Karoo because of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project could see aircraft flying the Johannesburg to Cape Town route being redirected via Port Elizabeth, the Atlantic Ocean or over Upington. Anyone who contravenes these regulations could face a fine up to one million rand or even imprisonment.

The SKA radio frequency ban excludes aviation and safety services.

“ The net result of these draft regulations is that commercial air traffic would not be affected. As low-level flight directly over the SKA could damage the sensitive SKA equipment, we will continue to engage with the CAA to ensure that this does not happen”
— SKA SA project director Rob Adam, Astronomy Management Authority

UK Amateur WW2 Effort

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A local newspaper in the North of England has praised and documented the efforts of local Amateur / Ham Radio Operator Joe Noden G6TW, who was recruited by the UK Government's Radio Secret Service (RSS), monitoring shortwave frequencies on his Skyranger receiver.

 

Joe’s role included listening to Morse Code transmissions, recording information he heard and passing the information to Bletchley Park for analysis and decoding.

Many signals received may of sounded important, however without decoding, the importance of the information was not always immediately apparent. However on one occasion, Joe received information from a German hideout in Heligoland transmitting vital shipping movements.

Joe’s actions enabled the Secret Service to locate the source of the transmission and within days the enemy base was bombed and destroyed by the RAF.

Full Crewe Chronicle - http://www.crewechronicle.co.uk/news/crewe-south-cheshire-news/willaston-mans-key-radio-role-11447371

G6TW Goes to War - http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/bearwolf/bearwolf/html/g6tw.html

International Air Ambulance Week 2016

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This year's International Air Ambulance Week will take place between 17th - 25th September 2016, with the focus on supporting and generating donations for flying medical services around the world.

The event covers two weekends, giving amateurs a great chance to get involved and support the event.

Whilst Amateur Radio Operators / Stations are encouraged to promote the donation causes, it is requested that any donations generated go to the stations chosen local or national cause.

Registration will be mandatory and all stations taking part will be issued a registration number which will be listed on this website. The registered number needs to be quoted by each station regularly. Included in the list alongside each registered station will be a clickable link enabling those wishing to donate, to donate directly to the charity of the service they wish to support.

The event is primarily intended to help support public donation funded flying medical services, whether part or entirely donation funded, though not restricted entirely to those. The location of the special event station can be anywhere you choose to set it up – club, home or if you can manage the permissions to do it, a public place.

No costs will be involved in registering or taking part and a free series of Awards will be available for those who support the event as detailed below..

  • An award for having registered and taken part in the event.
  • A Bronze award for having logged a minimum of 5 IAW station.
  • A Silver award for having logged a minimum of 10 IAW station.
  • A Gold award for having logged a minimum of 15 IAW station.
  • Awards for SWL will follow the the above requirements

More than one award may claimed.

Claims for the awards will need to be made to the IAW’s Award Manager byde3ear@darc.de) including an excerpt from the log as proof of a valid claim.

The event’s date has been set to coincide with the UK’s own funding drive week for its own helicopter ambulance services. Almost all of these, around 30 in number, are entirely public donation funded.

The event is intended to commence on the fourth weekend of September annually and is to be run by the same team which operates the well established International Museum Weekends.

Event Website - http://www.radio-amateur-events.org/IAW/Registration.htm