Hull UK City of Culture 2017

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The Humber Fortress DX ARC in Hull (UK) have organised a year's multi-club activation to celebrate Hull as the UK City of Culture 2017.

Ofcom have kindly granted the call sign GB0HCC for the whole year using the standard NOV format of 28 days, each club will apply for the relevant 28 day portion of the year, to follow on from the previous club.

HFDXARC will be starting the year off, at 00:01 UTC until 08:30 UTC from the Cottingham Road Baptist Church. After the Church services have finished in the afternoon about 16:00hrs we hope to activate for a few more hours.

We are only at the CRBC site for 24hrs as the NOV is then transferred to the HFDXARC clubhouse for the remaining 27 days. I can say that the station will be active on club nights Tuesday and Friday from 19:00hrs UTC until 21:30hrs. Other times such as weekends may also happen, so watch this space.

On the 29th Jan 2017 Hull and District Amatuer Radio Society take over for the next leg of the event, activation times for them will be made clear later.

UK Digital Radio Uptake

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The UK Government has commissioned a report, to establish the uptake of Digital Radio within the UK.

Once the following criteria has been met, then Analogue Radio can be switched off

  • when 50% of all radio listening is via digital platforms; and when national DAB coverage is comparable to FM,
  • and local DAB reaches 90% of the population and all major roads.

The report indicates 57% of people in the UK have a DAB receiver in their home (Figure 12), 43% have them in their cars (Figure 8). It appears from Figure 6, however that Digital radio is considered not only to be DAB but also Smartphone/tablet apps, the Internet/PC and Digital audio channels over Digital TV channels.

If these figures are to be  believed, it appears the eventual creep of DAB into homes is almost at the switch-off-FM point but thankfully road coverage isn't there yet (even with the restriction of a road only being considered if it is a Motorway or A road - figure 1).

Ofcom Report - https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/tv-radio-and-on-demand/digital-radio-reports

UK Foundation Ham Radio Training Videos

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Essex Ham has made available their Foundation training videos used as part of the free online Foundation course 

There are nine videos, one for each of the main Foundation modules - they include an audio commentary, diagrams, animations and photos. There are also videos of what to expect on the practicals and during the exam - a total of over 90 minutes of free training material. 

It has been reported that the material has proven very useful to candidates with dyslexia, who struggle with the book and with online material and handouts. 

Essex Hams UK Foundation Training Videos - http://www.essexham.co.uk/train/videos/

HamTrain, the Amateur Radio Training Resource - http://www.hamtrain.co.uk/