RSGB Board Chair and Vice Chair Announced

After the recent AGM, a brief Board meeting was held. The Board chose Stewart Bryant, G3YSX to continue as Board Chair and Peter Bowyer, G4MJS as Vice Chair. Both will remain in these roles until the 2026 AGM.

You can find details of all RSGB Board Directors at rsgb.org/board, and the new Board Liaison roles for the coming year will be confirmed and added to the page shortly.

RSGB Board Directors - https://rsgb.org/main/about-us/board-of-directors/

RAC Votes to Cancel Attendance at Hamvention

Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC), the national association for amateur radio in Canada, has voted to cancel plans to attend and operate a booth at Hamvention in Ohio. The organization cited heightened tensions between Canada and the United States as contributing to its decision.

The relationship between Canada and the United States has become increasingly strained due to recent trade disputes and tariffs imposed by the US government. Adding to these challenges, controversial remarks from US leaders, including suggestions of Canada becoming the 51st state, have heightened concerns about Canadian sovereignty.

RAC hopes to return to Hamvention in the future.

RAC - https://www.rac.ca/

This Safe Nuclear Battery Could Last Decades on A Single Charge

A new miniature nuclear battery could supply electricity for decades, centuries, even millennia.

Researchers are always developing better battery technologies, hoping to find ones that last a long time and never need to be recharged—and this month, we have yet another exciting breakthrough.

South Korean scientists from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology recently presented a prototype battery that works according to the betavoltaic principle. As the researchers explain.

“Nuclear batteries generate power by harnessing high-energy particles emitted by radioactive materials. Not all radioactive elements emit radiation that’s damaging to living organisms, and some radiation can be blocked by certain materials. For example, beta particles (also known as beta rays) can be shielded with a thin sheet of aluminum, making betavoltaics a potentially safe choice for nuclear batteries.”

— Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology

This betavoltaic battery prototype is based on carbon-14, an unstable and radioactive form of carbon called radiocarbon. Although this carbon isotope is radioactive, it only produces beta radiation, which can be easily shielded to prevent harm.

Radiocarbon is already a byproduct of nuclear power plants and is therefore cheap, readily available, and easy to recycle, according to the researchers. And since radiocarbon degrades very slowly, a battery powered by radiocarbon could theoretically provide energy for decades, centuries, or even thousands of years.

According to the researchers, the latest prototype of this radiocarbon battery has a significantly higher energy conversion efficiency, which has increased from 0.48 to 2.86 percent.

This kind of nuclear battery would only be the size of a finger, and such long-lasting nuclear batteries could enable numerous applications, says Professor Su-Il In. For example, a pacemaker powered by such a battery would last a lifetime and make surgical replacement unnecessary.