Good morning EME NEWS FROM THE SHACK OF ZS6OB SUNDAY 18TH November 2012

EME conditions during the past 2 week have been poor due to the fact that it was the New moon period with high sun noise

And high Sky noise

The moon is 4 days past perigee - Moon distance today will 370,000 km at our moonrise which will be at 08H00 UTC or 10H SAST.

The moon declination is presently at -16 degrees [south of the equator]

Degradation and Sky temperature has been high for most of the past week - conditions should be moderate and improving during the next week.

Conditions to and from ZS via EME has been challenging - 100 watts and 4 antennas was barely enough to contact even the big guns

ZS6BUN has been spotted on the N0UK logger giving his new amplifier and the two M12 antennas a work out

There was only limited EME activity from ZS during the week.

EME DX EXPEDITION NEWS

** DXCC: ZL ; New Zealand ; Square: RF73hc

Planned to start 2012-11-10
YU7AA will be QRV from RF73hc for the next 2 months


RIG: 144 - IC821 +300W LNA NE54143 antenna will be 2M18XXX.

432 - IC821 +100W LNA NE 54143 antenna YU7EF/YU7XL
** DXCC: E5 ; Cook Island ; Square: BH01 ; start 2012-11-25
Holiday style DX expedition from BH01CC and BH01DC (will be two locations)
EME WSJT: 2m 1KW, 70cm 100w

The expedition will start on the 2012-11-25
** NAMES IN THE NEWS: G4SWX NAMED NEW RSGB VHF MANAGER
The RSGB has announced the appointment of John Regnault, G4SWX as the societies new VHF Manager. Regnault is described as an active amateur on the VHF and UHF bands, a long standing designer and home builder of VHF equipment and a contributor to the RSGB publication RadCom. He replaces David Butler, G4ASR, who took on the job temporarily following the death of Terry Stevens, G8DKS, earlier in the year. (RSGB)

John is well known as an active EME operator – congratulations John well done.

** Lastly the 2012 operation 5X1EME operation from Uganda has been approved for DXCC credit.

If you have a card for this operation you can submit it to checkers to be added to your DXCC total.
4 6 METER NEWS

**NORWAY AFFIRMS NEW SPECTRUM FOR AMATEUR RADIO OPERATIONS

It’s now official. Norway has affirmed new bands for ham radio in that nation

Permission has been given to use 70.1875 to 70.2625MHz, except in the three Norwegian southwest counties of
Other segments allowing 100W transmitter power and maximum 16kHz bandwidth include 70.0625 to 70.0875MHz, 70.3625 to 70.3875MHz and 70.4125 to 70.4625MHz.

LOCAL NEWS

There has been some TEP openings - on Saturday the 17th - the opening started at about 14h00 UTC

Be on the lookout the openings generally have started around our lunch time

Some of the stations worked on the 17th were EA, CT, 9H1,IK ,IZ ,I, S51, 4X4, YU

Southern EU beacons were quite strong

Always monitor 50.110 and the various beacon frequencies as well as the video from the north

Always remember 50.110 is an International calling frequency with lots of activity which can sometimes not be heard in ZS

Call on 50.110 and announce on which frequency you are QRV,where you will be calling and monitoring. QRM maybe caused without realising it

Monitor the ON4KST 50 and 70 MHz logger and you will see if you are spotted by other stations

Also announce your information and frequency on ON4KST

A few interesting loggers on the internet

Log into LiveCQ http://www.livecq.eu/ LiveCQ will display a list of many stations active on the moon at that time with information of their frequencies, signal strength and polarity.

You may also post information that you are decoding in the spotters list even though you cannot transmit.

http://jt65.73.ru/ and the N0UK - http://www.chris.org/cgi-bin/jt65emeA loggers will also provide some interesting news of who is active on the moon at the time

For 4 and 6 meter activity look up http://www.on4kst.com/chat/start.php - ie both local and DX

If you have any news that may be of interest about activities or achievements please send me an

e mail to my e mail address

If you need any information on EME antennas or how to get active on the Moon via EME feel free to contact me on

082 4477 823 or on my e mail address -

This EME and VHF news bulletin will also be posted on the PARC website once it is in operation again.

Have a fun week see you on the moon

73 de ZS6OB