This Monday is the regular RSGB webinar 'Tonight@8' which this month features a presentation on 'Basic Modelling and Antennas for Portable HF' by Tim Hier G5TM

As always this will be live at 8pm and open to anyone to watch and join in on either BATC or the RSGB YouTube Channel.

Details and login link at www.rsgb.org/webinars

Tonight@8 is produced for the RSGB by Tammy M0TC and David G7URP

Please send your 'What on earth...' entry together with any news, pictures and views you can share for NARC Live! to radio@dcpmicro.com by 3pm latest on Wednesday please.

Please join Tammy M0TC and David G7URP live at 19.30 on BATC or Facebook - everyone welcome. 

Watch live on BATC or Facebook at 19.30: 

Watch live on BATC:

https://batc.org.uk/live/NARC

or Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/norfolkamateurradioclub  

WATCHING PREVIOUS NARC LIVE's...

If you missed a NARC Live we now record most shows in the studio and upload them to Youtube within a couple of days. So you can watch almost any previous recorded NARC Live show by going to YouTube, searching for "Norfolk ARC", click on Videos and choose the programme you want to watch. https://www.youtube.com/c/norfolkamateurradio/videos

This is our regular competition where we show an unusual object, tool, gadget or thing-me-bob sent in by one of the NARC members and you have to guess (or maybe you know!) what it is for...

Have a good look at the picture below - what on earth is this or what is it used for  ...?!

You have until 3pm on the next NARC Live to let Tammy and David know...

We are running low on What on Earths.... please see if you can send a picture of something unusual for the competition - don't forget to tell us what it is too!  Thank you

Please email your answers with the subject 'What on earth' to David & Tammy radio@dcpmicro.com by 3pm latest on the WEDNESDAY OF OUR NEXT NARC LIVE and we will read out all of the entries and tell you what it is!

73 

David G7URP & Tammy M0TC  

Remember please email radio@dcpmicro.com not just reply to the newsletter or any other email address or Facebook otherwise David & Tammy will not receive it directly and may never receive it!  

There are a number of interesting meetings being planned for meetings for next couple of months at CNS School and you may like to add these to your diary:

WRTC is coming to the UK!

Wednesday December 11th - CNS School 1900-2130

WRTC presentation - The World Radiosport Team Championships is the Amateur Radio equivalent of the Olympic Games and just like the Olympics it only runs every 4 years.

What makes the 2026 event special is that it is being hosted in Great Britain and, not only that, but it is being held in East Anglia with many of the 50 stations in Norfolk!  

The WRTC26 Committee are coming to NARC to give us a special Christmas 2024 presentation and we hope as many members come as possible will be there as there are many ways both members and NARC can get directly involved :)

3D Printing evening!

Wednesday January 8th - CNS School 1900-2130

Martin G7UGB has agreed to bring in his 3D Printer to demonstrate and explain how they work and what you can do with them - we encourage other members to bring in theirs too so it becomes a great way to see and share ideas.

Contests 2025...

Wednesday January 22nd - CNS School 1900-2130

We ask that all NARC members interested in Contesting come to the meeting this evening to discuss options and agree on which main events both HF and VHF contest groups enter for the club in 2025 and where to do them from etc.

HF News

Last weekend’s CQWW CW contest was a reminder of just how good HF propagation can be near sunspot maximum.

The whole world was workable on the contest bands up to 10 metres, including the Far East, Australasia, the Caribbean and South America. It was a great opportunity to increase your DXCC total and have fun at the same time.

This week’s solar flux index crept back above 200 again, peaking at 225 as this report was being prepared. Geomagnetic conditions have been surprisingly good over the past seven days with a peak Kp index of 3.67 on November 24th.

There have been no X-class solar flares, but a total of 13 M-class and 54 minor C-class flares over the past seven days. There have been coronal mass ejections, notably on November 25th, but they have not been Earth-directed as of the 28th.

So, to summarise, HF conditions have been pretty good.

We are now entering the Winter period for HF propagation, which tends to favour the low bands. So 160m, 80m and 40m come into their own and night-time DXing becomes the norm. Look for greyline openings to the west at sunrise on 80/160m, and also short, but good, openings on 40m in the late afternoon.

Nighttime may bring good DX on 80m and 40m, including the Caribbean and South America.

NOAA predicts that the SFI will remain in the low 200s next week, and while geomagnetic conditions are forecast to be good at first, the Kp index may rise to four on December 4th to 6th. This could result in reduced MUFs until the Kp index recovers.

VHF and up

The unsettled theme continues through most of the next week or two. The only signs of slightly enhanced prospects for Tropo are as we close the previous week, and even that is restricted to some eastern areas for paths across the North Sea.

A second option may temporarily appear around the middle of the coming week as a weak high crosses southern areas, but this one looks to be a cold high and probably not so good as a vehicle for Tropo.

The meteor scatter prospects are aided by the last throes of the Leonids which fade away by this weekend and the Orionids, which peak on Thursday November 28th, but last through the coming week.

The unsettled weather should offer some useful GHz Bands rain or snow scatter, since there will be several active weather systems around and this early in the winter is a great time for strong shower activity around the still relatively warmer seas.

The auroral prospects are worth checking after recent activity. Look for watery-sounding signals on the LF bands as a good clue along with Kp index values greater than four.

Last week saw some fleeting signs of Sporadic E on the Dourbes ionosonde graphs on www.propquest.co.uk, especially on Monday November 25th which occurred typically around the middle of the day and was probably driven by the very strong jet stream and the current meteor activity.

The Moon’s declination is negative, reaching minus 28 degrees on Monday and we are close to eclipse on Sunday. That’s followed by two days of high 144MHz sky noise, so with path losses still high, EME operators should probably take the opportunity to check their antennas after last week’s gale.

GB2CW Morse Corner 29.11.24
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Morse Classes.
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  Classes are stable at present and the beginner's class had two raw beginners join this week. James M1TES and Emma M7TSP. Starting off as a raw beginner is somewhat unsettling because you are not sure what is required of you. However, I start with a discussion and set out what the student has to do and I explain how we progress through the course. When we started both James and Emma were obviously nervous but as we finished they were both more confident. I did also explain the necessary Practice that each of them will have to do in their own time every day.
   In order to progress, the Big P word is all important. Without that NO progress will be made. The tutor can tell if the student has done any Practice so stick with it and you will progress.
If you are considering learning Morse ( CW ) PLEASE join the beginner's class. You will find it very difficult to make any progress without doing so. I have heard it said that " I have listened to Morse, but nothing seems to sink in". Of course it won't. It is much like saying I listened to a good pianist on the radio but nothing sinks in!
It does not happen by miracle or hypnotism. It is the hard work that YOU as a student in YOUR time and nothing more that will produce results. You do need a tutor to report to each week in order for him to judge your progress and correct any errors you may incur along the way.
..

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KEY OF THE WEEK
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I forgot to name the Key of the Week last time. It is known as the Bushwhacker Key.
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This week I am featuring an Iambic twin lever paddle by Tony N3ZN and it's the ZN-9RZ.

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   This is a line of high end iambic & single lever paddles and keys. The iambic and single lever paddles include ball bearing movement, magnetic lever arm return,solid silver contact points, and quick "adjust on the fly" contact and magnet screws. Along with short lightweight aluminum lever arms and the correct geometry, these paddles offer an excellent and responsive feel, making QRQ (or QRS and anything in between) operation effortless. All ZN products are MADE IN THE USA solely by Tony Baleno, N3ZN.
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   The ZN-9RZ is built on a 3 1/4" diameter base X 15/16" thick and weighs 2.5 pounds. It features 3 ball bearing per lever arm, magnetic return, solid silver contact points and very fine threaded magnet and contact screws (56 TPI). It has 6 non-skid feet for maximum stability. All screws are stainless steel. OTO of the ZN-9RZ is 5/8". Also available is an OTO of 3/8" as a special order.
There is a range of colours and finishes that you can order too:
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1.Cast Gray with blue posts and blue powder coated fingepieces. 2. White metallic with blue posts and blue powder coated aluminum fingerpieces 3. Black with black posts 4. Black with silver posts and lever arms 5. Gray textured base with black uppers 6. Dark Blue Wrinkle 7. Army Green with antique bronze posts and fingerpieces ( 3/8" OTO shown) 8. Cobalt Blue Texture (matte) with cast gray posts 9. Robin Egg Blue base with dark blue posts and fingerpieces 10. Red with charcoal posts and lever arms 11. Metallic Purple with Metallic Black posts and lever arms 12. Red-White-Blue 13. Cream Orange with Antique Bronze posts and fingerpieces 14. Metallic Green with Antique Bronze posts and fingerpieces 15. Yellow metallic with blue metallic posts and fingerpieces 16. Red metallic with black posts and fingerpieces
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A comment seen recently from Rick Kunath, K9AO supports my theory about the "spacing" of the finger/thumb pieces to accommodate the natural purlicue spacing between thumb and forefinger, obviously he has found what I have found and demonstrated a few Newsletters ago.
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One thing I like about the N3ZN paddles is that he offers several paddle finger piece spacings. For me, I don't at all like the paddles spaced very close together. N3ZN has a 3/4 inch spaced model that is just right for me. My fingers seem to want to hold at about that spacing naturally and then I just gently squeeze without hardly any effort to key. His paddles have super smooth action and magnetic return.
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https://www.n3znkeys.com/p/613/zn-9rz

The NARC CW Monday Night Net.
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This now takes place on 3543 at 8 p.m. on Monday evenings. We have a Net controller each week and the idea is to encourage you to conversational Morse. If you can read and send at 23wpm, do come and join us. 23wpm is the speed at present and we may be increasing that as time goes by. The overs are short but protocol is adherred to and just a few comments from each attendee is all that is needed. Give it a try!

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This week with Malcolm G3PDH as Net control, it was SK week, so the speed was somewhat lower! It does help to maintain the skill of operating a Straight Key however.
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Well, besides the normal faithful this week we were joined by Tony M0TDK. Tony is a member of the Great Yarmouth club, but that does not matter at all. I am merely pointing out the lack of NARC members joining in. The Net normally lasts no longer than around 45 minutes so it is not stretching your skill that much. Les G0DFC joins in each week again but is suffering from pain in his keying hand.
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There is no need to be shy. Learning conversational Morse is a skill in itself. Anybody can work a DX pile-up by using macros or sending their call and 599 TU. Try holding a conversation for about an hour and see how you get on. If you aspire to CWOPS or FOC it's the only way you will get in to those clubs, by showing and proving your proficiency with a paddle.
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Not only that, but it really is very satisfying to be able to hold a conversation for that long at around 25wpm with minimal mistakes. PLUS of course you can then monitor the CW end of the bands and hear just conversations and not just dits and dahs.
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CW OPS

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There were three of us again this weekthis week at 3 a.m. Propagation is not great at that time. The HF bands are day-time bands at this time of year so concentration is on 40m mainly with excursions to 80 and 160m.
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The four sessions are still going well and we have managed to get decent scores each time. This is a great way of making friends with other amateurs. You may not think that the case, but it is surprising how you do get well known in those sessions and further QSOs follow on. You also receive a very nice Newsletter after you join.
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General CW Operating.
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For those of a nervous disposition, try joining FISTS. FISTS caters for the more casual, laid back operator who does not feel comfortable at more than 23 wpm. They also have a LADDERS competition on 40m which is good practice. Actually for what you pay for membership it really is a great deal with a quarterly magazine too called Keynote. It contains lots of interesting articles.
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That's it, open the cage, play the music.
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If you have any input, please email me.

73 de Roger, G3LDI GB2CW Coordinator. roger@g3ldi.co.uk May the Morse be with you.

Author Roger Cooke

Welcome to week one hundred and sixty seven of NARC’s contest news.

Results:-

On VHF

The results of the 432MHz UKAC of 12th November were released on 24th November. Our team of 6 managed a 5th place in this one and we remain in 4th overall in this series. Thanks again to all who contine to participate for us. Link to results here. 

NARC is running 10th at the moment in this year's VHF championships out of 84 clubs. Link here 

In the overall UKAC we are still running 4th out of 57 in the General clubs section. Link to this here 

On HF

I couldn't spot any new HF results of note, but if anyone is aware of anything I've missed please let me know.

If people are entering other contests of whose results I am obviously unaware please e-mail me to let me know the outcome and I'll mention it here.

Contests:-

On VHF

Unfortunately our only SHF competitor is recovering from surgery at present. I wish Graham well for a speedy recovery.

On HF

On Saturday 23rd of November for 48h the CQ WW CW contest ran. Local interest was in the form of M0RYB's team of 4 operators running from his site north of Diss. The team consisted of Peter M0RYB, Chris G0TZZ, Kim G4WUG and myself. We ran a Multi Two station on all bands with 100 Watts to an A3S on 20m,15m and 10m and dipoles for Top Band, 80m and 40m. Rigs were a pair of Elecraft K4. Both stations were active for the full 48h apart from 20minutes when the very high wind gusts managed to severely damage another beam on the tower making it dangerous and requiring removal of the remaining elements. Activity was good and apart from tiredness the team had an excellent time making over 4000 QSOs. See below for score table. 35 CQ zones were contacted.

I have spotted logs received from other club members. Link to logs received here. 

The last test of this year's 80m Autumn series ran on Thursday 28th November. This was CW. The band was in reasonable shape and activity was quite good. This test has only just finished as I write this. It looks like there were at least 13 stations active for us and it was good to see a double scoring log entered by Marie-Louise, M7YRU. We now await the final result! Link to logs received here. 

Please let me know if you were on in any other VHF or HF contests and I'll put a summary in next week's news.

********************

Roger, G3LDI had written in about some new contest software he has been successfully trying out recently. See below:-

SDC stands for Software Defined Connectors. It is a series of programs written by Yuri, UT7LW, and is designed to run with an SDR type radio . The Flex 6600 is what I use and several other UK stations too. It is not easy to set up but help is always around. Yuri himself is nearly always on hand to solve any problems and there is an IO group set up for assistance if needed. It is a different concept to N1MM+ with an extremely complex SKimmer and Spotlist which once set up is of great help for assisted stations. It is not suitable for older radios. If you have a Flex radio have a look at this tutorial: - Link here.

I use SDC for CW and RTTY/PSK contesting. It is not suitable for SSB. For Data tests it really is superb. The spotlist does not discriminate between RTTY and PSK so jumping from one mode to the other is instantaneous. The decoders are excellent and copy is usually 100%, depending on QRM/QRN etc. It also puts PS in the Cabrillo log for you. It can be run much like a computer game inasmuch it depends on your use of the Spotlist. Having mastered that black art, this is why Martin G4ENZ attains such high scoring. He does NOT have a linear, he does NOT have a massive antenna, he is just very adept at using that Spotlist.

Don't think that you will master it's use the day after you install it. I have been using it for some time now and still have not achieved full control! It does help keep the brain cells working however. Before you say "It's just like using FT8", no it is not. Try it for yourself and see.

Yuri has now enabled the program for Onlinescoring and Onlinelogchecking. I have not looked into that as yet but will have to download the latest version and take a look at it.

You will need an SDR radio however.

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Upcoming contests in the next 2 weeks (all times in UTC):-

On VHF / UHF / SHF

Before each of the 2m and 70cm UKACs there is an FM leg starting 1 hour before for 55 minutes. I hear almost no activity in this from here but others may have more luck! Rules etc on RSGBCC site.

* Tue 3rd Dec. 2000-2230 144MHz UKAC
* Wed 4th Dec. 1700-2100 144MHz FT8 AC 2h and 4h sections
* Sun 8th Dec. 1000-1400 144MHz AFS (AFS Super League) - Link to rules here 
* Tue 10th Dec. 2000-2230 432MHz UKAC
* Wed 11th Dec. 1700-2100 432MHz FT8 AC 2h and 4h sections
* Thu 12th Dec. 2000-2230 50MHz UKAC

Also of interest for some on the vhf / uhf bands are the EU FT8 activity tests - see the following link for more information. These are on the first (144 MHz), second (432MHz) and third (1.3GHz) Wednesdays of each month. 1700-2000 Hrs EU FT8 series website 

On HF

* Mon 2nd Dec. 1630-1729 OK1WC memorial CW contest 80 and 40m - Link to rules here. 
* Tue 3rd Dec. 0100-0159 Worldwide SSB Activity contest. Link to rules here. 
* Fri 6th Dec. 2200 to Sun 8th Dec. 1600 ARRL 160m Contest CW - Link to rules here 
* Sat 7th Dec. 0000 to Sun 8th Dec. 2359 Kalbar Contest SSB - Link to rules here 
* Sat 7th Dec. 1200 to Sun 8th Dec 1159 PRO CW contest - Link to rules here 
* Sat 7th Dec. 1400 to Sun 8th Dec. 1359 INORC Contest CW (Italy based) - Link to rules here 
* Sat 7th Dec. 1800 to Sun 8th Dec 2359 FT Challenge FT8/4 - Link to rules here 
* Sun 8th Dec. 2000-2300 QRP ARCI Holiday Spirits Sprint CW - Link to Rules here 

See Link to WA7BNM for other contests not mentioned above.

Wednesdays throughout the year, CW ops 1 hour mini tests 13:00, 19:00, Thurs 03:00 and 07:00, exchange Name and G if not a member or CWOPS number if you are a member.
See CWOPS website for more details.
Also on Fridays 2000 to 2100 and Mondays 0000 to 0100 each week CWops runs the K1USN slow speed CW contests. Any speed up to 20wpm is acceptable. For rules see :- CW OPs SST page these contests are open to anyone.

All RSGB contest rules and further details plus log submission at RSGB contest site
Look to WA7BNM’s contest calendar for other contests and links to rules etc at WA7BNM weekly contest calendar
A link to John 2E0TWQ’s site’s Narc contest history page - 2E0TWQ's NARC contest results page 

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Contesting can be great fun but I know there's a reluctance to step into unknown waters. It's a great way of improving many aspects of our hobby including one's own performance and the quality of your station. If you have any interest whatsover please call in to the contest net on Friday evening at 9pm on 145.250MHz FM or speak to any of the regular contesters on 450. Or indeed email me!
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Submissions or comments for this news to thedoctorphil@gmail.com

73 until next week,

Phil G4LPP

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