Continue reading »]]> This is an important document for all trainers and support staff as it keeps them informed and up-to-date on the latest changes that affect the running of Amateur Radio courses.

Can all Southport & District Amateur Radio Club trainers (registered and non-registered) and support staff please take the time to read it and if you have any comments or questions please contact one of our Lead Instructors (Derek Hughes or Mark Haworth). Many thanks.

Read the April 2012 RCF Tutors Newsletter.

Continue reading »]]> Four candidates sat the Intermediate exam yesterday, April 21st, with the Southport & District Amateur Radio Club and we’re pleased that they all passed and are now awaiting their upgraded callsigns. The for candidates were…

• Gordon Moon (M6CWA)
• Chris Dennis (M6XJP)
• Ron Roberts (M6BFP)
• Mark Shopland (M6MSB)

Well done to all of the candidates and thanks to all those at the Southport & District Amateur Radio Club for their help during the course.

If you’re interested in studying towards the Foundation, or Intermediate Amateur Radio qualification with the Southport & District Amateur Radio Society, please contact our Training Co-ordinator and he will be able to provide you with more information.

Continue reading »]]> The Southport & District Amateur Radio Club have been asked to run two special event stations in June and we need the help of member to make them a success.

24th June – International Model Lifeboat Rally, Stockport

We attended the International Model Lifeboat Rally for the first time last year and it was a brilliant event. In attendance are lots of model lifeboats, both static display and remote control units that take to the water regularly during the day. The weather was very kind to us and we were able to operate outside for much of the day and enjoy the brilliant atmosphere  - let’s hope we can replicate the weather!

The station gets on the air for around 10:00 and shuts down around 16:00, so we’ll need to be on-site for around 08:30 – it’s an early start but well worth the effort.

The station is run in conjunction with the Lifeboat Amateur Radio Society, or which there are several members amongst  our club.

If you can attend, please complete the form below so that we know how many operators we have. Thanks.

30th June – Park Praise Fun Day, Ormskirk

This will be the fourth time we have operated from Coronation Park and it’s a good opportunity to meet the public. The event is organised as a free party in the park for the residents of Ormskirk by Churches Together in Ormskirk and there’s lots going on during the day.

As well as operators for the event we need people to chat to the visitors as we usually have interested parties from local youth groups as well as individuals.

The event gets underway at 10:00 and usually wraps up around 16:00, so we’ll need to be on-site for around 08:30. Parking is limited on-site, though there is lots of chargeable parking around the town – we recommend that if you’re not bringing equipment to the event that you try and car-share to keep vehicles and parking costs to a minimum.

We will have a volunteer visitor from WACRAL (World Association of Christian Radio Amateurs & Listeners) on the stand with us this year.

If you can attend, please complete the form below so that we know how many operators we have. Thanks.

Operators sign-up form

Please complete the form below if you are able to attend either of the above special event stations. Thank you.

Continue reading »]]> Many of our club members have purchased an HF antenna from an affordable range of amateur radio antennas made by Snowdonia Radio Company over the last few years and I am sure that you were saddened at the news that the business had shut down late last year.

Well the good news is that the Snowdonia Radio Company is back and will be opening its doors again towards the end of April, beginning of May. Still based in Blaenau Ffestiniog, right in the heart of Snowdonia, SRC (as it is otherwise known) will be expanding to sell many more Amateur Radio related products. Their new web site is being built-up as we speak ready to accept orders at the end of the month, so do keep an eye on it.

Continue reading »]]> After a couple of years of struggling to attract enough visitors to warrant a two-day exhibition, the organisers of the Llandudno Amateur Radio rally have finally given in and reduced the rally to a single day event. Still based at Ysgol John Bright (John Bright School), the rally will take place on Sunday, the 28th October.

As one of our ‘local’ rallies, and a good day out to-boot, do try and support the new format with a visit .

Further details can be found on the North Wales Radio Society web site.

Continue reading »]]> A new calendar has been installed on the web site. It’s both easier to use for the web site administrators and visitors to the web site and enables visitors to add events to the ICS compatible calendar software installed on their computers (Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird support ICS) and/or their Google calendar if they have one.

Continue reading »]]> As HF Amateur Radio operators we are always looking forward to the next solar maximum, the peak of the next eleven-year solar cycle. It’s a time when enhanced propagation enables even those of us equipped with modestly equipped lower power radio stations to work the world on the 10m band. However, are we really prepared for the lethal consequences of another geomagnetic storm like the one that erupted during the solar maximum in 1921?

The Sun

The Sun is a volatile ball of, mainly, hydrogen and helium gas that is constantly suffering from nuclear reactions that generate immense amounts of energy^[1]. Huge explosions on the Sun cause it to radiate charged particles out in to space^[2]. Some of these charged particles head in the direction of Earth.

Amateur Radio signals

When an Amateur Radio operator transmits a signal, some of the signal is shot up in to Earth’s atmosphere, whilst some of the signal will travel along Earth’s surface. The signal that travels along Earth’s surface ^[3] will be reduced in power by obstacles and absorbed by the ground, so it’s range is fairly limited. At HF frequencies it’s the signal that gets beamed up in to the atmosphere that gives us our long-distance contacts.

The ionosphere

The ionosphere is a region of the atmosphere that ranges from around 50 to over 500 KM above the surface of Earth. When the Sun radiates charged particles in the direction of Earth they ionise the ionosphere to produce ionised gas and this ionised gas refracts^[4] certain radio frequencies back to Earth. The power of the Sun’s radiation determines the frequencies that are refracted back to Earth, the stronger the radiation the higher the frequency that will be refracted. The height of the ionised gas within the ionosphere determines the distance over which a radio signal can travel around Earth – the higher the ionised gas, the further refracted radio waves will travel. The visual effects of a ionised region in the ionosphere are auroras.

Aurors over Greenland (Courtesy of NASA)

As Earth rotates, parts of it will be dark, so ionisation of the atmosphere on this side of the globe is less pronounced than on the daylight side. This results in radio signals at higher frequencies not travelling as far – any signal being received is more likely to be a result of ground waves propagation rather than ionospheric propagation.

Solar cycles

Activity on the Sun ranges from extremely quiet (little radiation) to positively violent (masses of radiation), though there is a pattern – it’s not random. The solar cycle lasts approximately eleven years^[5] and includes a period of solar minimum (little activity on the Sun, therefore small levels of radiation) rising to a period of solar maximum (lots of activity) before falling away to the next solar minimum.

At solar minimum less activity results in less radiation from the Sun, so only low frequencies^[6] are refracted back to Earth, whereas at solar maximum there is lots of activity and this results in much higher frequencies ^[7] being refracted back to Earth due to the increased radiation.

The danger of solar maximum

The 13th March 1989 will go down in modern history as the day that we were caught unaware of what the Sun could do to us on Earth.

Four days earlier, on the 9th March, a huge solar flare erupted from the Sun’s surface and eight minutes later Earth’s outer atmosphere was struck by a bombardment of ultra-violet and x-ray radiation. The next day larger explosion launched a cloud of gas charged particles at Earth^[8] which arrived four days later.

As is normal with such eruptions an Aurora was spotted close to the Arctic Circle, but it was something special, spectacular even. So strong was the Sun’s radiation that the Aurora was visible as far south as Cuba – this was no ordinary eruption, this was enormous. Unfortunately, it’s not only pretty lights in the sky and enhanced propagation that follow such a collision with Earth’s atmosphere – Earth’s magnetic field had been significantly enough distorted to cause large electric currents to flow in the ground of the North American continent. These large currents found their way up the earthing systems of the power grid and within minutes power was lost and millions of people were without an electric supply in the Quebec district of Canada due to transformers tripping and failing^[9].

This wasn’t the largest solar storm in living memory, back in 1921 Aurora’s were seen as far south as the tropics. John Kappenman^[10] estimates that the earlier event was much more intense and had a much larger geographical footprint than the 1989 event, to the point were it may have engulfed the whole planet. The fact that so little is popularly known about the event is down to the fact that technology wasn’t in such proliferation as it was in the eighties. Power distribution networks operated at lower voltages that today’s systems and aren’t, therefore, as affected by such strong magnetic disturbances. Furthermore, much of the inhabitants of the cities, let along the more rural areas, were without electricity supplies, relying on gas for heat and light. So the effects were less obvious to the public, but that was as a result of circumstances. What would happen today if such an eruption were to occur?

That technology has moved on since 1989 is not in question. We’re using ever higher voltages in our power distribution networks to overcome power losses due to resistance and the like, so they are actually more susceptible to large ground currents. Power transformers take months to build by highly skilled workers, so if lots of transformers failed, recovery could take years. In fact, Kappenman’s theory suggests that the result of a ‘super’ solar storm such a power failure could result in food shortages, water scarcity, reduced medical aid, failure of the normal commerce system, increases in black marketeering and crime and the ultimate unravelling of society. It sounds grim, but worse case scenarios always do.

Going nuclear

However, a more recent event has caused people to sit up and think about how we should protect ourselves against such an event.

On the 11th March 2011 a huge tsunami struck the east coast of Japan. Due to inadequate backup power, power to the Fukushima reactor and spent fuel rod cooling systems lasted only a short period of time after the original disaster struck, triggering another one – the melt down of three reactor cores and the resulting emission of radioactivity. It took the authorities two weeks to stabilise the failed reactors^[11].

There are over 400 such nuclear power stations around the world. Kappenman explains that nuclear power stations are vulnerable in a super solar storm because of the number of transformers that are required to connect them to the distribution grid – each being an entry point for the dangerously high ground currents that would result. Furthermore, their power back up systems would be compromised (either due to the effects of the ground currents themselves or simply through lack of fuel to power the generators) resulting in meltdowns all over the globe.

Be careful what you wish for

So the next time you wish for a great solar maximum and memorable HF propagation, spare a thought for the other possibilities and consequences. It could be the end of civilisation as we know it.