eHam.net News

///////////////////////////////////////////
Steam Buffs to Hit the Right Wavelength:

Posted: 31 Dec 2015 04:41 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35875


Radio hams will be manning a unique station in East Lancashire to offer
train buffs all over the world the chance to share in the glory of the
newly-renovated Flying Scotsman's return to the tracks. In just under a
fortnight the famed engine will be making the first of a series of runs
along the East Lancashire Railway corridor from Bury Bolton Street to
Rawtenstall, through Summerseat, Irwell Vale and Ramsbottom. And to
commemorate the landmark, members of Bury Amateur Radio Society will be
setting up shop at Rawtenstall station - and hopefully taking in messages
from across the globe. Radio enthusiasts will be invited to hook up with
the call handle 'GB0ELR' on the weekends of January 9 and 10, and again on
January 16 and 17 as part of the heritage line's 'Scotsman in Steam'
extravaganza.


///////////////////////////////////////////
Surrey Hams Win Radio Competition:

Posted: 31 Dec 2015 04:40 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35874


The results have just been released and the amateur radio operators of
Surrey have scored first place in Canada for the annual North American
Field Day emergency communications competition. Despite the Internet,
cellphones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find
themselves in the dark. Tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, storms, landslides,
ice and even the occasional cutting of cables leave people without the
means to communicate. The one consistent service that has never failed has
been amateur radio. These federally licensed radio operators, often
called "hams," provide back-up communications for everything from community
events to local emergency operation centres, and to the International Space
Station.


///////////////////////////////////////////
Space Weather in 2016: Big Storms Unlikely, but a Nagging 'Cosmic Drizzle':

Posted: 31 Dec 2015 04:40 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35873


All signs are for the Sun to continue its slow decline towards solar
minimum during 2016. As we've seen, Cycle 24 is well into its descent.
Coronal mass ejections and solar flares are abating. 2015 had just a few
days of significance, and 2016 will be similar. Expect occasional surges
once in awhile, but just a few of those instances. Perhaps surprisingly
though, space weather won't go away. Here's why. The Sun will set up
regions with very weak magnetic fields, long-lived voids, in its corona.
These features, coronal holes, are nozzles for fast solar wind. As a
lighthouse beam sweeps past a ship with a characteristic rhythm, so too
does the enhanced solar wind sweep by earth. Forecasters really like the
recurrent solar wind streams, as they can be predicted days to weeks in
advance. The geomagnetic storming caused by these repetitive pulses is
usually of just the minor to moderate variety. Equatorial coronal holes
typically occur during the post-maximum phase of solar cycles -- we've seen
a number of these already. Coronal mass ejection-fueled magnetic storms are
almost always stronger than coronal hole storms, but those will be
increasingly rare.


///////////////////////////////////////////
DX News -- ARRL DX Bulletin #52:

Posted: 31 Dec 2015 11:53 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35872


This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by
W3UR, QRZ DX, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest
Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.