Saturday, January 28, 2012
Winter Field Day - 2012/01/28 - QARC & P.E.R.C.
On Saturday, January 28, members of the Quinte Amateur Radio Club and the Prince Edward Radio Club set up an HF radio station in a parking lot at the waterfront in Belleville . VE3DAD, VE3UO, VE3UR, VE3UGT,VE3OCC,VA3THB,VE3EP and VA3WOW (most members of A.R.E.S.) worked the 10 m., 40 m. and 20 m. phone bands, finally making contact with a station in Maryland on 7158 KHz.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Former WWII spy dies in P.E.I.(2011/05)
A man who served as a British spy in the Second World War died in Charlottetown, P.E.I., this weekend at the age of 91.
Clifton Stewart died at his home Saturday.
In 1940, Stewart, an amateur ham radio operator, was recruited by British Service Co-ordination and was sent to the BSC's headquarters in New York, where his main task was to help develop radio communications equipment to receive and transmit secret information at a much faster pace than the hand-sent Morse code, he told the Charlottetown Guardian in 2009.
Stewart, who was then known only as W5, later spent time at Camp X, the secret Allied training centre near Oshawa, Ont., before being sent on several top-secret missions.
Although he was able to speak more openly about his time at Camp X after the statute of limitations ran out in 1995, there are some war-time secrets Stewart likely took to his grave.
"We have a separate oath that will go on forever, you see. Till death do us part," he told the Guardian. "Anything of significance will never be discussed."
Stewart was predeceased by his wife, Hilda. He leaves behind his four children, eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Amateur Radio Field Day - Loyalist A.R.E.S. Groups
Amateur Radio Field Day - North Fulton, U.S.A.
Weather disasters such as tornados that leveled homes and businesses in Tuscaloosa, AL and Ringgold make the work done by groups such as the North Fulton Amateur Radio League critical. When cell towers are down and power is out, communication can be nearly impossible.
Groups such as the North Fulton Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) team show how today's amateur (Ham) radio enthusiasts can provide a critical service.
Amateur radio operators will demonstrate their operating skills and emergency communications capabilities. This is not the “Ham” radio you may think about from years past, said Jim Paine, a member of NFARL. The group will display and use the latest technology in radio gear to communicate to other ham stations across the world using the new digital modes, as well as voice and Morse code.
NFARL members won't be alone on Field Day, which is an annual event nationwide for amateur radio enthusiasts to show their skills at communicating by radio. Hundreds of clubs are involved across the country using their personally owned radio equipment and providing their own back-up electrical power. This network of amateur radio operators has been crucial to maintaining reliable communications during hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, floods and other events that may disable normal communications, NFARL said.
For more information & photos:
http://alpharetta.patch.com/articles/north-fulton-amateur-radio-operators-demonstrate-gear-used-in-emergencies#photo-6579269
Amateur Radio Emergency Service Provides Communication for Bike Race in Newark, U.S.A.
NEWARK -- The Licking County Amateur Radio Emergency Service group will provide communications for the annual Tour de Cure bike race that will be going through Delaware, Knox and Licking counties.
ARES is part of the American Radio Relay League, the national organization for amateur radio.
Ham operators train regularly for communications readiness by engaging in drills and simulated emergency tests and by providing occasional communications for nonprofit groups' parades, races and other public events
Full article at:
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour 2011
http://ve3clq.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 17, 2011
Scientists predict rare 'hibernation' of sunspots
by Kerry Sheridan
WASHINGTON (AFP) – For years, scientists have been predicting the Sun would by around 2012 move into solar maximum, a period of intense flares and sunspot activity, but lately a curious calm has suggested quite the opposite.
According to three studies released in the United States on Tuesday, experts believe the familiar sunspot cycle may be shutting down and heading toward a pattern of inactivity unseen since the 17th century.
The signs include a missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles, said experts from the National Solar Observatory and Air Force Research Laboratory.
"This is highly unusual and unexpected," said Frank Hill, associate director of the NSO's Solar Synoptic Network, as the findings of the three studies were presented at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
"But the fact that three completely different views of the Sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation."
Solar activity tends to rise and fall every 11 years or so. The solar maximum and solar minimum each mark about half the interval of the magnetic pole reversal on the Sun, which happens every 22 years.
Hill said the current cycle, number 24, "may be the last normal one for some time and the next one, cycle 25, may not happen for some time.
"This is important because the solar cycle causes space weather which affects modern technology and may contribute to climate change," he told reporters.
Experts are now probing whether this period of inactivity could be a second Maunder Minimum, which was a 70-year period when hardly any sunspots were observed between 1645-1715, a period known as the "Little Ice Age."
"If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we'll see for a few decades. That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth's climate," said Hill.
Solar flares and eruptions can send highly charged particles hurtling toward Earth and interfere with satellite communications, GPS systems and even airline controls.
Geomagnetic forces have been known to occasionally garble the world's modern gadgetry, and warnings were issued as recently as last week when a moderate solar flare sent a coronal mass ejection in the Earth's direction.
The temperature change associated with any reduction in sunspot activity would likely be minimal and may not be enough to offset the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming, according to scientists who have published recent papers on the topic.
"Recent solar 11-year cycles are associated empirically with changes in global surface temperature of 0.1 Celsius," said Judith Lean, a solar physicist with the US Naval Research Laboratory.
If the cycle were to stop or slow down, the small fluctuation in temperature would do the same, eliminating the slightly cooler effect of a solar minimum compared to the warmer solar maximum. The phenomenon was witnessed during the descending phase of the last solar cycle.
This "cancelled part of the greenhouse gas warming of the period 2000-2008, causing the net global surface temperature to remain approximately flat -- and leading to the big debate of why the Earth hadn't (been) warming in the past decade," Lean, who was not involved in the three studies presented, said in an email to AFP.
A study in the March 2010 issue of Geophysical Research Letters explored what effect an extended solar minimum might have, and found no more than a 0.3 Celsius dip by 2100 compared to normal solar fluctuations.
"A new Maunder-type solar activity minimum cannot offset the global warming caused by human greenhouse gas emissions," wrote authors Georg Feulner and Stefan Rahmstorf, noting that forecasts by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have found a range of 3.7 Celsius to 4.5 Celsius rise by this century's end compared to the latter half of the 20th century.
"Moreover, any offset of global warming due to a grand minimum of solar activity would be merely a temporary effect, since the distinct solar minima during the last millennium typically lasted for only several decades or a century at most."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)