2024-10-26, 08:09:20
This is V_3___, Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of Canada with
this week's bulletin.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1. RAC Canada Winter Contest, Sat, Dec 28, 2024
0000 UTC to 2359 UTC on Saturday, December 28, 2024.
In December each year the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) sponsors the Canda Winter Contest. Amateurs all over the world are invited to participate.
This year there are several updates to the rules including:
- Updated the suggested 40-metre phone frequency for Canadian SSB QSOs to avoid conflicts with FT8 or other digital frequency usage;
- Added information and a table to illustrate how scoring is calculated;
- Added clarity around how QRP entries are handled and adjudicated;
- Added instructions on how paper logs can be converted to electronic logs using utilities established for our contests.
If you need help preparing or submitting your log or have any other questions,
please contact Sam Ferris, VE5SF at ve5sf @ myrac.ca.
-- Sam Ferris, VE5SF – RAC Canada Winter Contest Manager
2. NASA, NOAA: Sun Reaches Maximum in Solar Cycle
In a teleconference with reporters last week, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year.
During May 2024, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storm at Earth in two decades — and possibly among the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.
-- full article at https://science.nasa.gov/ (via amateur radio.com)
ONTARIO SECTION NEWS
ITEMS OF INTEREST
3. Pi Zero Power Optimization
If you’ve ever designed a battery-powered device with a Pi Zero, you have no doubt looked into decreasing its power consumption. Generic advice, like disabling the HDMI interface and the onboard LED, is omnipresent, but Manawyrm from Kittenlabs goes beyond the surface-level, and gifts us an extensive write-up where every recommendation is backed with measurements. Armed with the Nordic Power Profiler kit, she aimed at two factors, boot time and power consumed while booting, and made sure to get all the debug information we could use.
All in all, this write-up helps you decrease the boot time from twelve seconds to just three seconds, and slash the power budget of the boot process by 80%. Some recommendations are as simple as config.txt entries, while others require you to recompile the kernel. No matter the amount of effort you can put into power optimization, you’ll certainly find things worth learning while following along, and her effort in building her solar-powered Pi setup will help us all build better Pi-Zero-powered solar devices and handhelds.
-- Hackaday Blog (via this week in amateur radio news)
4. Dream Rig Contest Underway
The 5th annual Youth "Dream Rig" Essay Contest has begun to accept submissions.
The contest is sponsored by The Intrepid-DX Group, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promotes amateur radio activities around the world and recognizes the importance of including youth in the amateur radio hobby.
The first place prize is an ICOM IC-7300 transceiver. Second place prize is an ICOM ID5100AD dual-band mobile radio with D-Star, and the third place prize is an ICOM IC-T10 dual-band handheld. All entrants and winners must promise to keep the radios for one year, without flipping, trading, or selling them, and to use the
radios on the air.
Contestants must be USA or Canadian amateur radio license holders aged 19 or younger. All contestants must be in the U.S. or Canada. They must write a two-page essay answering the following question: “What do you see as ham radio’s place in society? How can it benefit our society, and at the same time, become attractive to others your age?”
-- For full details see the arrl website.
This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or clarifications?
Hearing none, This is V_3___ returning the frequency to net control.
Bulletin sent from Official Bulletin Manager VA3PC
this week's bulletin.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1. RAC Canada Winter Contest, Sat, Dec 28, 2024
0000 UTC to 2359 UTC on Saturday, December 28, 2024.
In December each year the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) sponsors the Canda Winter Contest. Amateurs all over the world are invited to participate.
This year there are several updates to the rules including:
- Updated the suggested 40-metre phone frequency for Canadian SSB QSOs to avoid conflicts with FT8 or other digital frequency usage;
- Added information and a table to illustrate how scoring is calculated;
- Added clarity around how QRP entries are handled and adjudicated;
- Added instructions on how paper logs can be converted to electronic logs using utilities established for our contests.
If you need help preparing or submitting your log or have any other questions,
please contact Sam Ferris, VE5SF at ve5sf @ myrac.ca.
-- Sam Ferris, VE5SF – RAC Canada Winter Contest Manager
2. NASA, NOAA: Sun Reaches Maximum in Solar Cycle
In a teleconference with reporters last week, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year.
During May 2024, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storm at Earth in two decades — and possibly among the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.
-- full article at https://science.nasa.gov/ (via amateur radio.com)
ONTARIO SECTION NEWS
ITEMS OF INTEREST
3. Pi Zero Power Optimization
If you’ve ever designed a battery-powered device with a Pi Zero, you have no doubt looked into decreasing its power consumption. Generic advice, like disabling the HDMI interface and the onboard LED, is omnipresent, but Manawyrm from Kittenlabs goes beyond the surface-level, and gifts us an extensive write-up where every recommendation is backed with measurements. Armed with the Nordic Power Profiler kit, she aimed at two factors, boot time and power consumed while booting, and made sure to get all the debug information we could use.
All in all, this write-up helps you decrease the boot time from twelve seconds to just three seconds, and slash the power budget of the boot process by 80%. Some recommendations are as simple as config.txt entries, while others require you to recompile the kernel. No matter the amount of effort you can put into power optimization, you’ll certainly find things worth learning while following along, and her effort in building her solar-powered Pi setup will help us all build better Pi-Zero-powered solar devices and handhelds.
-- Hackaday Blog (via this week in amateur radio news)
4. Dream Rig Contest Underway
The 5th annual Youth "Dream Rig" Essay Contest has begun to accept submissions.
The contest is sponsored by The Intrepid-DX Group, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promotes amateur radio activities around the world and recognizes the importance of including youth in the amateur radio hobby.
The first place prize is an ICOM IC-7300 transceiver. Second place prize is an ICOM ID5100AD dual-band mobile radio with D-Star, and the third place prize is an ICOM IC-T10 dual-band handheld. All entrants and winners must promise to keep the radios for one year, without flipping, trading, or selling them, and to use the
radios on the air.
Contestants must be USA or Canadian amateur radio license holders aged 19 or younger. All contestants must be in the U.S. or Canada. They must write a two-page essay answering the following question: “What do you see as ham radio’s place in society? How can it benefit our society, and at the same time, become attractive to others your age?”
-- For full details see the arrl website.
This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or clarifications?
Hearing none, This is V_3___ returning the frequency to net control.
Bulletin sent from Official Bulletin Manager VA3PC