GPDX Group have just posted their updated IOTA Calendar to their Facebook page. Some interesting stuff coming up over the next few months, lets hope we all get in the log.
Author - Chris Cloclough G1VDP
As you know I am an IOTA chaser, and this one has been announced for later this month.
Taken from the GPDX Facebook page.
CR3SI, SELVAGENS Islands (AF-047)
CT1BOL (Jorge Lopes), CT1DSV (José Araújo), CT1ENV (António Claro), CT3KN (Ricardo Martins) and CT3MD (José Vasconcelos), are pleased to announce that they will be active with the callsign CR3SI, from Selvagem Grande (IOTA AF-047) next September.
The initiative is part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Reserva Natural das Ilhas Selvagens, and the station is expected to be active between the 21st and 25th of September, in CW, FT8 and SSB modes.
This is a very rare opportunity to add the AF-047 reference to your logs, and the first time there will be FT8 from Selvagens Islands.
The expedition’s antennas will be supported by Spiderbeam fiber masts.
3Y0J team is currently packing at our staging site at Oslo Airport, Norway. Temperature here is around 0 degrees so we need warm clothing!
We spend the whole weekend packing, and have great progress. Soon container will be shipped.
Still some tickets in the raffle, buy one and support this adventure to Bouvet in just 4 months! (Some nice prizes to be had in here)
“Drums are used to protect the electronic equipment so it is waterproof. All drums have been tested individually. It also allows to easily put small items into one place making the transport more efficient”
https://www.3y0j.no/
This expedition is one that is highly expected and will be a nice new one for us all, or most of us. The guys who are carrying it out deserve all our support, I had the pleasure of meeting most of them at Friedrichshafen and just wish them luck (and I hope to make 1 QSO for my first ever contact with Bouvetoya).
The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) are hosting an International Amateur Radio Activation, The Transatlantic Centenary Tests, on the HF bands to commemorate the centenary of the 
achievement of Amateur Transatlantic communication, during the Transatlantic Tests that were held between 1921 and 1923.
achievement of Amateur Transatlantic communication, during the Transatlantic Tests that were held between 1921 and 1923.The Tests will run from 1 December 2022 to 31 December 2022.
24 December 1922 was when the very first amateur signal from Europe was heard in North America; this was from the RSGB station (G)5WS which was established at Wandsworth in South London, as part of the Third Transatlantic Tests.
Unlike the tests of the 1920s, which mostly consisted of one-way communication, the 2022 tests will encourage world-wide two-way communication with UK & CD based stations.
Special stations will be activated from the UK by RSGB members and Clubs, using original RSGB callsigns from the 1920s.
The Club Log team have kindly agreed to provide the supporting infrastructure for the Tests.
In anticipation of this centenary celebration, with the assistance of Ofcom (the UK licensing authority), the RSGB have renewed five call signs which they held in the 1920s:
G5WS, used for the 1922 tests – “the first to get across”
G5AT, used for the 1923 tests
G6XX, used for the 1923 tests
G6ZZ, used for the first amateur tests on a moving railway train in 1924
G3DR, Scottish Highlands Call – GM3DR.
These historic call signs will be activated by RSGB members and Clubs, using G5WS, G5AT, G6XX, G6ZZ and G3DR (England), GM5WS (Scotland), GW5WS (Wales), GU5WS (Guernsey), GD5WS (Isle of Man), GJ5WS (Jersey) and GI5WS (Northern Ireland).
(Image shows the massive power station chimney at Wandsworth used to support the (G)5WS aerial in December 1922.)
Information and images copyright of the RSGB
This weekend sees the annual International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend, something that is close to mine and the Strumble Head Amateur Radio Klub’s hearts. This is where SHARK started and is where we get our name from.
The object of the weekend is to work as many lighthouses or lightships that are on the air, or to have more fun get to a lighthouse and activate it. We were very lucky with Strumble Head Lighthouse in the fact that we were allowed to set up our kit actually in the lighthouse and having our antenna on the helicopter landing pad. It was a hard slog up to the light with all our kit, but well worth it for the fun and camaraderie we have as friends.
You don’t have to be in the lighthouse to count as activating it, as long as you are at or adjacent to the lighthouse and can see the lighthouse from
your position. All details are in the link above (click on the bold ILLW) and go have fun on the radio. I will be chasing them from home this year, but we may be active from a new one next year.
Here’s the regular IOTA update from the GPDX facebook page. This week also includes a link too the participants in next weeks International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend. Just get on the air and work them all.
This week I resurrected my account on the Red Bubble website. This will allow me to sell items other than just prints with my images on them, for example a nice tablet/laptop case with the Red Arrows in flypast with the BA Boing 747 in the old BOAC livery, or the Fulcrum of the Ukrainian air force on a beach towel (the “Ghost of Kiev”). Many more will be added over the coming months and I will add new going forward after the shoots/air shows. I may even have some special stuff for radio amateurs on there.
With thanks to GPDX group for their work in putting this list together. A list of the islands that will be active this weekend.
YESSSS… Finally got to see it tonight. And it sure lives up to the hype. The flying sequences are amazing and have to be seen on the big screen. The first “BONG” of the bell in the opening credits sets the scene perfectly, and I swear I could smell Av Gas too.
Well it happened, and it was one of the best I have done. A long week of hard work and fun with friends I haven’t seen for 3 years. The aircraft and statics were a excellent mixed bag from plenty of different countries. The highlights for myself were the Korean Black Eagles, the flypast by the Airbus Beluga XL (my first time seeing this aircraft so close) the Austrian Typhoon and C130 QRA demonstration, the Belgian F-16 paintwork with the green snake, the E4B “Jumbo” of the USA, and the helicopter SAR demo by the Czech air force.
The accommodation this year was also different to previous years, being off site at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, where we were welcomed and looked after brilliantly. Nicknamed by us volunteers as Hogwarts (from the Harry Potter books) due to how the buildings looked, and the bar was just like the dining room from the films. Friendly staff and clean rooms go a long way when you have been on the airfield for a 12 hour day. I must also thank all the air cadets who attend the show each year and help with setting up and on the airfield, doing the dreaded F.O.D plod (Foreign Object Damage), picking up any rubbish and other debris that could damage the aircraft.
All in all a very enjoyable but tiring week, glad I had the following week off to recharge and edit my photo’s. Narrowing down 1600 to around 80 to share, and then processing through Photo Shop to get a final Jpeg. These will be in the gallery with the ability to buy them when I upload.