GB2RS news bulletin, from the Radio Society of Great Britain, for the chosen week. Converted to Morse Code, with kind permission from the RSGB, for Morse practice purposes.
Icom UK has announced that it has equipped the RSGB National Radio Centre with the IC-905 All-Mode Transceiver as part of its ongoing support for the RSGB and the amateur radio community. This latest addition ensures that volunteers and visitors to the NRC have access to the latest VHF, UHF and SHF technology. The IC-905 is an industry first, providing seamless multimode coverage across the 144, 430, 1200, 2400, 5600MHz and 10GHz bands. The arrival of the IC-905 opens up new avenues for the NRC, from linking local repeaters to monitoring radio beacons for the study of microwave propagation. The IC-905 was officially handed over to RSGB General Manager, Steve Thomas, M1ACB, at the Martin Lynch and Sons Open Day earlier this year and has now found its home on the radio bench at the NRC. To read more about the transceiver and the NRC go to rsgb.org/nrc and scroll to the news section at the bottom of the page. British Science Week 2026 ends today, the 15th of March, and we are delighted to have seen so many clubs, societies, schools, youth groups and individuals taking part. This year’s British Science Week campaign was the biggest for amateur radio yet. We would like to thank everyone who got involved, and for sharing your love and passion for the hobby with others. We will feature highlights from the event in the June and July editions of RadCom. Whether your club held an open day, arranged a sked, operated a special event station, supported a school, or held any other type of event, we would love to hear from you. To be included, send your report, with separate high-resolution photographs or videos, to bsw.reports@rsgb.org.uk by the 31st of March. If you were one of the lucky groups to have been given free FM radio receiver kits and Morse code tutor kits to build, you will have been emailed separate instructions on how to submit reports for this activity. Our remote invigilation team will take a break over the Easter weekend. You won't be able to book an exam from Friday the 3rd to Monday the 6th of April 2026. Exam bookings will resume from Tuesday the 7th of April 2026. To book your exam, go to rsgb.org/exams If you have not yet booked your spot on the RSGB members-only Direct Digital Synthesizer programming workshop, which takes place in Blackpool on Saturday the 11th of April, now is the time. Booking closes on Wednesday the 18th of March. Visit rsgb.org/practical-events There has been plenty to work on the HF bands this past week. 3Y0K on Bouvet Island is attracting a lot of interest, but there is also 8Q7ZW on the Maldives and German group J51A on Guinea-Bissau for you to chase. DXpeditions next week include TX5EU from the Austral Islands, YJ1JXZ in Vanuatu, the tail-end of operations at T80K in Palau and VP2EAD, VP2ELX and VP2EWE on Anguilla. HF propagation has been reasonable, with the solar flux index in the 140s, falling to the 120s as the week progressed. There have been a few C-class solar flares, but nothing stronger. Geomagnetic conditions have been reasonable with the Kp index mostly in the twos and threes. There was one excursion where the planetary Kp index hit 4 around the 7th and 8th of March, but otherwise it has been relatively calm. The maximum useable frequency over 3,000km has been above 28MHz on most days. 14MHz was open to the Maldives via FT8 as late as 2200UTC on Tuesday the 10th of March. Next week, the standout item is a large, but relatively thin coronal hole on the Sun. The high-speed solar wind stream from this reached the Earth on Friday the 13th of March. Expect the Kp index to rise and HF propagation to suffer, especially on northerly paths. The Space Weather Prediction Centre forecasts that the solar flux index will fall further to around 110 in the coming week. After this weekend’s geomagnetic disturbance due to the coronal hole, the Kp index should be more settled with a predicted maximum Kp of 3. Things may hot up later in the week with a predicted Kp of 4, rising to 6 on the 21st of March. Expect reduced maximum usable frequencies and poorer HF propagation, particularly on polar paths. The current spell of changeable weather is likely to stay with us through most of the coming week, but there is hope for better conditions after mid-week with possible high pressure over northern Britain. To begin with this means that rain scatter, including snow in places, will be worth checking out on the GHz bands, but strong winds may test antennas at times. The change to high pressure should lift conditions a little, but since it's forming in a cold polar air mass, it may not be as good as it could be. The 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest on Tuesday the 17th of March will probably still be in the wet and windy period, so there may be a rainscatter bonus if the rain is heavy enough to affect such a low GHz band. Aircraft scatter will always be the best option for this band when tropo is poor. The 70MHz UK Activity Contest on Thursday the 19th of March may fare better for tropo in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Meteor scatter will offer up meagre rations as we remain in between major showers. The April Lyrids are still a long way away. Aurora is still in the frame around the spring equinox, so as usual check for the Kp index moving up to 5 or higher. Sporadic-E is not common at this time of year in these latitudes and, if anything does get triggered, then look to explore the path on digital modes first to see which directions are being favoured. For EME, the conditions are poor for the coming week with Moon declination negative but rising, not going positive until next Thursday. We continue with short Moon windows and low peak elevation but with falling path losses. While 144MHz sky noise is moderate to low in the coming week, Wednesday and Thursday see the Sun and Moon close in the sky, meaning high noise on the lower bands due to wider antenna beamwidths.
GB2RS News text is © the Radio Society of Gread Britain, 2026