ARLA/CLUSTER: O futuro dos beacons dos 5 MHz no Reino Unido

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

 Future of the UK 5 MHz Beacons

A consultation has opened on the future of the three UK 5 MHz beacons,
GB3RAL, GB3WES and GB3ORK

The RSGB Forum says:

Back in August 2002, UK amateurs could apply for an NoV to conduct
experiments on specific channels at 5MHz. From this was born the RSGB
5MHz Experiment and as part of this activity the Society organised the
commissioning of three beacons on 5,290kHz - GB3RAL, GB3WES, GB3ORK.
However in recent years these have become more difficult to support
due to sub-assembly obsolescence and other difficulties (notably at
the GB3RAL site).

The primary purpose of providing propagation data over a sunspot cycle
has been completed and over 1.5 million records are stored in the
Experiment’s database. Marcus, G0IJZ has used the data for a number of
different analyses, several of which have been presented at
professional international conferences as well as to form articles for
RadCom.

We recognise there might be some interest in continuing with this
beacon activity, not least for operators to view the combination of
current beacon reception with ionosonde and X-ray data. Your views are
sought on the future of these beacons - as are offers to provide the
necessary technical support / potential sites.

Note: For info the beacon licences will come up for renewal in 2017
and for clarity we would support ongoing use of 5,290 kHz and not the
recently agreed ITU 5,351.5–5,366.5kHz band

Anyone, RSGB member or not, can contribute to the discussion on the
forum which is at
http://forums.thersgb.org/index.php?forums/5mhz-beacons/

When you register on the site there is a question at the bottom which
says: Verification: Who issues amateur radio licences in the UK? The
answer is Ofcom