To avoid loss or damage to outgoing post during the run up to Christmas my next outgoing mailing will be on Wednesday 27th December. & Tuesday 2nd January.
May I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe 2018.
Author - Tim Beaumont
It is with much sadness to report that John Plenderleith, 9M6XRO, passed away yesterday 4th December, John was first licensed in 1960 as GM3OOK in Ayrshire, Scotland. He operated from Singapore for about 10 years as 9V1RS, then moved to the Isle of Man as GD3OOK, then to Norfolk as G3OOK, including several years /MM. John retired to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, in 2005 and after one year as 9M6/G3OOK became 9M6XRO.
John logged over 250 thousand QSOs with his personal call signs often travelling on DXpeditons as a team member, adding many more thousands of contacts from many rare locations. John’s favourite mode was CW, but was comfortable on any mode, recently trying his hand with FT8 which he gave many all over the world an ATNO, John’s CW was exceptional, he was so accurate that over the last 10 years I rarely had any busted call enquiries. I first met John in 2011 when we operated together as team members on 4W6A, John was one of the CW ops and was extremely dedicated to his CW seat and was happy sitting for many, many hours and only wanted to stop when it was time for a beer.
A keen contester, John was active on most weekend contests, also chased DXCC and had Mixed 326 DXCC confirmed. CW 309, Phone 270, Digital 244.
His previous calls included: 3DA0OK, Op at 4W6A, Op at 5W8A (2013), 7P8OK, Op at 9M4SLL (Spratly), 9V1RS, A25OOK, C91XO, CU2/G3OOK/P, EL0A, G3OOK, GD3OOK, GM3OOK, Op at N8A (2013 from American Samoa KH8), V8FRO, V85/9M6XRO, Op at W8A (2013 from American Samoa KH8), XU7XRO, YB9/GM3OOK, ZL/GD3OOK (OC-201), Op at ZL9HR and ZS6/GM3OOK.
9M6XRO member of CDXC, GMDX, ISWL 9M6-6982, RNARS 0437
A true gentleman, great CW operator and friend. RIP John.
For Immediate Release Press Release #1 Dec 1, 2017
Ducie Island 2018 DX-pedition (OC-182)
The Perseverance DX Group (pdxg.net) is pleased to announce their planned activation of Ducie Island (a Marine Protected Area), currently Clublog #29 most wanted. Planning has begun for an expedition in Oct/Nov, 2018.
Landing permission, visas and radio license have been issued. A team of 14 operators will be on the island for up to 14 days. The team will depart from Mangareva, French Polynesia aboard the expedition ship Braveheart. Seven (7) operating positions are planned for 160-10 meters, SSB/ CW/ Digital, including FT8.
The team includes: Dave K3EL, Pista HA5AO, Les W2LK, Heye DJ9RR, Mike WA6O, Jacky ZL3CW, Arnie N6HC, Steve W1SRD, Chris N6WM, Laci HA0NAR, Ricardo PY2PT, Walt N6XG, Gene K5GS, currently one open position to be filled.
Watch the usual DX sources we will announce additional details as they develop.
Website: vp6d.com, Twitter and Facebook will also be available.
Please direct questions to: [email protected]
73, Team Ducie – 2018
(United Radio QSL Bureau are proud to be able to support VP6D as Mailing Consultant.)
Sometimes QSL work can be challenging and changing times mean that we have to adapt to demands and also now national security. What this means is that many countries are tightening up security on sending “parcels”
There are new legislative requirements from certain countries security that have requested that when we send parcels to the IARU Bureaus we will need to send new “New Electronic Pre Advice Data” which include:
1) Name of recipient, telephone number, email address.
2) Name of sender, telephone number, email address.
3) As well as the usual description and value of the contents.
This has nothing to do with our carrier but will affect ALL carriers sending parcels to the affected countries of USA, Russia, Japan and Brazil, from April 2018 and ALL countries from April 2019.
I have consulted with the IARU who were unaware of the new changes, at this time the feedback I got from the IARU was that they did not feel that the IARU Bureaus would publically list this information.
So at this time I am unsure exactly how this is going to affect our outgoing Bureau dispatches from April 2018. At the very least it could mean that if IARU are not able to conform to these requirements, dispatches may be delayed at customs and at the very worst our Bureau dispatches may be subject to handling fees and surcharges for not meeting customs requirements. I suspect that many bureaus would then refuse to pay the charges and parcels would be sent back to us.
As yet we do not have the answers but could this be the death of the bureau QSL?
The VooDoo contest Group will be QRV as PZ5V in preparation for the CQ-WW-CW contest between 20th – 28th November 2017.
Team members this year will include Ned AA7A, John G4IRN, Lee KY7M & Ray G4FON.
Click here for OQRS & Log search
The QSL below is from PZ5V
Tony, VE3RZ will be operating from Bermuda, QRV as VE3RZ/VP9 between 19th to 28th November 2017.
CQ Zone: 5
ITU Zone: 11
IOTA Ref: NA-005
IARU Locator FM72pi
Tony will be on air for the CQWW-CW contest and a few days before the contest using CW and FT8 modes & maybe some RTTY. Logs will also be uploaded to LoTW.
QSL Via M0URX OQRS
United Radio QSL Bureau has reached 10 years in QSL management, supporting rare DX and DXpeditions to send out QSL cards direct and through the IARU Bureaus. Times have changed considerably since I started back in 2007.
The way in which DXpeditions have needed to plan their QSL policies, with cost of shipping and vessel charter reaching new levels it has been important to incorporate in our QSL work, ways that we can assist the DXpeditions in raising valuable revenue to help offset some of the high budgets needed. Quite often the DX chaser may not understand why a QSL will cost $5 but for some of the Top Rare DX locations where vessel charter, helicopter and shipping costs are very high it is not just the cost of postage that you are paying.
In 2007 all QSL requests arrived to us by post with dollars and IRC’s which was 100% manual work. Bureau was in our eyes used abusively back then and still is by many in our hobby. The cost of using the bureau is something few of us think about and few rarely think about the cost to everyone else when they send a box of 2,000 cards to their Bureau for processing when you should be asking yourself:
Are these cards wanted by the recipient? No? Don’t send them.
Do I want their cards back? No? Write “Thanks QSL” or “Your QSL is not required!”
Can I request their card by OQRS? Yes, so do it!
Every quarter we receive a box of cards like this incoming from the bureau, most of which are sent to recycling once processed so please use OQRS.
While 3 or 4 times a year we send out to all IARU Bureaus packages weighing a total of 80 kg. Again combining our mailings with others keeps the cost down for everyone.
Using our bureaus responsibly makes it quicker and cheaper for those of us that actually NEED cards Via Bureau. Since 2007 you have requested over a quarter of a million QSL cards through our outgoing QSL Bureau.
We all have them somewhere stuck at the back of a drawer, yes those old, out of date, International Reply Coupons, (IRC’s) what the hell can we do with them?
Well please DO NOT throw them away they are very useful to us here at United Radio QSL Bureau. If you would be kind enough to donate them to us? We can sell them and use the money to fund our Outgoing QSL Bureau, this will help keep the free Bureau QSL service for all the stations that we are QSL manager for.
But isn’t the bureau free anyway? NO! There is no free lunch, we have to pay for posting all our bureau cards to all the IARU Bureaus. So you can help us by sending us your old out of date IRC’s. Thank you!
More info: IRC Shop