Nationwide Fault Causes Delays Across Rail Network

A "nationwide fault" has caused major disruption across at least 10 lines of the UK's rail network, National Rail says.

National Rail blamed the issue on the radio system used between train drivers and signalers.

The issue has now been fixed, but residual delays may continue while the timetable is restored.

Services in and out of England's major transport hubs, including Manchester Piccadilly, London Paddington and Southampton Central, were affected.

Great Northern, Northern, ScotRail, Southeastern, Southern, South Western Railway, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line were all impacted.

Travel expert Simon Calder told BBC Radio 5Live that Friday morning had been "a miserable rush hour for a lot of people".

National Rail said the issue appears to be a fault with the onboard GSMR radio system, which is used to communicate in case of emergencies.

The BBC understands the cause of the fault has been located and has been fixed.

To ease disruption prior to this, a back-up system was being used instead.

Network Rail said the issue was mainly affecting trains at the start or end of the day, which a spokesperson said was "causing a few minutes of delay at the start of the day".

But "once up-and-running the system is working normally and the impact on passengers is minimal," it added.

Even though the problem has now been fixed, National Rail said there may be some residual disruption while timetables are restored.

Hamsci Launches Free Quarterly Newsletter

There's always something fascinating going on with the citizen science team at HamSCI and now there's a new way to keep track of what they're up to.

The amateur radio citizen science investigation team known as HamSCI has begun publishing a new quarterly newsletter focusing on hams and the scientific community.

The newsletter, which is delivered as a free download, contains updates on ongoing projects and any related activities.

HamSCI's founder, Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, expects that the new publication will enhance communication among supporters and observers.

In addition to bringing readers up to date on various projects, the inaugural issue features a number of profiles of volunteers deeply involved in HamSCI's work, including data analyst Gwyn Griffiths, G3ZIL. The WSPR enthusiast has been deeply involved in various propagation studies.

HamSCI - http://www.hamsci.org/newsletter

RADIO D.A.R.C. to broadcast out of England from January 2025

For almost 10 years, RADIO D.A.R.C. have used the ORS transmitter in Moosbrunn near Vienna for its short wave broadcasts on Sunday mornings.

This will now stop at the end of the year as the station will be shut down. All attempts to save the site have failed, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation wants to finally and completely give up the "short wave" business segment, which allegedly no longer fits into its business model, by December 31, 2024.

The situation is somewhat different in Woofferton, England, around 50 km westsouthwest of Birmingham. The BBC broadcasting complex that exists there is operated by the subsidiary company ENCOMPASS MEDIA and has a total of 10 transmitters and just as many antennas.

RADIO D.A.R.C. announces that effective January 01, 2025, a new broadcast contract has been agreed with the Woofferton short wave station. Contract negotiations were successful and the D.A.R.C. General Council approved the agreement and the budget on the 16th November 2024.

Radio D.A.R.C’s program will be heard from England for the first time on Sunday, January 5, 2025, on the frequency of 9670 kHz (one of the previously used frequencies of ORS). 125 kW transmission power will be used into a 4 over 4 curtain antenna facing 105 degrees towards Germany. The ERP of this configuration is almost 4 million watts.

The familiar transmission on 6070 kHz in the 49m band will continue to be present as the Radio D.A.R.C.program will be transmitted again with 10 kW transmission power from "Channel292" near Ingolstadt in Bavaria (Channel-292 is owned and operated by Ham radio operator Rainer Ebling, DB8QC). The continuation of the national society’s radio program on shortwave is thus secured for the time being.

Radio D.A.R.C. thank the employees of ORS GmbH & CO KG, in particular Ernst Vranka OE3EVA, for the many years of very benevolent and active support. We wish them all the best for their impending retirement.