Christmas Quiz

This year’s Christmas Quiz is in two parts: firstly radio people, and some general radio questions in Part Two. There are no prizes.

Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX has a quiz for the Christmas season.

Part One: Radio People

Q1. What is the occupation of the holder of the callsign VU2AMY?

Q2. The most popular mode of 2020 has been FT8. It was developed by Joe Taylor K1JT and who else (name and callsign)?

Q3. WB6ACU is better known to non-radio amateurs as – who?

Q4. A well-known radio amateur once stood as the Republican candidate in a US Presidential election. Who was he, and what was his amateur radio callsign?

Q5. Karl Ferdinand Braun, Fig. 1, won the Nobel Prize for physics, but with whom did he share the prize?

Q6. What is the amateur radio connection of the son of Sir Hiram Maxim, who famously invented the Maxim machine gun?

Q7. The dB is named in honour of which distinguished scientist and engineer?

Q8. The Hollywood movie star Hedy

Lamarr, Fig. 2, contributed towards the invention of a ‘Secret Communication System’. What was it?

Q9. Sean G0OAN had a successful career in a punk band and as a solo artist. He is known to the general public by his middle name. Who is he?

Q10. Who started the Islands On The Air (IOTA) programme in 1964?

Part Two: General

Q11. The Titanic, Fig. 3, used what callsign?

Q12. Which companies made the following pairs of vintage HF amateur radio equipment (1 point for each company)?

(a) 30L-1 and KWM-2, (b) Vanguard and Viceroy, (c) T-4XC and R-4C, (d) DX-100 and HW-101, (e) AT5 and T28?

Q13. Which country’s radio amateurs are represented by the following national societies? (1 point for each):

(a) WIA, (b) ARABH, (c) USKA, (d) UBA, (e) LABRE.

Q14. What do these frequencies have in common – 14,100, 18,110, 21,150, 24,930, 28,200kHz?

Q15. What do the initials ‘APRS’ actually stand for?

Q16. Approximately how many QSOs had been uploaded to ‘Club Log’ ( Fig. 4) by October 2020: (a) 68,000, (b) 680,000, (c) 6,800,000, (d) 68,000,000 or (e) 680,000,000?

Q17. Within amateur radio, what do Sydney (Australia), New York, Helsinki, Montreal, Kiruna (Sweden), Wellington (New Zealand) and Kaliningrad all have in common?

Q18. In which month do the following operating events take place? (1 point for each): (a) The International Lighthouse / Lightship Weekend (ILLW); (b) International Marconi Day; (c) Jamboree On The Air (JOTA); (d) VHF National Field Day (VHF NFD); (e) CQ World Wide DX Phone Contest.

Q19. What is the approximate height, in kilometres, of (a) the D-layer, (b) the E-layer, (c) the F1/F2 layers? (1 point for each)

Q20. What callsigns should be used by the following amateurs, if: (a) M7XYZ moved from London to Glasgow?

(b) if SM6XYZ moved from Gothenburg to Stockholm? and

(c) if W2XYZ moved from New York to San Francisco? (1 point for each)

1 Fig. 1: With whom did this man share the Nobel Prize for physics?

(Photo: The Heavenly Body, 1944, Wikipedia) 2 Fig. 2: Hedy Lamarr

3 Fig. 3: What was the Titanic’s radio callsign?

4