Irish Radio Transmitters Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 8th November 2009 ______________________________________________ GlobalSET 2009 Global Simulated Emergency Test IARU Region 1 invites the HQ-Stations of all IARU member societies and stations of Emergency Communications Groups to participate in a Global Simulated Emergency Test on Saturday November 14th, 2009 18.00 – 22.00 UTC. The operation will take place on and near the emergency Centre-of-Activity (CoA) frequencies on 80, 40, 20, 17 and 15 metres (+-QRM ). The details of the exercise will be published on the IARU Region 1 website (www.iaru-r1.org) ______________________________________________ Galway VHF Group 24 hour Radio Operation from RNLI Stations Using the callsign EI 185 RNLI, The first operation will take place from the Galway Lifeboat Station over this weekend. The following weekend, 14th and 15th of November will see an operation from the Aran Island Lifeboat station at Kilronan, Inishmore. The final operation will take place from Clifden Lifeboat Station, Ballyconneely, over the weekend of the 28th and 29th of November. The callsign will be EI 185 RNLI All operation will take place on the HF bands with two stations in operation at all times. There will be operation on Phone and Digital Modes with some operation on SSTV also possible. There will be a special QSL card for all contacts made and SWL reports will also be welcomed. Varying types of antenna construction will be used including a Kite antenna for the LF bands. ______________________________________________ Amateur Wins Nobel Prize Radio Amateur George Smith, AA2EJ, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor. Around 5:30 on the morning of October 6 2009, George E. Smith, AA2EJ, of Barnegat, New Jersey, got a phone call that changed his life: He had just found out he had won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit -- the CCD sensor." Smith will share the prize money with two other recipients: Charles K. Kao, of Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in the United Kingdom and Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China, and Willard S. Boyle, of Bell Laboratories. ______________________________________________ Updated PC-ALE now available The latest version of the HF Automatic Link Establishment software PC-ALE is now available. PC-ALE was devised by former Chelmsford radio amateur Charles Brain G4GUO. The latest version of this popular digital mode software can now be downloaded from the website of N2CKH. It can be downloaded from www.n2ckh.com ______________________________________________ Students - Send you School Work to space!! ARISSat-1 is a small satellite which will be launched from International Space Station in 2010, in a way comparable to the popular SuitSat-1. Students are asked to send some of their work in relation to a paper in science, technology, engineering, schematic or math in jpg or pdf format to the e mail address below so that it can be placed on a USB memory stick that will be deployed in Space. Having the student's work be a part of ARISSat means the student is a part of the satellite project and along for the space walk and deployment of ARISSat-1. Dave Jordan, AA4KN, will take delivery of these files and copy them onto a memory stick, plus make them available on the web for anyone to see. The quantity of files of reasonable size is not limited, since memory sticks provide for a very large amount of file space. Files should be either .JPG or .PDF -- No Word documents, please. Please send files to Dave Jordan's address : aa4kn /at/ amsat.org The deadline to send the email with attachment is 15th November 2009 ______________________________________________ 4U1AIDS - Awareness about HIV/AIDS through Amateur Radio A special amateur radio station will be operating at UNAIDS HQ in Geneva, Switzerland, from December 1-7th, 2009, with the special event callsign 4U1AIDS. They invite people to observe the "World AIDS Day" and demonstrate global HIV awareness. More Info on www.qrz.com/4u1aids ______________________________________________ SOTA Day The North American 'Summits on the Air' (SOTA) activation day, is Saturday, November 14th. The four North American associations of 'Summits on the Air' are planning a multi-summit activation spanning the North American continent. Portable, mountain top stations will be operating from the VE2, W1, W2, and W6 call areas. Seasoned "summit chasers" all over Europe will have the opportunity to work expeditions on SOTA's western frontier, and a new group of North American chasers will get a chance to work multiple summits. To join in the fun, visit the SOTA Web site at http://www.sota.org.uk/ ______________________________________________ Canadian experiments at 500 kHz authorized After months of negotiations between Radio Amateurs of Canada and Industry Canada over the details of the licence applications and reporting conditions, the first two licences granted to Canadians for experiments at 504 – 509 kHz in preparation for WRC-12 have been issued by Industry Canada. Jack Leahy, VE1ZZ, has been assigned call sign VX9PSO in the Developmental Service for his experimental transmissions. Joe Craig, VO1NA, has been assigned call sign VX9MRC. Joe was mentioned in last weeks bulletin after having the first QSO with Finbar O’Connor EI0CF between Ireland and Canada on this band. Both of these Canadian stations have been on the air already, with VX9PSO having been reported at 504.6 kHz and VX9MRC at 507.77 kHz. Signal reports can be addressed to the operators at their call book addresses. Two more authorizations, in Ontario and British Columbia, are expected soon. ______________________________________________ Falkland Islands DXpedition Members of the CRAM and the Uruguay DX Group will be active from Port Stanley between November 14-21st. They hope to start operations at their local sunset on the 14th, starting on 40 meters, depending on transportation matters. The group will sign VP8BUH on SSB and VP8BUG on CW/Digital modes. Their activity will focus on the lower bands, Digital modes and the 30/17/12 meter bands. QSL Manager is David, EB7DX. For more details, see: http://www.qsl.net/vp8bug ______________________________________________ Limerick Radio Club Meeting The next meeting of the Club takes place on Thursday 12th November at the Limerick Institute of Technology Moylish, Limerick. Meeting commences at 19:30. ______________________________________________ Special Event Station The Mid Ulster Amateur Radio Club will be transmitting from Brownlow House in Lurgan, Co Armagh on Wednesday 11th November from 10am for Armistice Day, using the special event callsign GB2AD. This location was chosen as it has been used in both World Wars as a Battalion HQ in WW1 and American HQ in WW2. The club will be operating all bands and modes throughout the day. ______________________________________________ Rallies / Events Dxpedition and IOTA Talk by Declan Craig EI6FR The Mayo Club has organised Declan Craig EI6FR to give a talk the evening before the Mayo Radio Rally, Saturday 21st November. Sunday 22nd November 2009 Mayo Radio Rally Venue: Welcome Inn, Castlebar, Co. Mayo The rally organiser and main contact is Padraic Baynes EI9JA mobile 087 - 695 7154 or email pbaynes1 at eircom dot net Special Accommodation Rates are also available please check the full details on the www.ei7mre.org website For more information on Rallies please check the IRTS website. ______________________________________________ This week in History 1893 Tesla patents radio-controlled vehicle. 1895 Roentgen discovers of x-rays .1920 First broadcast station, KDKA Pittsburg, USA. 1936 BBC broadcasts TV from Alexandria Palace, London. ______________________________________________ Items mentioned in the IRTS Radio news are of a general, educational or informative nature, there is no guarantee that stations mentioned can be heard or worked Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Charlie EI8JB, preferably via e-mail to “charlie dot Carolan at gmail dot com” Or by phone to 087-6265418 News can also be submitted via e-mail to “newsteam at irts dot ie” for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. Please note that items for the radio news should reach the editor no later than midday on Thursday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.