Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday October 17th, 2021.
Region 1 IARU General Conference
The Region 1 IARU General Conference, part one, was held last July and will be continued in part 2, which started on Friday last and will run until Sunday next the 24th. This is a virtual conference which will incorporate a workshop entitled “Shaping the Future of Amateur Radio”.
IRTS will be represented at the conference by President Jim Holohan EI4HH, Dave Court EI3IO, Niall Donohue EI6HIB and Adrian Connor EI9HAB. A special committee meeting of IRTS held on Saturday last looked in detail at the outcome of the recent survey and the resulting SWOT analysis and this will feed into the IARU workshop.
ComReg Proposed Strategy for Managing the Radio Spectrum 2022-2024
We remind listeners that the deadline for submissions in response to the ComReg Document 21/90 close at 1600 on Friday next October 22nd. There are several significant issues of great interest to the amateur community in the document and you may not get another chance to have an input for some time.
The link to the document is www.comreg.ie/media/2021/09/Comreg-2190.pdf
North Dublin Radio Club
The North Dublin Radio Club is pleased to announce that, following relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, it has resumed its weekly meetings every Saturday night from 8pm. The venue is the Artane Beamont Family Recreation Centre on Kilmore Road at the roundabout beside Artaine Castle Shopping Centre. Directions and further details are available at ei0ndr.com.
We look forward to welcoming new members, especially those who have recently passed the HAREC examination and of course anybody interested in studying the HAREC course, as we plan to run classes as well. So don't be shy, come along some Saturday night and join us at this friendly and informal gathering. You will be made most welcome.
South Dublin Radio Club
Subject to government guidance on the further easement of coronavirus restrictions on the 22nd of October 2021, South Dublin Radio Club is delighted to invite all current club members, returning members and new prospective members, to the reopening of our club premises at Ballyroan Community Centre, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, on Tuesday the 26th October 2021 from 20:00 to 22:00.
In order to update club records for insurance reasons and to be compliant with child protection legislation, club membership forms will be circulated for completion to all returning and new members on the night. Our annual membership fee of €20 is also payable on the night, please note that electronic payment is not currently available.
So whether you want to get reacquainted with old friends, you're newly licenced and want to make new amateur radio friends and get experience on club radio equipment, or you're looking to start your journey into the wonderful world of amateur radio - the original and best STEM hobby - please come along. We'll be delighted to see you!
Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club Rally
After hosting JOTA for 1st Clare Shannon Scouts, Sixmilebridge Scouts and Ruan Scouts on Saturday the 16th October, LCARC are announcing their next event.
The Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club will hold a Rally in the Radisson Blu Hotel on Sunday, 7th of November 2021. Doors will open at 11:00 and the entrance fee will be €5 per person.
As with previous rallys there will be a bring and buy opportunity. Tables for the bring and buy, exhibitors and related demonstrations are free. Tables should be booked through Michael Kingston EI2IX via email to rapidov66 /at/ gmail.com. LCARC now publishes a list of equipment, for sale at the Rally, on the club’s website www.limerickclareamateurradioclub.ie . Follow the 'Market Place' drop down menu.
NSWL Club Get Together and Dinner
The National Shortwave Listeners Club would like to congratulate the successful candidates in the recent HAREC examination and are delighted to hear so many new callsigns on the air. Commiserations to those that were unsuccessful, and they hope to see them all attending the upcoming revision classes in preparation for the next HAREC exam on November 27th.
The club have organised a radio filled weekend on November 6th and 7th with a visit to the Shannon Aviation Museum and the Limerick Clare Club station on the Saturday followed by their first annual dinner and overnight stay in Tracy’s Oakwood Hotel in Shannon. The outing will conclude with a visit to the Limerick Clare Club Rally in the Radisson Blu Hotel on Sunday. Some places are still available, and the club extends an invitation to non-members who wish to attend. Enquiries to info /at/ swl.ie
Publications Library Update
The IRTS Publications Library contains newsletters and other IRTS publications from 1948 to the year 2000. The library now holds more than 250 publications which have been scanned and converted to PDF for easy viewing or downloading. The most recent addition to the library is a copy of the August 1960 IRTS News, which was unearthed by Gerry EI8CC.
The topics covered in this issue include reports from 3 Field Day contest stations in the Dublin area and how the operators overcame a variety of technical and weather-related problems. There is also an interesting report on an IARU Region 1 Conference held in Folkestone, Kent during which the IRTS delegation offered to assist VHF operators from other countries to join in an effort to make a VHF transatlantic contact with the east coast of the USA.
The IRTS Publications library is at www.irts.ie/library and is well worth a visit. We continue to ask members to help to fill in the gaps by lending newsletters or other IRTS publications not currently in the library so that they can be scanned and added to the library.
RSGB Convention videos online
Although the 2021 Online Convention of the Radio Society of Great Britain is over, if you missed it you can watch the interviews and other parts of the program on the society's YouTube channel. Individual presentations are not yet available but much of the other content can be watched on www.youtube.com/thersgb
IRTS Contest Today
For those listening to this bulletin on Sunday morning, a brief reminder that the IRTS 40 metres Counties Contest takes place today at 1200 UTC, that is 1.00pm local time. This is a one-hour contest, with SSB Only and SSB/CW Mixed Mode sections. Multipliers are the EI and GI counties, while EI and GI stations also have overseas DXCC entities as multipliers. See www.irts.ie/contests for more details.
UK EI Contest
The next UKEI CC contest will be the 24 hour International DX SSB Contest on next weekend, October 23rd and 24th, followed by the monthly one hour CW contest on Wednesday October 27th. Full details including calendar and all results are available on www.ukeicc.com
DX News
Members of the International Amateur Radio Contest DX Club are using the call sign 4U2U until the end of this month. They are celebrating United Nations Day, which is the 24th of October. This station counts as a contact with Austria, prefix OE, for DX purposes and it counts as 4U for the Vienna International Centre for the CQ DX Marathon Award. Send QSLs to UA3DX, direct or by the Bureau.
The kingdom of Eswatini, previously known as Swaziland is currently popular with DXpeditions. A russian team is active near Mbabane for another week as 3DA0RU on 160 thru 6 meters using CW, SSB, FT8 and QO-100 satellite, with multiple stations. For suggested FT8 frequencies and QSL info see their new web page at www.3da0.ru/en
Also on air from Eswanti is a latvian team with the callsign 3DA0WW on 160-10 meters, using CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. QSL and frequency infos can be found on lral.lv/3da0ww . In their last dispatch they mention a Local dog chewed a cable, some select guy wires, and that it already brought down one of the vertical antennas.
Last chance to catch IOTA AF-050. Johannes, PA5X and Gerben, PG5M are active as 5T5PA/P and 5T1GM from Arguin Island until mid-week on 40 to 10 meters using CW, SSB, and FT8. They use satellite communication for short messages on Twitter. See their web page on www.dx.to/5T1GM for more details.
Oscar 9
Fourty years ago, Sir Martin Sweeting, G3YJO vibration tested a satellite by rattling down Guildford High Street in a car before launching it into space as microSAT-1, later renamed to Oscar 9. Developed at the University of Surrey it was the first modern microsatellite with in-orbit re-programmable computers and its signals were decoded and analyzed by thousands of radio amateurs, schools & universities around the world.
The Propagation Horoscope
Last week's C and M flares brought the flux numbers close to 100, keeping the F layers in good shape for 3000km hops for up to 30MHz, occasionally even 50 MHz, with solid openings across the Atlantic. On the 9th a strong M Flare birthed a CME which reached us last Tuesday around 2 o'clock in the morning, triggering Northern Lights across northern Europe. For now the flux will drop back to around 80 after those three active regions have moved out of view again. Currently the solar wind is at around 300km per second with a density of around 5 particles per cubic centimeter, slowly dropping. The previously fruitful region 2877 will re-appear today, that should tie us over with steady openings on 15m and above, but not as good as last week. Sao Tome can be heard on topband and 80m works well beyond Europe, even with moderate antennas. It's certainly advisable to give the 10, 12 and 15 meter band antennas an inspection, and keep an eye out for more aurora. Last week gave us a glimpse of the good times yet to come.
That is the news for this week. Items for inclusion in next week’s radio news can be submitted by email to newsteam /at/ irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. The deadline is midnight on Friday.
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