Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday December 5th 2021
Shannon Basin Radio Club
Brian, Ei8IU reports that the Shannon Basin Radio Club AGM which was planned for Friday, the 10th of December has been postponed due to the present Covid situation. The new Date for the AGM will be announced on the Club website and in the IRTS news. The club would like to take the opportunity to wish all its members and everyone involved in our wonderful hobby a very happy Christmas and peaceful new year with lots of DX..
Hungarian Initiative
The presidency of the Hungarian Amateur Radio Association announces a tender for the lease of radio equipment. The aim of the tender is to provide young beginners who do not have an independent income with radio equipment. To bridge the period until they have their own equipment for HF and VHF and associated equipment, for a period of half a year, which can be extended by a maximum of two and a half years, taking into account the activities carried out in the previous period. To be eligible, young operators must be members of the Hungarian MRASZ, hold a valid license and be able to install antennas. Supported applicants are expected to participate in club events and contests, and also report on their activities.
Amsat-HB
The Swiss Amateur Radio Society USKA announce the founding of AMSAT-HB. On their webpage they write that with QO-100, the interest in the amateur radio service via satellites has strongly increased also in Switzerland. But not only the geostationary satellite fascinates the radio amateurs: Also the ARISS project on the space station ISS, low-flying satellites, tracking of scientific deep space missions, are getting more attention. Radio amateurs now felt that it is time to join forces in Switzerland. For this reason the AMSAT-HB was founded on Friday 26 November 2021 in Nottwil, Lucerne. The association has set itself the goal to promote the amateur radio service via satellites in Switzerland, but also internationally.
Hoovers and Handhelds
The German Bundesnetz Agentur has banned the sale of TESVOR model6 robotic vacuum cleaners, because it not only used lasers to chase your cat or dog, it also sported a wireless link, complete with a networked remote control. It came into circulation without CE mark or any appropriate paperwork regards the wireless parts, so the TESVOR model S6 does no longer makes its rounds. While we could smile about that, the same Bundesnetz Agentur struck closer to home, and also banned the import, sale and use of the popular Baofeng UV5R dualband handhelds. Several Amateur Radio news outlets reported speculations that this may lead to a ban across Europe. Informed postings on the Ei7Gl blogspot confirmed what Polish authorities found out in tests conducted on imported UV5R radios: Their transmitted spectrum is not clean enough, so the Polish authorities informed their German colleagues, who in turn quickly announced this ban.
OnAir
The Finnish Amateur Radio League SRAL is celebrating its 100th anniversary. To earn the OH Northern Light 100-year Certificate, contact fifty OH and fifty OF stations until the end of the year. There are three special multiplier call signs on the air this week, OI3AX, OF2YOTA and OF9X. Anssi, OH9SCL is once again active from Finnish Lapland “Santa Claus Land”, and so is OF9X, and also boarding Puk's sled this years is OF2YOTA, the Federation's youth team. There are english language pages with more info at www.sral.fi/en/ Another Finnish prefix will be heard on Monday. Military radio amateurs will celebrate Finland's Independence Day, when stations are identified by the rarely heard heard prefix OI.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the historic transatlantic tests of December 1921, when the ARRL’s representative Paul Godley, 2ZE set up his listening station in Ardrossan, Scotland and received the signals of more than two dozen US amateur radio stations. Those transmissions will be recreated by W2AN/1BCG from the Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut, using a replica transmitter constructed by volunteers at the Antique Wireless Association. Transmissions will start next Saturday on 1820 kHz CW at 2300 UTC, then every 15 minutes until 03.45 UTC next Sunday. Transmissions from W2AN/1BCG will be one-way, just like the original transatlantic tests. You can get a SWL certificate by sending a copy of the transmitted message to 1BCG /at/ AntiqueWireless.org
Until the end of this year, the special call sign of the Austrian DX Board, OE50ADXB can be heard on all HF bands, marking the 50th anniversary of the Austrian SWL Club ADBX. All contacts and SWL reports will be confirmed with a special QSL card via the Austrian bureau.
The VX3INSULIN event station will be active in December on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the work of scientists at the University of Toronto on insulin. QSL via VE3NOO.
The Signal Hill National Historic Site is the location where Guglielmo Marconi received the very first wireless transatlantic message on the 12th of December 1901. Commemorating the 120th anniversary of that event, the Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs will operate the special call sign MVD through the month of December. QL via Club Log’s OARS, or direct to VOCOID.
Until Saturday, the 4U1A team will broadcast on HF from Vienna, Austria, with the special call 4Y1A to mark the International Civil Aviation Day. QSL via UA3DX, ClubLog OQRS.
The S21DX operation from IOTA AS-140 has been brought forward to the 10th in accordance with the operating permission granted. S21AM and S21RC will be on Manpura island, located in south coastal belt of Bangladesh for one week. A 2KW petrol generator charges batteries for two 100W SSB stations and laptops. They have various antennas for 10-20m, and will occasionally use 40m, depending on propagation. Current details can be found on www.s21dx.org
Contesting
The ARRL 10m contest starts on Saturday 0000UTC and ends 48 hours later on Sunday. It's hardly a realistic proposition to make a competitive entry, but one may be able to score a few 10m CW or SSB contacts across the Atlantic, The following contests may also help to fill in a few missing locators.
On Tuesday the 144MHz FM UK Activity Contest runs from 1900 to 1955UTC. It is followed by the all-mode 144Hz UK Activity Contest from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange for both is signal report, serial number and locator.
The all-mode 50MHz UK Activity Contest take place on Thursday from 2000 to 2230UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.
The official results from the IARU HF Championship are in, with the EI Headquarters team coming in 28th place with a combined 5143 contacts and 289 multipliers, resulting in over 4.4 million points. The French HQ team TM0HQ won this years' Championship with over 25.6 million points, thanks to 17378 contacts and 486 multipliers from nearly every inhabited place on earth. Detailed scores are logged at contests.arrl.org
The Master Clock
VLF SWL will be familiar with the steadily pulsed signal on 77.5 kHz. DCF77 is a German longwave time signal and standard-frequency radio station. It started service as a standard-frequency station on 1 January 1959. In June 1973 date and time information was added. Its primary and backup transmitter are located in Mainflingen, about 25 km south-east of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The transmitter generates a nominal power of 50 kW, of which about 30 to 35 kW can be radiated via a T-antenna, making it a very efficient antenna system - most of our HF antennas would not achive such low losses. Most European radio clocks and watches, and many industrial applications rely on its accurate time signals. Its official range is 2,000 km, making in an interesting propagation tool. Last week it has been announced that the service will remain on air until at least 2031.
The Propagation Horoscope
This weekend's geomagnetic disturbances, triggered by two large central coronal holes will subside shortly. The remaining two active regions of solar spots will turn out of view on Monday, therefore the X-ray flux and proton flux will be in the low numbers for a few days. But it's the calm before the next storms, for several active regions will come into view again next weekend. Apart from a pronounced nightly dead zone on the lower bands, all bands from 160 to 17m offer good DX, but 21Mhz and up will only have occasional daytime openings.
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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