Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 21 August 2022
International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend
A number of activations by clubs and groups are on the air this weekend.
Simon (EI7ALB) writes for the Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club: Unfortunately for reasons beyond the club's control, LCARC will not be activating Loop Head Lighthouse for the ILLW. However, the club will be active at various times over the coming weekend from Friday 19th to Sunday 20th from the Shannon Aviation Museum using the callsign EI4SAM.
Tom (EI5IEB) writes for the East Leinster Amateur Radio Club, operating under the call-sign EI0EL, that they activated Wicklow Head Lighthouse IE0026 on Saturday. In the spirit of the Club's activities on 4m, they operated on 70.400 Mhz FM, but also on HF.
Members of the North Dublin Radio Club (EI0NDR) are activating the Baily Lighthouse in Howth. They are operating on HF and VHF bands, and some of their members are field testing their equipment and operating other modes, including FT8. They will be on the air until 20:00 local time today.
Members of the Mayo Radio Experimenters Network (EI7MRE) are at the Broadhaven Ballyglass Lighthouse, Belmullet, Co. Mayo. Anybody who wishes to visit and see the setup, or even operate the station, is welcome to come along.
Club News
Keith (EI5IN), the PRO of the Shannon Basin Radio Club invites to the next meeting of the Club, taking place at 8pm on Friday, the 26th of August. The venue is Hannons Hotel in Roscommon Town, eircode F42 PH33. In addition to current and new members, anyone interested in learning more about the club and hobby are very welcome. Email admin /at/ sbrc.ie if further information is required.
The Strangford High Frequency Enthusiasts Group is hosting a new free Full UK Licence distance learning program starting on the 12th of September via Google Meet. Places are still available, start at 8pm each Monday evening. Full support is available via email and the material is also presented via 140 useful videos and documentation. Contact GI0VKP /at/ gmail.com .
Contests and Competitions
The WW Digi DX Contest is a collaboration between the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF) and the Slovenia Contest Club (SCC). It is for amateurs around the world to contact as many other amateurs in as many Maidenhead Grid Fields as possible using the FT4 and FT8 modes. The contest takes place next Saturday and Sunday. FT4 and FT8 are used, with separate contest subbands on 1.8, 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz, with three power classes up to five watt, up to 100 watt and up to a maximum of 1.5 kilowatt. Normal FT8 QSOs are valid for points and multipliers on standard FT8 frequencies. The organisers kindly request logs to be submitted, even for just a few normal QSOs in the contest 24 hour period. For this, an adif-to-cabrillo log converter is available on the contest's website on www.ww-digi.com, making the upload simple. Their website also has a Presentation in PDF format, well worth a look and read, even for non-contesters.
The Romanian Federation of Amateur Radio organises the YODX HF Contest and the National Multiband Shortwave Championship taking place next Saturday, from 2.00 UTC, to Sunday at 11.59.59 UTC. The Romanian station gives the signal report and a two letter counties multiplier. No points are awarded for contacts within YO, duplicates are not penalised and don't need to be marked in the log. The contest rules can be found on www.hamradio.ro .
The Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs (BFRA) is proud to host the 20th IARU World ARDF Championships 2022. It will be organised from the 28th of August to the 3rd of September in Borovets, a well known resort, located 68 km away from Sofia. In the days before that event, between the 24th and 27th, another ARDF competition, the so-called World ARDF Cup, will be held in Borovets, too. Information about the Amateur Radio Direction Finding competitions can be be found on www.ardf2022.eu, the recently released 3rd bulletin has all details regards competition programs, travel details and accommodation options.
IARUMS Report
The monthly IARU Region-1 Monitoring newsletter again reports over-the-horizon radars to be the most numerous transmissions that cause harm to our HF bands. The front runner is the so-called RUS Contayner, audible on all bands from 40 to 12m. The monitoring report of the national coordinators can now be viewed on the IARU Region-1 website at www.iaru-ra.org in the section "Spectrum".
AMSAT News
The cross-band voice repeater and the APRS node aboard the International Space Station can now be used simultaneously. The FM repeater uplink is on 145.990 MHz, a 67 Hertz PL tone is needed to activate the downlink transmitter on 3.800 MHz. APRS and packet mode uses 145.825 MHz for uplink and downlink. The Columbus module radio uses the call-sign NA1SS and the new service module radio uses the call-sign RS0ISS. The two radios are identical and the packet operation is the same as before. You can use RS0ISS, ARISS or APRSAT as data paths. Both radios are expected to be on at all times except during school contacts, spacewalks and docking maneuvers. Frank Bauer (KA3HDO), The ARISS Chairman welcomes the simultaneous operation of APRS and the voice repeater on the ISS as a key element of the ARISS 2.0 initiative. It offers 24/7 interactive opportunities for young people and learners to get involved and train. The operational state of the ISS ham-radio station can be found on the ARISS website at www.ariss.org
10 GHZ Tropo
On the 30th of July, at 19:34 UTC a SSB QSO over a distance of 1187km took place between Cecilio (EB8BRZ), from his QTH on the east coast of Gran Canaria with well known EME operator Miguel (CT1BYM), located at the south-western tip of Portugal. They used moderate equipment, a 10dBi horn and 2 watt on the the Portugese side, and a 60cm dish and 2 watt from just south of Las Palmas. They waited for the right tropospheric opening by monitoring a sectorial beacon installed on the balcony at Miguel's home, pointing towards the Canary Islands. This is by no means a new distance record, but it shows that low-budget 10 GHz equipment can give remarkable results, and not just from elevated locations typically needed to make use of the 3cm band.
The Propagation Horoscope
After early last week's lull in activity the number of M-level flares have increased dramatically in the past few days. Two full-halo CMEs were observed on Thursday and Friday, likely grazing Earth today. Slight Aurora humm was heard on 80m since Friday. We saw six hours of moderate geomagnetic storms during Friday and Saturday with the planetary K-index reaching level six, and those disturbed conditions continue today at minor levels. Currently, SOHO reports a solar wind of up to 700 km per second with an increasing proton count. There are around eight active regions and two large coronal holes visible on both hemispheres, with more active regions coming into view. 80, 60 and 40m will be limited to inter-Europe contacts. 30m, 20 and 17m will be open mainly towards South-America, with moderate propagation into North-America. Early morning propagation direction south-east will be moderate, expect deep QSB. There will be only few openings on 15m and above. The unsettled meteorological situation only allows for a few Tropo openings towards France, Spain, Portugal and the Azores on 40 to 60 MHz, and only marginal conditions for paths into Europe.
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 Friday noon.
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