Archived News Script

printer friendly version

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 05 March 2023


IRTS AGM Weekend 2023 Update

The 2023 IRTS AGM weekend will be held on April 29th and 30th. The venue is the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. It is being hosted by the Shannon Basin Radio Club who are looking forward to warmly welcoming everyone to the event. The plans for the weekend’s short talks and radio rally are being finalised. Further details will be issued in due course. Please note that the deadline for applications for trader and club tables at the radio rally is Thursday, the 16th of March. If you wish to secure a table at the rally, please contact Keith EI5IN via email at admin /at/ sbrc.ie for details as soon as possible and before this deadline expires. The rally will appeal to anyone with an interest in radio and electronics. It will also feature the popular monster raffle. We are delighted to announce that so far, Long Communications, MFJ Enterprises, Icom UK, Wescom Ireland Ltd., Messi & Paoloni, and Airmast are among the companies that are very kindly sponsoring prizes for this. Tickets are required for the gala dinner on Saturday April 29th. They are 35 Euro each and selling fast. Gala dinner ticket purchasing details, as well as accommodation information for the AGM weekend are available on www.sbrc.ie/agmweekend . The 2022 IRTS Cup and Trophy award holders are asked to return their awards as soon as possible please, so that the Awards Curator Mark Kilmartin EI4FNB can prepare them for the new recipients at the AGM 2023 awards ceremony. Foranyone wishing to contact Mark you can find his details on the IRTS website. Cups and Trophies can also be returned to any IRTS committee member.


Galway Radio Experimenters Club EI4GRC

The March meeting of the Galway Radio Experimenters Club EI4GRC will take place tomorrow night, Monday the 06 of March at 8.00 p.m. sharp at The Menlo Park Hotel, Terryland, Headford Road, Galway City, the Eircode is H91 E98N. There will also be virtual access to the meeting, please contact the Club Secretary via an email to secretary /at/ galwayradio.com for access details. The club website is at www.galwayradio.com and anyone is welcome to come to our club nights or contact the secretary for more information.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The 2023 AGM of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group took place last Monday. Even though the meeting was held on Zoom many members were in attendance, some of whom had only recently joined the club. The club were also delighted to welcome some non-members attending. Club Chairman Mark EI4FNB then started the meeting by observing a minute’s silence for silent keys and also family members that club members had lost in 2022. After the 2022 AGM minutes, Mark went on to give a report on the highly successful year that 2022 had being for the club. Mark listed the activities that the club had been involved in throughout 2022 and hoped that 2023 would be an even better year with activations. He was delighted to see that the club had planned to do some new activations this year. Mark said that the highlight of the year was the club hosting the IRTS AGM which was held in Carlow in April. Club treasurer Ralph EI2KU gave a report on the finances of the club noting that 2022 had been a successful year financially and that club finances are once again in a very healthy position. He also noted the club had setup an online banking account which made the day to day financial running of the club very easy to manage. Mark went on to thank the outgoing committee members for all their hard work over the previous year, and the following committee was then deemed elected for 2023. Chairman Raymond Cowman EI6HFB, Vice Chairman Joe Donnelly EI8DY, Secretary Mark Kilmartin EI4FNB, Treasurer Ralph Musto EI2KU, Public Relations Officer Seany Byrne EI2HZB, Club Officers John McCarthy EI8JA, Pat Dwyer EI7IUB and Roger Greengrass EI8KN. For anyone that wishes to find out more about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and their activities you can drop them an email to southeasternarg /at/ gmail.com or please feel free to go along to any of their meetings. You can check their website www.searg.ie and you can also find them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter /at/ seargnews


Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

LCARC wishes to thank all who attended their Radio Rally in the Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis on Sunday the 26th of February. It proved to be a great success. We particularly thank the traders Long Communiations, Air Mast, MakerShop Ennis, Sean Simcox and the many bring-and-buy stalls. The Boeing 737 games flight simulator attracted a lot of attention. The attendance of IRTS, South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and Kerry Amateur Radio Group was very much appreciated. It is always a great pleasure to meet old friends, make new ones and to put faces to call signs.


St Patrick's Day Award

You have just over a week to register to participate in the annual St Patrick's Day Award, the event takes place over a 48 hour period from 12 noon on the 16th of March to 12 noon on the 18th of March, to allow worldwide participation in all time zones. The St Patrick's Day Award is 48 hours of non-competitive fun. Anyone worldwide can participate, licensed or an SWL can take part in this fun event. You can register to be a participating station for the St Patrick's Day award by completing a short registration form online at stpatricksaward.com


Nervous Novices CW Net on 80m

The weekly CW net has been now been running for a few weeks, led by Eamo EI7LC. It is a friendly place for inexperienced operators, for anyone still learning Morse, and for those who would like to have a chat using CW without feeling the pressure of a traditional QSO. This new net takes place every Wednesday at 20:30 Irish local time, somewhere between 3.550–3.555 MHz. Listen out for the Nervous Novices call CQ NNCW. Good operating practices and quality sending are highly encouraged but are not required. There is no maximum speed, however, the net requires that all operators QRS to the slowest participant so that everyone can copy. If you are still new to CW, do not miss this opportunity for an enjoyable way to improve your skills.


EIFF and POTA News

                                      In late 2021 the EIFF-Ireland group was formed, to take part in the World Wide Flora and Fauna awards with just over 250 parks on the list for Ireland. Part of the award scheme is for hams to chase activated parks in Ireland and around the world and activite parks also. The basic award is to have a numberof qso's with activated parks in each country, for EI it requires 11 parks in the log, higher awards are issued for each additional multiples of 11 parks worked. In the first EIFF Annual Award in 2022 the Park Chaser Awards went to Uwe DL2ND, coming in 1st with 760 points, closely followed by runner-ups Massimo IK1GPG, and Giorgio IK3HMB. Declan EI9HQ came in first for The Park Ranger Award, with Andy G7SQW in 2nd place and Jeremy EI3HGB in 3rd place. To acknowledge their efforts small tokens will be sent to each of the winners.

The second EI Flora and Fauna St.Patrick's Activity Weekend from the 17th to the 19th of this month hopes to see many parks activated, if you can get out over the weekend and activate a park that would be great. Please advise Jer EI3HGB or Declan EI9HQ by email at  eifflogs /at/ gmail.com of the areas you plan to activate, avoiding duplication. The EIFF webpage is at eifirl.wordpress.com .

A new annual contest will be run by The Parks on the Air organisers during the first weekend in June. For 48 hours, hams will collect contacts and points as part of the new Parks on the Air Plaque Event. POTA president Jason W3AAX announced different categories available to both hunters and activators. Anyone who made their first POTA contact after the 2nd of June 2022 is eligible for the additional category of Rookie. Participants must be registered with POTA and can use CW, SSB and the digital modes on HF, VHF, UHF and SHF, but not on the WARC bands.


Updated 160m Bandplan Listing

The IARU has published a new summary of the 160m bandplans used in a number of countries. This listing highlights the divergence between countries with regard to the available frequencies and power levels, e.g. the upper band edge in a number of European countries is 1850 kHz, effectively leaving them with only a single voice channel for DX on Topband, something to be kept in mind when chasing prefixes. The document can be downloaded from the IARU Region 1 website from this long and convoluted link at iaru-r1.org/about-us/committees-and-working-groups/hf-committee-c4/documents-hf


The Propagation Horoscope

The NOAA described the X2.1 Flare from Region 3234 on Friday at around 6 p.m. as a parting shot, just as the it rotated out of view over the western limb. That region has been responsible for several flares throughout last week. On Saturday afternoon the 10.7 GHZ Solar Flux peaked at 230, later dropping back to no less than 160, the wind speed varied between 600 and 900km/s at a particle density of up to 25 protons per ccm. The associated CME from Friday's outburst will start to be felt from Sunday afternoon, moderate G1 geomagnetic disturbances can be expected until Monday late, resulting in high D-Layer absorption. This hopefully clears for more settled conditions from Tuesday onward, again benefiting the higher bands up to 6m, while poor conditions on topband and 80m will likely prevail. Keep an eye on Tropo openings while the calm high pressure zone remains static over Ireland, there are many reports of 2m openings from Scandinavia and the Baltic area towards France and Spain.

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.

[A]

contact IRTS
irts groups.io