This Week’s News

printer friendly version

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 17th, 2024


News from the IRTS

The next IRTS Committee meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 2nd at 8:00 p.m. on the Zoom platform. All IRTS affiliated clubs are reminded that under Rule 16.1, the members in each affiliated club, society, or other body may elect a representative and an alternate annually to attend IRTS Committee meetings. Clubs wishing to send a representative should notify the IRTS Secretary, Owen EI4GGB at irts_secretary /at/ irts.ie in advance to ensure notification and links are provided.

As part of the IRTS AGM Weekend which will take place in Ballinasloe over the weekend of April 13th and 14th, the IRTS news team would like to invite some SWLs who are currently part of HAREC Class Golf to help read some of the 40m and 80m IRTS news bulletins on Sunday the 14th. Both the 40m and 80m bulletins will be read live from the rally with Louis EI8KI reading the 40m bulletin and Stefan EI4KU reading the 80m bulletin. Louis and Stefan will be supervising any SWLs who want to try some IRTS news reading on the day. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Any Class Golf SWL students that may be interested are asked to get in contact with the IRTS News Coordinator Seany EI2HZB by email to irts_pro /at/ irts.ie as soon as possible please.


7P8EI DXpedition to Lesotho

The EIDX group consisting of thirteen operators has packed 400 kg of radio gear and is ready to head for Lesotho on Tuesday, March 19th. They will be on the air from March 20th to March 29th operating as 7P8EI. The station will operate on SSB, CW, and three FT8 stations running MSHV. They are looking forward to getting plenty of EI stations in the log.


IRTS AGM Weekend Updates

Shannon Basin Radio Club, the host club for the 2024 IRTS AGM weekend, has announced the schedule of talks that will take place on Saturday April 13th in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. The EIDX team will get the afternoon underway from 1 p.m. focusing on their DXpedition adventures in Lesotho. Tom EI4HCB will then talk about 2m repeater construction. Following this, Ian GI0AZB, will discuss summit on the air operation and activating squares. John EI3ISB will round off the afternoon's schedule which ends at 5 p.m. with a presentation about Radio Scouting Ireland.

If you have not already secured your ticket for the IRTS gala dinner on Saturday night, April 13th, this is quite likely your last chance to get one. The club reports that only a couple of tickets remain. It will not be possible to accommodate anyone else when the few remaining tickets are snapped up.

The deadline for applications for trader and club tables at the SBRC rally is next Friday March 22nd. You are advised to contact admin /at/ sbrc.ie on or before that deadline if you need table space.

The club also announce that Begali, world-renowned for their high-quality CW keys and paddles, has joined their list of prize sponsors for the Shannon Basin Radio Club rally and monster raffle taking place on the following day, Sunday April 14th. They state that prizes from fifteen sponsors are now up for grabs during the monster raffle in their rally. Further information may be found at www.sbrc.ie/agmweekend


145 Alive Event on Saturday 11th May 2024

Any operators interested in setting up control stations for the next 145 Alive event on May 11th are invited to contact David Gardiner EI3IXB. This event is aimed at promoting 2m FM usage by getting operators on high ground, mobile, portable, or on summits. Interest in organising control stations is particularly requested from the west and northwest of the country. David EI3IXB may be contacted via email at ei3ixb /at/ gmail.com.


February Edition of the IARU Monitoring System Region 1 Newsletter

The February edition of the IARU Monitoring System Region 1 Newsletter has been published. They announce an explanatory webpage that has been published to assist users in recognising and identifying the most usual modes used by non-amateur radio stations in the HF amateur radio bands. As part of this, it contains technical descriptions for each mode in addition to audio recordings, waterfall screenshots, and video samples of intruder and interfering transmissions. Of note in this edition, is a wide bandwidth radar signal that was measured as occupying a 500 kHz slice of the ten-metre band. You can download the newsletter and find out more about the activities at www.iaru-r1.org


Contest Updates

On Bank Holiday Monday March 18th from 20:00 to 21:30 UTC, you can try your hand at the digital mode FT4 in a RSGB-organised event. This takes place on the 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m bands to allow entrants to experience this mode in a competitive context. You can learn more about this at www.rsgbcc.org

Don't forget that the IRTS 80m Evening Counties contest will take place on Tuesday March 19th. Starting at 20:00 UTC, this one-hour contest has SSB, CW, and SWL sections. The exchange is signal report, serial number, and county. Further information may be found at www.irts.ie/contests


Propagation Update

Due to the very active sun at present, operators can continue to enjoy a mixed bag of good conditions with occasional radio blackouts due to solar flare activity. On the VHF and higher bands, the Hepburn tropospheric propagation forecast indicates good tropospheric ducting conditions may be expected from Thursday next. It is not yet clear how long the conditions will last but it will be a good opportunity to try working DX stations and through repeaters beyond your typical radio range.


Items for Inclusion in Next Week's Radio News

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 Thursday.

[C]

contact IRTS
irts groups.io