Archived News Script

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 15th May 2011


Echo Ireland

The June edition of Echo Ireland is now being prepared and members are invited to submit news items and articles for inclusion. As we are coming in to the busy season for club activities, we hope to get reports from Club PROs on happenings both past and planned. Pictures as jpegs are particularly welcome. Please keep text and pictures separate. All input to ei4bz at eircom dot net


Up-Coming IRTS Contests

1. CW Field Day Sat 4th/ Sun 5th June 2011. Log to be submitted by July 5th.

Calling all active VHF and Higher operators we are trying to get the 2010 Squares table finalized on IRTS.ie. So can anyone that was active on the VHF bands last year please send your Square totals or your log and I can work it out for you to EI2GLB /at/ hotmail / dot/.com. To see the squares table go to www.irts.ie and click on vhf/uhf/shf on the right side of the home page.


ComReg Spectrum Strategy

ComReg recently published a consultation paper entitled 'Review of the period 2008-2010 and Proposed Strategy for Managing the Radio Spectrum: 2011-2013'. The document is ComReg Document 11/28 and is available on the Publications section of the ComReg website at www.comreg.ie . The Society will be submitting a response to the document which must be with ComReg before 24 May. Anyone who wishes to have observations included in the Society's response should forward them as soon as possible to Sean EI7CD at ei7cd / at /gofree/dotindigo/dot/ie . While anyone may respond to ComReg public consultations it has been indicated to us by ComReg that a single response relating to the amateur service would be preferable.


CASHOTA Ireland and UK Activity Weekend

There will be a weekend of activity for CASHOTA Uk and CASHOTA Ireland from 1 am Saturday the 28th of May until 11:59 pm Sunday the 29th of May. The event is open to anyone who wishes to activate a Castle or Stately Home. If you wish to activate a Castle or Stately Home please check out the CASHOTA Ireland site cashota-ireland.org/ for more details and how to get a number for your Castle. Please contact Steve EI5DD as soon as possible with details and a small paragraph of information about the castle concerned anlong with WAI square and county and this will be promoted on the CASHOTA website. This promises to be a good weekend for portable activity and if you have never tried it before here is a good opportunity. Maybe you could get your Radio Club interested in participation.


New US Four Metre Beacon

70MHz is not an amateur band in the USA, but European stations may try to listen for a new 4-Meter Band propagation beacon from the East Coast of the US. Its operating frequency is 70.005 MHz, QTH is FM07fm, CW emissions.

The callsign of the beacon is WE9XUP.

Any and all QSL/SWL reports are welcome via email to: WA1ZMS<at>ARRL.NET.

The beacon is scheduled to run 24 hours a day until 1 Sept, 2011.


Cork Radio Club

The May meeting of Cork Radio Club will be held in the Community Centre in Carrigtwohill on Monday the 30th and will feature a presentation and live demonstration of D-Star by Don Kelly EI8DJ. The meeting will also review the successful trip to Brow Head for International Marconi Day and will finalise arrangements for the CW Field Day on the following weekend. Visitors are very welcome and further information can be had from Jeremy EI5GM on 083-3317710.


Mills on the air weekend

The Amateur Portable Group will be activating Delaney's Mill in Rathfeigh today (Sunday) for the Mills on the Air weekend, the call sign will be EI0Z Activity will be on HF.


Ben EI4IN

The many friends of Ben, EI4IN will be pleased to hear that he is doing well after his kidney transplant in Beaumont Hospital on Monday last. We send our good and best wishes to Ben and his family.


DX News

Sam K0YAK is at present based at the US Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal and is active as 9N7AK during his spare time. It is expected that he will be there till early July. He is using SSB and PSK31 on 20 to 10m and QSLs go via his home call.

Wim OS1T is now on the island of St. Barthelemy using the callsign FJ/OS1T until 22 May. He operates SSB and RTTY on 40 to 10m and will be checking 6m when conditions allow.

Fred PY2XB has been QRV as 8P9XB from Barbados for the past week and is still available till 21 May. He is operating all bands 80-6m on CW, SSB and RTTY.

For the IOTA chasers make a note to look for TM0Z from the French island of Batz between 21 – 26 May. A group of 5 French amateurs will be operational on all bands 160-6m. The IOTA reference is EU-105.

Three Czech Republic operators (OK1AMM, OK1HH and OK2BOB) will be on the Island of Crete from 17 to 28 May and will sign SV9/homecall/P from the main island which is IOTA EU- 015 with a few side trips to offshore islands which will count as IOTA EU-187.

Haru JA1XGI will be active from the Pacific island of Tuvalu from 17 – 24 May. He will sign T2XG on all bands 40 – 10m with emphasis on the WARC bands.


Incursions into the 28mhz Band

Illegal church broadcasts have been heard on 28.265MHz in Germany and members are requested to listen on this frequency in order to identify the location. Please contact Ger McNamara EI4GXB IARUMS Co-ordinator on 087 2532512 or ei4gxb/ at/gmail/dot/com with any reports.


Solar Flux Index

Solar Flux Index drops below 100 again On Tuesday May 10, 2011 the daily solar flux index (SFI) fell below 100 (97.5) for the first time since March 22, 2011. During this month the daily sunspot count has been as high as 90 but the sunspot groups have for the most part been small, weak and magnetically simple. Radiowave propagation continues good on 15 and 12 meters but has become a bit more sporadic on 10 meters. 6 meters is seeing more and more sporadic E (Es) openings as we enter the traditional northern hemisphere warm season pattern. For now the sun has returned to it's quiet state as we experienced in early 2011 on back. Even as solar cycle 24 continues it's rise to a smoothed sunspot number (SSN) maximum of ~95 in December 2013, we will continue to see periods of abnormal sunspot production with groups small, weak and magnetically simple. We acknowledge Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O, as the source of this sunspot prediction.


New Sample Foundation Exam Paper

An updated sample question paper for the UK Amateur Radio Foundation exam is now available on the RSGB website. www.rsgb.org


Dambusters Raid Memorial

On 80m On Monday 16th May 2011, the Lincoln Short Wave Club will be operating G5FZ on the 80m band as near to 3.617 as conditions allow. The transmissions will commence at precisely 21.39 - the time the first wave of nine Lancaster bombers of RAF 617 Squadron, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, took off on the night of 16/17 May 1943, to attack the Mohne, Sorpe and Eder Dams in Germany using Barnes Wallace’s famous 'bouncing bomb'. Transmissions will cease at 01.39 - this is the time the Mohne Dam was breached by the fifth Lancaster flown by Flt Lt D J H Maltby, the rest of the bombers went on to attack the Sorpe and Eder dams. This will probably go down in history as the most daring attack ever undertaken by Bomber Command, immortalised by the famous film The Dam Busters. All nineteen aircraft took off in three waves from RAF Scampton, this is less than a mile from our club shack. There will be a limited edition QSL card sent to all contacts.


Items for inclusion in next week’s Radio News can be submitted via e-mail to “newsteam /at/ irts / dot / ie” for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services.

Please note that items for the radio news should reach the editor no later than midday on Thursday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.

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