The following are the new committee for 2022/23: President: Larry McGriskin EI9CN Vice President: Enda Broderick EI2II Hon. Secretary: Ger McNamara EI4GXB Treasurer: David Gardiner EI3IXB Pat Fitzpatrick EI2HX Robbie Phelan EI2IP Owen O’Reilly EI4GGB Tony Breathnach EI5EM Andy Jay EI5JF Niall Donohoe EI6HIB Mark Condon EI6JK John Ronan EI7IG Roger Greengrass EI8KN Ronnie McGrane EI9ED We wish the incoming committee the best of luck for 2022/23.
South Dublin Radio Club are delighted to announce a full return to our club premises at Ballyroan Community Center, Rathfarnham, on Tuesday, the 17th of May from 19:30 to 21:30. We’d love to see all club members, especially the new friends we have met online during the pandemic. If you have joined us in our online activities over the past 2 years but have not yet been to the clubhouse, you will find directions and public transport information on our web-site southdublinradioclub.weebly.com
Should you not be in a position to physically join us, don’t worry, you can join in too! We intend to continue the online aspect of our club meetings, live from the clubhouse, via Zoom. The usual Zoom password applies. If you don’t have Zoom access already, you can request Zoom login details by contacting us via our web-site, via South Dublin Radio Club Facebook or via Twitter /at/ SDRadioClub.
All intending & existing members will be asked to update their club membership on their return. For this purpose, a membership form is available for download and print from our web-site. We kindly ask that you bring along your completed membership form and the specified annual membership fee on the night.
South Dublin Radio Club is always open to new members. So, if you are new to amateur radio or just want get a feel for the hobby and our club, you are most welcome to pop in on any club night – in person or online.
German radio amateurs have received a grant of just under 250,000 Euros by ARDC to develop software for the use of GSM/GPRS technology on amateur radio bands. Amateur Radio Digital Communications, the organization that administers the AMPRNet internet domain and sold some 4 million unassigned addresses in 2019, continues using the proceeds from that sale to support amateur radio and communications networking research. Open Source Mobile Communications (Osmocom) is an umbrella project, fiscally sponsored by the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC), that hosts, develops, and maintains mobile communications and SDR open source projects, with a main focus on cellular telephony systems. Osmocom identified a gap between the last decade of very promising open source developments in cellular technology and the requirements of being able to use this in the context of amateur radio. This grant will be used to develop software that will allow the use of GSM/GPRS technology on amateur radio bands by implementing a SDR PHY that can be plugged beneath the existing OsmocomBB code to allow its use on general-purpose SDR hardware such as the LimeSDR or USRP series of radios and adding basic support for packet-switched GPRS services to OsmocomBB. Once completed, the work within this project will pave the way to significantly increase the achievable packet data rates within the same narrow-band channel.
Channel Chaine 3 from Algeria has been back on air with the usual field strength and good audio quality on 252 kHz after a long time. As a result, interference with the Long-Wave signal from RTE on the same frequency is more or less ubiquitous again.
The New Zealand Amateur Radio Transmitters Society (NZART) reports that their regulator, RSM, has continued their 60m Sub-License (5351.5 to 5366.5 kHz).
The Belgian BIPT informs that between the 30th of May and and the 18th of June 2022 there will be a military exercise in Elzenborn. On that occasion 2 frequencies in the 6 meter band will be used: 50.200 MHz and 51.075 MHz. The amateur radio service has a secondary status in this band, while the military service has a primary status. Radio Amateurs are asked to respect this and if possible avoid the use of these frequencies during this period.
Within the IARU Region 1 working group for emergency communication, the international test of emergency communication on short wave in the 40m and 17m bands using SSB and CW modes will take place on Saturday, the 21st of May from 14:00 to 16:00 UTC.
After two years of lock-down, the ITU building in Geneva is back in operation. Perhaps you have recently worked with 4U1 are or you may have seen a number of cluster spots from this station. The station is on the air until the 3rd of June. A Stepp-IR is used for 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. A second transceiver is now also being set up for 6 meters, including FT8.
Due to problems with the ARI web-site, the log deadline for the ARI International DX Contest has been extended to Saturday, the 21st of May. Logs can be sent to hfcontest.ari /at/ gmail.com.
Congratulations to Mark, EI6JK on achieving a new CQWW DX CW Irish record on 20 metres with over 1,400 QSOs with 37 zones and 114 countries during the 48 hours contest.
The UKEICC DX CW contest that took place a fortnight ago attracted 559 entrants who worked 2,700 call signs in over 64,000 QSOs. Results can be seen on www.ukeicc.com The top Irish score is pretty impressive, the most Rookie entries were from Ireland, made by Megan, EI5LA, Ryan, EI8KW and Rafal, EI6LA.
On Thursday the all-mode 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs between 19:00 and 21:30 UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.
Next weekend sees the RSGB 144MHz May contest for all modes. It runs for 24 hours from 14:00 UTC on the 21st of May. The exchange is signal report, serial number and the locator square. Note that UK stations also send their postcode.
The First 144MHz Backpackers organized by the RSGB takes place on Sunday, the 22nd of May, running from 11:00 to 15:00 UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.
The IARU R1 Youth Working Group, cooperating with the Hungarian Amateur Radio Society, MARSZ, organizes the YOTA Contest series for 2022. The objective is to increase youngsters activity on the air, to strengthen the reputation of the YOTA program and to demonstrate support for youngsters across the world. The first of three rounds takes place on the 21st of May, from 08:00 to 19:59 UTC. The second round will take place on the 23rd of July, from 10:00 to 21:59 UTC, and the final round for 2022 will take place on the 30th of December, from 22:00 to 23:59 UTC. The bands in use will be 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m, using CW and SSB. YOTA is defined by the IARU as any youngster up to and including 25 years of age.
A summer camping festival, not just for Hams, described as "a temporary village of geeks, crafters and technology enthusiasts" is taking place over the first weekend in June at Eastnor Castle Deer Park in Herefordshire. Over 2,000 people are expected at Electromagnetic Field which will bring technology, scientific curiosity, and the Amateur Radio Village GX1EMF and the AMSAT-UK Village GB4EMF. In addition to speakers and workshops on technology topics, there will also be music and other entertainments. Ticket prices and other information is available at the web-site www.emfcamp.org .
A high probability of C-flares is predicted as the old active regions 2993 and 2994 will return into view again this weekend. Their far-side activities looked to be very strong with large coronal mass ejections observed. The centers of the earth facing sunspot regions 3006 and 3007 show a mixture of magnetic polarities, making them likely candidates for magnetic re-connections, triggering strong flares. These two areas stand out among many active regions, we can expect day-side blackouts during this week. The solar flux will increase to at least 140 units, at a speed of around 300 km/s, and a medium proton count. The kP index is currently at an average of 3, but likely to increase. Expect propagation on 40m and below to be poor, good conditions should persist on 20, 17 and 15m, but 12m and above will be unstable.
The Cetids meteor shower will peak on the 20th of May, listen for the typical pings in your 2m ssb receiver. The high pressure zone over Ireland promises another round of good tropo-spheric conditions, helped by an increase in sporadic-E activity.
VHF/UHF operators are again reminded to keep a close eye on John's web-site at ei7gl.blogspot.com, the go-to place for any serious operator above 30 MHz. This week's headline is the shutdown of the trans-Atlantic 144 MHz beacon EI2DKH.
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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