The next IRTS committee meeting will be held online on the 17th of September.
Collective Communication
Keith (EI5KJ) informs us that following on from their recent highly successful weekend portable operation during the SSB Field Day, South East Ireland's newest radio group, known as Collective Communication, are in the process of arranging further radio activities and events. Collective Communication are an informal bunch of folk who enjoy radio communication, friendly company, and a 'Can-Do' attitude. With a Facebook page and over 60 followers after just a couple of weeks of existence the Waterford based group is growing very quickly. The next activity that the group will be participating in will be celebrating Railways On The Air over the weekend of the 24th and 25th September from the Stradbally Woodland Steam Railway, Laois, who are Ireland's oldest steam preservation society. By coincidence the railway is holding an open day over the same weekend so there should be plenty of public present to witness our wonderful hobby in action. Following that, over the weekend of the 14th to the 16th of October will see Collective Communication involved with the Copper Coast Scout group of Ballyscanion, Tramore, County Waterford operating "Jamboree on the Air." Practical activities and demonstrations are being arranged for the scouts to participate in as well as radio communication of course. Members of Collective Communication are very experienced at JOTA involvement and are arranging activities that are known to be engaging and of interest to young folk of today. Further events and activities are in the planning stage and include the possibility of a monthly net. All will be made known on the groups Facebook page as and when firm dates and times have been finalized. If you or anyone you know, whether licenced or unlicenced, are curious about Collective Communication and their futures activities, look up our Facebook page or contact John EI3HQB on 086 870 9265 who will be very pleased to hear from you.
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC writes:
With our ever-increasing events calendar The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC is pleased to announce the appointment of Edwin Van Mierlo EI2HEB as the Events Coordinator of the group. Edwin’s first job will be the coordination of the Railways On The Air event which takes place over the weekend of the 24th and 25th of September. As in previous years the group will be active from The Waterford & Suir Valley Railway station Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford. WSVR is a community heritage project. The project has enabled the magic of rails golden age to be brought to life in Kilmeaden. A heritage narrow-gauge railway runs along 17 kilometres of the abandoned Waterford to Dungarvan line. The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group would like to thank the manager Maria Kyte and all the staff of The Waterford & Suir Valley Railway for all their help and allowing us access to do this event again this year. For more information about the WSVR please see www.wsvrailway.ie . 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 join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
The Autumn 2m and 70cm Counties Contest takes place next weekend. It starts with the 30 minutes long 70cm band leg at 14:00 local time, followed by a 90 minutes long session on 2m, starting at 14:30 local time. Modes are FM and SSB and various power classes. Given the more favourable weather conditions in Autumn we hope to hear many portable operations from hilltops around the Country. The rules and entry conditions for this popular contest can be found on www.irts.ie
Paul Gaskell (G4MWO), the editor of the 5 MHz Newsletter writes: More African countries arrive on 60 m. Word has just arrived via the South African Radio League (SARL) that three new African countries have joined the ranks of 5 MHz operators. They are Botswana, Lesotho and eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland. Each has the new WRC-15 Amateur Secondary Allocation of 5351.5 – 5366.5 kHz. This makes a total of 89 countries now on the band worldwide.
After many years of lobbying by the DARC german hams will soon have a new structure of license classes, and also see a some welcome changes to their operation conditions. While the existing classes E and A will see the introduction of new topics of digital technology, the new class N focuses on operational knowledge, regulations and basic knowledge of technology. Holders of the new Class N will be allowed to transmit on 2m and 70cm with a maximum power of 10 watt EIRP. A similar system already existed up to about 30 years ago, but the distinction between the license classes blurred when the old class C license gained access to the shortwave bands. The examination syllabus developed by the DARC for the three classes are structured in such a way that the content and questions are not repeated, so all future radio amateurs go through the exams of class N, through E to class A. It should be possible to take all the exams in one day. Holders of license class A may in future operate amateur radio stations remotely, and also allow other class A license holders to remotely use their station. Another innovation is the training radio operation, which will be possible in the future without a separate training call sign. Instead, adding the prefix "DN/" makes any Class E or Class A call-sign a training call-sign.
Especially on the 40m band there are always radio services that have no place there, sometimes these are hard to recognise as intruders. This is the case for the evening transmissions on 7080 kHz. At first glance it looks like a legal amateur radio RTTY signal. Taking a closer look at the transmission parameters it becomes clear that this particular FSK mode is not used in amateur radio. The speed is 50 baud with a shift of 200 Hz, instead of the typical 425 Hz shift. This method, called CIS-50-50, is used primarily by the Russian Navy. A similar emission can be observed on 7088 kHz.
Currently the geomagnetic field is perturbed by the still prevailing influence of a high speed stream from coronal hole number 1097, soon to rotate out of view, only to be replaced by the returning, very active coronal hole number 1098 which re-appeared over the eastern limb, becoming earth-facing this weekend. This large northern hemisphere coronal hole has produced major flares and CMEs while facing away from Earth. Expect unsettled conditions during the week. The maximum usable frequency will vary between 8 MHz at night to at best 22 MHz during daylight. This should improve later in the week once geomagnetic conditions calm down again. East-West paths will be poor on all bands, but on 30 to 15 meters listen out for morning openings to eastern parts of Africa. Later in the day propagation will shift towards South-America. During mid-week there is a chance for Aurora. Raspy and humming distortions to SSB signals on the lower bands are a sure indication that one should train the VHF antennas at northerly bearings, and check the Scandinavian VHF beacon frequencies.
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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