Archived News Script

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday December 27th 1998


Millennium DX Marathon

Listeners are reminded that the Millennium DX Marathon will commence on January the 1st and will run for the whole of 1999 with the aim of generating activity from EI on all bands and modes. The objective is for EI operators to work as many DXCC entities on as many bands and modes as possible during next year. There are two sections, one for those licensed after January the 1st 1996 and the other section covers all others. This event is sponsored by the WestNet DX Group and a substantial radio related prize will be presented to the winners of each section at the IRTS AGM of the year 2000. Full rules have been published in the recent IRTS Newsletter.

A similar event has also been announced by the Belgian National Society, the UBA with broadly similar rules.


Campbell Island DXpedition

Declan EI6FR leaves today for his long trip down to zone 32 as a team member of the ZL9CI Campbell Island DXpedition. The group plan to sail from Wellington in New Zealand on January the 1st and expect to be on the air by January the 9th. Propagation from EI promises to be good and most stations should be in with a good chance of a QSO with ZL9. Problems with the New Zealand Department of Conservation about access to the Island still exist as a daytime only permit has been granted. The group considered their options and decided to go ahead despite the restrictions. They hope t have at least six stations on the every day from 1600 to 1030utc.

Robert GI0KOW is the European pilot for the expedition and he will keep the amateur community informed of progress on Campbell and will provide feedback to the group.


EI9HC Moves to County Meath

The East Cork Radio Group has lost one of it's most active members when Steve Nolan EI9HC has moved to a new home in County Meath. Steve is a very active DXer and contester, mainly on CW, and will be greatly missed by his friends at EI7M. He is a regular caller to the CW News on Sunday mornings. We wish Steve, his wife and daughter all the best in their new home and look forward to hearing him back on the bands as quickly as possible.


IRTS Committee Meeting

Committee members and club representatives are reminded that the next IRTS Committee Meeting will be held in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel in Athlone on Saturday January the 9th at 11.00 am. Please note the change of time from the usual afternoon start.


MIR ACTIVE ON SSTV

Al Emer, N2YAC reports receiving slow-scan television (SSTV) video from the amateur radio station on-board the Mir space station on December the 12th at 16:01 UTC from New Jersey on a frequency of 145.820 MHz. Al reported receiving an image with good quality and very little noise. The image received was in Robot 36 second mode. We would like to hear from any EI's who copied SSTV transmissions from MIR.


RS-18 HAS GONE SILENT

According to reports, RS-18/Sputnik-41 appears to have gone silent on or about December the 11th. RS-18/Sputnik-41 was deployed from the Mir space station by Russian cosmonauts during a spacewalk that occurred on November the 10th last. The spacecraft was battery powered, and was designed to operate for a period of 30 days. It appears to have gone silent very close to schedule.

Aerials in Space Amateur radio operators have been erecting antennas since the earliest days of radio. So, perhaps it is appropriate that it would be am amateur radio operator, putting up another set of antennas, that would help to write a new chapter in space communications. The ham radio operator is Jerry Ross, N5SCW and he is one of two astronauts who ventured out on a spacewalk on Wednesday December 9th to attach the antennas to the first United States section of the international space station. This was the second of three excursions outside the shuttle Endeavour for Ross and James Newman in less than a week. They completed installing two 100-pound antennas on the American module and then successfully pried open a stuck antenna on the Russian built Zarya space station module.

Even with the antenna repair, the spacewalk was not nearly as difficult as the one on Monday December 7th. During that excursion, Ross and Newman hooked up forty electrical connections between Zarya and Unity. This essentially tied the two together as the first stages of the International Space Station. But the antennas that Ross and Newman installed outside of the Unity module may be just as important. They are part of an elaborate communications system between Unity and NASA's Mission Control. Once activated, the system will provide a direct, virtually uninterrupted communication link between the two without having to rely on Russian ground stations for relay.


Items for inclusion in the Radio News can be faxed to 021-632730 or passed on the telephone to Dave EI4BZ on 021-632444 during the day or at 021-883555 in the evening.

Input for the Newsletter should be sent to Kevin EI7IM at QTHR or on the phone at 01-4509514 or by E-mail to EI7IM@tinet.ie All input to either the radio news or newsletter can also be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie

[N]