Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday September 26th 2021
Keep Emergency Frequencies Clear
John, Ei7IG passes on the following message from EA9E, Jose Antonio Mendez Rios, the IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Coordinator:
On the afternoon of Sunday the 19th, the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted in La Palma, Canary Islands.
This eruption occured shortly after the report of hundreds of earthquakes during a week in this area.
In order to facilitate communications to and from that area, we ask all member associations to protect the emergency frequencies of Region 1 of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU-R1), which includes Europe and Africa.
The frequencies are as follows:
80m band: 3.760 Mhz. 40m band: 7.110 Mhz. 20m band: 14.300 Mhz. 15m band: 21.360 Mhz.
EA9E, Jose, thanks everyone for their cooperation.
And another request is communicated by IARU Region 2 Emergency Coordinator Carlos Alberto Santamaría González, CO2JC. He is requesting that radio amateurs in Central America avoid 7098 and 7198 kHz in the wake of an earthquake and aftershocks in Nicaragua on Wednesday morning.
Repeater Interferences
Kells Radio Club is trying to find the source of interference to their 2 Metre repeaters in both Cavan and Dublin.
The interference is intermittent and is opening both repeaters.
Anyone with information or ideas to cure the problem should contact the IRTS technical panel via the email address irtstech /at/ irts.ie
New Comittee Members
Following a committee meeting held on Saturday 18th, we are pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to the IRTS Committee:
Louis Ryan, EI8KI , Michael Fitzgerald, EI9GGB, and Robert Brandon, EI5KH
The meeting also welcomed Roger Greengrass EI8KN as the new VHF/UHF manager.
The new IRTS Examination Board are also pleased to announce that 65 candidates sat the HAREC examination on 11th September. A further examination will be held in Dublin on November 27th. The closing date for applications to sit this examination is 8th November 2012.
The IRTS is looking for a volunteer to act as Secretary. This will involve processing of correspondence to and from the Society as well as minuting all Society meetings. It is a senior position and the member who undertakes the job must have been a licensed member of the Society for a minimum of three years. They will be co opted to the committee if approved. If you would like to find out more you can send an email outlining your interest to committee /at/ irts.ie
In line with moving the Society to the future and to a younger membership profile we would also appreciate contact from any members of the society who may have a little time on their hands and would like to volunteer to take an active role in any of the multiple task involved in administering the IRTS.
A few of these roles are currently not filled and some are held by officers and committee members who have been doing the job for many years and may feel it is time to hand on to a younger generation.
If you feel you might have a part to play in the future of the Society please get in touch via committee /at/ irts.ie mentioning any specific area in which you might have an interest or just a willingness to find out whats needed.
SSB Field Day results
Results of the IRTS SSB Field Day, held earlier this month, have now been published. This year, five club stations and one single-operator took part in this contest - the highest number of EI stations entering this event in recent years. See www.irts.ie/results for full details.
Band conditions for the contest period were disappointing, with few QSOs available on 10 metres or 15 metres. This contest coincides with field day contests in other European countries: there were almost 200 portable stations active in Germany, along with approximately 30 in the UK, as well as portable stations in Switzerland, Slovenia and Belgium among others.
Contest Logs needed
The 70cms and 2 metres Counties Contests held last weekend were well supported, with stations in at least 20 counties active on 2 metres. More than 20 contest logs have already been submitted. Even if you had only a few QSOs, Joe EI7GY the contest manager would like to receive your log, to assist in the cross-checking process. Logs should be sent to IRTS.contests /at/ gmail.com
Upcoming Contests
The Practical Wireless 70MHz contest may be of interest to listeners of this news bulletin on Sunday. The all modes contest runs from 1200 to 1600 UTC today. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Rules and more details can be found in the September 2021 issue of Practical Wireless.
The the 7th of 9 legs of the RSGB FT4 Contest Series takes place on Monday, from 1900 - 2030 UTC, bands in use are 80, 40 and 20m.
The SHF UK Activity Contest may allow stations located at the eastern and southern coasts to pick up activity on all modes on 2.3 to 10GHz this Tuesday from 1830 to 2130 UTC. And there is another chance to make UHF/SHF contacts across the Irish Sea again next weekend. The RSGB October 432MHz-245GHz Contest runs for 24 hours beginning 1400UTC next Saturday.
The CW leg of the next UKEICC one hour 80m Contest is on Wednesday, starting at 2000z. The Bonus callsigns for this event will be EI5G, operated by Gerard EI5KF, and GM5GEI, operated by Chris GM3WOJ.
The Oceania DX Contests 2021 was first established in 1934 and previously known as the VK/ZL contest, the Oceania DX Contests are the time of year where all the big guns beam towards the Pacific! Mark the dates in October for both Phone and CW. Exchange report and serial number. The SSB leg starts 0600 UTC on Saturday the 2nd of October and goes for 24 hours until 0600 UTC Sunday morning, the 3rd of October. The CW leg takes place a week later, also for 24 hours. Full rules at www.oceaniadxcontest.com
Railways and Balloons
The special event station for the Steam Trains Ireland station GB2STI is operating 'Railways On The Air' this weekend, from the excursion platform of the Railway Preservation society of Ireland, Whitehead in County Antrim. The station is operated on 80, 40 and 20m, also on 2m multimode, by members and friends of the Antrim and District Amateur Radio Society as part of the celebrations of the first steam passenger train to operate in the British Isles. A special QSL Card is available for all contacts made during the event, via their qsl manager GI0KPF
Today is the Day of the City of Bjelovar and the 75th anniversary of the Croatian Technical Culture Community. To mark the occasion, at 1000 utc this Sunday morning, members of the Bjelovar Radio Club Nikola Tesla launched a stratospheric radioamateur balloon with a repeater. During the final hour of the ascent it may be possible to pick up signals from their helium-filled balloonwhen it reaches a height of up to 30km. The repeater works with classic CrossBand mode. Radio club "Nikola Tesla" Bjelovar 9A1GIJ will work as an administrative station. It is enough to make only one connection to the administrative station in order to obtain a commemorative diploma and a QSL ticket as confirmation of the connection. The mode is FM with 12.5 kHz wide deviation on 145.200 MHz with CTCSS 173.8 Hz.
DX News
Nobby, G0VJG expects to be active as 8Q7CQ from the Maldives, IOTA AS-013, from Tuesday onwards. He will operate SSB and digital modes on the 80 to 10m bands. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS.
Paul, G4PVM will is active as GW4PVM from Holy Island, IOTA EU-124, from today until the 1st of October on the 40 to 10m bands using CW and SSB. QSL via Logbook of The World and eQSL.
SP9FIH as D60AC and SP6CIK as D60AD are very active for another week. They are easily heard from the Comoros Island, IOTA AF-007, on 80-10m, all modes. QSL via Club Log and OQRS.
Until next weekend DL7UCX is on air as Z6/DL7UCX from Kosovo on 80-10m with CW FT4 FT8, QSL via bureau.
Two special callsigns, HS18IARU and HS400OZ, have been issued by Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission. HS18IARU is promoting the upcoming 18th IARU Region 3 Conference that will be hosted online by the Radio Amamteur Society of Thailand in September, The station is now active on all amateur radio bands until the end of the month. HHS4ØØOZ is the special event callsign to celebrate the 400th anniversary of trade relationship between Denmark and Thailand. Hosted by the Experimenterende Danske Radioamatører, using the callsign OZ4ØØHS and the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand team with the callsign HS400OZ. They will also be active on the Es'hail2 QO-100 satellite during October, using CW and SSB split frequency, listening 5 to 10 kHz up on the receive downlink. The uplink is 2400.150 MHz, and the downlink is 10489.655 MHz
The Propagation Horoscope
There is a meteor shower due to peak this week. The Sextantids are due to peak today and tomorrow. Metoer scatter operators must be up early and train their antennas east, until around 0430 local time.
HF conditions are improving on all bands, topband and 80m work well along northern latitudes, the higher bands are reliably open to the east as far as the Indian Ocean in the mornings.
Friday night the KP index measured below 2, solar wind was around 450km/s with 3 particles per cubic centimeter. The longlived active region number 2871, accompanied by around six currently weakening spots is still keeping the flux level at around 85. Plasma clouds still in transit may be good for a minor geomagnetic storm later today, with the KP possibly rising to around 5. And according to the NOAA's predictions, expect a few shortlived radio blackouts during the week.
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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