Archived News Script

printer friendly version

Irish Radio Transmitter Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday October 31st 2021


Club News

LCARC, the Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club will hold a Rally in the Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa on Sunday 7th of November 2021. Doors will open at 11:00. Entrance fee is 5 Euro per person. As with previous Rallies, there will be a bring and buy opportunity. Tables for bring and buy, exhibitors and related demonstrations are free. Tables should be booked through Michael Kingston EI2IX via email to rapidov66 /at/ gmail.com

Steve Wright EI5DD will be demonstrating digital modes and the networks supporting them.

Please check out the current list of donated equipment for sale and also equipment for sale by private sellers. Go to the club web site www.limerickclareamateurradioclub.ie and follow the --market place-- drop down menu.

Please Note that the Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa will insist on the following restrictions on attendees at the LCARC Rally on Sunday the 7th of November:

Entry will only be allowed on production of a valid COVID Certificate. Photographic identification will be required. Masks have to be worn at all times. Furthermore, attendees over 13 years will have to provide evidence of COVID vaccination. Under 18s will have to be accompanied by an adult.

Entrance to the Rally will be manned by hotel staff therefore LCARC members will not have any function in deciding on who is allowed in. Failure to comply with the conditions, laid down by the hotel, will result in failure to gain admittance to the LCARC Rally.

LCARC looks forward to welcoming members of the National Short Wave Listeners Club to the LCARC station in the Shannon Aviation Museum on Saturday 6th November.

NSWLC will hold their first annual dinner after the visit, and they invite everyone to join them. The National Short Wave Listeners Club was established in 2021. They have has just commenced their next HAREC training class, called Delta, which aims to prepare attendees to pass ComReg licensing examinations in early 2022. Anyone interested should contact training at www.swl.ie for more information.

The popular Shannon Basin Radio Club nets are once again on the air. The top band net is on Mondays at 21:00 on 1.990 Mhz +- qrm, The 80M net is on Thursdays qt 21:00 on 3.785 Mhz +- qrm, The 2M net is on Sundays at 21:00 on the Clubs Repeater EI2SBR .

All are welcome to join the various nets and SWL reports can be emailed to admin /at/ sbrc.ie For more information see www.sbrc.ie or the club's Facebook page.


Upcoming Contests

The URDX Contest Committee invites you to take part in the Ukrainian DX Contest 2021 next weekend, and

The UKEICC one hour long 80m SSB contest starts this Wednesday evening at 2000UTC with results published the same evening.

The unique --Walk for the Bacon QRP Contest-- starts on Wednesday at 0000Z and the first leg runs until 0100Z and then continues on Thursday from 0200Z to 0300Z. This is a fun contest for 40m band CW QRP operators, with the speed capped at no more than 13wpm and output limited to 5 Watts. Have a look at www.qrpcontest.com for this and other QRP contests.


AM SWL

Spirit Radio's Medium Wave transmission on 549 Khz from Donegal is down. Their signal usually covers Northern Ireland and Scotland, they are looking to purchase a new transmitter.

Radio208 with their 250Watt transmitter on 1440 kHz and 5970 kHz are joining a growing number of enthusiat AM station oprators like shortwaveradio.de on 3975 and 6160 kHz. The Danish station WMR, short for World Music Radio, are back on air on 927 kHz this weekend with 250 Watts of power from Copenhagen. WMR's 200 Watt transmitter is also heard on 5930 kHz, with 10 Watt on 15790 kHz during weekends, and with a 50 watt signal on 25800 kHz, thus making these signals an interesting target for Irish SWL.


New WSJT-X Version

The WSJT-X development team has announced the general availability release of WSJT-X version 2.5.1. This release mainly contains improvements and bug fixes for Q65 and JT65 use of nonstandard and compound callsigns. Also included is a new feature for microwave aircraft scatter.


DX News

The Croation radio club --Jan Hus-- recently celebrated their 50th year of successful DXing by eating their Yaesu FT1000MP, or rather a very convincing looking chocolate cake replica, as evident in the pictures posted by 9A5CI on www.hamradio.hr/4973-2 , the Croatian's Radio club's webpage is well worth a look for it's quirky and informative DX content.

Although a long way off yet, REF, the French national radio club proudly anounces that after many months of inquiries, permission was granted to Thierry, F6CUK to for a stay on Isle de Crozet between two rotations of the supply boat between December 2022 and March 2023, the austral summer, the most favorable period on the WX side to traffic. This will correspond to the 60th anniversary of the prelimary mission to Crozet, the third most sought after DXCC entity, which took place in December 1961 to January 1962. A page will be opened on the REF website with further details for this logistically difficult DXpedition.

The Russian DXpedition team that operated from eSwatini moved on to Lesotho. You can work them until the 4th of November on every band from 160 to 6m. They have four radios, several one kilowatt amplifiers and monoband antennas for each band, so there is a good chance to hear them. They are operating from grid square kg30si with the callsign 7P8RU.

The international team of DXers making up the Tifariti DX Gang is active as HD8R from the Galapagos Islands, IOTA SA-004 until next weekend. they're on 160-6 meters, including 60m, using CW, SSB, the Digital modes and low orbit satellites, with at least 4 stations with Spiderbeams, verticals, Inverted Ls and beverages. Check with K9JKM for details.

The Eureka Amateur Radio Club is probably the most northerly located amateur radio club in the world, and they are on air again from the Eureka weather station in Nunavut on Canada's Ellesmere Island, IOTA NA-008. You can work VY0ERC until around the 22nd of November on all HF Bands. QSL with the arctic station VY0ERC is via M0OXO OQRS and Logbook of The World.

and now some DX news as seen on the RSGB's GB2RS news team web pages, starting with a report about Remo, HB9SHD active as 8Q7RM from the Maldives, IOTA AS-013, throughout November. He operates mainly FT8, with some SSB and slow CW on the 6 to 40m bands. QSL via his home call, either direct or via the bureau, Club Log’s OQRS and Logbook of the World.

Richard, NN2T and Linda, KN4KJC will be active as C6AHB from the Bimini Islands, IOTA NA-048, until the 3rd of November. They will operate SSB and digital modes. QSL via Logbook of The World, Club Log’s OQRS, or QSL direct to NN2T.

Janusz, SP9FIH will be active as PJ7P from Sint Maarten, IOTA NA-105, until Wednesday, using SSB, FT8 and RTTY on the 30, 15, 12 and 10m bands. QSL via Club Log’s OQRS or via his home call.

Also active until Wednesday is Curtis, KC5CW as FY/KC5CW from French Guiana operating SSB, slow CW, PSK and FT8 on the 160 to 6m bands. He will upload his log to Logbook of The World and Club Log,

and finally, Robert, 3B9FR transmits from Rodrigues Island, IOTA AF-017 and he is now active again mainly with CW, with some occasional SSB and FT8. QSL via M0OXO’s OQRS.


Ariss News

The current status of ISS Station's Columbus module radios, as of Thursday:

The use of IORS with a Kenwood D710GA is yet to be to be decided. Currently it's supporting a cross band repeater listening on 145.990 MHz and PL67 for the uplink and transmits on 437.800 MHz downlink.

Next planned mode change is to packet operation on 145.825 MHz up and down, targeting early December.​​

The radios were powered down for the Progress docking on Saturday and should return shortly. the next planned downtime is for the EVA on the 17th of November. And now we leave earth's low orbit and head sun-bound with the...


The Propagation Horoscope

Within a week, the average daily sunspot number increased from 11 to 55, while the solar flux rose from about 80 and peaked at 111 on Thursday. The sun is littered with spots, mostly in the southern hemisphere.

Two new sunspot groups appeared last Monday as predicted by the STEREO space based solar observatory, followed by two more on Tuesday, peaking Thursday with a total of 96, with group 12887 being the largest. Geomagnetic disturbances will start to pick up considerably after Thursday's strong X1 flare. The associated CME hit us on Saturday afternoon, producing the first major G3 level storm in this solar cycle. Solar flux should rise to at least 120 today, and level off at around 100 for the rest of the week - unless one of the many spots lays on an extra show. Have a look at the impressive images on www.solen.info


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.

[A]

contact IRTS
irts groups.io