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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 14th November 2021


HAREC Exam

A reminder for aspiring canditates to register for the upcoming HAREC exams on Saturday, 27th of November at the Maldron Hotel,Newlands Cross, Dublin. Candidates should send any queries via email to irts.exams /at/ gmail.com


Club Reports

The LCARC Rally, held on Sunday 7TH November, was a resounding success. The club wishes to thank the support from the Bring and Buy individuals and from everyone who attended. It was great to meet up with old friends and in particular to meet so many new licensees from Alpha, Delta and Bravo groups, National Short Wave Listeners Club. IRTS President, Jim EI4HH was welcomed on his first visit to the station.

Congratulations to Pat EI7IUB who won the top prize, donated by Atlantic Air Adventure, Shannon, of a session on the Boeing 737 simulator. Congratulations to Jimmy EI2GCB who won a 30amp PSU.

On Saturday 6th November members of the NSWL Club visited the LCARC station at the Atlantic Air Adventures Museum, where a lot of ideas were exchanged and future plans hatched.

On Saturday evening the NSWLC organised a dinner in the nearby Oakwood Hotel, Shannon. The weekend provided a great opportunity for the new licensees to meet and greet each other in person rather than in cyber space on the HAREC Zoom courses.

The November meeting of The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will be held on Monday the 29th of November at 8:00 p.m. sharp at The Sweep Bar, Adamstown, Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford, Eircode X91 H588. As with all public gatherings the management of The Sweep Bar will only allow access to those who are fully vaccinated and produce their EU Digital Covid Certificate and valid photographic identity, for example a Driving Licence or Passport. No cert and no ID no entry!

There will be a lot to discuss on the night including plans for the year ahead with some exciting new activations in the pipeline, so we look forward to seeing many familiar faces in attendance. Any non-members who are interested in finding out more about the hobby or the group are also very welcome on the night.

The 89th Irish Radio Transmitters AGM weekend will take place over the weekend of the 9th and 10th of April 2022 in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel, Kilkenny Road, Carlow. Tickets for the Gala Dinner can now be pre-booked from John EI7IG for collection on arrival at the event. Tickets cost 35 Euro and more information including contact details for John can be found on the IRTS Gala Dinner section on www.irtsagm2022cw.blogspot.com/p/home.html

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 Galway Radio Club are running a DMR Challenge open to all DMR operators, The DMR challenge requires nine tasks to be fulfilled. There is no time limit, so try to work on it in your own time. Rules and a log sheet may be downloaded from a post on the EI Digital Repeater Network Page, or you may apply to Steve EI5DD, email to wright14 /at/ gmail.com for a copy of the rules and log sheet. On completion, send the log sheets and receive your free PDF certificate by return mail. By completing the DMR challenge the majority of the facilities on DMR will have been used.

Those interested in digital radio can download a copy of the Digital Radio Operating Manual from the Galway Radio Club web page. This manual is packed with information about the various digital modes, information about repeaters and gateways, maps and lists of EI, GI and UK talk Groups.

The 2021 Galway Radio Club Annual Journal is near completion and will be sent to club secretaries who may wish to distribute the publication among their members. The journal is filled with club activities, technical articles, reviews and items of general radio interest. Copies of the 2019 and 2020 Journals may be downloaded from the Galway Radio Club web page.


Contest News

Expect a busy topband CW section next Saturday with three European contests.

The All Austrian 160m CW Contest starts at 1600 UTC and finishes 2359 UTC. Rules and frequencies can be found in the contest section at www.oevsv.at

The second leg of the REF 160 METRES CW CONTEST takes place next Saturday, too but from 1700 UTC till 0100 UTC on Sunday morning. Info on www.r-e-f.org

And the RSGB 1.8MHz CW Contest coincides from 1900-2300 UTC, their entry rules can be found on www.rsgbcc.org

Also next Saturday, but higher up on the 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m HF bands, the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs have their 24 hour CW/SSB Contest from 12:00 UTC on Saturday until 11:59 UTC next Sunday. More info, in english, about this longstanding contest, can be found on the webpages of lzdx.bfra.bg

Marking the Latvian National Day on the 18th of November, the Latvian Radio Amateur League invites participation in their annual 80m contest this Thursday, from 08:00 to 10:44 local time. Their unusual contest format is well explained on their website www.lral.lv, and looks like good fun. It is split into four half hour SSB and CW sessions, followed by a 15 minute break to give time to prepare for the last hour using RTTY. RTTY is judged independently from CW and SSB as a separate competition.

The Flying Pigs International QRP Club announces the PigWalk 20m CW Contest. It is a 2 hour slow CW Contest, with the first hour from 0000Z on Wednesday, and the second hour starting 0200Z on Thursday, the suggested frequencies centre around 14063 kHz. Their webpage is on www.qrpcontest.com

The ARRL EME Contest for 50 to 1296 MHz takes place next weekend, from 0000 UTC on Saturday until 2359 UTC on Sunday. The aim is to work as many amateur stations as possible via the earth-moon-earth path on any authorized amateur frequency above 50 MHz.


The DX Window

There are currently three DXpeditions active in Africa, all finishing in the next few days. 5H3MB from Tanzania is on HF with all modes, using dipoles and groundplanes. C5C is still active in Gambia on HF, incl 60m on CW, SSB and FT8 with 100w, and so is Ken, LA7GIA on CW and FT8 from Bangui, in the Central African Republic, as TL7M.

Robert, S53R is now stationed in Nepal for the foreseeable future, and will be active as 9N7AA. He already brought two TS590SG radios to Kathmandu, but until the rest of his equipment arrives he is limited to transmitting on a multiband vertical.

Oleh, KD7WPJ is PJ7/UR5BCP, transmitting from from Sint Maarten, IOTA NA-105 on CW, SSB and FT8 on 40-6 metres until Wednesday. QSL via KD7WPJ.

Don, K6ZO is QRV from Mayotte, IOTA AF027, as FH/K6ZO on CW and SSB until next Monday, and then returns to operate as D60AB from the Comoros, IOTA AF007 until the end of the month.

The York Region Amateur Radio Club, YRARC celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first transatlantic Amateur Radio transmission by a Canadian Amateur. Have a look at www.yrarc.org for their operation schedule. On the evening of the 9th of December 1921 Edward Rogers Senior transmitted from the grounds of Pickering College in Newmarket, Ontario with the callsign 3BP. Paul Godley, 2ZE, and other members of the Radio Club of America received his transmission, along with those of several US Amateurs, in Ardrossan, Scotland on a 9-tube superheterodyne receiver on frequencies in the vicinity of 1300 kHz, now part of the AM broadcast band. Rogers used a spark-gap transmitter, a type which at the time was being phased out in favour of vacuum tube oscillators. The January 1922 issue of QST noted in the article “Transatlantic Test Succeed!” that Rogers was the only “spark man” to be successful. ​


The Propagation Horoscope

As of late Friday there were 39 recorded solar spots, and the three large regions 2893, 2894 und 2895 are plainly visible through a camera obscura. They delivered 85 Solar Flux Units in the 10.7cm band, for now the Xray and proton flux is getting quieter again, the kp index is at 2 to 3. But the probability of more C-flares increases, therefore the flux should increase above 90 again. Expect stable conditions on all HF bands, and fair to good topband conditions along northern paths. VHF and UHF operators will make use of the Orionids and the Taurids with their radiants in the eastern night sky, and the Leonids, the stream of ionizing dust from Comet Tempel-Tuttle on its 33 year orbit around the sun. The Leonids will peak during the night from Wednesday to Thursday after rising in the northeast around 2200 local time.


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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