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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 13 March 2022


New IRTS Contest Manager

The IRTS Committee is delighted to announce that Jeremy Sheehan EI5GM, an experienced DXer and Contester has assumed the role of IRTS Contest Manager. His first job will be the 80 Metre evening contest on Tuesday March 22nd  which runs for one hour from 20:00 UTC. There are three sections for EI’s, SSB only, SSB and CW and a section for Shortwave Listeners. Stations outside EI can enter as SSB only or SSB and CW. The deadline for receipt of logs is April 5th. Full details on www.irts.ie/contests


Tipperary Amateur Radio Group

The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Tuesday, the 15th of March, at 8.30 p.m. This marks a welcome return to physical meetings after a gap of 2 years. New members or anyone interested in amateur radio are very welcome.

For anyone who wishes to find out more about the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group and its activities you can attend any of their meetings. You can also check out their website www.ei7trg.ie or contact club PRO Ronan EI4KN at QTHR for further information.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC

The March meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will take place on Monday, the 28th of March 2022, at 8.00 p.m. sharp at The Sweep Bar, Adamstown, Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford, Eircode X91 H588. New members or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio or the group are as always very welcome to attend.

With less than a month to go to the 89th IRTS AGM Weekend which will be held on Saturday and Sunday, the 9th and 10th of April at the Woodford Dolmen Hotel, Carlow. People are reminded to please prebook your dinner tickets. Dinner tickets for the Gala Dinner on the Saturday evening can be prebooked from John EI7IG. Tickets cost €35 and must be prebooked before the 4th of April. The SEARG radio rally will take place on Sunday, the 10th of April, starting at 10:30 a.m. sharp and closing at 2:00 p.m. There will be no admittance to the rally for the public until 10:30 a.m. The rally promises to be a great day with Ireland’s main radio dealers and equipment suppliers in attendance. There will also be many individual traders in attendance so come early to grab a bargain! The entry fee to the rally will be 5 Euro.

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society's 2022 Annual General Meeting will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, the 10th of April 2022 in the Morrison Suite at the Woodford Dolmen Hotel. Entry to the AGM will only be permitted to fully paid-up IRTS members and in line with previous practice membership will be checked prior to entry. EI2WRC are looking forward to welcoming everyone to Carlow over the weekend for the event. For more information about the event please see www.irtsagm2022cw.blogspot.com

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.


Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

The LCARC AGM was held in the Shannon Aviation Museum on Thursday evening the 10th March. Chairman Dermot, EI2GT welcomed all to a well attended meeting. He thanked the outgoing committee and club members for all their work over a very difficult two years. Despite the many challenges, the club is now in a very strong position, in so far as there is a very well equipped club station with a selection of HF, VHF and UHF antennas.

The success of the LCARC Rally 2021 was highlighted, which was largely due to the organisation and running of the event by those involved, while not forgetting the many who attended the event.

Club Secretary Michael Kirwan EI3KO and Club QSL manager Albert Price EI5HXB indicated that they wished to step back from their respective roles. Chairman Dermot thanked them for the work done in difficult and challenging times.

The following were elected:

Chairman Dermot Gleeson EI2GT Secretary Joe Ryan EI9HG Treasurer Liam Rainford EI7DSB Committee Brendan Kilmartin EI0CZ Michael Kingston EI2IX John Phelan EI4EY Simon Kenny EI7ALB QSL Manager Alan Cronin EI8EM Club Reps Gerry Gervin EI8CC Simon Kenny EI7ALB Trustees Harry O’Loughlin EI2KL Gerry Gervin EI8CC Tom O’Sullivan EI3AL

Chairman Dermot set out the priorities and initiatives for the coming year, before opening the meeting to any other business. A lively discussion, ranging over a number of topics, followed before the meeting closed.

The club continues to benefit from its association with the Shannon Aviation Museum. On Thursday and Friday, the 10th and 11th of March, Dermot EI2GT, Harry EI2KL and Mike EI2IX introduced over 300 students from the four local primary and secondary schools to Amateur Radio and associated aspects of physics.


St. Patrick’s Day Activities

First we report on the St. Patrick’s Day Weekend Flora & Fauna Activity Event. WWFF, World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio is a long standing award scheme internationally and has more than 26,000 Protected Flora and Fauna (PFF) areas worldwide which are registered in the WWFF Directory.  The EI Flora and Fauna Award scheme, which is affiliated to the international scheme, has been active since January 1st this year led by co-ordinator and awards manager Jer, EI3HGB and log manager Declan, EI9HQ. There are over 250 areas defined by the National Parks and Wildlife service and you can find all the necessary information on eiffirl.wordpress.com.

An activity event is taking place over the upcoming four day St. Patricks Day weekend and amateurs are asked to consider getting out and putting one of their local flora and fauna areas on the air. Certificates will be available for both activators and chasers for this event. Please advise Declan EI9HQ of your plans so duplication can be avoided. Contact Declan by email at eifflogs /at/ gmail.com

Another well established activity is the Saint Patrick's Day Award, which has many EI, GI, and callsigns from further afield registered on their website, making it easy to find them during what promises to be a long weekend on busy HF bands. Saint Patrick's Day stations will be running from midday UTC on Wednesday, the 16th of March, to midday UTC on Friday, the 18th of March. For further information and to register as a participating station go to www.stpatricksaward.com

A special effort to turn the airwaves green will be made by Charlie, EI8JB. He will be signing as EJ8JB from Bere Island, IOTA EU-121, from Thursday, the 17th until Sunday, the 20th of March. Activity will be on SSB, CW and RTTY. QSL's will be available via the bureau and also electronically via logbook of the world.


AMSAT receives grant from ARDC

AMSAT reports that it received a generous grant of over 93,000 US Dollars from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) for the development of a standardized 3U spaceframe CubeSat with deployable solar panels. In their report AMSAT states that this will serve as the mechanical platform for AMSAT’s GOLF series of satellites as well as a new generation of low earth orbit FM satellites. The spaceframe design will be available to the public under an open access agreement. Central to the development of the 3U spaceframe, AMSAT will build three flight-ready spaceframes for an upcoming series of satellites with potentially enhanced flight control, payload and communication capabilities. The need for a 3U spaceframe with deployable solar panels goes back to the original design requirements for the Greater Orbit, Larger Footprint (GOLF) satellites that would return AMSAT to Highly Elliptical Orbits (HEO). The benefit of this program will provide satellites with wider coverage and longer access times to the entire Amateur Radio satellite community worldwide.


The Propagation Horoscope

Five moderately active sunspot regions, soon to be joined by three more active region appearing over the northeastern limb of the solar disc will continue to disturb geomagnetic conditions. Lat week saw brief, unstable openings on the higher HF bands, and good DX on 20 to 15 meters. Following a full halo filament detachment on late Friday, a strong geomagnetic storm with an expected Kp 6 will impact early Monday morning. A spike in the proton count will be followed by a solar wind at around 400 km per second throughout the week. Expect some HF blackouts on Monday, followed by poor conditions, hopefully improving for next weekend's St Patrick's Day on shortwave.

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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