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Irish Radio Transmitter Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 27Nov2022


Silent Key, Des Burke EI5FG

The death has occurred of Desmond Burke, Ballybunion, County Kerry and formerly of Knightstown,Valentia Island, Co Kerry. Des passed away peacefully on Monday the 21st November 2022, in his 95th year. Sadly missed by his wife Mary and his children Pauline, Gerard, Joseph, Anne and Una. Des worked for many years at the Valentia Cable Station, where he became Assistant Superintendent, up until the cable station closed in 1966. He was a keen CW operator and could send and receive at high speed. Des was always very helpful to many new Amateur Radio experimenters in the area. May he Rest in Peace.


Silent Key, Frank Mason EI6EVB

We regretfully report on the death of Frank Mason EI6EVB on November 8th 2022. Frank was a lifelong member of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society and an active member and officer of Cork Radio Club over the years. He was born in Lismore, Co. Waterford but lived most of his life in Cork City where he worked for Cork City Corporation. Frank was cremated at the Island Crematorium, Rocky Island, Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork on Friday November 11th. We extend our deepest sympathy to Frank’s wife Therese and daughters Oonagh, Barbara, Laura, Sinead and Niamh. May he rest in peace.


News from the IRTS

The first ‘face to face’ IRTS committee meeting in over 2 and a half years took place on Saturday the 19th of November at the Maldron Hotel in Portlaoise. The meeting which started at 11 a.m. and concluded at 1 p.m. was well attended by IRTS committee members, officers of the society and many club representatives from the various radio clubs around Ireland. IRTS Vice-President Enda Ei2II chaired the meeting which was very productive and over the two hours a large number of new topics and the day to day matters relevant to the running of the society were discussed. Regretfully, Andy EI5JF had to resign from the committee due to personal commitments and the IRTS thank him for his service to the society. Some of the topics discussed included ComReg's requesting amendments to the current process of handling automatic station licence applications and work on finalising this new procedure is currently underway. The idea of electronic voting was talked about and although it is not part of our current constitution it may be included in the new constitution which is currently being written. Also discussed was the excellent 2021 SWOT analyses carried out on behalf of the society by Adrian EI9HAB on the needs of amateur radio in Ireland as part of an IARU study program.

Following on from this report we are in the process of putting together a working group to take the findings from this report and make recommendations to the committee on areas the IRTS can improve. We already have Adrian EI9HAB, Robbie EI2IP and Niall EI6HIB involved but there are still a few places for any members with an interest in shaping our future to assist, and anyone interested is asked to send an email to irts_secretary /at/ irts.ie. The IRTS are also looking for 3 or 4 people to become part of a working group to deal with EMC. There are a few different roles to be filled within this group including a representative to deal with the NSAI. Another role in this working group would include the reading of documents relating to EMC so this might be suitable for a semi-retired or retired person. Anyone interested or looking for more details is asked to get in touch with EMC Manager Liam EI4GB by email to liam.mangan /at/ ymail.com. The next IRTS committee meeting will take place on the 17th of December at 11 a.m. and will take place on the Zoom platform.


News from the Clubs

The November meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will take place tomorrow, Monday the 28th of November 2022, at 8 p.m. sharp at the New Community Men's Shed, Ozanam Centre, Coffee House Lane, Waterford. The group would like to thank Frank Kennedy of the Ozanam Centre for making this excellent facility available for us to use. A special word of thanks also to club member Pat Dwyer EI7IUB for sourcing this venue on behalf of the group. Although the Ozanam Centre has no Eircode it is located directly behind the St. Vincent De Paul shop on Henrietta Street which has the Eircode X91 FEK1. So that would be a good starting point for anyone who might be interested in coming along and maybe not sure about the location. New members, or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio or the group are as always very welcome to attend. 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 find them on Facebook.

The Shannon Basin Radio Club will hold their AGM on Friday, the 9th of December 2022, starting at 8pm sharp. It will be held in Athlone town within the Abbey Road Studio located at the junction of Abbey Rd and Northgate street. The Eircode is N37 W089. All are welcome to join. Contact admin /at/ sbrc.ie if any further details may be required.


HF Activities

Robert, S53R operates as 9N7AA from Kathmandu, Nepal. The last activation of Nepal was in 2014, Robert will be active until spring, slowly improving on his wire antenna farm. this week he managed to stretch 80 and 160m slopers over two adjacent properties, power lines and optical cables. Suffering from local QRM on the lower bands, he reports better results on the higher bands. FT8 spots are mainly on 30, 17, 15, 12 and 10m, so it should be possible to work 9N7AA during mornings.

The RSGB is hosting the Transatlantic Centenary Tests 2022 on the HF bands for the month of December. Unlike those of the 1920s, which consisted of one-way communication, this event will encourage worldwide two-way contacts with UK and Crown Dependency stations. There will be a series of awards available for making QSOs with those who are activating historic RSGB call-signs.

In preparation for the CQ WorldWide DX CW contest next weekend, a number of rare call-signs from around Europe can already be heard. Mathieu, MJ0ASP is putting Jersey Island, IOTA EU113 on the map, during the CQ WW DX CW Contest he will use the contest call-sign GJ2A. Dick, GU4CHY is setting up his station a few miles further north, on Guernsey Island, IOTA EU114. Two operators on the otherwise silent, but largest island in our extended neighbourhood is on the air. Alex, OZ7AM, operates as OX7AKT, and Mikkel, OZ7AKT is on the air as OX7AKT, from Kangerussuag, Greenland, IOTA NA-018, until just after the Contest. The run-up to the CQ WW is a good opportunity to log many of the Caribbean islands, VP2MJA is already active on Montserrat on CW, SSB and FT8.

Over the past decade, The European DX Foundation has sponsored many well-known DXers and numerous DXpeditions. The EUDXF logo appears on the QSL cards of the main activities sponsored by EUDXF. Spread out throughout November, over a dozen of special event stations, all using call-signs with the number and suffix 36EUDXF, will be celebrating 36 years of EUDXF.

The Radio Society of Great Britain will mark the centenary of the Transatlantic Tests, which firmly established that amateur radio communication could cross the Atlantic. The RSGB has activated historic call-signs to mark a series of historic moments 100 years ago: the successful one-way transatlantic radio communication showed the HF bands to be well-suited for amateurs' signals crossing an ocean. The first amateur transmission from Europe using the call-sign 5WS was heard in North America on the 24th of December 1922. The activated call-signs in England are G5WS, G5AT, G6XX, G6ZZ and G3DR, The station in Scotland will be GM5WS; Wales will use GW5WS and Northern Ireland, GI5WS. Guernsey will use GU5WS and Jersey will use GJ5WS. Operators from the Isle of Man go on air as GD5WS.


Contests

The 48 hour duration Indonesia Kalbar SSB Contest, starting Saturday at 00:00 UTC, will occupy the 80,40,20,15 and 10 meter contest segments. Normally, a contest in IARU-Region 3 would rarely make it into an IRTS news bulletin, but current propagation conditions have made Indonesian call-signs, like next weekend's bonus point station 7A7A, appear with big signals and long pile-ups when beaming into Europe on 40m.

In next weekend's ARRL 160m CW contest, DX-to-DX QSOs do not count, but Alaska KL7, the Caribbean US possessions KP1-KP5, and all of the Pacific Ocean territories KH0-KH9, including Hawaii KH6, can work both domestic stations from the US and VE, as well as DX stations. The 42 hours marathon starts at 22:00 UTC on Friday. See contests.arrl.org for details.

Paul, Ei5DI reports an announcement from the RSGB Contests Committee. It reads: "Sadly, due to insufficient UK participation, the RSGB DX Contest is discontinued. In place of the DX Contest, the UK/EI DX CW 24 hour contest in the spring, and the UK/EI DX SSB 24 hour contest in the autumn, are being supported by the RSGB and are being integrated into the RSGB HF Contest program. The Trophies that were previously awarded to DX Contest winners will be allocated to the leading RSGB members in the UK/EI DX CW and UK/EI DX SSB Contests either individually or combined. If you previously supported the DX Contest, please support these two contests.


The Propagation Horoscope

The geomagnetic field was quiet, and Solar activity has been at very low levels until Friday. Geomagnetic Activity will increase slightly over the weekend. There are currently 4 numbered sunspot regions on the disk. Solar activity is expected to be very low with a chance for a C-class flares and a slight chance for an M-class flare. Amid a low solar flux index below 120 last week, predicted to remain around the 120-125 mark for next week, DX opportunities are reduced to occasional unstable openings in the afternoon. 20 to 10m works reasonably well in the direction of South America and the Carribbean, early birds have a choice of contacts with Asia and Oceania. ZL is roughly the same distance long and short path, currently both paths work until around one hour after sunrise. As we head into Winter, North American SSB stations are appearing on topband after midnight, crowding the 80m before sunrise.

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 Friday noon.

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