Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 11 December 2022
Cork Silent Keys EI7HO and EI3IY
The Cork amateur radio community are mourning the sad loss of two colleagues on successive recent Sundays. Jack O'Connell EI7HO passed away on Sunday November 27th in the Mercy Hospital, Cork following a short illness. He was a native of Mayfield but resided in Midleton in recent years. Jack was an active member of IRTS, Cork Radio Club and the Cork Repeater Group and was very active on FT8 on the HF bands. We extend our deepest sympathy to his eight sons, two daughters, brother and sisters and extended family.
Hugh O'Leary EI3IY passed away suddenly at his home in Midleton on Sunday December 3rd 2022. While Hugh was not very active on the air in recent times, he kept in touch with what was happening in the hobby and was an avid listener. Our deepest sympathy goes to his wife Liz and sons Kevin and Niall and his extended family.
Maybe they both rest in peace.
IRTS News Readers Required
The IRTS are currently compiling a panel of newsreaders for the weekly Sunday morning 40m and 80m IRTS news bulletins for 2023. The rota which was set up in 2022 is to share the news reading duties amongst the entire panel of newsreaders and it ensures that the work load is evenly spread out. The more people that volunteer the less often each individual reader will have to do the broadcast. There is very little involved in the broadcast and no experience is necessary. If any fully licensed EI feels like that they would be interested in becoming part of the IRTS News Readers panel, can they please get in touch with the IRTS Public Relations Officer Seany EI2HZB directly on 083 4713001 or by email to irts_pro /at/ irts.ie by December 12th. Likewise, if anyone has any further questions, please get in touch also. Once a list of those interested has been compiled, we will set about getting a rota in place for both the 40m and 80m Sunday bulletins for 2023.
South Dublin Radio Club
This year's South Dublin Radio Club Christmas Party will take place on Tuesday, the 13th of December 2022 at 8 p.m. The venue will be "The Morgue" pub in Templeogue Village. Members of other clubs and visitors are as usual very welcome to this social event. Limited free food will be available for paid-up members, visitors can choose from the bar menu until 9.00 p.m. The club will then break for Christmas and return on the 3rd of January 2023.
North Dublin Radio Club
Last Saturday at the North Dublin Radio Club, members were pleasantly surprised by an impromptu D-Star demonstration thanks to Annard EI4IQB and Howard EI9LC. High quality images were transmitted between the two stations, which was very impressive. Annard has promised to follow this in the near future with an FT8 presentation. The North Dublin Radio Club meets on Saturdays at 8 p.m. in the Artane Beaumont Family Recreation Centre, beside the Tesco Artane Castle Shopping Centre. However, there will be no meeting on Saturday next the 17th as the club's Christmas party is taking place on that day.
Collective Communication
Building on the success of our JOTA and ROTA events earlier this year Collective Communication are making plans to celebrate St Patrick's Day 2023. We would urge all clubs to consider something similar for St.Particks' Day, if not participating in the actual parades, then possibly having a display /P station operational near by, so the public get a chance to see amateur radio in action, so to speak. At present we are in the process of building a purpose designed mobile shack and public display trailer for this and future events where Collective Communications will be "Flying the Flag" for amateur radio. As planning is the key to success we are in the process of actively framing and arranging further events to participate in and showcase amateur radio during 2023, events like Parks on the Air, WWFF, Castles on the Air. So we're hoping that the weather will be kind to us next year. More details of our events will be posted nearer the time of each activity, please keep an ear out for EI3CC and give us a call if you're able to. If you'd be interested in joining us or becoming involved in future Collective Communication activities look us up on Facebook, or contact John EI3HQB on 086 870 9265.
Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum.
Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth is closed for repairs for the time being. It is estimated that the work will be completed in early January. This also means that EI0MAR will also be QRT until then. The museum will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023. It was first opened by the late Pat Herbert in 2003 and it is his legacy to us all. We'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our friends and supporters a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
EI5LA to compete in WRTC 2023
The World Radio Team Championships, the Olympic Games of Amateur radio, are held every four years and will be held in Italy in 2023. The competition is based on the IARU HF Championships which are held each year on the second weekend in July. For the first time since the WRTC started, an Irish amateur will be competing, when Megan EI5LA along with Leon DL3ON will make up Youth Team 6 in the competition. Congratulations to Megan and we wish her the best of luck and no doubt she will do us all proud in Italy next year. Megan was licensed in September 2021, aged 14 and has progressed to being an active and very competent contest operator at East Cork based EI7M. She is an active member of the Kerry Amateur Radio Group and the National Short Wave Listeners Club.
Contesting
The Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge was created by a small group of contesters who were interested in 160 meters topband. The most unique feature of this CW contest is that the point value of QSOs depends on the distance between the two stations. The activity levels for this contest continue to grow, but the band tends to be less crowded than the other contests, making it easier to work DX. The December event has the highest participation, which is due to the good conditions during Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The "Big" Stew starts next Saturday at 15:00 zulu and runs for 24 hours. The maximum 'on' time is limited to 14 hours. 'Off' times must be a minimum of 30 minutes with no QSOs. Organiser Lew, W7EW, has been sending out plaques and they are in shacks all around the world, including plaques for stations using smaller or temporary antennas. The Boring Amateur Radio Club organises the Stew Perry. Their webpage is at www.kkn.net/stew .
On the 160m band there will be nine hours of overlap with the RAC Canada Winter Contest 2022, which runs for 24 hours, starting at 00:00 UTC next Saturday. Bands and Modes are 160 to 10, 6 and 2 metres, CW, SSB, FM, and AM. Stations in Canada send RS(T) and province or territory. VEØs and stations outside Canada send signal report and a serial number.
Amateur Radio Mission to the Moon not lost
OMOTENASHI, a project of the JAXA Ham Radio Club, was a secondary payload aboard NASA's Artemis 1 mission, launched a fortnight ago. It was planned to land a 70cm band beacon protected inside a soft pouch on the surface of the moon. The ham radio club's website for JAXA, Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, reports that orbital errors had resulted in an unstable radio signal for its communications. The website also reports that the solar cells face away from the sun, making it problematic to charge OMOTENASHI's batteries. Thus, the lunar landing experiment could not be carried out. But the opportunity to orbit beyond the moon is valuable. The axis of rotation appears stable and the spacecraft will get sunlight when the direction of the sun changes next March. Amateurs can receive the orbiting module 1 Watt beacon, transmitting PSK31 Sync Word C1 ASCII code with a medium to high gain linear polarisation antenna on 437.31 MHz. Pointing the antenna is simple: Aim for the Moon!
2200m Band
Using 0.8 Watt EIRP, a station south of Perth in Western Australia made a one-way contact into North America on the 2200m band on the 21st of November. The Western Australian Low Frequency Experimenters Group WALFEG reports the transmission from VK6MJM was received 16,164 kilometres away in the United States by Paul, KM5SW, in New Mexico. The station was using a five-minute key-down mode known as WSJT-X FST4W-300 mode.
The Propagation Horoscope
last Thursday's strong CME at noon, although missing earth by a wide margin, results in a Solar wind speed at SOHO now ranging between 477 and 628 km/sec. The stage is set for C-Flares and possibly M-Flares from numerous active regions. Propagation is currently very changeable, ranging from blackouts on 40 to 15m, followed by excellent DX on 12 and 10m. Topband is beginning to give reliable contacts across the North Atlantic from early evening. The Geminides are peaking around Wednesday and Thursday. Should the frosty clear nights persist until midweek observe the radiant in the constellation Gemini in the northeast, just before moon-rise. Visible streaks also mean audible pings on VHF. Meteor Scatter, temperature inversions over cold ground, a high kP index, it all makes for interesting VHF propagation events like the phenomenal opening on Wednesday on the 8m band, reported by John, Ei7GL on ei7gl.blogspot.com .
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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