Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 29 January 2023
Ivan Elliott EI7IKB SK
We regret to announce the tragic death of Ivan Elliott EI7IKB in a hill walking accident in the Tararua Ranges, New Zealand on January 6th last while on a family holiday. Ivan, who lived in Cobh, Co. Cork was licensed in 2021 following online training with the National Short Wave Listeners club and was a member of Cork Radio Club. We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife Sinéad, his children Kate and David, his mother, his two brothers and his extended family in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. A service to celebrate Ivan's life was held in Masterton, New Zealand on January 14th followed by a private cremation. May Ivan rest in peace.
Resignation of the President of the IRTS
The IRTS Committee have received a letter of resignation from the President of the IRTS, Larry EI9CN, yesterday. The Committee would like to thank Larry for his hard work and offers him best wishes for the future. Further information will be provided when it becomes available.
NSWLC Report January 2023
As of today, NSWLC has 146 members, of whom99have renewed their membership for 2023. One or two of the remaining 47 may still renew before the 31 January deadline. The remainder is comprised of a few members whohave moved toother clubs, and a group of those who may have given up their licensingjourney. We wish all the best of luck in radio. Since our club requires that all memberships must be explicitly renewed each December, we expect this pattern to repeat annually. The number of renewals has somewhat exceeded our expectations. The NSWLC annual dinner will take place on Saturday 25 Feb 2023 at the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis, Co Clare. We are looking forward to meeting each other, and other amateurs, thanks to our collaboration with Limerick Clare Radio Club. The Study Guide is continuing to receive valuable feedback. All work on revising it is currently on hiatus and we expect to resume it in the Spring. We hope to publish the final version, containing all the accepted feedback, in June or July. The HAREC Training Foxtrot classes have resumed after the December break and continue right on schedule. Attendance is very good, averaging 49 students each week. Based on the number of questions and the overall level of student engagement we have high hopes for the results in May.
The Club has continued to meet every Sunday. Attendance has increased to about 45-48 each Sunday, viaZoom, with the last four meetings covering subjects as home-brewingand electronic components, QSO structure with live demos of SSB, CW, RTTY, and FT8 QSOs, a SWL mini-contest prize, how to learn Morse with straight keys, paddles, bugs, electronic keyers, and everything else about sending CW.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC
The January meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will take place on Monday, the 30th of January 2023, at 8pm sharp at the New Community Men's Shed, Ozanam Centre, Coffee House Lane, Waterford. 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, making it a good starting point for anyone who might be interested in coming along, but isn't sure how to find our new location. New members, or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio or the group are as always very welcome to attend.
Members of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will be QRV as EI2IMD on Saturday April 22nd for the International Marconi Day 2023. The station will be active from Tramore, Co. Waterford. Tramore has a direct connection with Marconi as he often stayed there with his aunt Mrs. Cookman who resided at the Cove, Tramore. Special thanks to the organisers the Cornish Radio Amateur Club for organising this special event. More details will be made known in the coming days on the SEARG Facebook and EI2IMD QRZ pages. For more information on the International Marconi Day please see www.gx4crc.com
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. South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC
Collective Communications
With less than two months to go Collective Communications' EI3CC plans for their mobile parade display at the coastal resort of Tramore, Co. Waterford on St. Patrick's Day are rapidly coming together. Work on our new 'mobile shack' is progressing apace with a complete chassis renovation and brand new interior. Learning from past experiences, namely ROTA, a section of one side of the trailer will open out, rather like a mobile hot food stall to enable interested members of the public to better see some of the equipment modern radio amateurs use these days. And if any of the public are interested and courageous enough they will be able to 'have a chat' on air, of course under supervision. The Tramore parade will take place after the Waterford City parade, and indeed some of the floats from the city tend to 'migrate' down to Tramore, so a good show is always on the cards. Depending on weather conditions some of the Tramore funfair will be open so there is every reason to make the journey and join in the celebration of our national day. Additionally, just a few weeks later on the 22nd of April, EI3CC will be operating as EI3IMD to celebrate International Marconi Day from the restored Coastguard And Cultural Center, Doneaile Drive, Tramore. It's an ideal site to operate from being on the cliffs overlooking the sea. With the Coastguard Centre and it's history, displays and cafe as a secondary attraction make a note in your diary to visit us. Subject to conditions we'll be supporting HF, VHF, and UHF operation. If you're unable to join us on the day, listen out for EI3IMD on the bands. No matter your preference of operation, SSB, CW, or FM we would love to have your call-sign in our logbook, we'll have some special QSL cards to confirm contacts. If you'd like more info on these, or any other of our activities, call John EI3HQB on 086 870 9265. We're looking forward to seeing you at either one, or both, of these event.
Skywave ARC
The February meeting of the Skywave Amateur Radio Club EI0SW Will take place on Tuesday, the 7th of February at 8.00 p.m. at theOld Halfway House, Rathduff, Co. Cork, Eircode T23 VN88. New members or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio are very welcome to attend. Skywave Amateur Radio Club will be activating Blackrock Castle Observatory on Sunday, the 5th of March to mark Engineers Week 2023. The Blackrock Castle COTA Reference number is EI-00055. Skywave ARC will also be demonstrating Slow Scan Television on the day and a other radiorelated subjects from 10am to 4pm. Keep an listen out on 20m, or if you are close by on the day, do come along and say hello.
UKEICC 80m
On Wednesday the 1st of February, the UK and Ireland Contest Club 80m Contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is your six character locator. The Bonus call-signs, worth 15 points each, will be Ei5G, operated by Paul EI3ENB, and GM5GEI, operated by Chris GM3WOJ.
Orbital News
The SSTV unit aboard the ISS has failed. The interface card connecting the radios with the computer suffered damage beyond repair. New laptops are also being used, which require a new interface components from the ARISS-Russia team. ARISS-Russia is developing this new interface and is consulting the ARISS-International hardware and software team. Sergey Samburov, RV3DR stated that they expect to complete the SSTV development efforts early next year and the hardware will be transported to the ISS on a Progress flight later in 2024. Until then there will be no more SSTV broadcasts.
The Propagation Horoscope
Exceptionally good propagation conditions on all HF bands are gifting DX for even the most modest station setup, therefore let's shift our attention to the higher frequencies. With the 40 MHz 8m band now firmly established in many countries, reports are about remarkable long distance contacts, together with an excellent analysis by John EI7Gl are compiled on his website at ei7gl.blogspot.com . This is also reflected by reports from Robbie, EI2IP about good openings on 40Mhz in the past fortnight, with F2 propagation towards North America and the Caribbean. Notable contacts were made on Wednesday, the 18th of January, with the first confirmed two way SSB contact between Europe and the United States, between EI2IP and WM2XEJ in Georgia, followed by the first confirmed two way SSB contact from Europe to Bonaire Island, between EI2IP and PJ4MM. Robbie's transmissions on 8m were also confirmed by SWLs in Mexico, Ukraine, South Africa, Costa Rica and Canada. Phil EI9KP has concluded the second round of experiments on 34 MHz, results of which, together with reports of his many other propagation experiments can also be found 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.
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