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Irish Radio Transmitter Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 15 May 2022
__________________________________________________________________

IRTS Committee

The following are the new committee for 2022/23: President: Larry
McGriskin EI9CN Vice President: Enda Broderick EI2II Hon. Secretary:
Ger McNamara EI4GXB Treasurer: David Gardiner EI3IXB Pat Fitzpatrick
EI2HX Robbie Phelan EI2IP Owen O'Reilly EI4GGB Tony Breathnach EI5EM
Andy Jay EI5JF Niall Donohoe EI6HIB Mark Condon EI6JK John Ronan EI7IG
Roger Greengrass EI8KN Ronnie McGrane EI9ED We wish the incoming
committee the best of luck for 2022/23.
__________________________________________________________________

South Dublin Radio Club

South Dublin Radio Club are delighted to announce a full return to our
club premises at Ballyroan Community Center, Rathfarnham, on Tuesday,
the 17th of May from 19:30 to 21:30. We'd love to see all club members,
especially the new friends we have met online during the pandemic. If
you have joined us in our online activities over the past 2 years but
have not yet been to the clubhouse, you will find directions and public
transport information on our web-site southdublinradioclub.weebly.com

Should you not be in a position to physically join us, don't worry, you
can join in too! We intend to continue the online aspect of our club
meetings, live from the clubhouse, via Zoom. The usual Zoom password
applies. If you don't have Zoom access already, you can request Zoom
login details by contacting us via our web-site, via South Dublin Radio
Club Facebook or via Twitter /at/ SDRadioClub.

All intending & existing members will be asked to update their club
membership on their return. For this purpose, a membership form is
available for download and print from our web-site. We kindly ask that
you bring along your completed membership form and the specified annual
membership fee on the night.

South Dublin Radio Club is always open to new members. So, if you are
new to amateur radio or just want get a feel for the hobby and our
club, you are most welcome to pop in on any club night - in person or
online.
__________________________________________________________________

ARDC

German radio amateurs have received a grant of just under 250,000 Euros
by ARDC to develop software for the use of GSM/GPRS technology on
amateur radio bands. Amateur Radio Digital Communications, the
organization that administers the AMPRNet internet domain and sold some
4 million unassigned addresses in 2019, continues using the proceeds
from that sale to support amateur radio and communications networking
research. Open Source Mobile Communications (Osmocom) is an umbrella
project, fiscally sponsored by the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC),
that hosts, develops, and maintains mobile communications and SDR open
source projects, with a main focus on cellular telephony systems.
Osmocom identified a gap between the last decade of very promising open
source developments in cellular technology and the requirements of
being able to use this in the context of amateur radio. This grant will
be used to develop software that will allow the use of GSM/GPRS
technology on amateur radio bands by implementing a SDR PHY that can be
plugged beneath the existing OsmocomBB code to allow its use on
general-purpose SDR hardware such as the LimeSDR or USRP series of
radios and adding basic support for packet-switched GPRS services to
OsmocomBB. Once completed, the work within this project will pave the
way to significantly increase the achievable packet data rates within
the same narrow-band channel.
__________________________________________________________________

252kHz

Channel Chaine 3 from Algeria has been back on air with the usual field
strength and good audio quality on 252 kHz after a long time. As a
result, interference with the Long-Wave signal from RTE on the same
frequency is more or less ubiquitous again.
__________________________________________________________________

On the Air

The New Zealand Amateur Radio Transmitters Society (NZART) reports that
their regulator, RSM, has continued their 60m Sub-License (5351.5 to
5366.5 kHz).

The Belgian BIPT informs that between the 30th of May and and the 18th
of June 2022 there will be a military exercise in Elzenborn. On that
occasion 2 frequencies in the 6 meter band will be used: 50.200 MHz and
51.075 MHz. The amateur radio service has a secondary status in this
band, while the military service has a primary status. Radio Amateurs
are asked to respect this and if possible avoid the use of these
frequencies during this period.

Within the IARU Region 1 working group for emergency communication, the
international test of emergency communication on short wave in the 40m
and 17m bands using SSB and CW modes will take place on Saturday, the
21st of May from 14:00 to 16:00 UTC.

After two years of lock-down, the ITU building in Geneva is back in
operation. Perhaps you have recently worked with 4U1 are or you may
have seen a number of cluster spots from this station. The station is
on the air until the 3rd of June. A Stepp-IR is used for 40, 20, 15 and
10 meters. A second transceiver is now also being set up for 6 meters,
including FT8.
__________________________________________________________________

Contests

Due to problems with the ARI web-site, the log deadline for the ARI
International DX Contest has been extended to Saturday, the 21st of
May. Logs can be sent to hfcontest.ari /at/ gmail.com.

Congratulations to Mark, EI6JK on achieving a new CQWW DX CW Irish
record on 20 metres with over 1,400 QSOs with 37 zones and 114
countries during the 48 hours contest.

The UKEICC DX CW contest that took place a fortnight ago attracted 559
entrants who worked 2,700 call signs in over 64,000 QSOs. Results can
be seen on www.ukeicc.com The top Irish score is pretty impressive, the
most Rookie entries were from Ireland, made by Megan, EI5LA, Ryan,
EI8KW and Rafal, EI6LA.

On Thursday the all-mode 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs between 19:00
and 21:30 UTC. The exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.

Next weekend sees the RSGB 144MHz May contest for all modes. It runs
for 24 hours from 14:00 UTC on the 21st of May. The exchange is signal
report, serial number and the locator square. Note that UK stations
also send their postcode.

The First 144MHz Backpackers organized by the RSGB takes place on
Sunday, the 22nd of May, running from 11:00 to 15:00 UTC. Using all
modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.

The IARU R1 Youth Working Group, cooperating with the Hungarian Amateur
Radio Society, MARSZ, organizes the YOTA Contest series for 2022. The
objective is to increase youngsters activity on the air, to strengthen
the reputation of the YOTA program and to demonstrate support for
youngsters across the world. The first of three rounds takes place on
the 21st of May, from 08:00 to 19:59 UTC. The second round will take
place on the 23rd of July, from 10:00 to 21:59 UTC, and the final round
for 2022 will take place on the 30th of December, from 22:00 to 23:59
UTC. The bands in use will be 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m, using CW and
SSB. YOTA is defined by the IARU as any youngster up to and including
25 years of age.
__________________________________________________________________

Electromagnetic Field Festival

A summer camping festival, not just for Hams, described as "a temporary
village of geeks, crafters and technology enthusiasts" is taking place
over the first weekend in June at Eastnor Castle Deer Park in
Herefordshire. Over 2,000 people are expected at Electromagnetic Field
which will bring technology, scientific curiosity, and the Amateur
Radio Village GX1EMF and the AMSAT-UK Village GB4EMF. In addition to
speakers and workshops on technology topics, there will also be music
and other entertainments. Ticket prices and other information is
available at the web-site www.emfcamp.org .
__________________________________________________________________

The Propagation Horoscope

A high probability of C-flares is predicted as the old active regions
2993 and 2994 will return into view again this weekend. Their far-side
activities looked to be very strong with large coronal mass ejections
observed. The centers of the earth facing sunspot regions 3006 and 3007
show a mixture of magnetic polarities, making them likely candidates
for magnetic re-connections, triggering strong flares. These two areas
stand out among many active regions, we can expect day-side blackouts
during this week. The solar flux will increase to at least 140 units,
at a speed of around 300 km/s, and a medium proton count. The kP index
is currently at an average of 3, but likely to increase. Expect
propagation on 40m and below to be poor, good conditions should persist
on 20, 17 and 15m, but 12m and above will be unstable.

The Cetids meteor shower will peak on the 20th of May, listen for the
typical pings in your 2m ssb receiver. The high pressure zone over
Ireland promises another round of good tropo-spheric conditions, helped
by an increase in sporadic-E activity.

VHF/UHF operators are again reminded to keep a close eye on John's
web-site at ei7gl.blogspot.com, the go-to place for any serious
operator above 30 MHz. This week's headline is the shutdown of the
trans-Atlantic 144 MHz beacon EI2DKH.

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.

[C]
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