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This Week's News

Irish Radio Transmitter Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 27Nov2022
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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.
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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.
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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.

[C]
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