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This Week's News

Irish Radio Transmitter Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 13 February 2022
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Club News

The South Dublin Radio Club invites you to their upcoming webinar,
taking place on the 10th of March 2022. Hosted by the Electronic and
Computing division of Engineers Ireland and in collaboration with the
South Dublin Radio Club, this webinar with Adrian Connor EI9HAB and
Jeffrey Roe EI7IRB, will discuss `Amateur Radio - A Life-Long Technical
Hobby'. Amateur Radio is a rich and diverse hobby and an exciting mix
of science, communications, engineering and fun. It can be enjoyed by
all ages and a wide range of abilities. This presentation aims to
showcase the hobby and how to get started. All radio amateurs, SWLs,
and hobbyists are welcome to attend. This webinar will be an ideal way
to introduce someone new to our great hobby and will give good
information on how to get started - so spread the word. The
presentation will be via Zoom and details on how to attend can be found
on the Engineers Ireland website www.engineersireland.ie/Ev ents or via
South Dublin Radio Club's social media: Twitter /at/ SDRadioClub, South
Dublin Radio Club's Facebook page or the South Dublin Radio Club
website.

The Shannon Basin Radio Club will be holding its AGM on the 4th of
March 2022 at 8pm in Hannons Hotel, Roscommon Town. This is open to all
club members, and also to anyone interested in Radio and who would like
join the club. Finger food and refreshments will be served after
meeting. For more information contact admin /at/ sbrc.ie.

The 2022 Annual General Meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio
Group will take place at 8.00 p.m. sharp on Monday the 28th of February
2022 via the Zoom platform. The committee feels that because it's a
very important meeting and some people might not yet feel comfortable
attending public gatherings, that Zoom would be a better option than a
physical meeting. It would also allow members and those interested in
joining who live a distance away to attend. There will be a limited
number of places available for non-members of the club to attend this
meeting. Anyone interested in attending is asked to send an email
requesting details of how you can access the meeting to southeasternarg
/at/ gmail.com before 6 p.m. Monday the 21st of February.

The 89th Irish Radio Transmitters AGM weekend will take place over the
weekend of the 9th and 10th of April 2022 in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel,
Kilkenny Road, Carlow. The special room rate secured for the event will
end on the 1st march so there will be no rooms available after that
date at the reduced rate and rooms will cost the standard hotel prices.
Tickets for the Gala Dinner can now be pre-booked from John EI7IG for
collection on arrival at the event.

Individual traders are very welcome to attend the rally and sell any
equipment they wish to. Tables will be available to individual traders
for 10 Euro per table. Any IRTS affiliated radio club and groups are
also very welcome to attend the rally and promote their club or group.
Tables will be available free of charge, providing they do not sell any
radio gear or related items. Table inquiries can made to John EI3HQB on
086 8709265. Tables are limited so contact John as soon as possible
please.

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 join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Preparations are well underway for the GI-QRP convention in association
with the GQRP Club. The Convention will take place on the 25th of June
2022 at the Tandragee Golf Club, 11 Markethill Road, Tandragee,
Craigavon BT62 2ER, doors open at 9 a.m. Presentations start at 10 a.m.
There will be lectures and seminars, a series of build-a-thons, special
interest groups, talk-in, trade stands, prize draw and raffle,
catering, and a licensed bar. There will be ample parking and disabled
access. The callsign GI5LOW will be in use leading up to and during the
weekend of the convention.
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St. Patricks Day

The organisers of the Saint Patrick's Day award are excited to announce
the launch of a new web page where visitors can learn everything they
need to know about the Saint Patrick's day award. On the new page, you
will also find the simple registration form to be completed by all
participants in this year's festivities which will be running from the
16th-18th March 2022. Previous years have seen over 100 amateurs
register to participate and we are hopeful that this will continue to
grow. The award is an opportunity for amateurs around the world to
celebrate Saint Patrick's day and turn the airwaves green. The new page
can be accessed at www.stpatricksaward.com We look forward to
celebrating with you all.
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Postal Stamp Collection

The Radio Amateur Association of Greece informs us that the Greek Post
Office will issue four postal stamps with ham radio motifs, titled
"Radio Technology in Greece". Interested collectors are advised that
only 5000 stamp booklets are on offer from next Tuesday. More
information can be found on the EEP's website at www.raag.org
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ARISS News

The next opportunity to listen in on an ARISS event comes up on Monday
14th, when students at the Univeristy of Aachen, in southwestern
Germany are scheduled to make contact with astronaut Mathias Maurer,
KI5KF aboard the International Space Station. The downlink frequency is
145.800 MHz FM. The ISS rises due west at 11:38 UTC, climbs to an
elevation of 70 degrees over Ireland, then sets due east at 11:48. The
contact with the students starts at 11:40 UTC, but one can expect to
hear traffic between DLØFHA and KI5KF the moment the station comes into
view during this long pass.
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Digital Voice Mode on HF

FreeDV is a Digital Voice mode for HF radio. You can run FreeDV using
freely available Open-Source software, available for Linux, OSX and
Windows, allowing any SSB radio to be used for low bit rate digital
voice. Alternatively, a commercially available FreeDV adaptor allows
the use of this efficient mode without a PC or sound card. FreeDV is
being developed by an international team of radio amateurs working
together on coding, design, user interface and testing. Aiming to
popularize this new mode, its software developer Mooneer Salem, K6AQ
announces the Second FreeDV Activity Day on Saturday, February 19th,
2022. He writes: "This event will bring together people interested in
HF digital voice on the air for conversation and fun. Contacts using
the official application as well as the SM1000 handheld microphone are
welcome. As this isn't a contest, there's no pressure to make contacts
or send logs, but you can always confirm QSOs via the usual means if
you'd like." The FreeDV Activity day is a 24 hour event, starting on
Saturday, the 19th of February, at 16:00 Zulu, and ending on Sunday,
the 20th of February at 15:59 Zulu. Enabling PSK Reporter in the FreeDV
application and joining the QSO Finder are recommended so others can
see that you're on the air. A list of the suggested frequencies for the
hf bands are

80m: 3.625, 3.643 or 3.693 MHz; 40m: 7.177 MHz; 20m: 14.236 MHz; 17m:
18.118 MHz; 15m: 21.313 MHz; 12m: 24.933 MHz; and 10m: 28.330 or 28.720
MHz.

Note that LSB/DIGL is used below 10MHz as per current convention for
voice modes, USB/DIGU otherwise.
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On The Air

The GB2RS News Team reports that on the 14th of February 1922, a small
group of Marconi employees began a series of experimental entertainment
broadcasts on Medium Wave from a wooden hut near Writtle. The callsign
of the original station was 2MT. These experiments are now regarded as
the Birth of British Broadcasting and the origins of the BBC. On Monday
the 14th of February 2022, to commemorate the centenary, Chelmsford ARS
will be running GB1002MT. They plan to have HF, VHF and UHF stations on
the air from 2pm to 9pm using CW and SSB.

On Thursday the 70MHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230 UTC.
Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and
locator.

The ARRL International DX contest is due next weekend, running for 48
hours from Saturday 00:00 UTC, to Sunday 23:59 UTC, The ARRL website
has the details in their contest section.
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The Propagation Horoscope

A full halo filament eruption last week resulted not only in a
disturbed geomagnetic field, but also produced around fourty expensive
ionisation trails, thanks to Space-X ignoring space weather warnings,
and launching anyway. Two large sunspot regions in the northern
hemisphere, joined by two more large regions returning on the eastern
limb will deliver more C-flares, some M-flares are likely. The MUF2
reached above 25 Mhz most days, with a critical frequency well above 6
MHz. Another large plume was ejected early Friday morning, the arc of
the plasma reached us late on Saturday. In its wake the Solar wind
speed will ramp up to above 450 km per second, after the proton count
peaked at 15 particles per cubic centimeter late on Friday. NOAA
predicts a Kp index of at least three for the coming week. This
translates into excellent DX on all Hf bands. Daily opening into the
Carribean on 10 and 12 meters should widen further south.

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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