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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 24 April 2022
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New Radio HAMS

On Wednesday, Rafal, EI6LA wrote on irts.groups.io: "I am delighted to
share that as of now we have 12 fresh exam passes from amongst the
attendees of NSWLC Class Echo:

Andreas, EI9IOB, Artur, EI9IKB, Brian, EI1925 waiting to apply for
licence, Domhnall, EI9IMB, Eamonn, EI7LC, Gerard, EI9IQB, Kevin EI9IVB
(former NSWLC attendee), Oisín EI1916 - waiting to apply for licence,
Omar, waiting for call sign Paraic, EI9IRB, Paul, EI9ISB and Thomas,
EI9IPB

There are, unfortunately, 5 members who have not made it this time that
we know of. A good few members had to delay their exam due to Covid,
and a few plan to take the next one. Congratulations to everyone, those
who have passed, and those who have studied hard but who may need a
little more time to succeed later this year. Well done everyone! I will
post here again if I hear of any more passes or new call signs from
NSWLC." See irts.groups.io .
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Festival of Fun

Angus, EI5IIB, is hoping to operate a Special Event Station at the
Kilmihil, Co. Clare, "Festival of Fun", which is held over the August
bank holiday weekend. The special event call-sign EI-22-KFOF has been
licensed by COMREG to operate on the festival site at the GAA grounds
in Kilmihil, on the bank holiday Monday, which falls on the 1st of
August. While some logistics still need to be arranged for this to
happen, the hope is that there will be contacts with amateurs who have
some connection to the village, or to the area, to bring the excitement
of the hobby to the festival-goers, especially local youngsters. The
special event license is for 80-10m, 6m, 2m and 70cm, although it may
not be possible to operate on all bands.
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Club News

The Cork Radio Club is taking a short break from their weekly meetings
on the Zoom platform and will meet again on Monday August 8th.
Everybody is welcome to call in and say hello. The Zoom link will be
posted on the Cork Radio Club's Facebook page. Inquiries by email to
info /at/ corkradioclub.ie or by telephone to 087-6290574.

The July meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will
take place tomorrow night, Monday the 25th of July 2022 at 8.00 p.m.
sharp at The Sweep Bar, Adamstown, Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford, Eircode
X91 H588. 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 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.
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YOTA in Croatia

As part of the YOTA 2022 summer camp from the 6th to the 13th of
August, seven call-signs will be heard. 9A22YOTA will operate from the
camp at Karlovac for the full duration, with 9A1YOTA joining them
remotely from the QTH of 9A1TT. 9A2YOTA operates from Baka on the
Adriatic island of Krk, IOTA EU136, also on the 8th. 9A3YOTA will be on
the air from Medvednica Sljeme mountain peak near Zagreb, SOTA
9A/ZH-002 on the 10th, together with 9A4YOTA activating Medvednica
Nature Park, POTA 9A-0001 and 9AFF-0013. 9A5YOTA will activate Dubovec
Castle, Karlovac, COTA 9A-00099 on the 12th. 9A100QO will work the
QO100 satellite from all locations. Be sure to listen out for Megan,
EI5LA, Niall, EI6HIB, Kelsey and Eoin soon going 'On the Air' from
Croatia.
__________________________________________________________________

ARRL Contests

Scores have been published for the ARRL DX Contests. Final results for
the International DX CW Contest in February now confirm the raw scores
for the entries from EI. All entries were made by single operators.
Best EI entrant in the low-power section was Martin, EI8GP with an
excellent 349 contacts, followed by Bernard, EI4II, Paul, EI5DI,
Darwin, EI4KX, and Ryan EI8KW. The high-power operators battled it out,
Gerard EI5KF coming out top with 380 contacts in the log, not far
behind was Mark EI6JK. Oleg EI7KD made a great entry with 255 contacts
in the always difficult 160m section, showing that good skills and
patience are more productive than big amplifiers. The debut of the new
ARRL International Digital Contest early in June had Justin, EI3CTB and
Bob, EI3GRB, two experienced contesters, as the only entries from EI.
The SSB leg, earlier in March saw the EI9E high-power multi-ops of the
Network Southern Area Radio Experimenters Club achieve 32nd place
world-wide and 8th place in Europe, well ahead of the EI7M crew of the
East Cork Radio Group. In the low-power single-operators section
Dmitrij, EI3JZ dominated 15m, with Bernard, EI4II, John, EI7ISB, Peter,
EI9ES, and Ryan EI8KW also having a go at serious contesting.
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Islands on the Air

The RSGB IOTA Contest is now a major international event, attracting
thousands of participants from all over the world. In 1964 British SWL
Geoff Watts imagined that those who live in crowded cities would love
to set up a station on a sunny beach among palm trees. Geoff realised
that there were too many islands in the world to enumerate, so he
grouped together islands, particularly the small ones. In the IOTA
programme numbers are allocated to each group using a continental
prefix. This idea then turned into the RSGB "Islands On The Air" awards
programme which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The basic
IOTA award requires contacts with 100 islands and groups, including at
least one from each continent. Using the Islands on the Air concept, it
led to the creation of the RSGB IOTA Contest in 1993. Since then
entrants can obtain award credit for QSOs made during the RSGB IOTA
Contest. The contest bands are 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m, CW and SSB.
The duration is 24 hours, starting at 12:00 UTC on Saturday. Stations
send a signal report and serial number, with stations on islands
sending their IOTA reference number. IARU band plans must be observed,
with CW contacts being made only in the recognised CW ends of the
bands. Gerard, EI5KF, using the call-sign EJ1E will be on Bere Island,
IOTA EU-121, no doubt others will spring a surprise and will be heard
with EJ call-signs. Island 'chasers' are advised to keep an eye on the
frequently updated web-site at www.ng3k.com to see which call-signs to
listen out for, IOTA related announcements are also published on the
Northern Ohio DX Association's web-site on www.papays.com/opdx.html
__________________________________________________________________

The End of Paper Logs in Brazil?

LABRE, The national amateur radio society of Brazil voiced its concern
about some of the proposals for new regulations affecting Amateur
radio, published by ANATEL, Brazil's telecoms regulator. In return for
dropping the requirement of the CW exam for the higher license classes
ANATEL propose to mandate the use of LOTW, the ARRL's "Logbook of the
World", together with participation in courses and amateur radio
activities as proof of proficiency, akin to a modern version of
yesteryear's practice here in Ireland, when one had to log a number of
CW contacts before being allowed to use SSB on HF, or having to wait
for a full year before plugging in the microphone. Visiting or
immigrating foreign HAMs would benefit from such changes when applying
with a license issued in a country without CW requirements for HF.
However LABRE contends that ANATEL cannot rely on a foreign
organisation, effectively outsourcing one of its licensing functions.
Proof of experience through electronically documented two-way contacts
also ignores radio hams who do not make DX contacts or do not
participate in contests, but instead dedicate themselves to equally
legitimate areas within the ham radio community, such as ham radio in
education, emergency support, and experimentation.
__________________________________________________________________

EME Reflections

Bernie, ZS4TX, announced on QRZ.com that he is planning a 2m EME
DXpedition to Angola between the 12th and the 16th of August. He will
use the D2TX from the Province of Cuando-Cubango. He states, "I am
trying my best to sort out the logistics for 6m and 70cm as well. If
any other band becomes a certainty I will post it on QRZ.com". He will
also be on HF on 40m and up, CW only with 100W. Direct QSLs for D2TX
can be requested from Lins, PA3CMC.

The latest "432 and Above EME Newsletters" by K2UYH is now available on
www.nitehawk.com, reporting about the first successful 47 GHz EME QSO
in almost 20 years, made between Manfred, DL7YC and Klaus, DC7KY,
supported by the "Systems Development Group" José, EA3HMJ, Iban, EB3FRN
and Miguel, CT1BYM. The article describes the LNAs and wave guides,
tracking systems and antennas they used, with screenshots of the
contacts and photos of their setups. Even when not expecting to ever
operate EME, this is worthwhile read, regarding the finer details of
this kind of equipment. The articles are published on www.nitehawk,com
and also on the web-site of the Portugese REP at www.rep.pt .
__________________________________________________________________

The Propagation Horoscope

Last week's surprise eruptions of the sun early in the week resulted in
a much higher than predicted Solar wind, and a kP index of 5 on
Tuesday. A clouded crystal ball makes the predictions difficult, but
one can expect the geomagnetic field to settle again, returning to the
usually long F2 layer skips well into the night, before the F2 layer
disperses, only to return for good early morning grey-line propagation
towards Asia and Africa. 10m and above will also be helped by the warm
and humid weather, creating strong tropospheric propagation around our
coasts. Warm and dry air from land moves across a cooler moist layer of
air above the sea surface, forming a slanted reflective layer, and
sometimes creating a duct between multiple layers. This creates paths
across the Irish Sea, towards Britain and Scandinavia, across the Bay
of Biscay and even further south beyond Portugal. The Mediterranean,
and to some extent the Baltic Sea, sees remarkably strong tropospheric
propagation during the summer. In other words: one of the bands is
always open!

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 Thursday.

[C]
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