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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 14 August 2022
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YOTA

Niall (EI6HIB) sends his thanks to all supporters on behalf of the
Irish participants in this year's YOTA Activities in Croatia. Many EI
have made contact with Niall and our first class contester Megan
(EI5LA) during the past week. Until Monday have a listen on the HF
bands and give 9A22YOTA a call.
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Special Call-Sign

Anthony (EI9GMB) has the new special call EI25HEAL, for one year until
August 2023. It is in memory of those who are healed from cancer, and
not forgetting loved ones who passed away. Anthony was diagnosed in
2017, He had to get strong treatment for 3 years, but he is on the mend
now. Anthony posted more info on EI25HEAL on qrz.com
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HAREC

Declan (EI9FVB), the Chair of the IRTS Exam Board writes on
irts.groups.io: The IRTS Examination Board are pleased to announce that
the next HAREC examination will be held on Saturday, the 15th of
October 2022 at 11:30, at both the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght, Dublin and
the Clayton Silversprings Hotel, Cork. Registration will begin from
11am. Candidates will be contacted directly regarding venue preference
and registration requirements, but if any candidates have not been
contacted already or have any further queries regarding the exam,
please contact irts.exams /at/ gmail.com for more details. It is hoped
that this exam will clear any backlog of previous postponements and
facilitate any candidates looking to sit the examination before the end
of 2022. The next HAREC examination after this one, will likely be
spring 2023. So time to brush up on your study and pencil in the date!
Furthermore, any anyone interested in doing the CW test can contact
Dave (EI4BZ) at any time to organise the test. More information on the
IRTS morse test can be found on the IRTS website. I would also like to
mention a special thanks to the IRTS examination team for the work they
do voluntarily behind the scenes, to make these examinations possible.

Information about the exam venues can be found on
www.maldronhoteltallaght.com and on www.claytonhotelsilvers prings.com
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Isle of Man

The Point of Ayre Lighthouse is an active 19th-century lighthouse,
sited at the Point of Ayre at the northeastern end of the Isle of Man.
Dale (EI7HDB) along with members from the Isle of Man Amateur Radio
Society will be activating the lighthouse IM0001 for next Saturday and
Sunday for the Lighthouse and Lifeboat weekend. The club call G3TFL
will be used for the event and they hope to be active for the full 48
hours. The station will be live from 80M to 70CM operating CW, SSB and
digital modes, so please listen out for them. Dale (EI7HDB) arrived on
the Isle of Man today to set up the station at the Point of Ayre
lighthouse. He will be active on most bands as MD/EI7HDB between now
and Friday operating holiday style, so listen out for him especially if
you are looking to get the Isle of Man in your log. The group posts
up-to-date information on www.facebook.com/groups/io mars . The
Lighthouse and Lifeboat weekend takes place for the 25th time. The
event is not a contest. In Britain the Association of Lighthouse
Keepers (ALK), conducts International Lighthouse Heritage Weekend on
the same weekend as the ILLW. Their objective is to encourage
Lighthouse managers, keepers and owners to open their lighthouse or
lightstation and related visitors centres to the public with a view to
raising the profile of lighthouses, lightvessels and other navigational
aids, and preserving the maritime heritage. Normally held on the 3rd
full weekend in August, this year it runs from 00.01 UTC next Saturday,
to 24.00 UTC next Sunday, Over 50 countries with over 500 Lighthouses
are expected to be active during the weekend.
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100 years of RTTY

In August 1922 a typewriter hooked up to a transmitter aboard a
military airplane formed the first one-way teletype, capable of sending
100 words per minute to the ground. Receive circuits were soon added,
becoming what is now known as RTTY. Radio-hams used World War 2 surplus
equipment with modified transceivers using frequency shift keying at
speeds of typically 45.45 Baud. During the 1980s, computers quickly
replaced the mechanical teletype printers and their physical
limitations, ushering in the era of newer high speed modes like PSK31
and FT8. RTTY is still widely used not only by Hams, but also for
nautical weather reports and in international commerce and trade.
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Contests

A fitting tribute to the RTTY centenary is the The Scandinavian Amateur
Radio Teleprinter Group sponsored SARTG WW RTTY Contest, taking place
in three eight hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday next, on 80, 40,
20, 15 and 10m. The set of rules, times and logging requirements can be
looked up in the "Contest" section on www.sartg.com .

The aim of the Oceania DX Contest is to promote HF contacts with
stations in the Oceania region. In the 77th running of the contest YL
awards from last year are continued and there are new awards for youth
operators. The contest has two legs, SSB will be used for 24 hours,
starting at 06:00 UTC on Saturday the 1st of October, CW will be used
for another 24 hours the following Saturday. Each QSO is credited
twenty points on 160M, ten points on 80M; five points on 40M, one point
on 20M, two points on 15M, and three points on 10M. The multiplier is
the number of different valid prefixes worked on each band. Submit your
Cabrillo log file using the on-line submission form on the web-site
at www.oceaniadxcontest.com

Many leading contesters claim the "Worked All Europe DX Contest" to be
the most challenging contest of the year, Only intercontinental QSOs
between DX and Europe are counted, except in the the RTTY part.
Moreover, the unique feature of QTC-traffic adds another operating
challenge to the contest. Here the DX stations transfer real telegrams
to the European stations. These telegrams contain data of previously
logged QSOs. Each of these records counts one additional point for the
sender and the receiver, effectively doubling the score. The organiser
of the WAE DX Contest is Germany's DARC. The CW leg is still underway
this Sunday until midnight UTC, a good opportunity to work some real CW
DX. The SSB leg is on the second full weekend in September, and the
machines will have the last word during the RTTY leg in November.
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Hamchallenge

The winning entries for the IARU Region 1 "Hamchallenge" have been
announced. The first place is shared by Nestor (5B4AHZ) and Christian
(HB9FEU). Nestor presented the "Ham Radio Escape Room" project. The
radio-based escape room can be played in a very similar way to a
virtual escape room, but with amateur radio themes and stories where
teams playing the game can also communicate via radio rather than a
webcam. Christian presented "A public database of fun projects for
innovation", aimed at technology-oriented hobbyists with no or little
experience and equipment. The project description may include an
indication of the level of complexity and the required time,
prerequisite knowledge and required equipment. The third place goes to
Luca (IU2FRL) and his team with their "UrgentSat" project, describing a
simple carry-on luggage that can be transported to schools or public
demonstrations and providing a brief demonstration of the capabilities
of the Ham Radio World, how using cheap and second-hand tools can
achieve reliable communications over great distances with the QO-100
satellite. Guy (ZS6GUY) wins the "Youth prize" for "A Workbook that
will showcase various aspects of the hobby". The proposed workbook is
designed to be a tool for mentors to teach some of the most common
amateur radio activities. The IARU Region 1 EC looks forward to
preparing the second edition of the Hamchallenge in 2023, in the
meantime, IARU Region 1 is in touch with the winners to provide them
further assistance to bring their projects into reality.
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Belgium Amateur Radio and Computer Rally

Travellers to Belgium may consider visiting the 27th Radio Amateur
Rally in La Louvière, about 50km south of Bruxelles. The flea market is
held in the airy 4000 square meter hall of LOUVEXPO on the 17th of
September, from 9am to 4pm. It is always one of the most successful ham
radio events, attracting thousands of visitors and traders from Belgium
and neighbouring countries. To book a table, and for directions to the
event, see www.on6ll.be
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PREDICT Version 2.3.0 released

John Magliacane, KD2BD announced the release of PREDICT Version 2.3.0.
PREDICT is a widely-used, deceptively simple-looking satellite tracking
and orbital prediction program for Linux and Unix PCs, laptops,
Raspberry PIs, and Android. A limited capability version that operates
under a 32-bit DOS environment has been released as well. PREDICT
features an easy-to-use satellite transponder database editor and
support for a mouse or touch screen. New features are a multi-satellite
tracking mode, and a text-to-speech mode. PREDICT has been successfully
employed by NASA where it provides orbital prediction and tracking data
for VLBI radio telescope steering. ESA uses it at the Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory where it provides tracking and velocity profile
data used to steer the 25 meter dish antenna at the Chilbolton
Observatory. PREDICT also powers AMSAT North America's on-line
satellite prediction service and has served as the basis for a host of
other derivative open-source software applications. Additional
information and download links are available via the PREDICT website at
www.qsl.net/kd2bd
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The Propagation Horoscope

The geomagnetic disturbances caused by the coronal hole CH-1093 are
waning to kP 1 or 2 levels. Until the next already active regions
rotate into view on Thursday we can expect the solar flux to slowly
drop from currently 450 to around 300 kilometers per second towards
next weekend, accompanied by a low proton density. This results in a
weak D-Layer, helping with short hops on 80 and 60m. 40, 30 and 20m
will give usable DX into Asia before noon, 17m, 15m and above will be
moderate to good, but likely only in the east-west directions later in
the afternoon. As expected, troposheric conditions are good to
excellent for south to south-east paths, probably one of the last good
opportunities this year to reach France, Spain, Portugal and beyond on
8m and above. The Perseids are peaking this weekend, currently with a
good count of 100 or more usable trails per hour.

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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