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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 21 August 2022
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International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend

A number of activations by clubs and groups are on the air this
weekend.

Simon (EI7ALB) writes for the Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club:
Unfortunately for reasons beyond the club's control, LCARC will not be
activating Loop Head Lighthouse for the ILLW. However, the club will be
active at various times over the coming weekend from Friday 19th to
Sunday 20th from the Shannon Aviation Museum using the callsign EI4SAM.

Tom (EI5IEB) writes for the East Leinster Amateur Radio Club, operating
under the call-sign EI0EL, that they activated Wicklow Head Lighthouse
IE0026 on Saturday. In the spirit of the Club's activities on 4m, they
operated on 70.400 Mhz FM, but also on HF.

Members of the North Dublin Radio Club (EI0NDR) are activating the
Baily Lighthouse in Howth. They are operating on HF and VHF bands, and
some of their members are field testing their equipment and operating
other modes, including FT8. They will be on the air until 20:00 local
time today.

Members of the Mayo Radio Experimenters Network (EI7MRE) are at the
Broadhaven Ballyglass Lighthouse, Belmullet, Co. Mayo. Anybody who
wishes to visit and see the setup, or even operate the station, is
welcome to come along.
__________________________________________________________________

Club News

Keith (EI5IN), the PRO of the Shannon Basin Radio Club invites to the
next meeting of the Club, taking place at 8pm on Friday, the 26th of
August. The venue is Hannons Hotel in Roscommon Town, eircode F42 PH33.
In addition to current and new members, anyone interested in learning
more about the club and hobby are very welcome. Email admin /at/
sbrc.ie if further information is required.

The Strangford High Frequency Enthusiasts Group is hosting a new free
Full UK Licence distance learning program starting on the 12th of
September via Google Meet. Places are still available, start at 8pm
each Monday evening. Full support is available via email and the
material is also presented via 140 useful videos and documentation.
Contact GI0VKP /at/ gmail.com .
__________________________________________________________________

Contests and Competitions

The WW Digi DX Contest is a collaboration between the World Wide Radio
Operators Foundation (WWROF) and the Slovenia Contest Club (SCC). It is
for amateurs around the world to contact as many other amateurs in as
many Maidenhead Grid Fields as possible using the FT4 and FT8 modes.
The contest takes place next Saturday and Sunday. FT4 and FT8 are used,
with separate contest subbands on 1.8, 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz, with
three power classes up to five watt, up to 100 watt and up to a maximum
of 1.5 kilowatt. Normal FT8 QSOs are valid for points and multipliers
on standard FT8 frequencies. The organisers kindly request logs to be
submitted, even for just a few normal QSOs in the contest 24 hour
period. For this, an adif-to-cabrillo log converter is available on the
contest's website on www.ww-digi.com, making the upload simple. Their
website also has a Presentation in PDF format, well worth a look and
read, even for non-contesters.

The Romanian Federation of Amateur Radio organises the YODX HF Contest
and the National Multiband Shortwave Championship taking place next
Saturday, from 2.00 UTC, to Sunday at 11.59.59 UTC. The Romanian
station gives the signal report and a two letter counties multiplier.
No points are awarded for contacts within YO, duplicates are not
penalised and don't need to be marked in the log. The contest rules can
be found on www.hamradio.ro .

The Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs (BFRA) is proud to host the
20th IARU World ARDF Championships 2022. It will be organised from the
28th of August to the 3rd of September in Borovets, a well known
resort, located 68 km away from Sofia. In the days before that event,
between the 24th and 27th, another ARDF competition, the so-called
World ARDF Cup, will be held in Borovets, too. Information about the
Amateur Radio Direction Finding competitions can be be found on
www.ardf2022.eu, the recently released 3rd bulletin has all details
regards competition programs, travel details and accommodation options.
__________________________________________________________________

IARUMS Report

The monthly IARU Region-1 Monitoring newsletter again reports
over-the-horizon radars to be the most numerous transmissions that
cause harm to our HF bands. The front runner is the so-called RUS
Contayner, audible on all bands from 40 to 12m. The monitoring report
of the national coordinators can now be viewed on the IARU Region-1
website at www.iaru-ra.org in the section "Spectrum".
__________________________________________________________________

AMSAT News

The cross-band voice repeater and the APRS node aboard the
International Space Station can now be used simultaneously. The FM
repeater uplink is on 145.990 MHz, a 67 Hertz PL tone is needed to
activate the downlink transmitter on 3.800 MHz. APRS and packet mode
uses 145.825 MHz for uplink and downlink. The Columbus module radio
uses the call-sign NA1SS and the new service module radio uses the
call-sign RS0ISS. The two radios are identical and the packet operation
is the same as before. You can use RS0ISS, ARISS or APRSAT as data
paths. Both radios are expected to be on at all times except during
school contacts, spacewalks and docking maneuvers. Frank Bauer
(KA3HDO), The ARISS Chairman welcomes the simultaneous operation of
APRS and the voice repeater on the ISS as a key element of the ARISS
2.0 initiative. It offers 24/7 interactive opportunities for young
people and learners to get involved and train. The operational state of
the ISS ham-radio station can be found on the ARISS website at
www.ariss.org
__________________________________________________________________

10 GHZ Tropo

On the 30th of July, at 19:34 UTC a SSB QSO over a distance of 1187km
took place between Cecilio (EB8BRZ), from his QTH on the east coast of
Gran Canaria with well known EME operator Miguel (CT1BYM), located at
the south-western tip of Portugal. They used moderate equipment, a
10dBi horn and 2 watt on the the Portugese side, and a 60cm dish and 2
watt from just south of Las Palmas. They waited for the right
tropospheric opening by monitoring a sectorial beacon installed on the
balcony at Miguel's home, pointing towards the Canary Islands. This is
by no means a new distance record, but it shows that low-budget 10 GHz
equipment can give remarkable results, and not just from elevated
locations typically needed to make use of the 3cm band.
__________________________________________________________________

The Propagation Horoscope

After early last week's lull in activity the number of M-level flares
have increased dramatically in the past few days. Two full-halo CMEs
were observed on Thursday and Friday, likely grazing Earth today.
Slight Aurora humm was heard on 80m since Friday. We saw six hours of
moderate geomagnetic storms during Friday and Saturday with the
planetary K-index reaching level six, and those disturbed conditions
continue today at minor levels. Currently, SOHO reports a solar wind of
up to 700 km per second with an increasing proton count. There are
around eight active regions and two large coronal holes visible on both
hemispheres, with more active regions coming into view. 80, 60 and 40m
will be limited to inter-Europe contacts. 30m, 20 and 17m will be open
mainly towards South-America, with moderate propagation into
North-America. Early morning propagation direction south-east will be
moderate, expect deep QSB. There will be only few openings on 15m and
above. The unsettled meteorological situation only allows for a few
Tropo openings towards France, Spain, Portugal and the Azores on 40 to
60 MHz, and only marginal conditions for paths into Europe.

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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