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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 18 September 2022
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Club News

The IRTS Treasurer David Gardiner (EI3IXB) has emailed all members who
pay their membership fees by using Direct Debit from their Ulster Bank
and KBC accounts. Because Ulster Bank and KBC are ending their
operations in Ireland those Direct Debit mandates will soon stop
working. David asks the affected members to inform him of their new
bank details, when available, thus helping to avoid bounced Direct
Debit payments. David's email address is ei3ixb /at/ gmail.com

The National Short Wave Listeners Club (NSWLC) would like to announce a
new HAREC online training course. Class Foxtrot will start on the 3rd
of November 2022. Class Foxtrot will consist of 24 classes ending on
the 4th of May 2023. The course is free but membership of the NSWLC is
compulsory. There are no prerequisites for this course, other than a
genuine desire to study for an amateur radio licence, and to take and
pass the Irish HAREC exam. The upcoming course is based on the new
Irish exam syllabus, introduced earlier this year. The course uses the
upcoming IRTS Study Guide, an almost 300-page learning resource.
Members of Class Echo have significantly contributed to the new guide.
As a result of their valuable feedback, Class Foxtrot contains 6 more
sessions than its predecessor in order to better focus on the areas
that are new to the current syllabus. The course will be held via the
Zoom platform and sessions must be attended live. Classes will be held
each Thursday from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. local time. For more
information about The National Short Wave Listeners Club (NSWLC), or to
join please see www.swl.ie

Just a gentle reminder that the next HAREC examination will be held on
Saturday, the 15th of October 2022 at both the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght,
Dublin, and the Clayton Silversprings Hotel, Cork at 11.30 a.m.
Registration will begin from 11 a.m. 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. Please also note that the closing date for receipt of
applications is the 30th of September 2022. No applications for the
15th of October examination can be accepted beyond this date.

On Tuesday, the 4th of October at 19.30, the South Dublin Radio Club
will host a talk by Tony EI5EM relating to QRP construction and
operation. Tony's talk was very well received at this year's GI-QRP
convention, so this is a great opportunity for attendees to ask
questions and get information from someone who is very experienced in
this area. The talk will be held in the downstairs conference room of
Ballyroan Community Centre. There is limited capacity at the venue. Any
non-club members wishing to attend are asked to contact
southdublinradioclub /at/ gmail.com . Alternatively, the talk will be
live streamed via Zoom. Should you wish joins us via Zoom, please email
us for login details.

The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group (EI2WRC) will be active from The
Waterford and Suir Valley Railway station Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford for
the "Railways On The Air" event on Sunday, the 25th of September. WSVR
is a community heritage project. The project has enabled the magic of
rails golden age to be brought to life in Kilmeaden. A heritage narrow
gauge railway runs along 17 kilometres of the abandoned Waterford to
Dungarvan line. The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group would like to
thank the manager Maria Kyte and all the staff of The Waterford and
Suir Valley Railway for all their help and allowing us access to the
station to do this event again this year. For more information about
the WSVR please see www.wsvrailway.ie . The September meeting of the
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will take place on Monday, the
26th of September 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 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.

The Shannon Basin Radio Club announce that their weekly SSB nets will
recommence at the end of September. The hugely popular nets draw in
stations from all across Ireland, the UK, and further afield. The 80m
net will restart on Thursday, the 29th of September, starting at 9 p.m.
local time in the upper end of the 80m band. The exact frequency will
be posted on Shannon Basin Radio Club's Facebook page and Twitter
account before the net starts. All are very welcome to join, especially
newly licensed amateurs, QRP stations, and portable operators.
Information about the restart of the 160m topband weekly net will be
advised at a later date. Anyone wishing to learn more, submit SWL
reports, or interested about the wide range of club activities are
welcome to contact Shannon Basin Radio Club by email at admin /at/
sbrc.ie or via the club's social media channels.
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HF Activities

The RSGB IOTA contest was again very popular in 2022, with over 2300
entries. Most Island and Island-Dxpedition entries were made by
European Stations, followed by Asia and Oceania. Band conditions on
Saturday were good on 20m, but poor otherwise. It was much better on
Sunday, with 10m opening up in Europe. The results published on
www.rsgbcc.org show the operators at EI7M achieving 4th place overall.
An outstanding result, confirming EI7M as one of international top
contest stations. Numerous entries from teams and single ops who put EI
and EJ call-signs on the air for IOTA is proof of the rising level of
amateur radio activity in Ireland.

After this Sunday's News Bulletin, switch on the SSB and FM VHF and UHF
transceivers at home, in the car, or on foot, maybe on a hilltop, and
participate in today's 70cm and 2m Counties Contest. First on 70cm for
half an hour starting at 14.00 local time, and then for another 90
minutes on 2m, starting at 14.30 local time. The exchange is signal
report, serial number and locator. EI and GI stations also give their
county identifier. The entry rules and frequencies in use can be found
on www.irts.ie .

The next major international contest is the CQWW RTTY Contest, taking
place next weekend, running for 48 hours. There are rule differences
from the CQWW SSB/CW Contest. Identical wording is used for both the
RTTY and CW/SSB rules where the intent is the same. However, there are
some key differences for RTTY: There is no 1.8 MHz operation, country
contacts within any continent get 2 points, eight band-changes per
clock hour, rather than the 10-minute rule, a third multiplier for QSOs
with US/VE stations. Last year, from a field of 12 entrants from
Ireland, EI7M came in at 10th place in the final results.

Ukrainian refugee, radio amateur Alex (UT5UY) has published the NGU
certificate, which stands for "Never Give Up". The NGU certificate can
be obtained by contacting him from OH, OH0 and OJ0 countries. Alex
operates CW under the call-sign OJ/UT5UY from Market Reef for the next
week. Stian (LB5SH) operates the SSB station, and Henri, (OH3JR/OJ0JR)
uses FT8. They landed on Market Reef in very difficult weather
conditions Friday afternoon, and were already heard on 40m in the
evening. They hope to be able to stay for about a week.
__________________________________________________________________

AM Broadcast Recordings

COHIRADIA is an acronym for COnservation of HIstorical RAdiofrequency
bands by DIgital Archiving. It's a project at radiomuseum.org aiming to
conserve whole AM broadcasting bands and their raw broadcast signals by
means of SDR receivers, containing all stations active at a certain
time. It's growing since 2006 when, among others, German, Dutch, Swiss
and French MW and LW transmitters were still active. The Archive's
indexed files can be downloaded and played back on a PC with SDR
software. The website at www.radiomuseum.org is an important source of
information for all things vintage radio, with listings of suppliers
for hard to find parts and help with restoration projects.
__________________________________________________________________

IARU Monitoring System

The monthly IARUMS report by Michael (EI3GYB) and other national
coordinators shows that the Over The Horizon radars were the most
numerous transmissions that caused harm to our amateur radio bands on
HF. The Russian "Contayner" on all bands from 40 to 12m and the Chinese
OTHRs on 20m and 15m were joined by AM signals from broadcasters and
various data modes, mostly on 40m. All HF operators should make
themselves familiar with the detailed and informative Spectrum
Monitoring reports on www.iaru-r1.org .
__________________________________________________________________

The Propagation Horoscope

Sunspot AR3098 left a parting gift as it disappears over the western
limb of the solar disc. The X-rays and UV radiation from a strong
M8-class flare on Friday morning caused a deep shortwave radio blackout
over most of Africa and the Middle East. After coming into view again,
the previously very active region 3088 is now active as region 3102. A
pair of coronal holes will strengthen the solar wind well into the new
week, adding to the geomagnetic disturbances. Barring further strong
flares, one can expect the MUF to dip below the 30m band late at night,
and climb above the 15m band during daylight. The propagation
conditions on 40 and 30m will yield good DX early and late in the day,
20 to 12m will remain good all around, 80m and topband may give good
greyline conditions, but all lower bands will continue to suffer from
high QRN, thanks to the stronger than usual lightning storms in the
western Mediterranean.

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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