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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 11 December 2022
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Cork Silent Keys EI7HO and EI3IY

The Cork amateur radio community are mourning the sad loss of two
colleagues on successive recent Sundays. Jack O'Connell EI7HO passed
away on Sunday November 27th in the Mercy Hospital, Cork following a
short illness. He was a native of Mayfield but resided in Midleton in
recent years. Jack was an active member of IRTS, Cork Radio Club and
the Cork Repeater Group and was very active on FT8 on the HF bands. We
extend our deepest sympathy to his eight sons, two daughters, brother
and sisters and extended family.

Hugh O'Leary EI3IY passed away suddenly at his home in Midleton on
Sunday December 3rd 2022. While Hugh was not very active on the air in
recent times, he kept in touch with what was happening in the hobby and
was an avid listener. Our deepest sympathy goes to his wife Liz and
sons Kevin and Niall and his extended family.

Maybe they both rest in peace.
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IRTS News Readers Required

The IRTS are currently compiling a panel of newsreaders for the weekly
Sunday morning 40m and 80m IRTS news bulletins for 2023. The rota which
was set up in 2022 is to share the news reading duties amongst the
entire panel of newsreaders and it ensures that the work load is evenly
spread out. The more people that volunteer the less often each
individual reader will have to do the broadcast. There is very little
involved in the broadcast and no experience is necessary. If any fully
licensed EI feels like that they would be interested in becoming part
of the IRTS News Readers panel, can they please get in touch with the
IRTS Public Relations Officer Seany EI2HZB directly on 083 4713001 or
by email to irts_pro /at/ irts.ie by December 12th. Likewise, if anyone
has any further questions, please get in touch also. Once a list of
those interested has been compiled, we will set about getting a rota in
place for both the 40m and 80m Sunday bulletins for 2023.
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South Dublin Radio Club

This year's South Dublin Radio Club Christmas Party will take place on
Tuesday, the 13th of December 2022 at 8 p.m. The venue will be "The
Morgue" pub in Templeogue Village. Members of other clubs and visitors
are as usual very welcome to this social event. Limited free food will
be available for paid-up members, visitors can choose from the bar menu
until 9.00 p.m. The club will then break for Christmas and return on
the 3rd of January 2023.
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North Dublin Radio Club

Last Saturday at the North Dublin Radio Club, members were pleasantly
surprised by an impromptu D-Star demonstration thanks to Annard EI4IQB
and Howard EI9LC. High quality images were transmitted between the two
stations, which was very impressive. Annard has promised to follow this
in the near future with an FT8 presentation. The North Dublin Radio
Club meets on Saturdays at 8 p.m. in the Artane Beaumont Family
Recreation Centre, beside the Tesco Artane Castle Shopping Centre.
However, there will be no meeting on Saturday next the 17th as the
club's Christmas party is taking place on that day.
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Collective Communication

Building on the success of our JOTA and ROTA events earlier this year
Collective Communication are making plans to celebrate St Patrick's Day
2023. We would urge all clubs to consider something similar for
St.Particks' Day, if not participating in the actual parades, then
possibly having a display /P station operational near by, so the public
get a chance to see amateur radio in action, so to speak. At present we
are in the process of building a purpose designed mobile shack and
public display trailer for this and future events where Collective
Communications will be "Flying the Flag" for amateur radio. As planning
is the key to success we are in the process of actively framing and
arranging further events to participate in and showcase amateur radio
during 2023, events like Parks on the Air, WWFF, Castles on the Air. So
we're hoping that the weather will be kind to us next year. More
details of our events will be posted nearer the time of each activity,
please keep an ear out for EI3CC and give us a call if you're able to.
If you'd be interested in joining us or becoming involved in future
Collective Communication activities look us up on Facebook, or contact
John EI3HQB on 086 870 9265.
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Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum.

Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth is closed for
repairs for the time being. It is estimated that the work will be
completed in early January. This also means that EI0MAR will also be
QRT until then. The museum will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in
2023. It was first opened by the late Pat Herbert in 2003 and it is his
legacy to us all. We'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our
friends and supporters a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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EI5LA to compete in WRTC 2023

The World Radio Team Championships, the Olympic Games of Amateur radio,
are held every four years and will be held in Italy in 2023. The
competition is based on the IARU HF Championships which are held each
year on the second weekend in July. For the first time since the WRTC
started, an Irish amateur will be competing, when Megan EI5LA along
with Leon DL3ON will make up Youth Team 6 in the competition.
Congratulations to Megan and we wish her the best of luck and no doubt
she will do us all proud in Italy next year. Megan was licensed in
September 2021, aged 14 and has progressed to being an active and very
competent contest operator at East Cork based EI7M. She is an active
member of the Kerry Amateur Radio Group and the National Short Wave
Listeners Club.
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Contesting

The Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge was created by a small group
of contesters who were interested in 160 meters topband. The most
unique feature of this CW contest is that the point value of QSOs
depends on the distance between the two stations. The activity levels
for this contest continue to grow, but the band tends to be less
crowded than the other contests, making it easier to work DX. The
December event has the highest participation, which is due to the good
conditions during Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The "Big" Stew
starts next Saturday at 15:00 zulu and runs for 24 hours. The maximum
'on' time is limited to 14 hours. 'Off' times must be a minimum of 30
minutes with no QSOs. Organiser Lew, W7EW, has been sending out plaques
and they are in shacks all around the world, including plaques for
stations using smaller or temporary antennas. The Boring Amateur Radio
Club organises the Stew Perry. Their webpage is at www.kkn.net/stew .

On the 160m band there will be nine hours of overlap with the RAC
Canada Winter Contest 2022, which runs for 24 hours, starting at 00:00
UTC next Saturday. Bands and Modes are 160 to 10, 6 and 2 metres, CW,
SSB, FM, and AM. Stations in Canada send RS(T) and province or
territory. VEØs and stations outside Canada send signal report and a
serial number.
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Amateur Radio Mission to the Moon not lost

OMOTENASHI, a project of the JAXA Ham Radio Club, was a secondary
payload aboard NASA's Artemis 1 mission, launched a fortnight ago. It
was planned to land a 70cm band beacon protected inside a soft pouch on
the surface of the moon. The ham radio club's website for JAXA, Japan's
Aerospace Exploration Agency, reports that orbital errors had resulted
in an unstable radio signal for its communications. The website also
reports that the solar cells face away from the sun, making it
problematic to charge OMOTENASHI's batteries. Thus, the lunar landing
experiment could not be carried out. But the opportunity to orbit
beyond the moon is valuable. The axis of rotation appears stable and
the spacecraft will get sunlight when the direction of the sun changes
next March. Amateurs can receive the orbiting module 1 Watt beacon,
transmitting PSK31 Sync Word C1 ASCII code with a medium to high gain
linear polarisation antenna on 437.31 MHz. Pointing the antenna is
simple: Aim for the Moon!
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2200m Band

Using 0.8 Watt EIRP, a station south of Perth in Western Australia made
a one-way contact into North America on the 2200m band on the 21st of
November. The Western Australian Low Frequency Experimenters Group
WALFEG reports the transmission from VK6MJM was received 16,164
kilometres away in the United States by Paul, KM5SW, in New Mexico. The
station was using a five-minute key-down mode known as WSJT-X FST4W-300
mode.
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The Propagation Horoscope

last Thursday's strong CME at noon, although missing earth by a wide
margin, results in a Solar wind speed at SOHO now ranging between 477
and 628 km/sec. The stage is set for C-Flares and possibly M-Flares
from numerous active regions. Propagation is currently very changeable,
ranging from blackouts on 40 to 15m, followed by excellent DX on 12 and
10m. Topband is beginning to give reliable contacts across the North
Atlantic from early evening. The Geminides are peaking around Wednesday
and Thursday. Should the frosty clear nights persist until midweek
observe the radiant in the constellation Gemini in the northeast, just
before moon-rise. Visible streaks also mean audible pings on VHF.
Meteor Scatter, temperature inversions over cold ground, a high kP
index, it all makes for interesting VHF propagation events like the
phenomenal opening on Wednesday on the 8m band, reported by John, Ei7GL
on ei7gl.blogspot.com .

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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