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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 05 March 2023
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IRTS AGM Weekend 2023 Update

The 2023 IRTS AGM weekend will be held on April 29th and 30th. The
venue is the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. It is being
hosted by the Shannon Basin Radio Club who are looking forward to
warmly welcoming everyone to the event. The plans for the weekend's
short talks and radio rally are being finalised. Further details will
be issued in due course. Please note that the deadline for applications
for trader and club tables at the radio rally is Thursday, the 16th of
March. If you wish to secure a table at the rally, please contact Keith
EI5IN via email at admin /at/ sbrc.ie for details as soon as possible
and before this deadline expires. The rally will appeal to anyone with
an interest in radio and electronics. It will also feature the popular
monster raffle. We are delighted to announce that so far, Long
Communications, MFJ Enterprises, Icom UK, Wescom Ireland Ltd., Messi &
Paoloni, and Airmast are among the companies that are very kindly
sponsoring prizes for this. Tickets are required for the gala dinner on
Saturday April 29th. They are 35 Euro each and selling fast. Gala
dinner ticket purchasing details, as well as accommodation information
for the AGM weekend are available on www.sbrc.ie/agmweekend . The 2022
IRTS Cup and Trophy award holders are asked to return their awards as
soon as possible please, so that the Awards Curator Mark Kilmartin
EI4FNB can prepare them for the new recipients at the AGM 2023 awards
ceremony. Foranyone wishing to contact Mark you can find his details on
the IRTS website. Cups and Trophies can also be returned to any IRTS
committee member.
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Galway Radio Experimenters Club EI4GRC

The March meeting of the Galway Radio Experimenters Club EI4GRC will
take place tomorrow night, Monday the 06 of March at 8.00 p.m. sharp at
The Menlo Park Hotel, Terryland, Headford Road, Galway City, the
Eircode is H91 E98N. There will also be virtual access to the meeting,
please contact the Club Secretary via an email to secretary /at/
galwayradio.com for access details. The club website is at
www.galwayradio.com and anyone is welcome to come to our club nights or
contact the secretary for more information.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The 2023 AGM of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group took place last
Monday. Even though the meeting was held on Zoom many members were in
attendance, some of whom had only recently joined the club. The club
were also delighted to welcome some non-members attending. Club
Chairman Mark EI4FNB then started the meeting by observing a minute's
silence for silent keys and also family members that club members had
lost in 2022. After the 2022 AGM minutes, Mark went on to give a report
on the highly successful year that 2022 had being for the club. Mark
listed the activities that the club had been involved in throughout
2022 and hoped that 2023 would be an even better year with activations.
He was delighted to see that the club had planned to do some new
activations this year. Mark said that the highlight of the year was the
club hosting the IRTS AGM which was held in Carlow in April. Club
treasurer Ralph EI2KU gave a report on the finances of the club noting
that 2022 had been a successful year financially and that club finances
are once again in a very healthy position. He also noted the club had
setup an online banking account which made the day to day financial
running of the club very easy to manage. Mark went on to thank the
outgoing committee members for all their hard work over the previous
year, and the following committee was then deemed elected for 2023.
Chairman Raymond Cowman EI6HFB, Vice Chairman Joe Donnelly EI8DY,
Secretary Mark Kilmartin EI4FNB, Treasurer Ralph Musto EI2KU, Public
Relations Officer Seany Byrne EI2HZB, Club Officers John McCarthy
EI8JA, Pat Dwyer EI7IUB and Roger Greengrass EI8KN. 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 find them on
Facebook, or follow them on Twitter /at/ seargnews
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Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

LCARC wishes to thank all who attended their Radio Rally in the Temple
Gate Hotel, Ennis on Sunday the 26th of February. It proved to be a
great success. We particularly thank the traders Long Communiations,
Air Mast, MakerShop Ennis, Sean Simcox and the many bring-and-buy
stalls. The Boeing 737 games flight simulator attracted a lot of
attention. The attendance of IRTS, South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
and Kerry Amateur Radio Group was very much appreciated. It is always a
great pleasure to meet old friends, make new ones and to put faces to
call signs.
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St Patrick's Day Award

You have just over a week to register to participate in the annual St
Patrick's Day Award, the event takes place over a 48 hour period
from 12 noon on the 16th of March to 12 noon on the 18th of March, to
allow worldwide participation in all time zones. The St Patrick's Day
Award is 48 hours of non-competitive fun. Anyone worldwide can
participate, licensed or an SWL can take part in this fun event. You
can register to be a participating station for the St Patrick's Day
award by completing a short registration form online at
stpatricksaward.com
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Nervous Novices CW Net on 80m

The weekly CW net has been now been running for a few weeks, led by
Eamo EI7LC. It is a friendly place for inexperienced operators, for
anyone still learning Morse, and for those who would like to have a
chat using CW without feeling the pressure of a traditional QSO. This
new net takes place every Wednesday at 20:30 Irish local time,
somewhere between 3.550-3.555 MHz. Listen out for the Nervous Novices
call CQ NNCW. Good operating practices and quality sending are highly
encouraged but are not required. There is no maximum speed, however,
the net requires that all operators QRS to the slowest participant so
that everyone can copy. If you are still new to CW, do not miss this
opportunity for an enjoyable way to improve your skills.
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EIFF and POTA News

In late 2021 the EIFF-Ireland group was formed, to take part in the
World Wide Flora and Fauna awards with just over 250 parks on the list
for Ireland. Part of the award scheme is for hams to chase activated
parks in Ireland and around the world and activite parks also. The
basic award is to have a numberof qso's with activated parks in each
country, for EI it requires 11 parks in the log, higher awards are
issued for each additional multiples of 11 parks worked. In the first
EIFF Annual Award in 2022 the Park Chaser Awards went to Uwe DL2ND,
coming in 1st with 760 points, closely followed by runner-ups Massimo
IK1GPG, and Giorgio IK3HMB. Declan EI9HQ came in first for The Park
Ranger Award, with Andy G7SQW in 2nd place and Jeremy EI3HGB in 3rd
place. To acknowledge their efforts small tokens will be sent to each
of the winners.

The second EI Flora and Fauna St.Patrick's Activity Weekend from the
17th to the 19th of this month hopes to see many parks activated, if
you can get out over the weekend and activate a park that would be
great. Please advise Jer EI3HGB or Declan EI9HQ by email at eifflogs
/at/ gmail.com of the areas you plan to activate, avoiding duplication.
The EIFF webpage is at eifirl.wordpress.com .

A new annual contest will be run by The Parks on the Air organisers
during the first weekend in June. For 48 hours, hams will collect
contacts and points as part of the new Parks on the Air Plaque Event.
POTA president Jason W3AAX announced different categories available to
both hunters and activators. Anyone who made their first POTA contact
after the 2nd of June 2022 is eligible for the additional category of
Rookie. Participants must be registered with POTA and can use CW, SSB
and the digital modes on HF, VHF, UHF and SHF, but not on the WARC
bands.
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Updated 160m Bandplan Listing

The IARU has published a new summary of the 160m bandplans used in a
number of countries. This listing highlights the divergence between
countries with regard to the available frequencies and power levels,
e.g. the upper band edge in a number of European countries is 1850 kHz,
effectively leaving them with only a single voice channel for DX on
Topband, something to be kept in mind when chasing prefixes. The
document can be downloaded from the IARU Region 1 website from this
long and convoluted link at
iaru-r1.org/about-us/committees-and-working-groups/hf-committee-c4/docu
ments-hf
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The Propagation Horoscope

The NOAA described the X2.1 Flare from Region 3234 on Friday at around
6 p.m. as a parting shot, just as the it rotated out of view over the
western limb. That region has been responsible for several flares
throughout last week. On Saturday afternoon the 10.7 GHZ Solar Flux
peaked at 230, later dropping back to no less than 160, the wind speed
varied between 600 and 900km/s at a particle density of up to 25
protons per ccm. The associated CME from Friday's outburst will start
to be felt from Sunday afternoon, moderate G1 geomagnetic disturbances
can be expected until Monday late, resulting in high D-Layer
absorption. This hopefully clears for more settled conditions from
Tuesday onward, again benefiting the higher bands up to 6m, while poor
conditions on topband and 80m will likely prevail. Keep an eye on Tropo
openings while the calm high pressure zone remains static over Ireland,
there are many reports of 2m openings from Scandinavia and the Baltic
area towards France and Spain.

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.

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