• IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 17th, 2024

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    This Week's News

    IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 17th, 2024
    __________________________________________________________________

    News from the IRTS

    The next IRTS Committee meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 2nd
    at 8:00 p.m. on the Zoom platform. All IRTS affiliated clubs are
    reminded that under Rule 16.1, the members in each affiliated club,
    society, or other body may elect a representative and an alternate
    annually to attend IRTS Committee meetings. Clubs wishing to send a
    representative should notify the IRTS Secretary, Owen EI4GGB at
    irts_secretary /at/ irts.ie in advance to ensure notification and links
    are provided.

    As part of the IRTS AGM Weekend which will take place in Ballinasloe
    over the weekend of April 13th and 14th, the IRTS news team would like
    to invite some SWLs who are currently part of HAREC Class Golf to help
    read some of the 40m and 80m IRTS news bulletins on Sunday the 14th.
    Both the 40m and 80m bulletins will be read live from the rally with
    Louis EI8KI reading the 40m bulletin and Stefan EI4KU reading the 80m
    bulletin. Louis and Stefan will be supervising any SWLs who want to try
    some IRTS news reading on the day. Places are limited and will be
    allocated on a first come first served basis. Any Class Golf SWL
    students that may be interested are asked to get in contact with the
    IRTS News Coordinator Seany EI2HZB by email to irts_pro /at/ irts.ie as
    soon as possible please.
    __________________________________________________________________

    7P8EI DXpedition to Lesotho

    The EIDX group consisting of thirteen operators has packed 400 kg of
    radio gear and is ready to head for Lesotho on Tuesday, March 19th.
    They will be on the air from March 20th to March 29th operating as
    7P8EI. The station will operate on SSB, CW, and three FT8 stations
    running MSHV. They are looking forward to getting plenty of EI stations
    in the log.
    __________________________________________________________________

    IRTS AGM Weekend Updates

    Shannon Basin Radio Club, the host club for the 2024 IRTS AGM weekend,
    has announced the schedule of talks that will take place on Saturday
    April 13th in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. The EIDX team will get the
    afternoon underway from 1 p.m. focusing on their DXpedition adventures
    in Lesotho. Tom EI4HCB will then talk about 2m repeater construction.
    Following this, Ian GI0AZB, will discuss summit on the air operation
    and activating squares. John EI3ISB will round off the afternoon's
    schedule which ends at 5 p.m. with a presentation about Radio Scouting
    Ireland.

    If you have not already secured your ticket for the IRTS gala dinner on
    Saturday night, April 13th, this is quite likely your last chance to
    get one. The club reports that only a couple of tickets remain. It will
    not be possible to accommodate anyone else when the few remaining
    tickets are snapped up.

    The deadline for applications for trader and club tables at the SBRC
    rally is next Friday March 22nd. You are advised to contact admin /at/
    sbrc.ie on or before that deadline if you need table space.

    The club also announce that Begali, world-renowned for their
    high-quality CW keys and paddles, has joined their list of prize
    sponsors for the Shannon Basin Radio Club rally and monster raffle
    taking place on the following day, Sunday April 14th. They state that
    prizes from fifteen sponsors are now up for grabs during the monster
    raffle in their rally. Further information may be found at
    www.sbrc.ie/agmweekend
    __________________________________________________________________

    145 Alive Event on Saturday 11th May 2024

    Any operators interested in setting up control stations for the next
    145 Alive event on May 11th are invited to contact David Gardiner
    EI3IXB. This event is aimed at promoting 2m FM usage by getting
    operators on high ground, mobile, portable, or on summits. Interest in
    organising control stations is particularly requested from the west and
    northwest of the country. David EI3IXB may be contacted via email at
    ei3ixb /at/ gmail.com.
    __________________________________________________________________

    February Edition of the IARU Monitoring System Region 1 Newsletter

    The February edition of the IARU Monitoring System Region 1 Newsletter
    has been published. They announce an explanatory webpage that has been
    published to assist users in recognising and identifying the most usual
    modes used by non-amateur radio stations in the HF amateur radio bands.
    As part of this, it contains technical descriptions for each mode in
    addition to audio recordings, waterfall screenshots, and video samples
    of intruder and interfering transmissions. Of note in this edition, is
    a wide bandwidth radar signal that was measured as occupying a 500 kHz
    slice of the ten-metre band. You can download the newsletter and find
    out more about the activities at www.iaru-r1.org
    __________________________________________________________________

    Contest Updates

    On Bank Holiday Monday March 18th from 20:00 to 21:30 UTC, you can try
    your hand at the digital mode FT4 in a RSGB-organised event. This takes
    place on the 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m bands to allow entrants to
    experience this mode in a competitive context. You can learn more about
    this at www.rsgbcc.org

    Don't forget that the IRTS 80m Evening Counties contest will take place
    on Tuesday March 19th. Starting at 20:00 UTC, this one-hour contest has
    SSB, CW, and SWL sections. The exchange is signal report, serial
    number, and county. Further information may be found at
    www.irts.ie/contests
    __________________________________________________________________

    Propagation Update

    Due to the very active sun at present, operators can continue to enjoy
    a mixed bag of good conditions with occasional radio blackouts due to
    solar flare activity. On the VHF and higher bands, the Hepburn
    tropospheric propagation forecast indicates good tropospheric ducting
    conditions may be expected from Thursday next. It is not yet clear how
    long the conditions will last but it will be a good opportunity to try
    working DX stations and through repeaters beyond your typical radio
    range.
    __________________________________________________________________

    Items for Inclusion in Next Week's Radio News

    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 midnight on Thursday.

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