IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday October 17th, 2021.

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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday October 17th, 2021.
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Region 1 IARU General Conference

The Region 1 IARU General Conference, part one, was held last July and
will be continued in part 2, which started on Friday last and will run
until Sunday next the 24th. This is a virtual conference which will
incorporate a workshop entitled "Shaping the Future of Amateur Radio".

IRTS will be represented at the conference by President Jim Holohan
EI4HH, Dave Court EI3IO, Niall Donohue EI6HIB and Adrian Connor EI9HAB.
A special committee meeting of IRTS held on Saturday last looked in
detail at the outcome of the recent survey and the resulting SWOT
analysis and this will feed into the IARU workshop.
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ComReg Proposed Strategy for Managing the Radio Spectrum 2022-2024

We remind listeners that the deadline for submissions in response to
the ComReg Document 21/90 close at 1600 on Friday next October 22nd.
There are several significant issues of great interest to the amateur
community in the document and you may not get another chance to have an
input for some time.

The link to the document is www.comreg.ie
/media/2021/09/Comreg-2190.pdf
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North Dublin Radio Club

The North Dublin Radio Club is pleased to announce that, following
relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, it has resumed its weekly meetings
every Saturday night from 8pm. The venue is the Artane Beamont Family
Recreation Centre on Kilmore Road at the roundabout beside Artaine
Castle Shopping Centre. Directions and further details are available at
ei0ndr.com.

We look forward to welcoming new members, especially those who have
recently passed the HAREC examination and of course anybody interested
in studying the HAREC course, as we plan to run classes as well. So
don't be shy, come along some Saturday night and join us at this
friendly and informal gathering. You will be made most welcome.
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South Dublin Radio Club

Subject to government guidance on the further easement of coronavirus
restrictions on the 22nd of October 2021, South Dublin Radio Club is
delighted to invite all current club members, returning members and new
prospective members, to the reopening of our club premises at Ballyroan
Community Centre, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, on Tuesday the 26th October
2021 from 20:00 to 22:00.

In order to update club records for insurance reasons and to be
compliant with child protection legislation, club membership forms will
be circulated for completion to all returning and new members on the
night. Our annual membership fee of EUR20 is also payable on the night,
please note that electronic payment is not currently available.

So whether you want to get reacquainted with old friends, you're newly
licenced and want to make new amateur radio friends and get experience
on club radio equipment, or you're looking to start your journey into
the wonderful world of amateur radio - the original and best STEM hobby
- please come along. We'll be delighted to see you!
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Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club Rally

After hosting JOTA for 1st Clare Shannon Scouts, Sixmilebridge Scouts
and Ruan Scouts on Saturday the 16th October, LCARC are announcing
their next event.

The Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club will hold a Rally in the Radisson
Blu Hotel on Sunday, 7th of November 2021. Doors will open at 11:00 and
the entrance fee will be EUR5 per person.

As with previous rallys there will be a bring and buy opportunity.
Tables for the bring and buy, exhibitors and related demonstrations are
free. Tables should be booked through Michael Kingston EI2IX via email
to rapidov66 /at/ gmail.com. LCARC now publishes a list of equipment,
for sale at the Rally, on the club's website www.limerickclareama
teurradioclub.ie . Follow the 'Market Place' drop down menu.
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NSWL Club Get Together and Dinner

The National Shortwave Listeners Club would like to congratulate the
successful candidates in the recent HAREC examination and are delighted
to hear so many new callsigns on the air. Commiserations to those that
were unsuccessful, and they hope to see them all attending the upcoming
revision classes in preparation for the next HAREC exam on November
27th.

The club have organised a radio filled weekend on November 6th and 7th
with a visit to the Shannon Aviation Museum and the Limerick Clare Club
station on the Saturday followed by their first annual dinner and
overnight stay in Tracy's Oakwood Hotel in Shannon. The outing will
conclude with a visit to the Limerick Clare Club Rally in the Radisson
Blu Hotel on Sunday. Some places are still available, and the club
extends an invitation to non-members who wish to attend. Enquiries to
info /at/ swl.ie
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Publications Library Update

The IRTS Publications Library contains newsletters and other IRTS
publications from 1948 to the year 2000. The library now holds more
than 250 publications which have been scanned and converted to PDF for
easy viewing or downloading. The most recent addition to the library is
a copy of the August 1960 IRTS News, which was unearthed by Gerry
EI8CC.

The topics covered in this issue include reports from 3 Field Day
contest stations in the Dublin area and how the operators overcame a
variety of technical and weather-related problems. There is also an
interesting report on an IARU Region 1 Conference held in Folkestone,
Kent during which the IRTS delegation offered to assist VHF operators
from other countries to join in an effort to make a VHF transatlantic
contact with the east coast of the USA.

The IRTS Publications library is at www.irts.ie/library and is well
worth a visit. We continue to ask members to help to fill in the gaps
by lending newsletters or other IRTS publications not currently in the
library so that they can be scanned and added to the library.
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RSGB Convention videos online

Although the 2021 Online Convention of the Radio Society of Great
Britain is over, if you missed it you can watch the interviews and
other parts of the program on the society's YouTube channel. Individual
presentations are not yet available but much of the other content can
be watched on www.youtube.com/thersgb
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IRTS Contest Today

For those listening to this bulletin on Sunday morning, a brief
reminder that the IRTS 40 metres Counties Contest takes place today at
1200 UTC, that is 1.00pm local time. This is a one-hour contest, with
SSB Only and SSB/CW Mixed Mode sections. Multipliers are the EI and GI
counties, while EI and GI stations also have overseas DXCC entities as
multipliers. See www.irts.ie/contests for more details.
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UK EI Contest

The next UKEI CC contest will be the 24 hour International DX SSB
Contest on next weekend, October 23rd and 24th, followed by the monthly
one hour CW contest on Wednesday October 27th. Full details including
calendar and all results are available on www.ukeicc.com
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DX News

Members of the International Amateur Radio Contest DX Club are using
the call sign 4U2U until the end of this month. They are celebrating
United Nations Day, which is the 24th of October. This station counts
as a contact with Austria, prefix OE, for DX purposes and it counts as
4U for the Vienna International Centre for the CQ DX Marathon Award.
Send QSLs to UA3DX, direct or by the Bureau.

The kingdom of Eswatini, previously known as Swaziland is currently
popular with DXpeditions. A russian team is active near Mbabane for
another week as 3DA0RU on 160 thru 6 meters using CW, SSB, FT8 and
QO-100 satellite, with multiple stations. For suggested FT8 frequencies
and QSL info see their new web page at www.3da0.ru/en

Also on air from Eswanti is a latvian team with the callsign 3DA0WW on
160-10 meters, using CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. QSL and frequency infos can
be found on lral.lv/3da0ww . In their last dispatch they mention a
Local dog chewed a cable, some select guy wires, and that it already
brought down one of the vertical antennas.

Last chance to catch IOTA AF-050. Johannes, PA5X and Gerben, PG5M are
active as 5T5PA/P and 5T1GM from Arguin Island until mid-week on 40 to
10 meters using CW, SSB, and FT8. They use satellite communication for
short messages on Twitter. See their web page on www.dx.to/5T1GM for
more details.
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Oscar 9

Fourty years ago, Sir Martin Sweeting, G3YJO vibration tested a
satellite by rattling down Guildford High Street in a car before
launching it into space as microSAT-1, later renamed to Oscar 9.
Developed at the University of Surrey it was the first modern
microsatellite with in-orbit re-programmable computers and its signals
were decoded and analyzed by thousands of radio amateurs, schools &
universities around the world.
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The Propagation Horoscope

Last week's C and M flares brought the flux numbers close to 100,
keeping the F layers in good shape for 3000km hops for up to 30MHz,
occasionally even 50 MHz, with solid openings across the Atlantic. On
the 9th a strong M Flare birthed a CME which reached us last Tuesday
around 2 o'clock in the morning, triggering Northern Lights across
northern Europe. For now the flux will drop back to around 80 after
those three active regions have moved out of view again. Currently the
solar wind is at around 300km per second with a density of around 5
particles per cubic centimeter, slowly dropping. The previously
fruitful region 2877 will re-appear today, that should tie us over with
steady openings on 15m and above, but not as good as last week. Sao
Tome can be heard on topband and 80m works well beyond Europe, even
with moderate antennas. It's certainly advisable to give the 10, 12 and
15 meter band antennas an inspection, and keep an eye out for more
aurora. Last week gave us a glimpse of the good times yet to come.
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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 Friday.

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