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Irish Radio Transmitter Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 20 February 2022
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IRTS Commmittee Nominations.

There seems to have been much confusion recently on how members are
elected to the IRTS committee. The IRTS committee is obliged by rule to
nominate candidates for the positions of President, Vice-President and
eleven committee positions. These nominations must be included with the
notice of meeting sent to members 28 days before the AGM. If you are
interested in any of these positions, please email irts_secretary /at/
irts.ie before the next committee meeting on February 26th. This
mechanism is in place to ensure that there are candidates for all
positions and does not prevent any member putting themselves up for
election. Anyone interested in putting themselves forward for election
can do so as defined by rules 23 and 24 in the Constitution and Rules.
Members are reminded that there will be no election for committee
positions at the AGM. If there are additional candidates to the
committee nominations, there will be a postal ballot held in advance of
the AGM. Hopefully, some members who have been critical of the Society
can avail of the opportunity to get elected to the committee and
provide us with their commitment to work to improve the issues that
have been troubling them.
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Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

Club members Dermot EI2GT, Brendan EI0CZ, Liam EI7DSB, Harry EI2KL and
Simon EI7ALB, activated EI90IRTS from the LCARC station in the Shannon
Aviation Museum on Saturday, the 5th of February and again on Saturday,
the 12th of February. A total of 191 contacts across 39 entities were
made, of which 123 were CW and 68 were USB. Bands in use were 12, 15,17
and 20.

Club members Dermot EI2GT and Harry EI2KL introduced transition year
students to Amateur Radio at the club's station. A total of 16 students
attended the 2 sessions on Thursday, the 17th of February.

Thanks to Brendan EI0CZ, morse lessons continue on Mondays immediately
after the IRTS Weekly News at 20:00, which is read on the club's 70cms
repeater, transmitting on 433.125 MHz FM.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The 2022 Annual General Meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio
Group will take place at 8.00 p.m. sharp on Monday the 28th of February
2022 via the Zoom platform. The committee feels that because it's a
very important meeting and some people might not yet feel comfortable
attending public gatherings, that Zoom would be a better option than a
physical meeting. It would also allow members and those interested in
joining who live a distance away to attend. There will be a limited
number of places available for non-members of the club to attend this
meeting. Anyone interested in attending is asked to send an email
requesting details of how you can access the meeting to southeasternarg
/at/ gmail.com before 6 p.m. Monday the 21st of February.

The 89th Irish Radio Transmitters AGM weekend will take place over the
weekend of the 9th and 10th of April 2022 in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel,
Kilkenny Road, Carlow. The special room rate secured for the event will
end on the 1st march so there will be no rooms available after that
date at the reduced rate and rooms will cost the standard hotel prices.
Tickets for the Gala Dinner can now be pre-booked from John EI7IG for
collection on arrival at the event.

Individual traders are very welcome to attend the rally and sell any
equipment they wish to. Tables will be available to individual traders
for 10 Euro per table. Any IRTS affiliated radio club and groups are
also very welcome to attend the rally and promote their club or group.
Tables will be available free of charge, providing they do not sell any
radio gear or related items. Table inquiries can made to John EI3HQB on
086 8709265. Tables are limited so contact John as soon as possible
please.

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. South Eastern
Amateur Radio Group
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EI0MAR Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth.

Tony, EI5EM, has good news to report regarding Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy
Museum of Vintage Radio in the Martello tower in Howth. Two Community
Employment Scheme workers have been recently assigned, and it is
planned to reopen from April, initially at weekends. International
Marconi Day takes place on the 23rd of April and, as usual, EI0MAR will
be taking part as an Award Station from the museum. We look forward to
welcoming many visitors on that day. Pat Herbert, who set up the Museum
in 2003, sadly passed away in 2020. However, we are grateful to Pat's
son, Simon, for taking up the baton where his father left off.
__________________________________________________________________

Contests

Next weekend will see three contests crowding the HF bands, beginning
with the 48 hours CQ Worldwide 160m SSB contest. The French REF-Contest
and the Belgian UBA contests take place on Saturday and Sunday next.

The ARRL announced a new Digital Contest. The debut is scheduled for
the 4th of June. This will cater for all non-RTTY modes on 160 to 6
meters. There will be only two power categories, up to 5 Watts QRP, or
up to 100 Watts. Full details on the new 30 hour operating event are on
the ARRL website.
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J643

During next week, you might hear the unusal prefix J643 on the HF
bands. It's a special prefix used by ham operators in St. Lucia,
celebrating their country's 43rd anniversary in gaining full
independence on the 22nd of February 22nd, 1979. The regular prefix of
St Lucia, IOTA NA-108, is J69.
__________________________________________________________________

Potential Amateur Interference to Satellite Navigation System

The following news item is from a recent IARU Region 1 report and
information from the ARRL: IARU Region 1 continues wrangling with the
issue of interference potential to GALILEO global navigation satellite
system (GNSS) sites in Europe from amateur radio operation in the 1240
to 1300 MHz (23-centimeter) band. Considerable work has gone into
documenting an interference case on a single GALILEO channel between a
"very local" Italian 23-centimeter repeater and receivers at the nearby
European Commission Joint Research Centre in Ispra, where GALILEO
applications are developed and tested.

"This one case is often cited as the `proof' that interference can
occur," said Barry Lewis, G4SJH, the chair of IARU Region 1 Spectrum
Affairs. As a consequence of this single instance of interference, the
IARU has been engaged for several years in defending amateur interests
on 23 centimeters. Considerable computer modeling has gone into the
effort, in advance of World Radiocommunication Conference 23 (WRC-23).

In 2018, the FCC granted, in part, the European Commission's request
for a rules waiver so that non-federal devices in the US may access
specific GALILEO signals to augment the US Global Positioning System.

The two systems are interoperable and RF compatible. That Order permits
access to two GALILEO satellite signals: the E1 signal in the 1559 to
1591 MHz portion of the 1559 to 1610 MHz Radionavigation-Satellite
Service (RNSS) band, and the E5 signal in the 1164 to 1219 MHz portion
of the 1164 to 1215 MHz and 1215 to 1240 MHz RNSS bands. The Order does
not grant access to the Galileo E6 signal on 1278.750 MHz in the 1260
to 1300 MHz band, which is not allocated for such services in the US.
Omitting that channel eliminates any need for US radio amateurs to
protect GALILEO receivers from interference.

"The impact of traffic through this very local repeater (12.5
kilometers distant) on three different GALILEO receivers has been
documented," Lewis said. "This work suggests that while RNSS receiver
bandwidth can have a part to play in enabling coexistence, beyond that
nothing has been reported that could help develop any coexistence
criteria." IARU Region 1 President Don Beattie, G3BJ, stated last year
that IARU does not want the Amateur Service to affect GALILEO system
operation in any way. Lewis said the IARU has provided extensive
information regarding amateur applications in the 1240 to 1300 MHz band
as well as operational characteristics and data indicating the density
of active transmitting stations and the busiest periods when these are
most likely to be operational.

"Amateur transmissions virtually anywhere in the band will be
co-frequency with the RNSS receivers from one system or another," Lewis
said. "It is therefore obvious that any RNSS receiver will be open to
any co-frequency amateur transmission, and amateur operators have no
way of knowing where or when a RNSS service user is active." Lewis
suggests that "some compromises will need be necessary" to develop a
co-existence model.
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The Propagation Horoscope

When streams of slow and fast solar wind combine it can create a
shockwave, much like an overtopping waves during a storm here on earth.
Such so-called co-rotating interaction region has started to influence
Earth's magnetic field late on Friday. Plasma density will start to
increase during Sunday, then quickly taper off, followed by a steady
increase in the solar wind from currently around 350 km/s to above
600km/s at Monday noon, remaining elevated for the rest of the week. In
the coming days the MUF will quickly rise above 25 MHz after daybreak,
continuing to produce excellent DX via F2 on all higher bands, combined
with good short hop on 40 and 30 meters.

The sunspot that downed a bunch of Space-X satellites shortly after
launch a fortnight ago is making a return, becoming visible on the
northeastern limb on next Wednesday. Sunspot AR2936 is the likely
candidate for last Thursday's strong flare and large CME on the far
side of the Sun, so this is one to be watched closely.

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.

[C]
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