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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 13 March 2022
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New IRTS Contest Manager

The IRTS Committee is delighted to announce that Jeremy Sheehan EI5GM,
an experienced DXer and Contester has assumed the role of IRTS Contest
Manager. His first job will be the 80 Metre evening contest on Tuesday
March 22nd which runs for one hour from 20:00 UTC. There are three
sections for EI's, SSB only, SSB and CW and a section for Shortwave
Listeners. Stations outside EI can enter as SSB only or SSB and CW. The
deadline for receipt of logs is April 5th. Full details on
www.irts.ie/contests
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Tipperary Amateur Radio Group

The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place
in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Tuesday, the 15th of March, at 8.30 p.m.
This marks a welcome return to physical meetings after a gap of 2
years. New members or anyone interested in amateur radio are very
welcome.

For anyone who wishes to find out more about the Tipperary Amateur
Radio Group and its activities you can attend any of their meetings.
You can also check out their website www.ei7trg.ie or contact club PRO
Ronan EI4KN at QTHR for further information.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC

The March meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will
take place on Monday, the 28th of March 2022, at 8.00 p.m. sharp at The
Sweep Bar, Adamstown, Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford, Eircode X91 H588. New
members or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio or
the group are as always very welcome to attend.

With less than a month to go to the 89th IRTS AGM Weekend which will be
held on Saturday and Sunday, the 9th and 10th of April at the Woodford
Dolmen Hotel, Carlow. People are reminded to please prebook your dinner
tickets. Dinner tickets for the Gala Dinner on the Saturday evening can
be prebooked from John EI7IG. Tickets cost EUR35 and must be prebooked
before the 4th of April. The SEARG radio rally will take place on
Sunday, the 10th of April, starting at 10:30 a.m. sharp and closing at
2:00 p.m. There will be no admittance to the rally for the public until
10:30 a.m. The rally promises to be a great day with Ireland's main
radio dealers and equipment suppliers in attendance. There will also be
many individual traders in attendance so come early to grab a bargain!
The entry fee to the rally will be 5 Euro.

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society's 2022 Annual General Meeting will
take place at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, the 10th of April 2022 in the
Morrison Suite at the Woodford Dolmen Hotel. Entry to the AGM will only
be permitted to fully paid-up IRTS members and in line with previous
practice membership will be checked prior to entry. EI2WRC are looking
forward to welcoming everyone to Carlow over the weekend for the event.
For more information about the event please see
www.irtsagm2022cw.blogspot .com

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.
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Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

The LCARC AGM was held in the Shannon Aviation Museum on Thursday
evening the 10th March. Chairman Dermot, EI2GT welcomed all to a well
attended meeting. He thanked the outgoing committee and club members
for all their work over a very difficult two years. Despite the many
challenges, the club is now in a very strong position, in so far as
there is a very well equipped club station with a selection of HF, VHF
and UHF antennas.

The success of the LCARC Rally 2021 was highlighted, which was largely
due to the organisation and running of the event by those involved,
while not forgetting the many who attended the event.

Club Secretary Michael Kirwan EI3KO and Club QSL manager Albert Price
EI5HXB indicated that they wished to step back from their respective
roles. Chairman Dermot thanked them for the work done in difficult and
challenging times.

The following were elected:

Chairman Dermot Gleeson EI2GT Secretary Joe Ryan EI9HG Treasurer Liam
Rainford EI7DSB Committee Brendan Kilmartin EI0CZ Michael Kingston
EI2IX John Phelan EI4EY Simon Kenny EI7ALB QSL Manager Alan Cronin
EI8EM Club Reps Gerry Gervin EI8CC Simon Kenny EI7ALB Trustees Harry
O'Loughlin EI2KL Gerry Gervin EI8CC Tom O'Sullivan EI3AL

Chairman Dermot set out the priorities and initiatives for the coming
year, before opening the meeting to any other business. A lively
discussion, ranging over a number of topics, followed before the
meeting closed.

The club continues to benefit from its association with the Shannon
Aviation Museum. On Thursday and Friday, the 10th and 11th of March,
Dermot EI2GT, Harry EI2KL and Mike EI2IX introduced over 300 students
from the four local primary and secondary schools to Amateur Radio and
associated aspects of physics.
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St. Patrick's Day Activities

First we report on the St. Patrick's Day Weekend Flora & Fauna Activity
Event. WWFF, World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio is a long
standing award scheme internationally and has more than 26,000
Protected Flora and Fauna (PFF) areas worldwide which are registered in
the WWFF Directory. The EI Flora and Fauna Award scheme, which is
affiliated to the international scheme, has been active since January
1st this year led by co-ordinator and awards manager Jer, EI3HGB and
log manager Declan, EI9HQ. There are over 250 areas defined by the
National Parks and Wildlife service and you can find all the necessary
information on eiffirl.wordpress.com.

An activity event is taking place over the upcoming four day St.
Patricks Day weekend and amateurs are asked to consider getting out and
putting one of their local flora and fauna areas on the air.
Certificates will be available for both activators and chasers for this
event. Please advise Declan EI9HQ of your plans so duplication can be
avoided. Contact Declan by email at eifflogs /at/ gmail.com

Another well established activity is the Saint Patrick's Day Award,
which has many EI, GI, and callsigns from further afield registered on
their website, making it easy to find them during what promises to be a
long weekend on busy HF bands. Saint Patrick's Day stations will be
running from midday UTC on Wednesday, the 16th of March, to midday UTC
on Friday, the 18th of March. For further information and to register
as a participating station go to www.stpatricksaward.com

A special effort to turn the airwaves green will be made by Charlie,
EI8JB. He will be signing as EJ8JB from Bere Island, IOTA EU-121, from
Thursday, the 17th until Sunday, the 20th of March. Activity will be on
SSB, CW and RTTY. QSL's will be available via the bureau and also
electronically via logbook of the world.
__________________________________________________________________

AMSAT receives grant from ARDC

AMSAT reports that it received a generous grant of over 93,000 US
Dollars from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) for the
development of a standardized 3U spaceframe CubeSat with deployable
solar panels. In their report AMSAT states that this will serve as the
mechanical platform for AMSAT's GOLF series of satellites as well as a
new generation of low earth orbit FM satellites. The spaceframe design
will be available to the public under an open access agreement. Central
to the development of the 3U spaceframe, AMSAT will build three
flight-ready spaceframes for an upcoming series of satellites with
potentially enhanced flight control, payload and communication
capabilities. The need for a 3U spaceframe with deployable solar panels
goes back to the original design requirements for the Greater Orbit,
Larger Footprint (GOLF) satellites that would return AMSAT to Highly
Elliptical Orbits (HEO). The benefit of this program will provide
satellites with wider coverage and longer access times to the entire
Amateur Radio satellite community worldwide.
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The Propagation Horoscope

Five moderately active sunspot regions, soon to be joined by three more
active region appearing over the northeastern limb of the solar disc
will continue to disturb geomagnetic conditions. Lat week saw brief,
unstable openings on the higher HF bands, and good DX on 20 to 15
meters. Following a full halo filament detachment on late Friday, a
strong geomagnetic storm with an expected Kp 6 will impact early Monday
morning. A spike in the proton count will be followed by a solar wind
at around 400 km per second throughout the week. Expect some HF
blackouts on Monday, followed by poor conditions, hopefully improving
for next weekend's St Patrick's Day on shortwave.

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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