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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 11 August 2022
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Club News

The next IRTS committee meeting will be held online on the 17th of
September.

Collective Communication

Keith (EI5KJ) informs us that following on from their recent highly
successful weekend portable operation during the SSB Field Day, South
East Ireland's newest radio group, known as Collective Communication,
are in the process of arranging further radio activities and events.
Collective Communication are an informal bunch of folk who enjoy radio
communication, friendly company, and a 'Can-Do' attitude. With a
Facebook page and over 60 followers after just a couple of weeks of
existence the Waterford based group is growing very quickly. The next
activity that the group will be participating in will be celebrating
Railways On The Air over the weekend of the 24th and 25th September
from the Stradbally Woodland Steam Railway, Laois, who are Ireland's
oldest steam preservation society. By coincidence the railway is
holding an open day over the same weekend so there should be plenty of
public present to witness our wonderful hobby in action. Following
that, over the weekend of the 14th to the 16th of October will see
Collective Communication involved with the Copper Coast Scout group of
Ballyscanion, Tramore, County Waterford operating "Jamboree on the
Air." Practical activities and demonstrations are being arranged for
the scouts to participate in as well as radio communication of course.
Members of Collective Communication are very experienced at JOTA
involvement and are arranging activities that are known to be engaging
and of interest to young folk of today. Further events and activities
are in the planning stage and include the possibility of a monthly net.
All will be made known on the groups Facebook page as and when firm
dates and times have been finalized. If you or anyone you know, whether
licenced or unlicenced, are curious about Collective Communication and
their futures activities, look up our Facebook page or contact John
EI3HQB on 086 870 9265 who will be very pleased to hear from you.

The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC writes:

With our ever-increasing events calendar The South Eastern Amateur
Radio Group EI2WRC is pleased to announce the appointment of Edwin Van
Mierlo EI2HEB as the Events Coordinator of the group. Edwin's first job
will be the coordination of the Railways On The Air event which takes
place over the weekend of the 24th and 25th of September. As in
previous years the group will be active from The Waterford & Suir
Valley Railway station Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford. WSVR is a community
heritage project. The project has enabled the magic of rails golden age
to be brought to life in Kilmeaden. A heritage narrow-gauge railway
runs along 17 kilometres of the abandoned Waterford to Dungarvan line.
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group would like to thank the manager
Maria Kyte and all the staff of The Waterford & Suir Valley Railway for
all their help and allowing us access to do this event again this year.
For more information about the WSVR please see www.wsvrailway.ie . 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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Counties Contest

The Autumn 2m and 70cm Counties Contest takes place next weekend. It
starts with the 30 minutes long 70cm band leg at 14:00 local time,
followed by a 90 minutes long session on 2m, starting at 14:30 local
time. Modes are FM and SSB and various power classes. Given the more
favourable weather conditions in Autumn we hope to hear many portable
operations from hilltops around the Country. The rules and entry
conditions for this popular contest can be found on www.irts.ie
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5MHz

Paul Gaskell (G4MWO), the editor of the 5 MHz Newsletter writes: More
African countries arrive on 60 m. Word has just arrived via the South
African Radio League (SARL) that three new African countries have
joined the ranks of 5 MHz operators. They are Botswana, Lesotho and
eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland. Each has the new WRC-15 Amateur
Secondary Allocation of 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz. This makes a total of 89
countries now on the band worldwide.
__________________________________________________________________

New License Class in Germany

After many years of lobbying by the DARC german hams will soon have a
new structure of license classes, and also see a some welcome changes
to their operation conditions. While the existing classes E and A will
see the introduction of new topics of digital technology, the new class
N focuses on operational knowledge, regulations and basic knowledge of
technology. Holders of the new Class N will be allowed to transmit on
2m and 70cm with a maximum power of 10 watt EIRP. A similar system
already existed up to about 30 years ago, but the distinction between
the license classes blurred when the old class C license gained access
to the shortwave bands. The examination syllabus developed by the DARC
for the three classes are structured in such a way that the content and
questions are not repeated, so all future radio amateurs go through the
exams of class N, through E to class A. It should be possible to take
all the exams in one day. Holders of license class A may in future
operate amateur radio stations remotely, and also allow other class A
license holders to remotely use their station. Another innovation is
the training radio operation, which will be possible in the future
without a separate training call sign. Instead, adding the prefix "DN/"
makes any Class E or Class A call-sign a training call-sign.
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RTTY Intruder

Especially on the 40m band there are always radio services that have no
place there, sometimes these are hard to recognise as intruders. This
is the case for the evening transmissions on 7080 kHz. At first glance
it looks like a legal amateur radio RTTY signal. Taking a closer look
at the transmission parameters it becomes clear that this particular
FSK mode is not used in amateur radio. The speed is 50 baud with a
shift of 200 Hz, instead of the typical 425 Hz shift. This method,
called CIS-50-50, is used primarily by the Russian Navy. A similar
emission can be observed on 7088 kHz.
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The Propagation Horoscope

Currently the geomagnetic field is perturbed by the still prevailing
influence of a high speed stream from coronal hole number 1097, soon to
rotate out of view, only to be replaced by the returning, very active
coronal hole number 1098 which re-appeared over the eastern limb,
becoming earth-facing this weekend. This large northern hemisphere
coronal hole has produced major flares and CMEs while facing away from
Earth. Expect unsettled conditions during the week. The maximum usable
frequency will vary between 8 MHz at night to at best 22 MHz during
daylight. This should improve later in the week once geomagnetic
conditions calm down again. East-West paths will be poor on all bands,
but on 30 to 15 meters listen out for morning openings to eastern parts
of Africa. Later in the day propagation will shift towards
South-America. During mid-week there is a chance for Aurora. Raspy and
humming distortions to SSB signals on the lower bands are a sure
indication that one should train the VHF antennas at northerly
bearings, and check the Scandinavian VHF beacon frequencies.

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 Friday noon.

[C]
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