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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 23 October 2022
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Club News

The Shannon Basin Radio Club announce that their weekly 160m topband
net will recommence on Monday, the 31st of October from 9pm. The net
frequency will be 1.847 MHz +/ QRM. If it's your first time on the band
as a newly-licenced operator or you are a seasoned veteran, or even an
adventurous portable operator, you will be warmly welcomed. Updates
will be posted on Shannon Basin Radio Club's Facebook page and Twitter
account prior to the net. Anyone wishing to learn more, submit SWL
reports, or curious about the wide range of club activities are welcome
to contact Shannon Basin Radio Club by email at admin /at/ sbrc.ie or
via the club's social media channels.
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Contesting

The next major contest coming up is next weekend's 48 hour marathon of
the CQ WW SSB Contest. It starts 00:00 UTC on Saturday and ends at
23:59 UTC Sunday. The CQ WW is the largest Amateur Radio competition in
the world. Over 35,000 participants are anticipated to take to the
airwaves during next weekend's SSB leg, and again later in November
during the CW leg. The idea is to make as many contacts with as many
different DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible. Visit www.cqww.com to
see the set of rules, and check the results archive, so as to get an
idea of what to expect.

On Wednesday, the 26th of October, the UKEICC 80m Contest takes place
between 20:00 and 21:00UTC. Using CW only, the exchange is a
six-character locator. See www.ukeicc.com for details about the UK-EI
Contest Club.
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AMSAT News

During August the ageing AO-27 Satellite was in use over Scandinavia,
the northern UK, northern Canada and Alaska. A combination of failed
batteries and an out-of-sync on-board timer caused the footprint of
AO-27 to slowly drift south, only to become usable again in northern
latitudes lately. AO-27's timer has drifted enough to be workable for a
few minutes from the northern United States, Canada, and much of
Europe. Proof of the excellent RF properties of the otherwise
functional satellite is a recent distance record set by Joe Werth,
KE9AJ, at a SOTA summit in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin working Nick Garbett,
M1DDD/P on the 5th of October at 12:22 UTC. The satellite was at 59
degrees north during the QSO. A distance record via this satellite is
greatly complicated by the 3.5 minutes the satellite is activated on
each orbit.

The 2022 AMSAT-UK International Space Colloqium was held on the 8th and
9th of this month, at the Kents Hill Park Conference Centre as part of
the 2022 Radio Society of Great Britain Convention. Videos from the
meeting are now available on YouTube Channel of AMSAT-UK.
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ARRL Handbook

The must-have book for every shack is the ARRL Handbook. The 100th
edition of this reference source is now available not just for those
looking for a suitable present for the ham in their life, but also to
replace the worn out copy many of us have with a much updated edition.
The website handbook.arrl.org offers a 6-Volume Paperback Edition, a
Hardcover Collector's Edition, and electronic formats for Linux, Mac
and Windows.
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SK Memorial

The Polish PZK announced an initiative to commemorate their Silent
Keys. A rough translation of the most recent PZK news Bulletin article
reads: "Almost every ham radio has an "SK" sign in his memory, that is,
a sender whose key is silent forever. The "Remembrance of those who
passed away" "Silent Key Memorial 2022" campaign aims to commemorate
our deceased colleagues. The organiser of the action is the Editorial
Office of PZK Communications. The SP0SKM memorial radio station will be
active in the 80m-40m-20m-2m bands, with CW, SSB and FM emissions in
the period from 1 to 6 November 2022. Operators joining the action
establish contacts with SP0SKM, during which they provide the call-sign
of the SK operator, which they would like to commemorate. A brief
mention of an absent colleague is also welcome."
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The Propagation Horoscope

Also called "Fall Back Time" and "Winter Time", our local time will be
in sync with UTC again. Thankfully, next weekend will end the annual
period of confusion in the shack, especially when trying to consolidate
the log from scribbles on various bits of paper with dubious time
stamps. When local daylight time is about to reach 2 o'clock in the
morning of Sunday, the 30th of October 2022, then the clocks are turned
backward one hour to 1 o'clock. Sunrise and sunset will be one hour
earlier on 30 Oct 2022 than the day before, keep that in mind for your
grey-line propagation plans. Although only C-flares emanate from the
currently visible four sunspot regions, increasing solar activity is to
be expected after the return of a previously active region. NASA
forecasts rising flux levels to around 155 units. The currently calm
geomagnetic field will be disturbed this weekend, minor G1-class
geomagnetic storms are possible on Monday when a fast moving stream of
solar wind from a hole in the sun's southern atmosphere is expected to
hit Earth's magnetic field. There are enhanced aurora aided paths in
the northern hemisphere. DX conditions on all upper shortwave bands
will be good and comparable to last week. VHF operators and star gazers
may bring a warm blanket, lie back and watch the remains of Halley's
Comet burn up in our atmosphere. Although they already peaked early
Saturday morning, the viewing conditions for this year's Orionid meteor
shower are favourable, as the moon will be in a waning crescent phase
and will be only 17% illuminated. The Orionids are considered to be one
of the most reliable meteor showers after the Geminids and Perseids,
and are known to produce dozens of meteors per hour.

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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