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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 29 January 2023
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Ivan Elliott EI7IKB SK

We regret to announce the tragic death of Ivan Elliott EI7IKB in a hill
walking accident in the Tararua Ranges, New Zealand on January 6th last
while on a family holiday. Ivan, who lived in Cobh, Co. Cork was
licensed in 2021 following online training with the National Short Wave
Listeners club and was a member of Cork Radio Club. We extend our
deepest sympathy to his wife Sinéad, his children Kate and David, his
mother, his two brothers and his extended family in Australia, New
Zealand and the Netherlands. A service to celebrate Ivan's life was
held in Masterton, New Zealand on January 14th followed by a private
cremation. May Ivan rest in peace.
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Resignation of the President of the IRTS

The IRTS Committee have received a letter of resignation from the
President of the IRTS, Larry EI9CN, yesterday. The Committee would like
to thank Larry for his hard work and offers him best wishes for the
future. Further information will be provided when it becomes available.
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NSWLC Report January 2023

As of today, NSWLC has 146 members, of whom99have renewed their
membership for 2023. One or two of the remaining 47 may still renew
before the 31 January deadline. The remainder is comprised of a few
members whohave moved toother clubs, and a group of those who may have
given up their licensingjourney. We wish all the best of luck in radio.
Since our club requires that all memberships must be explicitly renewed
each December, we expect this pattern to repeat annually. The number of
renewals has somewhat exceeded our expectations. The NSWLC annual
dinner will take place on Saturday 25 Feb 2023 at the Temple Gate Hotel
in Ennis, Co Clare. We are looking forward to meeting each other, and
other amateurs, thanks to our collaboration with Limerick Clare Radio
Club. The Study Guide is continuing to receive valuable feedback. All
work on revising it is currently on hiatus and we expect to resume it
in the Spring. We hope to publish the final version, containing all the
accepted feedback, in June or July. The HAREC Training Foxtrot classes
have resumed after the December break and continue right on schedule.
Attendance is very good, averaging 49 students each week. Based on the
number of questions and the overall level of student engagement we have
high hopes for the results in May.

The Club has continued to meet every Sunday. Attendance has increased
to about 45-48 each Sunday, viaZoom, with the last four meetings
covering subjects as home-brewingand electronic components, QSO
structure with live demos of SSB, CW, RTTY, and FT8 QSOs, a SWL
mini-contest prize, how to learn Morse with straight keys, paddles,
bugs, electronic keyers, and everything else about sending CW.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC

The January meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC
will take place on Monday, the 30th of January 2023, at 8pm sharp at
the New Community Men's Shed, Ozanam Centre, Coffee House Lane,
Waterford. Although the Ozanam Centre has no Eircode, it is located
directly behind the St. Vincent De Paul shop on Henrietta Street which
has the Eircode X91 FEK1, making it a good starting point for anyone
who might be interested in coming along, but isn't sure how to find our
new location. New members, or anyone interested in learning more about
amateur radio or the group are as always very welcome to attend.

Members of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will be QRV as
EI2IMD on Saturday April 22nd for the International Marconi Day 2023.
The station will be active from Tramore, Co. Waterford. Tramore has a
direct connection with Marconi as he often stayed there with his aunt
Mrs. Cookman who resided at the Cove, Tramore. Special thanks to the
organisers the Cornish Radio Amateur Club for organising this special
event. More details will be made known in the coming days on the SEARG
Facebook and EI2IMD QRZ pages. For more information on the
International Marconi Day please see www.gx4crc.com

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 find them on Facebook.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC
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Collective Communications

With less than two months to go Collective Communications' EI3CC plans
for their mobile parade display at the coastal resort of Tramore, Co.
Waterford on St. Patrick's Day are rapidly coming together. Work on our
new 'mobile shack' is progressing apace with a complete chassis
renovation and brand new interior. Learning from past experiences,
namely ROTA, a section of one side of the trailer will open out, rather
like a mobile hot food stall to enable interested members of the public
to better see some of the equipment modern radio amateurs use these
days. And if any of the public are interested and courageous enough
they will be able to 'have a chat' on air, of course under supervision.
The Tramore parade will take place after the Waterford City parade, and
indeed some of the floats from the city tend to 'migrate' down to
Tramore, so a good show is always on the cards. Depending on weather
conditions some of the Tramore funfair will be open so there is every
reason to make the journey and join in the celebration of our national
day. Additionally, just a few weeks later on the 22nd of April, EI3CC
will be operating as EI3IMD to celebrate International Marconi Day from
the restored Coastguard And Cultural Center, Doneaile Drive, Tramore.
It's an ideal site to operate from being on the cliffs overlooking the
sea. With the Coastguard Centre and it's history, displays and cafe as
a secondary attraction make a note in your diary to visit us. Subject
to conditions we'll be supporting HF, VHF, and UHF operation. If you're
unable to join us on the day, listen out for EI3IMD on the bands. No
matter your preference of operation, SSB, CW, or FM we would love to
have your call-sign in our logbook, we'll have some special QSL cards
to confirm contacts. If you'd like more info on these, or any other of
our activities, call John EI3HQB on 086 870 9265. We're looking forward
to seeing you at either one, or both, of these event.
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Skywave ARC

The February meeting of the Skywave Amateur Radio Club EI0SW Will take
place on Tuesday, the 7th of February at 8.00 p.m. at theOld Halfway
House, Rathduff, Co. Cork, Eircode T23 VN88. New members or anyone
interested in learning more about amateur radio are very welcome to
attend. Skywave Amateur Radio Club will be activating Blackrock Castle
Observatory on Sunday, the 5th of March to mark Engineers Week 2023.
The Blackrock Castle COTA Reference number is EI-00055. Skywave ARC
will also be demonstrating Slow Scan Television on the day and a other
radiorelated subjects from 10am to 4pm. Keep an listen out on 20m, or
if you are close by on the day, do come along and say hello.
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UKEICC 80m

On Wednesday the 1st of February, the UK and Ireland Contest Club 80m
Contest runs from 2000 to 2100UTC. Using SSB only, the exchange is your
six character locator. The Bonus call-signs, worth 15 points each, will
be Ei5G, operated by Paul EI3ENB, and GM5GEI, operated by Chris GM3WOJ.
__________________________________________________________________

Orbital News

The SSTV unit aboard the ISS has failed. The interface card connecting
the radios with the computer suffered damage beyond repair. New laptops
are also being used, which require a new interface components from the
ARISS-Russia team. ARISS-Russia is developing this new interface and is
consulting the ARISS-International hardware and software team. Sergey
Samburov, RV3DR stated that they expect to complete the SSTV
development efforts early next year and the hardware will be
transported to the ISS on a Progress flight later in 2024. Until then
there will be no more SSTV broadcasts.
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The Propagation Horoscope

Exceptionally good propagation conditions on all HF bands are gifting
DX for even the most modest station setup, therefore let's shift our
attention to the higher frequencies. With the 40 MHz 8m band now firmly
established in many countries, reports are about remarkable long
distance contacts, together with an excellent analysis by John EI7Gl
are compiled on his website at ei7gl.blogspot.com . This is also
reflected by reports from Robbie, EI2IP about good openings on 40Mhz in
the past fortnight, with F2 propagation towards North America and the
Caribbean. Notable contacts were made on Wednesday, the 18th of
January, with the first confirmed two way SSB contact between Europe
and the United States, between EI2IP and WM2XEJ in Georgia, followed by
the first confirmed two way SSB contact from Europe to Bonaire Island,
between EI2IP and PJ4MM. Robbie's transmissions on 8m were also
confirmed by SWLs in Mexico, Ukraine, South Africa, Costa Rica and
Canada. Phil EI9KP has concluded the second round of experiments on 34
MHz, results of which, together with reports of his many other
propagation experiments can also be found on ei7gl.blogspot.com .

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.

[C]
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