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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 17th, 2024
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News from the IRTS

The next IRTS Committee meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 2nd
at 8:00 p.m. on the Zoom platform. All IRTS affiliated clubs are
reminded that under Rule 16.1, the members in each affiliated club,
society, or other body may elect a representative and an alternate
annually to attend IRTS Committee meetings. Clubs wishing to send a
representative should notify the IRTS Secretary, Owen EI4GGB at
irts_secretary /at/ irts.ie in advance to ensure notification and links
are provided.

As part of the IRTS AGM Weekend which will take place in Ballinasloe
over the weekend of April 13th and 14th, the IRTS news team would like
to invite some SWLs who are currently part of HAREC Class Golf to help
read some of the 40m and 80m IRTS news bulletins on Sunday the 14th.
Both the 40m and 80m bulletins will be read live from the rally with
Louis EI8KI reading the 40m bulletin and Stefan EI4KU reading the 80m
bulletin. Louis and Stefan will be supervising any SWLs who want to try
some IRTS news reading on the day. Places are limited and will be
allocated on a first come first served basis. Any Class Golf SWL
students that may be interested are asked to get in contact with the
IRTS News Coordinator Seany EI2HZB by email to irts_pro /at/ irts.ie as
soon as possible please.
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7P8EI DXpedition to Lesotho

The EIDX group consisting of thirteen operators has packed 400 kg of
radio gear and is ready to head for Lesotho on Tuesday, March 19th.
They will be on the air from March 20th to March 29th operating as
7P8EI. The station will operate on SSB, CW, and three FT8 stations
running MSHV. They are looking forward to getting plenty of EI stations
in the log.
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IRTS AGM Weekend Updates

Shannon Basin Radio Club, the host club for the 2024 IRTS AGM weekend,
has announced the schedule of talks that will take place on Saturday
April 13th in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. The EIDX team will get the
afternoon underway from 1 p.m. focusing on their DXpedition adventures
in Lesotho. Tom EI4HCB will then talk about 2m repeater construction.
Following this, Ian GI0AZB, will discuss summit on the air operation
and activating squares. John EI3ISB will round off the afternoon's
schedule which ends at 5 p.m. with a presentation about Radio Scouting
Ireland.

If you have not already secured your ticket for the IRTS gala dinner on
Saturday night, April 13th, this is quite likely your last chance to
get one. The club reports that only a couple of tickets remain. It will
not be possible to accommodate anyone else when the few remaining
tickets are snapped up.

The deadline for applications for trader and club tables at the SBRC
rally is next Friday March 22nd. You are advised to contact admin /at/
sbrc.ie on or before that deadline if you need table space.

The club also announce that Begali, world-renowned for their
high-quality CW keys and paddles, has joined their list of prize
sponsors for the Shannon Basin Radio Club rally and monster raffle
taking place on the following day, Sunday April 14th. They state that
prizes from fifteen sponsors are now up for grabs during the monster
raffle in their rally. Further information may be found at
www.sbrc.ie/agmweekend
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145 Alive Event on Saturday 11th May 2024

Any operators interested in setting up control stations for the next
145 Alive event on May 11th are invited to contact David Gardiner
EI3IXB. This event is aimed at promoting 2m FM usage by getting
operators on high ground, mobile, portable, or on summits. Interest in
organising control stations is particularly requested from the west and
northwest of the country. David EI3IXB may be contacted via email at
ei3ixb /at/ gmail.com.
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February Edition of the IARU Monitoring System Region 1 Newsletter

The February edition of the IARU Monitoring System Region 1 Newsletter
has been published. They announce an explanatory webpage that has been
published to assist users in recognising and identifying the most usual
modes used by non-amateur radio stations in the HF amateur radio bands.
As part of this, it contains technical descriptions for each mode in
addition to audio recordings, waterfall screenshots, and video samples
of intruder and interfering transmissions. Of note in this edition, is
a wide bandwidth radar signal that was measured as occupying a 500 kHz
slice of the ten-metre band. You can download the newsletter and find
out more about the activities at www.iaru-r1.org
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Contest Updates

On Bank Holiday Monday March 18th from 20:00 to 21:30 UTC, you can try
your hand at the digital mode FT4 in a RSGB-organised event. This takes
place on the 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m bands to allow entrants to
experience this mode in a competitive context. You can learn more about
this at www.rsgbcc.org

Don't forget that the IRTS 80m Evening Counties contest will take place
on Tuesday March 19th. Starting at 20:00 UTC, this one-hour contest has
SSB, CW, and SWL sections. The exchange is signal report, serial
number, and county. Further information may be found at
www.irts.ie/contests
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Propagation Update

Due to the very active sun at present, operators can continue to enjoy
a mixed bag of good conditions with occasional radio blackouts due to
solar flare activity. On the VHF and higher bands, the Hepburn
tropospheric propagation forecast indicates good tropospheric ducting
conditions may be expected from Thursday next. It is not yet clear how
long the conditions will last but it will be a good opportunity to try
working DX stations and through repeaters beyond your typical radio
range.
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Items for Inclusion in Next Week's Radio News

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 Thursday.

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