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Irish Radio Transmitter Society Radio News Bulletin September 19th 2021
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Home Computing Pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair Dies Aged 81

Sir Clive Sinclair died at home Thursday morning, after battling a long
illness. Sinclair invented the pocket calculator but was best known for
popularising the home computer, bringing it to British high-street
stores at relatively affordable prices. He left school at 17 and worked
for four years as a technical journalist to raise funds to found
Sinclair Radionics. He then became the man behind the Sinclair Spectrum
and the first computer, the Sinclair ZX-81, to retail for under a
hundred dollars. Many modern-day titans of the games industry got their
start on one of his ZX models. For a certain generation of gamer, the
computer of choice was either the ZX Spectrum 48K or its rival, the
Commodore 64.

Sir Clive Sinclair, Rest in Peace.
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IRTS Exam Update

The Examination Board is pleased to announce that the next HAREC
licence examination will take place on Saturday 27th November 2021 at
the Maldron Hotel, Newlands Cross, Dublin. This exam will once again be
subject to the COVID restrictions in place at that time. Closing date
for new applications is 7th November 2021. Full details on how to apply
can be found on the IRTS website. The Examination Board would also
like to wish all candidates that sat the HAREC exam on Saturday 11th
Sept well and hope to hear many new EI callsigns on the air very soon.
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Kerry Amateur Radio Group

KARG would like to congratulate 14 year old Megan Lorenz on getting her
new call EI5LA during the week. She has already been very active on the
air since receiving her new call. Megan has been an active member of
KARG for many years. KARG would also like to wish all other SWLs that
recently sat the IRTS HAREC exam well.
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IOTA Contest Results

Results of the RSGB Islands on the Air contest, held at the end of July
have now been published. More than 2,400 logs were submitted,
including almost 800 entries from island stations. The island entries
covered 151 different IOTA references, just over half of which were in
Europe. This contest is always well-supported in EI and GI, and a
summary of the results for the 22 EI and GI participating stations,
along with a link to the full results, has been posted at
www.irts.ie/iota
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Contests

A reminder for those listening to the news transmission on Sunday
morning that the 70cms Counties Contest runs from 2.00pm to 2.30pm
local time today, followed immediately by the 2 metres Counties
Contest, from 2.30pm to

4.00pm. Modes in use will be both FM and SSB, see www.irts.ie/contests
for information about the permitted SSB frequencies, FM channels and
other rules.

Next weekend is the last full weekend of September, which means it's 48
hours of rtty chatter on HF during the CQ WorldWide RTTY DX Contest.
This contest draws over 15,000 participants and over 3,600 log
submittals from around the world.
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JOTA-JOTI looking for helpers

JOTA-JOTI takes place from the 15th to the 17th of October, hundreds of
Scout stations are taking part including many Irish Scout Troops. The
IRTS are seeking volunteers to lend a hand and an hour or two over the
weekend in order to facilitate the event.

If you are interested in volunteering and introducing the next
generation of Scouts to Amateur Radio, email Niall, the IRTS Youth
Officer at yota /at/ irts.ie, include your name, a phone number and
your County or Town, so we can set you up with the closest
participating Scout Troop.

If you can't volunteer in person, don't forget to have a listen on the
Bands on 15th to the 17th of October, and get some Scout Stations in
the Logbook.

More information, including a full list of participating stations can
bewww.qsl.net/ylrl/ylrlwho.ht ml found at www.jotajoti.info
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CQ All North Dublin Radio Club Members and visitors.

North Dublin Radio Club Ei0NDR have received notification from the
Artane Beaumont Family Recreation Center that The NDR Club premises is
again open for our use from Saturday the 25th of September.

The ABFRC centre requires all persons entering their premises to
produce their EU digital Covid Certificate and Photo ID at the
reception desk.

This is great news for all NDR members and visitors.

Club meetings will resume at 8 pm on Saturday evenings from that date.
We look forward to seeing you all there again. Club location and
meeting details can be seen at www.ei0ndr.com
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Communications via Laser over 5km

Engineers at Google's technology moonshot lab X say they used lasers to
beam 700TeraByte of internet traffic between two cities separated by
the Congo River. The capitals of the Republic of the Congo and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazzaville and Kinshasa, respectively,
are only 4.8 km apart. The denizens of Kinshasa have to pay five times
more than their neighbors in Brazzaville for broadband connectivity,
though. That's apparently because the fiber backbone to Kinshasa has to
route more than 400 km around the river. no one wanted to put the cable
through it. There's a shorter route for data to take between the
cities. Instead of transmitting the information as light through
networks of cables, it can be directly beamed over the river by laser.

In an effort dubbed Project Taara, X built two terminals, one in
Brazzaville and another in Kinshasa, to transmit and receive data
encoded in beams of laser light. "In the same way traditional fibre
uses light to carry data through cables in the ground, Taara's wireless
optical communication links use very narrow, invisible beams of light
to deliver fiber-like speeds," their director of engineering Baris
Erkman explained today. "To create a link, Taara's terminals search for
each other, detect the other's beam of light, and lock-in like a
handshake to create a high-bandwidth connection." The aim of the setup
was to relay broadband internet traffic between the cities more as a
test of the equipment than anything else.

A lot of effort went into tracking and pointing the light beam at a
sensor a few kilometres away, and mitigating the effects of poor
weather, interference from animals, and the like. X has experimented
with wireless optical communication techniques using lasers in various
projects over the years, including from high-altitude balloons in the
now-defunct unit Loon.

In the past, it was more difficult to maintain bandwidth connections
over large distances. Small disturbances in weather conditions, fog, or
even birds flying across the laser beams was enough to interrupt
internet service. Erkmen said that the latest terminals installed in
the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo,
however, have improved. They're able to automatically adapt and can
swivel their internal mirrors or direct their sensors to adjust to
changing conditions in order maintain a direct line-of-sight connection
with each other. "Imagine pointing a light beam the width of a
chopstick accurately enough to hit a 5-centimeter target that is ten
kilometers away. That is how accurate the signal needs to be to be
strong and reliable," he said.
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DX News

The much sought after DXCC entity Conway Reef is on air, listen out on
160m upwards for Dom, using the callsign 3D2CR. He will be on air for
the next fortnight on all modes. The rebel DX group page on QRZ.com has
the QSL details.

Until the middle of next week there is a chance to work Nepal. Kiyo,
JA7NQQ, is on the air from Katmandu as 9N7NQ until the 23rd of
September. The single operator schedule is during 2300 to 0100 UTC and
1200 to 1500 UTC on 40 to 10m, mostly FT8 mode. His QSL information is
also on QRZ.com.

Brian, N3OC, and Bud, AA3B, are on Antigua operating as V26OC and V26K,
until Monday. Be listening on the HF bands and 6m. QSL via their home
callsigns, LoTW or Club Log OQRS.

Gabor, HA3JB is active as 5H1IP from Unguja Island, Zanzibar, IOTA
AF032, until the end of this month on 160 to 6m all modes, including
activity in the upcoming CQ WW DX RTTY Contest next weekend. QSL via
HA3JB.

Mike, VK4DX, will be on the air from Russell Island OC-137 in the
Southern Moreton Bay Islands group near Brisbane from Thursday until
next Sunday, operating on 40-15m, CW and SSB. QSL via VK4DX direct,
LOTW and ClubLog.

Bo, OZ1DJJ, is active as OX3LX from Greenland until Tuesday, operating
on the low bands with a vertical antenna. QSLs via OZ0J.

And from Monday until the end of the month, Janusz, SP9FIH and Leszek,
SP6CIK will be active as D60AC and D60AD from Comoro Islands, IOTA
AF007, using all modes on 80 thru 10m. QSL via their home calls.

Harald, DF2WO, will once again be active as 9X2AW from Ouagadougou,
just north of Kigali, Rwanda, until the 28th of September. He prepared
a 160m antenna and built a Hexbeam with bamboo sticks for working all
modes on 20 thru 10 meters and dipoles for 40 and 30 meters. He will
also use the QO-100 satellite on 2m and 70cm. QSL via M0OXO only. See
QRZ.com for pictures.

Broadcast SWLs should take note of the new schedule of
shortwaveradio.de. The fully licenced station is run by shortwave radio
enthusiasts on a non-political and non-commercial basis, broadcasting
an interesting program, frequently touching amateur radio subjects and
news. The transmitting site is in Lower Saxony in the northwest of
Germany. To make the best of the changing propagation conditions they
now transmit daily on the usual frequencies of 6160 kHz from 0800 UTC
until 1600 UTC, and on 3975 kHz 1600 UTC until 2200 UTC, well audible
with any reasonable HF antenna.
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The Propagation Horoscope

The ionisition is not very strong, due to a few rather sedate solar
eruptions over the last week. As predicted, the solar flux was around
the 100 mark, but not enough for spectacular propagation during last
weekend's worldwide HF contest, and is expected to fall to around 70
during the week. The solar wind is currently at an average of 350km per
second with around 10 particles per cubic centimeter. The MUF2 3000km
hop distance barely reached 21 MHz last week, but there were occasional
voices from the Pacific were heard on 17m and 15m, and several topband
contacts to North America. 24 solar spots were counted on the 10th of
this month, the highest number since end of September 2015. Expect a
marked increase after the equinox, although for now only the weakenig
sunspots number 2860 and 2867 will re-emerge on the eastern limb for a
third spin around the sun.
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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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