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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday September 5th 2021
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SDR Live Stream

On Tuesday, the 7th ofSeptember 2021, from 2000 local time, the South
Dublin Radio Club EI2SDR will host a Live Stream and Virtual Open
Night. There will be two complimentary elements to this event.

A live stream via the club's You Tube channel of a HF radio net on the
80 metre band on 3.650 MHz +/- for QRM. Here, South Dublin Radio Club
will demonstrate the operation of an amateur radio station and radio
net utilising a Software Defined Radio spectrum display, showcase the
types of equipment used in an HF station, and answer any amateur radio
related questions visitors may have via the live stream or in the live
chat.

And also, the weekly Tuesday night club will run simultaneously via
Zoom. Here you can meet club members, ask in-person questions about the
live stream and amateur radio in general!

This event may be of particular interest to those wishing to learn more
about amateur radio or for those about to undertake the upcoming HAREC
examination.

One can find the Live stream on the "South Dublin Radio Club" YouTube
channel. SDR will publish the link via Twitter, Facebook and on their
website closer to the time.

To join with club members via Zoom please send us a direct message to
request an access code via our Facebook, Twitter or
website www.southdublinradioclub.ie
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On the HF Bands

On 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina a new contender headed inland
near Grand Isle, Louisiana. With winds over 148 mph at landfall, Ida
devastated areas of Louisiana and Mississippi before moving north and
east, dumping torrential rains as it went. This Category 4 hurricane
left several people dead and millions of utility customers without
power. Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, net manager of Hurricane Watch Net
reported their net active for 26 hours with 47 reporting stations. More
than 120 reports were sent to the National Hurricane Center through
WX4NHC. The net provided the hurricane center with additional details
as hams checked in with traffic from weather stations, social media
outlets, public safety outlets and contacts in the affected areas.
Amateur radio and government also worked hand-in-hand as FEMA declared
Channels 1 and 2 on 60 meters available for interoperability as late as
September 6th if needed. As before, the FCC authorized a higher symbol
rate than the 300-baud limit for hams' hurricane-related transmissions.

The Bonaire Amateur Radio Club PJ4BAR celebrated its recent birth by
hosting a field day on Sorobon Beach from August 27th through to the
29th. For now, the fledgling club's membership boasts all nine active
radio amateurs who call Bonaire their home fulltime, with additional
membership among those amateurs who have addresses on the island but
live elsewhere much of the time. Still, the club does enjoy fellowship
on and off the air and its weekly meetings often last until late into
the night. So if you should hear the club callsign on the air, be sure
to work the station. And don't forget to send those QSL cards to M0URX.

Jean-Philippe, F1TMY will be active as 3X2021 from Conakry, Guinea,
starting mid-September on 160 to 6m and on the QO100 satellite. There
will be portable activities from the Los Islands (AF-051). QSL via
ClubLog.

The SP Straight Key Contest is held Friday next from 1700 to 1859 UTC.
Exchange is RST and the age of the operator, with a QRP and an open
section. More information about this unique 3 hour event from their
contest manager SP7SZK

In the world of DX, Michael, DF8AN, will be active as 9A/DF8AN from
Croatia until the 12th of September and he intends to activate a number
of lighthouses. Listen for him on CW and the Digital modes. He will
finish his activation in Croatia and move next to the Canary Islands in
October. Send QSLs via DF8AN, direct or by the Bureau.

A special event station in Spain is marking International Chocolate Day
with the callsign EG5DIC. The station will be on the air from the 10th
to the 19th of September, marking the special day itself which is on
the 13th. Listen on 10 to 80m bands where they will be using CW, SSB
and FT8. A downloadable diploma in PDF format will be available. QSL
via the Bureau.
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Weinheim VHF Days

The 66th Weinheim VHF Conference will be held online via zoom, next
weekend from Friday morning until Sunday evening. There is no
registration required. One can follow the lectures and participate in
breakout rooms afterwards, or view the the lectures on YouTube,
although without interaction. The published agenda lists projects like
a Raspberry Pi GPS based time server, a flow sensor for a precision
frequency generator, and an open-source Lo-Ra-WAN ChipStack. Keep and
eye on the Weinheim webpage for zoom access infos on www.ukw-tagung.org
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Another Carrington Event Likely

Ralph Squillace KK6ITB reports for Amateur Radio Newsline that
Professor Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, a computer scientist as the University
of California, Irvine, believes that major solar storms are capable of
compromising the internet's global infrastructure, and probably will.
It's not that a coronal mass ejection can disable the fibre optic
cables that form the foundation of the internet. Those cables remain
unaffected and local internet service would remain intact. But, the
researcher said, the global network of undersea power supply cables
that boost the internet's international signals, the equivalent of
repeaters, would suffer directly from electromagnetic fluctuations
brought on by severe solar eruptions. In a recently released research
paper, the professor speculated that this could knock nations off the
internet, isolating them for as long as several weeks. The professor
presented her findings in a paper in late August at a conference held
virtually by the Association for Computer Machinery. She noted that
astrophysicists say there is a likelihood of between 1.6 percent and 12
percent that a strong enough storm of this sort will occur within the
next decade. For many, her findings describe a future version of the
Carrington Event, a geomagnetic storm in September of 1859 that damaged
the earth's ozone layer and disrupted telegraph lines around the world.
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Electricity From Sweat

A Team at the University of California, San Diego, published a report
in the journal 'Energy and Environmental Science' about small biofuel
cells that can harvest enough energy from the sweat on a person's
fingertips to power wearable medical sensors that track health and
nutrition. A biofuel cells that fit into thin pads that are stuck to
the fingertips soak up sweat into a thin layer of foam, where an enzyme
oxidises lactate in the sweat to create an electrical charge. The
enzymes also replace the precious metals normally used in batteries.
Each finger pad can generate 20 to 40 microwatts of power and harvest
300 millijoules of energy per square centimetre during 10 hours of
sleep. Enough for lightweight sensors that detect a range of metrics
such as heart rate, vitamin deficiencies and glucose levels. Currently,
the enzyme that is key to the reaction begins to break down and become
ineffective after two weeks. Using a larger flexible patch a few
centimetres across stuck to the skin has been used to power a radio for
two days at bluetooth power levels, with sensors and the transmitter
all contained in the sticky patch.
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The Propagation Horoscope

Having predicted moderately quiet solar activity when posting last
week's news script, in the early morning of the 28th the sun surprised
us with an M 4,6-Flare. The UV radiation caused the Mögel-Dellinger
Effect to briefly blotted out the HF bands on the day side. Around noon
time the effect had already subsided. The 3000 km distance for the MuF2
frequency hovered around 14 to 18 MHz, meaning reliable morning and
evening openings on 20,17 and occasionally 15m. There is some midday
sporadic E towards the south, but sporadic E is steadily declining as
we go into the autumn. Pacific regions were heard on 40m, albeit
troubled by the persistent interferences centred around 7135khz, making
half of the voice segment unusable. The active Region 2860 disappeared
behind the western limb of the sun yesterday. Unless that active region
will dissipate, it may bring some more flares when it reemerges on the
eastern limb on the 16th of September. Some remaining plasma clouds are
still on route to us, so we can expect an unsettled geomagnetic field
with K values between 2 and 5. The flux climbed to 90 and due to the
lag of effect on the ionosphere expect good openings on 17 and 15 m.
Listen for signale from the south on 40, 30 und 20 m long and short
path. Just before or at morning greyline check 160 and 80 m, after
around 0430 UTC V31MA can be heard on both bands.
__________________________________________________________________

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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