Season Greetings

Thank you for the pleasure of your friendship and goodwill during this past year. I would like to wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a New Year full of happiness and prosperity.

Best 73's

Pat

EI5IX / M0XII

The Gathering - Irish amateur radio special event

"The Gathering... an Irish party, on and off the airwaves."

Throughout 2013, Irish families and clans will be coming together in thousands of events, both on the island and around the globe, to celebrate their history and heritage in a unique event called "TheGathering".

Irish amateur radio stations, North and South, will be participating and all operators throughout the world, whether they have some green Irish blood or not, are invited to join-in the celebrations.

The special event callsign EI13CLAN will be active throughout the year and there will be a variety of awards and other activities, details of which will be posted on the IRTS Web site at:http://www.irts.ie/thegathering

QSL via Bureau or direct to the QSL Manager EI6AL at the following address:

Silver Howe Sydenham Mews, Corrig Avenue Dunlaoghaire, Co Dublin IRELAND.

Rock Comet Meteor Shower

 Every year in mid-December, astronomers look up in the sky and witness a mystery. It announces itself with a flurry of shooting stars. For several nights in a row, dozens to hundreds of meteors per hour cut across the glistening constellations of winter, each one a little puzzle waiting to be solved.

"It's the Geminid meteor shower--set to peak on Dec. 13th and 14th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Although the Geminids come every year, we still don't fully understand them."

Forecasters expect Geminid meteor rates to top 100 per hour when the shower peaks on the moonless nights of Dec. 13th and 14th, 2012. Cooke encourages sky watchers to go out, look up, and savor the mystery.

Ofcom announces additional 5 MHz channels

From January 1, holders of a UK Full licence will be able to apply for an NoV to use 472-479 KHz as well as additional 5 MHz channels that will permit up to 6 kHz bandwidth emissions

The Ofcom announcement says:

From the 1st January 2013 we shall be making 3 changes to Notices of Variation (NoV) to the Amateur Radio Full Licence that come into effect.

The temporary extension to the Amateur Radio Special Research Permit to operate in the band 501 kHz to 504 kHz expires. This temporary extension applied from 1st March 2012 to 31st December 2012 inclusive.

These NoVs will not be renewed and will no longer be available.

However, as a result of the World Radio Conference, under Agenda Item 1.23 amateur radio has been given an alternative allocation, on a secondary basis, of 472 479 kHz. We propose that Full Licensees should be able to apply for a NoV to operate in this band from 1st January 2013 and details on the application process will be published soon.

Following a request from the Radio Society of Great Britain for increased access to the 5 MHz (Experimental) Band, we have secured the agreement of the primary user to increase spectrum access from the current 7 spot frequencies of 3 kHz each. The primary user was unable to agree to contiguous spectrum, however it has been agreed that the frequencies in the table (see Ofcom statement link below) will be available from 1st January 2013, subject to the following conditions. Details on the application process will be published soon.

a) Antenna height must not be over 20m agl.

b) Maximum power: 100W (PEP) input into the antenna with the expectation that this would not result in more than 200W eirp.

c) Restrictions on message content have been relaxed and must now be consistent with normal Terms and Conditions of the Full Amateur Licence.

d) Maximum Bandwidth: 6 kHz (double side band)

Read the full statement at
http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/ amateur-radio/full-licence-jan-2013/


- Posted from my iPhone - 73's DE EI5IX

12.12.12.12.12.12

At 12 seconds past 12 minutes past 12 hours past 12 days past 12 months past 12 years in the 21st century is the last repetitive date any of us will ever see. 12.12.12.12.12.12





- Posted from my iPhone - 73's DE EI5IX

DX Conditions on a HEX Beam (10th & 11th of December 2012)

DX Conditions have been really good these past two days from my friend's QTH (2E0JJM - John) here in London. The most activity has been during Daylight hours, The Solar Flux has been between 103 & 104 with an SSN between 40 and 55. The best thing has been the A Index (Between 2 & 3) and K Index (0) has been low, this has resulted in many new countries been worked and logged on 20m, 17m, 15m and 12m even managed to get NH7O - Alastair in Hawaii on 20m Long Path whilst beaming South from John's new HEX Beam (MW0JZE - G3TXQ 6 Band Hex Beam) at 16:49UTC nearly 1 hour after Sunset so I'm not sure was this Grey Line Propagation or not.

Here are the paths of some of the DX worked via Google Earth;

EVERYONE SHOULD BUY OR BUILD A HEX BEAM!!

They are a fantastic antenna especially for locations that you don't have a lot of space to put up other types of beam antennas. The results over Verticals, Loops and Dipoles are simply phenomenal you certainly wont regret buying one of these Beams.    

IRTS 80m Counties Contest 2013

The date for the 2013 IRTS Winter 80m Counties Contest is Tuesday 1st January.

Check the rules at: www.irts.ie/cgi/showrules.cgi

Please take note of Rule 4.4 and 4.5 and keep the portion of the band
between 3.650MHz and 3.700MHz clear.

Also note the change in Rule 10.1 which states that entries must be received by the Contest Manager not more than 14 days after the contest.



- Posted from my iPhone - 73's DE EI5IX