21 Feb 2016

Radio ham contributed to Detection of Gravitational Waves

Radio amateur Dr. Joe Taylor K1JT and Dr. Russell Hulse won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993 'for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation'

A New York Times article about the Detection of Gravity Waves notes Joe Taylor's contribution:

In 1978, the radio astronomers Joseph H. Taylor Jr. [K1JT] and Russell A. Hulse, then at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, discovered a pair of neutron stars, superdense remnants of dead stars, orbiting each other. One of them was a pulsar, emitting a periodic beam of electromagnetic radiation. By timing its pulses, the astronomers determined that the stars were losing energy and falling closer together at precisely the rate that would be expected if they were radiating gravitational waves.

In awarding the Nobel Prize in 1993 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said: 
What was new about the Hulse-Taylor pulsar was that, from the behavior of the beacon signal, it could be deduced that it was accompanied by an approximately equally heavy companion at a distance corresponding to only a few times the distance of the moon from the earth. The behavior of this astronomical system deviates greatly from what can be calculated for a pair of heavenly bodies using Newton's theory. Here a new, revolutionary "space laboratory" has been obtained for testing Einstein's general theory of relativity and alternative theories of gravity. So far, Einstein's theory has passed the tests with flying colours. Of particular interest has been the possibility of verifying with great precision the theory's prediction that the system should lose energy by emitting gravitational waves in about the same way that a system of moving electrical charges emits electromagnetic waves.

Read the full New York Times story at:

Read the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics press release 

18 Feb 2016

EI2CCR 2m repeater back on the air with IRTS News

The Dundalk Amateur Radio Society are pleased to announce that their 2m repeater, EI2CCR, is now back on air from its high site location on Clermont Cairn, County Louth.
It is operational on a transmit frequency of 145.675 MHz, with the CTCSS access tone of 110.9 Hz.

The IRTS news for the North East has moved from 145.400 Mhz to the Dundalk Repeater EI2CCR.

The newsreader is Tony EI4DIB and the bulletin is read at 8pm.
Tony has been getting a great number of reports after the news, often up in the 20’s and looks forward to getting even more in the future via the Dundalk Repeater.

Reception reports are always welcome and can be made directly to any member of the Dundalk Amateur Radio Society, through the EI7DAR Facebook page or by email to repeaterkeeper /at/ ei7dar.com

DARS would like to sincerely thank all who have contributed in any way to the re-birth of EI2CCR and we look forward to providing wide area 2m coverage to the north east courtesy of EI2CCR for many years to come.

Source IRTS

8 Feb 2016

RSGB - 432MHz AFS Contest February 7th 2016


This was the first RSGB contest that I've entered for 2016 out portable. This was an Affiliated Societies contest and was open to both individual entrants (who must be RSGB members), and to teams made up of a number of operators who must all be members of the same affiliated society, but not necessarily RSGB members themselves. So an affiliated group effort was required for this contest and we managed to get a team together under The Blacksheep CG which consisted of Single Fixed Operators & Portable Operators:  Roger G3MEH, John G0ODQ were Single Fixed op's and out portable were M0BAA/P (Andy M0MUX, Bill M0BTZ, Matt G0XDI and Nick G4FAT) and myself Pat M0XII/P.


The location that was selected for this contest was a portable location on a chalk escarpment called "The Chiltern Hills" at IO91MP . The contest started at 09:00UTC and ended at 13:00UTC. There were very poor weather conditions let alone flat band conditions with very heavy QSB at times, I also had to finish the contest 30 minutes early due some power issues (Flat battery on my Laptop) so I only limped through this contest.

I finished the contest under M0XII/P with a claimed score of 7,575 points at 120 points per QSO and only managed to work 63 QSO's and 5 DXCC's and 12 WWL's. My ODX was 453Km with GI6ATZ, I would like to thank Gorden GI6ATZ for his patience in completing this contact as QSB had a major part to play during our QSO. The equipment I used out portable was an FT847 and a 19 element Antenna about 5m from ground.

Thanks to everyone who called during the contest and thanks for the points, I look forward to working you again. 73
A Map of my QSO's in this contest  


6 Feb 2016

IARU Region 1 - 2016 Interim Meetings

Interim meetings of IARU Region 1 Committee 4 (HF and bands below 3 MHz), Committee 5 (VHF and bands above 300 MHz) and Committee 7 (Electromagnetic Compatibility) will take place in Vienna, 15th to 17th April 2016. Committees 4 and 5 address spectrum management, band-planning and operational activities such as IARU-R1 contest rules and associated matters.

Amateur licensees in Ireland are encouraged to review the documents submitted and provide comments to the IRTS representatives who will attend the meetings. An overview of the documents is provided on the IRTS web-site at www.irts.ie/iaru-vienna.

Also provided are full details of where to download the documents and how to comment. Please provide any comments you may have by 29th February 2016."