Soapbox Comments

2I0JVI: Good fun! Not as many contacts as I would have liked but it was my first serious contest even though I'm not a contester usually!

9A8MM: Thanks for nice contest. Im sorry I couldnt be more time on the air. Hope to participate next year aswell.

AA8LL: Hope to visit Ireland soon! SD worked FB, thanks! Poor propagation, wish I made more qsos!

CT1EEB: My Galway roots dates back 5 generations, so, I have a bit of Irish blood myself, Hi! Great contest will be here again next year... ohhh yeahh SD is a great contest software, of that I have no doubts!

DC4A: Nice contest, interesting to hear years of emigration ...

DD8IU: very good contest, nice idea the travel to Ireland

DH5ABC: Only few QSOs...enough for last position in the contest ;-), but better than nothing...

DK6XZ: Hello Guys! Sorry for too low activity - but I had my fun. Was not able to work 75s. Will stay at home, without ever having seen Irland. Hi! Best regards.

DK9CL: I used SD logging software. It does a great job (but counted a qso with a EA-Station as multiplier!)

DL1SWB: This is my first IR Contest to working and I am happy

DL9ZWG: I enjoyed using SD by Paul, EI5DI.

DM2FDO: Hard job to find EI-Stations in QRM/poor conds!

EA3NA: This is a nice Contest for me I love Ireland. Sorry bad propagation on 20 meters and nothing on 10 and 15 I hope participate a new edition de 2008 year. Congratulations all operators EI.

EI3IO: SD worked well as usual. Big problem on CW with EA stations working their national contest

EI4CF: Condx were very poor, except for 80m on Sat night.

EI4GK: I was sorry I was unable to spend more time on the bands

EI5GPB: Contest was great fun but SD difficult to use

EI8IQ: fabulous programme (SD)

EI8JF: Whilst not generally being a huge fan of competitions I am glad I decided to have a go and to push the boat out for this, after persuading my family I had no intention of doing this every other week-end! Shame then that HF propogation was pretty awful and only a few weak US stations were heard and worked on a very flat 20M during the Saturday afternoon. The expat county multipliers might have been flying fast and furious otherwise. Likewise the early Sunday morning antipodeal opening on 40M was scarcely the stuff of which legends are made and I only netted 1 VK and 1 ZL. Virtually no North American CW signals were in evidence on 40/80M CW during the night. On CW I felt that the competition effectively was over after midnight on Saturday and I hit my pit abbout 1AM. It was very hard going from dawn on Sunday onwards. It would have been nice to have been able to pick up even just a few more multipliers from EI/GIs on 80M CW, especially on the Sunday morning. Intersting amongst the 3 other CW (plus 1 RTTY) competitions running at the same time was the extremely busy and popular domestic Spanish one which meant I was mistaken for EA8JF several times! Overall I think the CQIR concept is very sound and should get an outing every 5 years otherwise I will be 81 years old if I have to wait 25 years for the IRTS centenary competition (near another sunspot minimum)! Likewise I think the January 80M contest should become a yearly event. I think the blanket ban on paper logs is onerous and should be relaxed to encourage more "semi serious and point giver" entrants. I only had a few days to get used to the computer logger due to a failure to read the "fine print" in the rules earlier! The logger did a few strange wobbles I could have done without, however no data got lost despite this and ESB kindly dropping supply for one second early on Sunday morning. Congrats to all involved on the hard to miss and very loud EI75IRTS CW & SSB contribution.

EI8JR: SD was very easy to use reccomended

EI9HX: Well what can i say about SD, but it's only the best. I really enjoyed myself even though the Bands we not too good, especially on the high frequency's. I think there was a good turn out World Wide, with almost all of the EI counties worked. Thank you very much for a very nice contest, even though I do not understand why 3-points are awarded for CW contacts, and only 2-points for SSB, as I have not seen any where in the Contest Rules, where the highest number of points gets any special recognition. Once more a big thank to the IRTS organisers. EI/SP7BUP This was my first in my life contest :) I hope don't make any mistake. Good log (SD)

EJ9HQ: Band conditions very bad in contest. Were OK on friday night when on checking all was working. We should have every year - need more EI stations on. 51 ft mast fell down at 12.05 UTC I was lucky.

F5LEN: Discover this contest this year hi. A very pleasant one.

G0MRH: Band conditions didn't help.. Would have been nice to hear more stations on from Ireland.

G0VOK: Great fun and everyone was very friendly. Propagation was poor until 80m improved but didn't reach the magic 75 QSO's. Enjoyed giving the 1987 Armagh multiplier away to everyone.

G3GLL: SD worked fine with WK2. HF band conditions vry poor here !

G3LET: Enjoyed, but expected a few more Irish participants. I guess others had the same idea about a supposedly clear date. Anyway, many thanks for organising it!

G3VQO: What a different idea for a contest!! Well done to whoever came up with the concept. What a shame that both conditions and activity levels failed to come up to expectations. It was extremely difficult finding other contest stations to work, but such fun being a "Cork" multiplier. I wonder who the oldest "Irishman" was. I worked an 1851 - was there anybody with an earlier date?

G3WPF: EI5DI programme worked fine. Conditions terrible.

G3XUD: Surprised so few IR stns expected to hear hundreds on 40m and 80m

G8MIA: Band conditions were not very good. No contacts at all on 15m or 10m. Not many stations on 40m. My mother came to England from Tipperary in 1934 and so I sent 1934TIP for all QSOs. I was expecting the low bands to be buzzing with EI and GI stns but was rather disappointed on the weekend of the contest.

GI4AAM: SD worked superbly

GI4NKB: Conditions for the contest were keek :-) and I'm sure this log contains a few busted qso's as a result. I'd like to see this contest become an annual event, why shouldn't Ireland have a contest? Long overdue! However it would probably be a good idea to move it to the weekend immediately before or after St Patricks Day. SD performed excellently as usual.

GI4SIZ: HF bands very poor. First time using SD, easy to use made test a doddle.

GM8OEG: This entry is submitted in loving memory of "Grandma" Born: Fermoy, County Cork, September 1912. What a great contest and a real privilege to operate representing Cork, giving the multiplier.

IZ2EZU: Very nice contest, unfortunately there were other contests (CQ RTTY, TOEC, EA). I used EI5DI's SD for logging - great !

K0RMK: Many people claimed Irish ancestry but were not aware of the contest.

K8LIZ: Very poor conditions. Maybe next time???

KD7ZIK: My first attempt at a contest. Regretably I was overrun by the Texas QSO Party. But I learned from the exercise and will be more prepared next year. This does include my first actual Europe contact. I will be more aggressive next year.

KP4BT: First time around. Hope to do better next time.

KZ2I: TERRIBLE cndx on Saturday. But fun anyway.

LU4MHQ: SD is the best support. Is my first CQIR, congratulations CU next year,

LX/EI2JQ: Unfortunately I had only a few hours time to operate. This 1 time event should be repeated every year. I did use SD for the first time especialy for this event.

LY2MM: Sorry, could find only 1 EI stn. Activity from EI could be better...

M0AAA: Very hard going. The best part of the test was being called by VK2BJ and a couple of USA stations on 40M. EI75IRTS called, just managed to copy with heavy QSB. Too many other contests on at the same time. I tries so hard to get 150, it was not to be. Lots of fun.

M0KNG: Just a small log but thought I would submit anyway. Enjoyed the contest very much.

M0NBR: please find enclosed my first attempt at a contest log.

M0WLF: Poor conditions but good fun.

MU0FAL: Extremely poor conditions and seems the Irish CW Activiy was low. Still not sure which Irish Ancestors I could have chose.

N7VPN: I used SD contest software in this contest as with all contests that I operate in. I wish I could have worked more Irish stations but I did not hear any more. Hopefully next year propagation will be better.

NS8O: Loved the contest! Bad condx. Met lots of Irish in USA! Met some Irish in LZ, LU, G and others.

OK1NU: Yes, I using SD log. Little activity from Ireland! The SD log is excellent, congrats to EI5DI.

OK1TN: Yes it is OK for this contest (SD) not exist another log. I hope I can use in another contest.

OK2SWD: Very good contest. See you again friends.

OM3BA: Very bad date for this contest, also very poor conds for european area, very sorry.

PA0ATG: Not so mni participants. A lot of other contests. Bad CONDX. CU next year.

PA0MIR: Very nice to meet so many Irish stations today; however it seems activity was quite low, judging from the QSO numbers. I also exchanged numbers for other contest, starting by 1 again but hope all serial exchanges will be OK.

PE1LTY: Thank you for the contest. I enjoyed using SD

PE2KP: It was a very nice contest. Only not the best condition this time. But it was fun to work all you EI stations.

SP9JZT: fb contest. My other call is EI9JN. SD program is ok tnx Paul EI5DI

VE2DC: Wish I had had more time... will try again next year.

EI/W5GN: Condx poor. CQWW RTTY stations down below xx25 and the EA Stations that refused QSOs were not pleasant.

WQ3X: I really enjoyed the contest. Hopefully the word will get out and there will be more participation next year. There was some Texas QSO Party going on also this weekend. Some of them worked me and we did kind of a dual exchange where they gave me their serial number for CQIR along with signal report and Texas county for their contest. I gave them the 1888 WAT exchange along with signal report and my state of PA which is what they needed. It was very nice that the two contests can co-exist like that! Thanks for putting this on. My wife is the Irish one but I felt very much at home.

YL2PP: Tnx for contest QSOs!

YO4AAC: Vy poor propagation in all bands !

YO9BFM: Nice contest. Some local problems (with antennas).

ZL4E: Fun contest, great to have an excuse to exercise our Irishness! Poor conditions. Pity so many contests competing. I decided to finish early due to earthquakes. SD was great.

ZS6DXB: Great contest! Keep it up IRTS!! Maybe another in the future? Bad band conditions into Europe on Sunday morning on 15m. Greetings to all AFRi75 operators from a South Africa.

Last update was at 00:36 UTC on Wed 6 Feb 2008