Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday July 22nd 2001
IARU HF Championship
One of the most popular 24 hour contests in the calendar is the IARU HF Championship. This was held last weekend and a feature of this event is that as well as ITU zones, stations representing national societies also count as multipliers.
The Dalkey Island Group represented the IRTS and operated a special callsign EI0R for the event. They operated from Enniskerry and made a total of 3,700 QSOs over the 24 hours.
The station was set up field day style and included mono-band Yagis for 10, 15 and 20 metres with dipoles for the LF bands.
The operators were Paul EI2CA, Keith EI4FBB, Paul EI5DI, Danny EI5HD, Tony EI6EW, Sean EI7CD, Aidan EI8CE and Declan EI9HQ.
Fingal Radio Club
The cut off date for booking for this year’s Telford trip on Saturday and Sunday the 1st and 2nd of September is fast approaching. Only those who have booked and paid their deposits by Friday 20th of July can be guaranteed a place. This is needed, as the club must confirm passenger numbers on the Fast Ferry for the return journey, on which space is restricted. Contact Chris EI7AAB at 01 821 5145 in the evenings or e-mail fingalradio@hotmail.com for more information.
Coast Wireless Stations Centenary Special Event Last weeks bulletin carried a report on the Coast Wireless Stations Centenary Special event.
Please note that callsign of the station at Crookhaven in West Cork operated by Stan EI5IY and Tony EI2FSB was EI1CCK and not EI1CCL as broadcast.
Our apologies for the error.
Slievenamon Trophy
Just a reminder to all that the 70 cm's contest is still on-going for the remaining Sundays in the month of July.
The Slievenamon Perpetual Trophy will be awarded to the leading station over the five Sundays.
Logs should be sent to the IRTS contest manager by the end of August.
This contest has generated a lot of activity on the 70cm band with a lot of activity on 433.525 and 433.550Mhz in particular.
The calling frequency is on 433.500Mhz, so why not give a call out.
Tipperary Amateur Radio Group also broadcast the IRTS weekly news on 2m and 70cm's with many stations making 70cm simplex contacts after the news broadcast.
Local IRTS news frequencies are 434.450Mhz and 145.450Mhz.
Worked EI Counties Award
The WEIC Award Manager Sean Nolan EI7CD recently announced that WEIC award number 71 has been awarded to Alan Foley EI3EBB who worked the required 20 counties, all on 2 metres.
The rules and list of WEIC Award holders are on page 13 of the current handbook.
Two other awards have been issued since the handbook was published and they are number 69 which went to Denis Martin G0ORO and number 70 to Jim Murphy EI8HA.
Congratulations to all three.
We get regular complaints of the difficulty in getting the QSL cards to qualify for this award.
If you have no intention of sending a card, please say so at the time of the QSO. It saves a lot of bother.
Listeners are reminded that the Worked All Ireland net meets on 7.068MHz and all counties can be worked from time to time.
Islands on the Air Contest
The annual Islands on the Air contest run by the RSGB will be held next weekend. This is the most popular contest with EI operators and always attracts a good number of entries.
It is also of course a great opportunity to get involved in the Islands On The Air awards scheme.
The IRTS awards two trophies for EI participants in this contest.
The Hal Hodgens Key is awarded to the leading EI station in the 12 hour CW section and the IRTS DX Cup, the oldest IRTS trophy, is awarded to the leading single operator entry in the contest.
In last years contest, John EI7GL won the DX Cup and Martin EI8GP won the Hal Hodgens Key.
The following are the EI record holders in each section:
Multi-operator - Dalkey Island Group, EI1DD with 2312 QSOs.
Single Operator 24 hour mixed - Paul EI5DI with 1052 QSO’s.
Single operator 12 Hour mixed - Ken EI4DW with 540 QSO’s.
Single Operator 24 Hour CW - EI4VTC/P with 578 QSO’s.
Single Operator 24 Hour SSB - EI7GL with 832 QSO’s.
Single Operator 12 Hour SSB - Niall EI4CF with 182 QSO’s.
Single operator 12 Hour CW - Martin EI8GP with 463 QSO’s A full breakdown of all EI/EJ score were published in the March-April Echo Ireland.
OE2/EI7GK/p
Paddy EI7GK will be QRV from Salzburg, Austria until August 4th..
He will be on 14.268 and 21.268MHz SSB and will be keen Airships to replace masts?
An interesting article appeared in the Financial Times on Monday July 9th.
It concerns a proposal by ATG industries of Bedford in southern England to build reflective airships and have them operate at a height of 65,000 feet or 18km.
These would be unmanned and would receive power from solar powered electric engines and a lightweight diesel engine.
The article by Kevin Done states the ships could keep position for up to 5 years and could act as a transponders for mobile telephones, broadband internet and digital radio etc.
The estimate is 19 ships could cover most of the UK and replace as many as 4000 mobile phone masts and up to 10,000 masts that are expected to be needed for the new G3 technology.
Planning Problems
Reports of experimenters running onto trouble with their local planning authorities have become more common of late.
If you have had an experience in this area please write a short report and forward it to EI4BZ at QTHR or e-mail to ei4bz@eircom.net.
It may be of help to others in similar situations.
Items for inclusion in Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-4353853 in the evenings or at 021-4823172 during office hours. Items can be submitted to Dave by e-mail at ei4bz@eircom.net and you can fax him at 021-4354113.
Material for the next issue should be with Dave by next weekend.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall EI7IS at QTHR or via e-mail to ei7is@qsl.net or cyberis@e-merge.ie. Items can also be sent to Mark over the phone at 087-6302026 – Please note that the deadline for the radio news is 9 p.m. each Tuesday.
News can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.
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